Tour companies sued over family holiday that was `stressful disaster'

A judge has told a court that what was supposed to be a relaxing Christmas family holiday turned out to be a stressful disaster when he and his family found themselves in a deserted holiday resort in Florida.

Judge Harvey Kenny, of the Circuit Court, paid £4,600 for the three-week Christmas break in 1994, including a cruise for himself, his wife, Eilish, and teenage daughters, Clodagh and Roisin, at the Clearwater resort in Florida.

They were looking for a sun holiday with water sports for their daughters and had been recommended Clearwater Beach Hotel by a travel agent, Ms Angela Ryan, trading as Travel Royale, whom he was suing along with Budget Travel Ltd.

A Budget brochure made Clearwater look ideal with plenty of water sports. But it turned out to be almost deserted a week before Christmas. "The first morning I got up at eight o'clock . . . it was like a ghost town. The beach was five miles long, and there wasn't a sinner on it," he said.

"Behind the hotel the car-park was almost empty. It was as if there was a bomb alert in the area," he said. They were the only guests in the hotel dining room that night. They ended up chatting to the waitress and piano player.

The weather was not brilliant, which they did not mind, but it seemed all the water sports had ceased, he said.

Judge Kenny said they wanted two rooms, but got one with two double beds and a camp bed. The judge, who agreed that a booking form showed he had signed for one room, said it was the cumulation of several minor disasters that made the holiday such a fiasco.

They flew on Aeroflot from Shannon in "steerage" with a group of smoking Russians. Nearby was a smelly toilet. He had to pay £400 car insurance, despite being told by Budget Travel that car hire was free with the holiday.

The Budget representative, Ms Kim Kennedy, offered a switch to Orlando, but they did not want to go to Disneyland. He did not know enough about Fort Lauderdale to accept her offer of a hotel there, he said.

The Budget brochure advertising Clearwater "was a most deceptive and misleading portrayal" of the beach resort, he said.

Budget Travel and Ms Angela Ryan both denied liability. Ms Ryan said she had done everything she could for Judge Kenny when he faxed her a complaint on December 22nd. She contacted Budget Travel in Dublin but they were already aware of the problem and were working on it in Florida.

She had never received any complaints about Clearwater, she said.

A Florida meteorologist, Dr Lee Edward Branscombe, for Budget, said he had studied weather records for December 18th-24th 1994 and found it was quite bad by Florida standards. It rained on four days, was foggy on three days and cloudy on five days.

Aeroflot Ireland's customs relations manager, Mr Thomas Keating, said there was a smoking area on all Aeroflot flights. Judge Kenny's comments on the toilets were "greatly exaggerated", he said. Judge Joseph Mathews adjourned the case when Budget Travel's barrister, Mr Brian Murray, said he had one witness from the Clearwater Beach Hotel to rebut Judge Kenny, which would take some time.

The case is fixed for mention next Thursday.