Alhamdullilah we are all back and wanted to take a moment to thank you for all the arrangements.
I must say that the arrangements at Jeddah, Madina and Makkah were equally good however as far as the service is concerned I believe both Jeddah and Madina exceeded that of Makkah. Your personnel at Jeddah and Madina were very responsive to our needs. You rep in Madina always returned our phone calls promptly. On the other hand at Makkah, regret to say that it took the representative couple of hours to return our calls.
The hotel accommodations at Madina Oberoi were very good. The bonus for us was that we had two bathrooms among three of us, an unheard of luxury!
Your representative, Br. Mohammed Tawfeek at Madina did an exemplary job and the arrangements for the Mazarat were very good. He always obliged us in a most satisfactory manner.
As for Makkah, it is unfortunate that the day of our arrival there was fire in the engine room of the Zamzam Tower account which Fairmont Hotel was closed. Your reps did a good job of finding us alternate accommodations at the Al Tawhid Intercontinental. However, the three of us had to stay in a room that was essentially meant for two. However, given the circumstances we cannot complain and in fact should compliment your personnel for finding alternate accommodations for us.
The most regrettable part of our stay in Makkah was that we could not visit places that we very much would have liked to. Please recall that this was the first visit for my daughter and I wanted very much for her to see everything. However, for some inexplicable reason no one showed up with transportation to take us for Mazarat on the appointed day/time. Of course, I tried contacting your reps who were not available and finally when one did return my call it was already Duhr time and it was too late in the day for Mazarat.
The transportation arrangements from Jeddah -> Madina, Madina -> Makkah and finally from Makkah -> Jeddah airport were all very good and the mini-buses provided were clean and the drivers very courteous.
Our flight arrangements on Lufthansa were very good. However, in future I suggest that at the time of making reservations you kindly also arrange for special (Halaal) meals. On more than one segment of our flight, we had to forego meals as they were neither serving halaal nor vegetarian meals.
I mention all above, not as a criticism of Dar El Salaam or their reps, but simply to make you aware of where improvements can be made and/or for you to relay our compliments to your representatives. All in all, I would like to thank you all at Dar El Salaam for the excellent service you provided us.
