The day we left started well, we got up on time, after that not so well. We left our house 15 minutes late and after ten minutes drove straight into heavy traffic. Looking at Google maps it still seemed ok, but then it just kept adding on minute after minute. After not moving for 30 minutes, we decided to turn at the next break in the road and try another way. For reasons only known to my dear hubby he didn’t do as Lady Google suggested but went his own way. We could only turn back if we drove up the kerb and over the grass divider which he did! I thought we had lost the bumper at the very least or an oil leak with the noise the car made bumping back onto the road.
Finally getting to the airport carpark with 30 minutes to spare before the flight, we still had to wait for the bus to terminal. When we got to the counter we found that the flight was delayed, yay! so the check in clerk put our bags on the belt and they almost made it, but not quite. Apparently our seats had been given to someone else! We were outside of the required check in time. We were offered another flight at midnight getting in at 5 am, but really 3 am Perth time. What would we do all day? We had booked a carpark for five days, I couldn’t cope with such a late flight.
In the end I booked another flight for the afternoon, at great cost but saving time, Anthony would have gone on the midnight flight at no cost and having hours to kill.
What would you do? Are you Team Ali or Team Anthony?
I can’t believe we missed the flight, the reason – being complacent with my dear hubby and not giving him stress to hurry himself along.
The flight we took was delayed for over an hour, so we didn’t end up getting to our apartment until 10pm.
On landing the first thing I did was check my messages, as luckily Elena Damian and the kids had all made their flight. Oh my! the photos she sent of the apartment! She refused to sleep there that night as it was truly appalling. Absolutely filthy dirty throughout, although the beds did have clean bedding. There was a family already there – of cockroaches! Our apartment was better but the smell of smoke was awful.
I am now having an ongoing dispute with Booking.Com about receiving some compensation.
Anyway I’ll end this diatribe now and just say in the end we had a fabulous family time. It’s been over six months since we were altogether.
The first two days for us were spent getting to know Melbourne again. Elena and Damian visited the aquarium and zoo where the kids had the best time.
Melbourne is such an easy city to get around, there are tram and bus stops everywhere and the train routes are excellent. We bought a Myki card which enables you to tap on and off, there is also a free zone in the middle of the city.
St Patrick’s Cathedral 
Colourful trams 
Lunch on the Yarra 
A busking Darth Vadar 
Dusk from our balcony 
Stacked container building 
Waiting for a tram 
More trams 
Melbourne Skyline
Just a few of the photos I took on the first two days.
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I enjoyed the photos from your trip – from the sunset t the wrath Vader guitarist – to the couples
and hmmmm – I am team Anthony – but I guess it would really depend on how much money I had at the time and also depend on how exhausted I was ; _ I think you did the right thing though because “killing time” can be such a drain
Thanks for your comments, I think because we had such a short stay I just opted to pay. Maybe if it was a longer stay it would have been different. By hook or by crook we got there!
yes – the amount of time does matter too
My bet is that you don’t get very far with booking.com. When we had two disasters with accommodation in the same year, airbnb refunded immediately, booking.com took four months to even release a refund. Any talk of compensation just lead to “read the small print” type comments. Glad you got sorted in the end and enjoyed the stay. Team Alison for me, certainly for a short break, anyway.
Thanks Phil for backing me! Well time will tell with Booking.com, I’ve never had problems like this in the past.
We love Melbourne too
We have grown to love it now our son is there 🙂
Understandable Alison
What a nuisance about the traffic jam and delayed departure from Perth but good that you got there eventually despite your apartments not being up to scratch. Lovely photos of Melbourne too.
Thanks Marion, yes first time for me missing a flight, not so for hubby!
Well, there’s always a first time for everything Alison. We’ve been on tenterhooks a few times stuck both in traffic and in lengthy security queues but so far thankfully we’ve always made it !
Team Ali, definitely. But I am so uptight I always make sure we are ridiculously early so that won’t happen!
Well I’m normally like that but my husband says it stresses him out, but I’ll be back on track after this!
I should think so! Never let up vigilance. I won’t mention the time we almost missed the plane at Heathrow because SOMEBODY took us to the wrong gates and I trusted him instead of checking and double checking as I usually do.
Haha that’s happened to me too, and also ending up at the wrong terminal!
After such a bad start it looks like you had a great time! I’ve never had a real issue with a booking.com place. OK, sometimes they’ve been a bit disappointing but nothing like that. I hope you get a refund – you must let us know.
As for Team Alison or Team Anthony I reckon if only going for a few days your choice makes sense, but knowing me we wouldn’t be in that position as I always insist on leaving at least an hour earlier than we really need to 😆
I’m normally like that but Anthony gets very stressed when I chivvy him along, but it’s not going to happen again.
Yes will let you know if I do get any compensation
My husband isn’t especially keen on being chivvied but he much prefers that to dealing my stress if we seem to be running late (‘seem’ being the operative word as he would argue that we aren’t while I’m feeling that we are!)
Haha same here! Also annoying was that I couldn’t check in online before so that might have helped 😕
Off to a rocky start for sure- but totally worth it in the end to have such a grand time with family 🙂 Love your pictures from around the city!
Thanks Meg, it was a relief to finally get there
I am definitely Team Ali, but Mike would definitely be Team Anthony – anything to save $$ is his motto. I’m glad you finally got there and had a wonderful time despite the dirty apartment. I hope booking.com does compensate you for that. Congratulations Damian and Elena on their engagement!
Thanks Kellye, it was Laurence and Maddy who got engaged, Elena may be waiting a while longer!
I’m so sorry I got that completely wrong. Congratulation to Laurence and Maddy!
No problem Kellye, and thanks for your good wishes
Good to know you had a great time after the difficult start.
Thanks 😊
Oh my gosh so sorry to hear about the apartments. I can only imagine the horror. But good to know that it didn’t prevent you from having a good family time.
Thanks 😊
Wow, that is such a hectic account of what happened to you…the worst part are the cockroaches. I have never had any bad experience in hotels such as yours (but knock on wood).
And if you’ll ask me what team I go for? Haha I am as thrifty as can be so you know whose team I go for.
Hopefully things will be sorted out in the end.
Things were not sorted in my favour! But I did give bad reviews on Tripadvisor and Booking.com
Will look more carefully in future
Oh well, that’s the only thing you can do.
Fabulous view
Thanks!