Ireland Trip: Intro

I got back from the trip late Tuesday night. I have to say that it wasn't a very smooth trip despite the fact that we used a Irish Travel Company and had our own personal driver/guide. We visited 75% of the island of Ireland (both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.) One of the members of my party was in a wheelchair and even though I mentioned this numerous times to many people before the trip even started (by both phone and e-mail) the majority of the businesses involved simply lied to us that they were 100% wheelchair accessible and we didn't find that out until we were physically there and wanted to do the thing we had already paid for and in most cases could not do.

We used the tour company, Authentic Ireland Travel and had Kirsty Talty as our travel planner. I would NEVER, EVER use them again! I sent 3 e-mails at the very beginning of the trip planning - in fact the very first e-mail stated "We have someone in a wheelchair. Is that going to be an issue/problem at any of the hotels or places we will visit?" and she replied "That will definately not be an issue." I then told her the places we wanted to visit and she came up with all the hotels and driver/guide information. Then right before the trip I wrote Kirsty again and reminded her about the wheelchair and again I was told everything was all-set. More about that in other entries.

My mom and I dropped our dogs at the kennel on Tuesday night (June 15th) and we drove to Boston's Logan Airport that Wednesday. We parked at an off-airport parking place we had found and paid for online. The place was in a run-down town near Logan, but the people there were nice and even had a wheelchair accessible van to take us to the airport.

We got to Terminal E and went to the Virgin Atlantic check-in desks. I should say that we have flown Virgin Atlantic before (from DC to London) and that we were flying Premium Economy. I had received an e-mail on my phone that they plane was delayed an hour (but wasn't told why.) The woman at the counter had no idea what to do. She didn't know how to issue tickets or to fill out the paperwork for the wheelchair. Eventually she figured out and we then went through security.