Did the Tapas 9 group know in advance of child monitoring arrangements?

[mercury]

May I ask if you, or some reliable source, has checked this systematically?

I am asking because I thought some had on a previous MW holiday.  So I'd like to double-check with you rather than slogging through those enormous rogatories, plus Kate's book.

The refernces to the groups past holidays/listening services available/used require very hard work to interpret and piece all together, if I get really bored one day and find the patience I may attempt it

[pegasus]

D.P. and F.P. had certainly never used a Mark Warner listening service
"we actually haven’t used that service when we’ve been"

G.M. and K.M. had certainly never used a Mark Warner listening service
"He doesn't know exactly how it works in practice, he never having used it"

[pegasus]

R.O. states "she had used this service in 2006 when they stayed at a holiday resort in Greece".
However if you check the other rogs, the Sept 2006 holiday to Greece was not to a Mark Warner resort.

[pegasus]

If you were to ask this group of 9 tourists
"Have you in fact got any cheese here at all ever actually used a listening service at a Mark Warner resort?"
 what would the honest straightforward unconvoluted answer be?

[mercury]

If you were to ask this bunch of tourists: "Have you in fact got any cheese here at all ever actually used a listening service at a Mark Warner resort?", what would the honest straightforward unconvoluted answer be?

That would be the job of an investigative police force, which Lp was NOT it seems, just receptionists

[G-Unit]

I can't help wondering if it was connected to the extensive correspondence between David Payne and Mark Warner relating to the group being housed close to each other and to the dining facilities. The upshot of which was that they were able to decide before leaving the UK that they would operate their own listening service.

That suggests prior knowledge of the location of their apartments and the proximity of one of the restaurants, because some apartments are quite far away from the restaurants.

[ShiningInLuz]

I can't help wondering if it was connected to the extensive correspondence between David Payne and Mark Warner relating to the group being housed close to each other and to the dining facilities. The upshot of which was that they were able to decide before leaving the UK that they would operate their own listening service.

That suggests prior knowledge of the location of their apartments and the proximity of one of the restaurants, because some apartments are quite far away from the restaurants.

Before leaving the UK is an interesting thought, but how valid is it?

The Paynes had a baby monitor that worked at the relevant distance.  One lot of other parents had a baby monitor they did not trust.  Two of the families do not appear to have attempted a baby monitor.

So, wind back to 2007 technology and cost.  What was the operating range of baby monitors in 2007?  So far, I have got claims of 75m minimum to around 200m max, all at prices cheaper than hiring a nanny for a week.

The Paynes monitor appears to have done the trick, so why didn't the other 3 families cough up for a 2007 spec monitor?  Was it because they didn't know how close they would be?

This bit has intrigued me because there is/was an electrical goods shop in Rua Helena Nascimento Baptista, that might or might not in 2007 have flogged baby monitors that worked for Tapas diners.  Just a tad difficult to work out what its 2007 stock was, though.

[Brietta]

I can't help wondering if it was connected to the extensive correspondence between David Payne and Mark Warner relating to the group being housed close to each other and to the dining facilities. The upshot of which was that they were able to decide before leaving the UK that they would operate their own listening service.

That suggests prior knowledge of the location of their apartments and the proximity of one of the restaurants, because some apartments are quite far away from the restaurants.

Without trawling the rogatory interviews to refute your suggestion that they knew the location of their apartments ... I suggest that short of asking for adjacent accommodation they did not know either the location of the apartments or the location of the restaurants in relation to where they would be staying.

[G-Unit]

Without trawling the rogatory interviews to refute your suggestion that they knew the location of their apartments ... I suggest that short of asking for adjacent accommodation they did not know either the location of the apartments or the location of the restaurants in relation to where they would be staying.

The reason they asked for adjacent accommodation was so they could operate their own listening service. Without knowing the proximity of the accommodation to one of the restaurants or having been assured that it would be workable how could they decide in advance that it would be possible?

[faithlilly]

The McCann's excuse for leaving the children, that it was a quiet, child-friendly place, was nonsense as they wouldn't have known that before they arrived ?

[Alfie]

The McCann's excuse for leaving the children, that it was a quiet, child-friendly place, was nonsense as they wouldn't have known that before they arrived ?

So are you suggesting the McCanns booked the holiday at Mark Warner resort in PdL (out of season) without reading any of the literature about it and without knowing if it was a quiet, child-friendly resort?  ANd on the off-chance they did book the holiday completely blind and randomly chose PdL, then this is relevant to the disappearance because...?

[faithlilly]

So are you suggesting the McCanns booked the holiday at Mark Warner resort in PdL (out of season) without reading any of the literature about it and without knowing if it was a quiet, child-friendly resort?  ANd on the off-chance they did book the holiday completely blind and randomly chose PdL, then this is relevant to the disappearance because...?

Not to the disappearance per se but certainly to the subject of neglect. It would seem no matter what the couples had found in PDL to be like it had already been decided before the left England that the children would be left in the apartments alone while the parents dined nearby.

[faithlilly]

So it's your view that this supposed plan was set in stone in England prior to the holiday and that nothing, not even discovering that the resort was dangerous and non-child friendly would have dissuaded them?

I have no idea what the couples would have done if they found the resort not as they had expected but as they proceeded to leave the children alone from the second night of the holiday they really didn't give themselves enough time to find out, did they ?

[Alfie]

I have no idea what the couples would have done if they found the resort not as they had expected but as they proceeded to leave the children alone from the second night of the holiday they really didn't give themselves enough time to find out, did they ?

They found the resort to be quiet and child friendly as described, I don't suppose it would have needed a week to come to that conclusion.

[G-Unit]

So are you suggesting the McCanns booked the holiday at Mark Warner resort in PdL (out of season) without reading any of the literature about it and without knowing if it was a quiet, child-friendly resort?  ANd on the off-chance they did book the holiday completely blind and randomly chose PdL, then this is relevant to the disappearance because...?

David Payne researched, found MW at PdL and booked it. All assumed there was a listening service as in other MW resorts. It was only when Fiona read the brochure more closely after the booking had been made that she realised it didn't.