Mercian Travel Centre - About bridge holidays

Playing Bridge on Holiday with Mercian.

DUPLICATE BRIDGE

We only employ top grade highly professional Bridge Directors who organise an interesting and varied programme of Duplicate Bridge. To participate in this one needs to be fully conversant with the English Bridge Union’s simple system of ACOL and playing club bridge, but you do not have to be an expert or very experienced. We get clients of all standards and we do pride ourselves on the bridge organised by the Mercian Directors always being efficiently run but very friendly, we will not tolerate aggression or bad manners in the bridge room. So, even if this is your first bridge holiday, as long as you have that basic knowledge of ACOL you will not have a problem. Afternoon bridge normally commences at 15.00 hrs and evening bridge at 20.00 hrs although this may vary from time to time to meet local circumstances. There is also a programme of Seminars, a golden opportunity to learn more about this fascinating game and to improve ones play. Afternoon bridge and Seminars are subject to there being sufficient demand as sometimes clients want to get out to enjoy the sunshine and sightseeing. On Bridge Cruising the timings will vary dependent on the ports of call and other activities on board ship, but we aim to provide bridge every day.

The cost of the bridge is included in the holiday price unless clearly stated in the brochure. On a long stay holiday if Rubber Bridge is preferred amd sufficient people are interested, the Director can organise this in addition to Duplicate Bridge. Apart from the Bridge Directors we have a back up team who play with anyone that is short of a partner, assist on welfare and social activities to ensure that you have a most enjoyable holiday. Members of the bridge team do not play together unless it is to prevent a half table, they should split and play with any single clients other than under special circumstances thus preventing a half table then members of the bridge team may play together but no one client can monopolize a member of the bridge team for the whole of the holiday. We are very keen to ensure that our bridge is friendly and that everyone is courteous in the bridge room, both to their partners and the opposition. However, from time to time the odd person may transgress. If that ever happens in your presence you should call the Bridge Director who will deal with the matter instantly and if the offending person does not apologise they will have to leave the bridge room until they do apologise or be banned from Mercian Bridge. We will not tolerate bad manners or aggression in the bridge room. It is too late to complain afterwards, it needs to be done in the bridge room when the matter can be resolved on site.

We hope you will have a trouble free holiday, however, if you are unfortunate to have a problem on the holiday, then it is vital you draw it to the attention of the Bridge Director so that he can resolve it at the time. We must insist on an Irregularity Report form being completed which the Director will forward to Mercian so that we can resolve any problems immediately in order for you to continue to enjoy your holiday. It is too late to raise these matters after the holiday (please see booking conditions).

SIMULTANEOUS PAIRS

In 2009 there will be a Mercian Bridge Simultaneous Pairs Tournament played at the same time in each of the Mercian holidays that are taking place at that point in time. These are the Sol Elite Don Pablo, Riu Green Park, Playa La Arena and The Sheraton Hotel, Luxor on 05 February 2009. This will decide the Mercian Championship Pairs for bridge in 2008-2009. The same hands will be played simultaneously in all the above venues. If you wish to participate in this unique championship then book one of the Winter Sun holidays that cover the above dates – your chance to become a Mercian Champion.

INCLUDED IN YOUR HOLIDAY

Duplicate bridge, Bridge Seminars, bed, breakfast and dinner unless otherwise stated on that particular holiday; cocktail parties; services of an English graded director or similar standard from the Scottish/Welsh Bridge Union; Master points; prizes; farewell drinks; services of the Mercian team and Bowling team where applicable; flights, transfers from and to overseas airport unless otherwise stated. All are included in the price of your holiday, (please note that afternoon bridge and seminars may be cancelled if there is insufficient support), plus the protection of our own ATOL licence issued by the Civil Aviation Authority and our Professional Indemnity Insurance. Any variations are clearly shown on the individual holiday as sometimes it is better for the client for us to book the flights separately.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Please note, the prices shown in this brochure are subject to availability from our allocation. Once the allocation has been sold out prices may change when we purchase additional space from other sources, a situation which is also affected by the use of low cost “no frills” airlines. Their airfares are fluid and continually changing, which is why some of our holidays are shown with ground arrangements only so that we can book the “no frills” flights for you and get you the best possible deal. Please note that only if you book a fully inclusive holiday through Mercian with your flights and the ground arrangements are you protected by the Mercian ATOL licence. If you purchase your own flights you are on your own if things go wrong.

SINGLE ROOM SUPPLEMENTS

These are only what Mercian are charged by hoteliers. Occasionally we are allocated a limited number of single rooms without a supplement, but I must stress that once these have been sold, a single supplement will normally apply.

In some cases hotels will offer us a twin or double room for sole occupancy extra to our allocation therefore the price of such a room could be different to that which appears in our brochure but this will be explained to you at the time of any such offer.

ROOM REQUESTS

Please note that room requests are just that. We request the rooms on your behalf, it is not a guarantee when you ask for a specific room, but we do undertake to pass your request on to the hotelier and to do our utmost to persuade them to provide that room for you, but we cannot guarantee it.

We appreciate clients like a sunny room, we cannot guarantee the amount of sunshine that one will get in any room, we will make the request for you but it is a matter that is outside our control.

SUITABLE PARTNERS

We will strive to find everyone a suitable partner if you come on your own. It must be appreciated that we cannot guarantee the quality of partners, the team are there to help and play when necessary but a team member cannot play solely with one client throughout the whole holiday. There is a welcome cocktail party and a meeting for single people where people who are without a partner are introduced to others and new friendships and partnerships can be formed and there is a team of professionals to look after you during the holiday, not only in the bridge room but to ensure that you enjoy both the holiday and the bridge.

MEALS

On a Mercian Bridge holiday it is normally half board (i.e. dinner, bed and buffet breakfast) unless otherwise stated under that particular holiday. With cruising it is normally full board and with “All Inclusive” holidays, includes all meals, snacks, tea, coffee and local alcholic drinks.

BOOKING YOUR FLIGHT

Many of our holidays now show ground costs only, particularly to destinations that no frills airlines go to, this gives us an opportunity of getting you a good deal with the airlines rather than a fixed group air fare and we will endeavour to get you the best price there is, but if you book your own flight we cannot accept responsibility for it, if the holiday is subsequently cancelled for any reason we will honour any bookings that we have made to you but we cannot be responsible for any flights that you have booked yourself.

We cannot provide transfers to any flight that you have booked yourself, so please do consider booking the flight through Mercian, we are the experts, we are members of the International Air Transport Association and we are here to look after your interests.

Please do be aware that whether with scheduled airlines or no frills airlines or charters, airlines do reserve the right to change the time of their flights, this may be necessary for operational reasons, there is no re-dress against the airline or Mercian unless that change is significant and the definition of significant is more than 12 hours. So if you booked your own flight and the time of your onward flight to your holiday destination changes we can only take responsibility if we have booked your domestic flight as well, if you have booked your own I am afraid it is your responsibility”

CREDIT CARDS

Mercian Travel are agents for Access, Visa, American Express, Mastercard and Maestro but not Euro cheques which we cannot accept. I am afraid we do have to pass on the credit card charges which are 2%, (3% for American Express), this charge applies to balance payments only, we will accept deposits on credit cards without any additional charge. We had to introduce these charges because prior to making them it was costing us some £20,000 per year to process credit cards on behalf of our clients and whilst we are still prepared to do it for deposits only we can no longer afford to do it on the balances.