re: Parking
Like HeliCraig, I had a frustrating experience with EMA pre-booked parking last summer (August). Pre-booked at what seemed at the time a marvellous rate for two weeks in car park 1. Seemed a great idea, just park up and walk to the terminal, no waiting for buses, etc. etc.
Turned up and lo and behold, car park FULL. I guess I shouldn't be surprised but hey, I only had an email saying that's the car park I was booked in on...! Luckily I had left plenty of time so I drove down to the Long Stay 7. It then took more than 10 minutes of driving around to find a space, the car park was busting at the seams with people parked in every grass verge etc. that was available. Thankfully, we got a space and a bus was available - we didn't get inconvenienced any further.
Must admit I didn't take it up with the parking company at the time, I just wanted to dump the car and get on my holiday. But seeing HeliCraig's post reminded me. But the question remains, what's the point in allowing you to pre-book a car park when it's full at the time you stipulate on your booking!!
Something else as well, re: the bus transfer, on our return, the bus arrived and people proceeded to get on, and although there were plenty of seats left, the bottom luggage racks were full, and everyone else had heavy cases. So no further passengers, including us, attempted to get on. The driver then very helpfully said "I'm not allowed to leave unless the bus is full", and we said "we can't get our cases on", because no-one was going to try and lift their 20kg bag above shoulder height and into to the top rack.
So this hilarious stand-off ensued (well, it would be hilarious if it wasn't 5.30 am and we'd all stepped off a transatlantic flight) where nothing happened for a minute or two. Eventually after some mutterings under his breath the driver got out of his cab and moved all the cases to the top rack, we got on an off we went. I know it's laziness on the part of the first passengers to dump their cases on the bottom, and it shouldn't the the drivers' job to hump them around, but wouldn't it have been easier just to drive off and we wait for the next bus?