Hey All,
We've made it to Ireland! Day 1: smashing success. Here's what we've done so far, with a brief pause for car insurance shenanigans thrown in for good measure.
3/6/2017
8:30 AM - Arrive via Aer Lingus in Dublin
9:00 AM - Pass through Irish customs. Pro: big ol' stamp, and clearly no interest on the part of the customs officer as to why we might be here, or for how long. Con: It's like 3 pages away from my other stamps, in a mostly new passport. Chronology is clearly not an Irish value.
9:20 AM - Arrive at the rental car office.
9:50 AM - Arrive at the rental car office front desk.
10:00 AM - Compete all rental car paperwork, only to get to the actual payment/insurance part, and discover a "problem."
Here's my intervening rant. We did this trip through Groupon, and our package included six nights at a resort (to be described later), flights out of Boston, and a rental car. We had already upgraded our rental car to be an automatic. At no point in this process were we informed of Ireland's bizarre and anti-tourist car rental insurance policies. Here's the deal. Apparently, when most credit card companies say that they offer rental car insurance, it's not valid in the Republic of Ireland (either that, or our rental agent was lying to increase revenue... I could go either way on this). Anyway, two phone calls later, I was able to determine that my AA Advantage Card, which was the one we booked the trip on, does carry actual worldwide rental insurance (which is awesome). Even with that confirmation, and a letter of coverage that the benefits lady was able to email to me, the Republic of Ireland still had to put a 3,000 Euro hold on my credit card for the duration of the trip. Had my AA Advantage card not had worldwide rental insurance, our options would have been to pay 188 Euro, with a 1,500 Euro hold on my account, or pay 263 Euro, with a 200 Euro hold.
So let's be clear. Groupon is clearly a budget vacation tool. In the best, but seemingly rarest of all situations, I have insurance that covers me, so long as I have 3,000 Euro's worth of space on my credit card (I do, but the policy seems like a trap to me). In most scenarios, you're responsible for paying their (high priced) insurance with a significant hold, or paying an even higher price for their insurance, mostly in lieu of the hold. And Groupon/Great Value Vacations never saw fit to mention this. Grumble, grumble, grumble. Anyway, we're good.
11:00 AM - Leave (on the left side of the road) the rental car facility. The guy who helped us to pick up our car gave us excellent directions to get to Adade (~2:15 from Dublin). We stopped for lunch at at the Irish equivalent of a Maryland House, and got to our Resort around 2:15. Over that time, it rained approximately 12 times, and was sunny and nice for about the same amount of time. Interestingly, all semi trucks have big labels on the back, identifying them as "Long Vehicles." Jenn is a left-side-of-the-road-driving Champ.
2:15 - Arrived at what we were pretty sure was our resort. It was, but the resort is being completely renovated, which in construction lingo, means razed to the ground. This made navigation a little tricky, but we're well on our way to mastering the many "temporary roads" (read: muddy areas through fields) of the resort. We did know that this was happening though, and are staying in a Villa somewhat away from the construction.
2:30 - Got a description of the resort and available activities (mostly falconry with owls), and located our villa. It's da bomb. We each have our own rooms and en suites, plus a sunroom, a huge kitchen, an office, and onsite laundry (which will likely be most useful for the dryer, if the frequent rain episodes keep up).
3:00 - We're all asleep.
4:30 - Planned nap time conclusion. We're all asleep.
5:00 - We drag ourselves out of nap time in search of food. First stop: Pat Collin's Pub. I had traditional Irish Stew, and likely won't be eating anything else for the rest of the trip. So there.
7:00 - Go grocery shopping, buy American peanut butter, crackers, and Diet Coke. (Routines are important).
7:45 - Play "Love Letter" which is a quick-ish card game that Trace and Lauren gave us for Christmas a few years ago. It's a good game, and Carly slaughters us. We did manage to set plans for tomorrow, which include exploring Adare, doing a hike in the area, and possibly going to the Cliffs of Insanity (Moher).
9:30 - We're all asleep.
Yay! Ireland!
We've made it to Ireland! Day 1: smashing success. Here's what we've done so far, with a brief pause for car insurance shenanigans thrown in for good measure.
3/6/2017
8:30 AM - Arrive via Aer Lingus in Dublin
9:00 AM - Pass through Irish customs. Pro: big ol' stamp, and clearly no interest on the part of the customs officer as to why we might be here, or for how long. Con: It's like 3 pages away from my other stamps, in a mostly new passport. Chronology is clearly not an Irish value.
9:20 AM - Arrive at the rental car office.
9:50 AM - Arrive at the rental car office front desk.
10:00 AM - Compete all rental car paperwork, only to get to the actual payment/insurance part, and discover a "problem."
Here's my intervening rant. We did this trip through Groupon, and our package included six nights at a resort (to be described later), flights out of Boston, and a rental car. We had already upgraded our rental car to be an automatic. At no point in this process were we informed of Ireland's bizarre and anti-tourist car rental insurance policies. Here's the deal. Apparently, when most credit card companies say that they offer rental car insurance, it's not valid in the Republic of Ireland (either that, or our rental agent was lying to increase revenue... I could go either way on this). Anyway, two phone calls later, I was able to determine that my AA Advantage Card, which was the one we booked the trip on, does carry actual worldwide rental insurance (which is awesome). Even with that confirmation, and a letter of coverage that the benefits lady was able to email to me, the Republic of Ireland still had to put a 3,000 Euro hold on my credit card for the duration of the trip. Had my AA Advantage card not had worldwide rental insurance, our options would have been to pay 188 Euro, with a 1,500 Euro hold on my account, or pay 263 Euro, with a 200 Euro hold.
So let's be clear. Groupon is clearly a budget vacation tool. In the best, but seemingly rarest of all situations, I have insurance that covers me, so long as I have 3,000 Euro's worth of space on my credit card (I do, but the policy seems like a trap to me). In most scenarios, you're responsible for paying their (high priced) insurance with a significant hold, or paying an even higher price for their insurance, mostly in lieu of the hold. And Groupon/Great Value Vacations never saw fit to mention this. Grumble, grumble, grumble. Anyway, we're good.
11:00 AM - Leave (on the left side of the road) the rental car facility. The guy who helped us to pick up our car gave us excellent directions to get to Adade (~2:15 from Dublin). We stopped for lunch at at the Irish equivalent of a Maryland House, and got to our Resort around 2:15. Over that time, it rained approximately 12 times, and was sunny and nice for about the same amount of time. Interestingly, all semi trucks have big labels on the back, identifying them as "Long Vehicles." Jenn is a left-side-of-the-road-driving Champ.
2:15 - Arrived at what we were pretty sure was our resort. It was, but the resort is being completely renovated, which in construction lingo, means razed to the ground. This made navigation a little tricky, but we're well on our way to mastering the many "temporary roads" (read: muddy areas through fields) of the resort. We did know that this was happening though, and are staying in a Villa somewhat away from the construction.
2:30 - Got a description of the resort and available activities (mostly falconry with owls), and located our villa. It's da bomb. We each have our own rooms and en suites, plus a sunroom, a huge kitchen, an office, and onsite laundry (which will likely be most useful for the dryer, if the frequent rain episodes keep up).
3:00 - We're all asleep.
4:30 - Planned nap time conclusion. We're all asleep.
5:00 - We drag ourselves out of nap time in search of food. First stop: Pat Collin's Pub. I had traditional Irish Stew, and likely won't be eating anything else for the rest of the trip. So there.
7:00 - Go grocery shopping, buy American peanut butter, crackers, and Diet Coke. (Routines are important).
7:45 - Play "Love Letter" which is a quick-ish card game that Trace and Lauren gave us for Christmas a few years ago. It's a good game, and Carly slaughters us. We did manage to set plans for tomorrow, which include exploring Adare, doing a hike in the area, and possibly going to the Cliffs of Insanity (Moher).
9:30 - We're all asleep.
Yay! Ireland!
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