The Saga on Aqaba Eve…..

I had arranged for a group of 25 to go to a resort in Aqaba, for something so simple, the logistics were a nightmare.  It all had to do with being able to get a shuttle on the pier as a private transfer to and from the ship… 

It all started when they wanted me to pay the 250JOD ($540) upfront for the shuttle.  This had to do with obtaining a permit to enter the secure port area.  Happy to pay, “just let me give you the credit card details”….. nup, sorry have to do a bank transfer…. Hmm, didn’t want to do that, and no matter how much I tried they would not comply… Not wanting to let everyone down, I decided to comply…..  Working out I could do it through St George online, the next hiccup was, no Jordanian Dinars in the drop-down currency box…..  I was ready to pull the pin on the whole trip by now….. ok you can pay in US currency, back to St George I go.  All went through without a hitch at my end, so now it was a matter of time to receive confirmation that they received the payment.

Two weeks had passed without a word, so I decided to chase it up.  According to the finance department, they had not received anything…. Bugger…. I kept telling them “Check with your bank” They kept telling me “check with your bank”…. Hey, I had a receipt saying it was done…  guaranteeing to Sinbad ( the company), that I would cancel before paying them another $, the saga went on.

After much too-ing and fro-ing, I decided to go back to St George which was now going to cost me $25 to follow up…… let's face it, I am down over $500

Well just like the immaculate conception, the money suddenly appeared in their account and dated 2 days after I sent it.  They made some noise about it appearing in AUD, but…. My paperwork definitely said USD

So now out of pocket $25 but I knew the money was there….

Finally thinking all the ducks were in a row, I relaxed and started to look forward to our adventure…. Or so I thought….

Less than 24 hours before arriving in Aqaba, I get a text (thank god for Whats app and Medallion net)… “They need a manifest”, ok not sure of the request….I sent them a list of participants….

Them: ” No we need a manifest with a travel agent stamp”

Me: “What I don’t have one, we are just a group of friends traveling together”

To cut a long story short, basically, they needed to prove to the port authority that we were all on the ship to enable them entry into the secure port area”

Several hours were spent running and down from the ship's printer, to guest services and the cabin to try and produce a document that would be accepted. As every updated document was rejected my patience was running thin.  This should have been addressed months ago… not now.

In the back of my mind, I knew that the only good outcome would be if we provided passport information.  So when the message came through “What would really help is to have a copy of everyone's passport”, I just rolled my eyes

No, not going to happen, it is now 5pm, everyone is scattered around the ship and nobody is going to give me such sensitive information to email to a random company, that has obviously never dealt with ships before…

The final outcome was they would pick us up from the shuttle stop in Aqaba town….

So what about the money I paid them to come on to the port…. Well, that also took a bit of debating and I finally got them to agree to a refund…  Transfer is a free service that they offer guests in and out of town…. Except…. They will pick us up at 9am and the first shuttle back at 6pm….  I knew that was not going to run with some of my guests, so I ensured I got my refund in cash so I was able to distribute this amongst everyone to give them taxi fare home….

Look it was a great day, and would do it again in a heartbeat, knowing what I know now, I would organize it a lot differently.