I take it since you use the pronoun 'his' the booking clerk you are referring to is Sr Santos.
I can see no reference by either Vitor Santos or Kate in her book that such a request was passed via MW to the OC i.e. close together re child checks. David Payne may make mention of it in his rogatory, but that is like entering Dante's Inferno. Please correct me if I am wrong, Misty, because this is another important point.
One observation. The pavements are unpleasant for walking on for old-timers and very young children. The surface on that route is calcadas, a cobble which is basically cube-shaped with sharp, uneven faces.
Kate and Gerry were of an age where walking or jogging on calcadas would not have been a problem for them. A buggy over calcadas is not an issue. I see lots of them around Luz, and we've used them here for our 2 youngest without any problem.
If the McCanns had taken a double-buggy (not two singles but a double buggy so one parent pushed both the twins) then they might just have used the Millennium more often.
IMO, probably not, because it would mean taking all 8 children to dinner with them each night. Block 5 is too far from the Millennium to rely on baby monitors and foot checks. But perhaps there might have been another night or two when they choose it as a variation.
That would lead to no block-booking of the Tapas. No alleged note saying the block-booking was because parents were leaving their kids alone while they dined. No opportunity for any observers to establish a pattern. Perhaps Madeleine would have made that walk to the Millennium on the evening of 3 May 2007 and we would have nothing to discuss.
650m on calcadas without buggy-capacity is no joke. The lack of buggy-capacity was unpredictable. After all, the Wilkins brought a buggy. But it was still a long trek for Madeleine even if the twins had the benefit of a double-buggy.
Matthew said;
Furthermore, he wishes to make clear that while making the aforementioned reservations the operator had told them that a 'baby listening' service was not in place in the Ocean Club Garden.
That fact had made some of the couples - and himself in particular - reluctant to come to Portugal because all the families have minor children.
he relates that DP had asked the operator that they be provided with lodgings in close proximity to each other because, as a group, they intended to perform that kind of checking collectively over the children of each family.
they had discussed this problem resolving to make the trip since the operator had assured them accommodation sufficiently close together that, collectively, they had managed to assure the checking and supervision of their respective progeny.
http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/MATTHEW-OLDFIELD-10MAY.htmIt's clear that MW booking staff spoke to OC staff about this because it was OC staff who allocated the accommodation. MW staff knew why they wanted to be together and it seems strange if they didn't request together and near an eating place. Placing them together but not near an eatery would have scuppered their childcare plans, wouldn't it?
