Couple had to sleep in coats on €6k honeymoon

Miranda Molloy and her husband Paul Dowling had to sleep for three nights in jackets and tracksuits just to keep warm on their honeymoon, a judge has heard.

Ex-bank official Miranda told Judge Jacqueline Linnane in the Circuit Civil Court yesterday that she and Paul had been left devastated with the €5,700 three-week “trip of a lifetime” to South Africa. She said the tent they got on a safari had been a luxury compared to the dark, dirty, damp rooms provided for them on what had been booked and paid for as a dream experience.

Barrister Daithi MacCarthaigh told the court that Miranda and Paul, a plumber, of Riverside Road, Clonshaugh, Dublin, had stipulated five-star accommodation everywhere they would visit on their Jun 2009 honeymoon.

Mr MacCarthaigh, who appeared with solicitor Tom Brabazon, said that what the couple had experienced had turned out to be very different from what they expected.

Miranda said the taxi booked to meet them at Cape Town airport failed to turn up and when they found one it had taken him two hours to find the Blue Views Penthouse apartment where they were to spend their first four nights.

Then they were charged double deposits when the wrong car hire company delivered the wrong car before the right company with the right car found them.

She said there was no catering at the Blue Views and she had to shop and cook like at home. The apartment had no heating and was freezing. On the second night they had no electricity. They slept in tracksuits and day clothing.

Miranda said they had told the girls at Panther Associates Limited, which trades as Tour America in Middle Abbey St, Dublin, that no expense was to be spared on what was to be a luxury holiday with everything at their fingertips. Although they had asked that no trip between hotels be more than 90 minutes they had ended up travelling for hours. One hotel was beside a building site and instead of a lake view they found a pond on a construction site. Another hotel was in a business park.

She described the rooms they had been given as standard, cold, dirty, and damp. At one hotel the manager had taken it upon himself to give them the honeymoon suite despite showing them an email confirming a standard room booking. They had to arrange upgrades.

Panther Associates denied breaching their contract with the Dowlings or being negligent in their arrangements. They said the honeymoon trip had clashed with the 2009 Rugby World Cup and practically every hotel in and around Cape Town was booked out.

Miranda told Mr MacCarthaigh that Tour Amer-ica had told her husband her standards were too high and had described her as a drama queen to him.

Mr MacCarthaigh told the court yesterday that following an adjournment the damages claim had been settled for an undisclosed sum.