Travel Changes?

BluesTraveler

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jul 23, 2015
Taking a suggestion from the China changes thread, I thought I'd start one so people could talk about their upcoming travel and whether they're considering changing. As I said on the China thread, we have a Galapagos/Ecuador trip in July (another company) that I think we are going to cancel. Feels like a better year to explore somewhere we haven't been in the US.
 
I have a trip to France in May, and am in no way considering cancelling it. Obviously, if things change vastly before then in France and how they are handling things, we'll have to see what happens. But I'm already paid in full, have purchased all my airfare, several pre-day tours, etc. I'm really not worried about catching the Corona virus. Like others have said on other threads, the big issue is getting caught up in the quarantine fever that seems to have hit everywhere. 100 to 200 times as many people die from the flu every year than have died of the corona virus, and the vast majority of those corona virus deaths were in the small region of China where the outbreak began, which had poor healthcare. Most deaths are the elderly or folks with compromised immune systems. If I started down that slippery slope, I wouldn't leave my condo, as anyone, anywhere could potentially be infected.

Sayhello
 
Sadly, we cancelled our summer ABD Asia tour before PIF, in addition to a layover trip in Japan. Our flights connected in China and Japan, and Korea was the only other choice. With so much uncertainty, the only certain thing was if I cancelled before PIF, I would minimize the most loss of payments. I had cancel for any reason insurance (not ABD), but got all refunded regardless. All companies were very understanding and didn’t hesitate to cancel, rebook, or refund.
I lost out on insurance policy cost but I will be buying cancel for any reason insurance again in the future.
We will reconsider Asia another time, just not this summer. Thanks to everyone on this board for all the advice and input.
 
I'm really not worried about catching the Corona virus.

No, I'm not either. My real concern is being caught in an unexpected quarantine due to another traveler, and not being able to get back to our kids (this was a trip just for DH and me). I think if the kids were traveling with us, or if they were older and independent, I would feel differently.
 


No, I'm not either. My real concern is being caught in an unexpected quarantine due to another traveler, and not being able to get back to our kids (this was a trip just for DH and me). I think if the kids were traveling with us, or if they were older and independent, I would feel differently.
I *totally* understand that! We had a poster here years ago who got caught up in a swine flu quarantine in China, and it was no joke. ABD was in constant contact with her during her and her children's, I believe, 10-day quarantine in a crappy facility, but they could do nothing for her until she was released. That worry is real.

Sayhello
 
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We are going to Africa at the end of March, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, tanzania. No plans to change. Better chance of getting malaria than a flu virus. We are in our 70s and healthy. we have a few more ‘must dos’ on our travel itinerary before slowing down. If I were going to Italy I’d just stay out of the impacted areas.
 
I have a trip to France in May, and am in no way considering cancelling it. Obviously, if things change vastly before then in France and how they are handling things, we'll have to see what happens. But I'm already paid in full, have purchased all my airfare, several pre-day tours, etc. I'm really not worried about catching the Corona virus. Like others have said on other threads, the big issue is getting caught up in the quarantine fever that seems to have hit everywhere. 100 to 200 times as many people die from the flu every year than have died of the corona virus, and the vast majority of those corona virus deaths were in the small region of China where the outbreak began, which had poor healthcare. Most deaths are the elderly or folks with compromised immune systems. If I started down that slippery slope, I wouldn't leave my condo, as anyone, anywhere could potentially be infected.

Sayhello

Same here. We're leaving for london/paris ABD in a few weeks and I have no intention of trying to cancel unless s*** hits the fan with this stuff in Italy and it massively spreads to Paris. In fact we really want to do a disneyland paris add on and I'm still thinking of doing that.
Asia is a different story. I wouldn't go there right now. But Europe seems OK except for Italy. Curious as to how ABD is going to handle the Italy ABD coming up in a few weeks.
 


We’re going to Costa Rica in 19 days... I think we should be ok but as previous posters have said, getting caught in the quarantine is worrisome. As it is, my husband is being asked by his boss to work from home for 14 days after our trip. It’s not company policy for sure since I work in the same place but he wants to appease his boss. We’re going on a DCL Med cruise w/ 2 ports in Italy (as well as almost 2 weeks around Spain) this summer though and am now a little concerned about that. This cruise was moved already from last year due to a medical emergency so I doubt DCL would extend that courtesy again! Honestly though I think the cruise itself may be more worrisome than Italy...
 
Just a week ago, we made the decision to PIF the balance on our DCL Greek Isles cruise that starts in Rome - we had been trying to decide between that one where we had a deposit and the Southern Carrib. Kinda wishing we had picked Southern Carrib. I wasn't even aware of the Italy issues when we made the decision last week - oops. At this point planning to stay the course and watch what happens.
 
We are going to Africa at the end of March, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, tanzania. No plans to change. Better chance of getting malaria than a flu virus. We are in our 70s and healthy. we have a few more ‘must dos’ on our travel itinerary before slowing down. If I were going to Italy I’d just stay out of the impacted areas.

Other than having my temperature taken (laser type thermometer point at/near my ear) as we disembarked, I've noticed nothing different in travel in Kenya or Tanzania compared to previous trips.
 
Just got back from Portugal. No issues and just a handful of people wearing masks in the airport.

Going to France in June. Already PIF, no plans to cancel.

Have a big family trip planned to Japan in December 2020, with G Adventures. PIF is only 3 months prior. We're going to wait and see how things go. Hoping 10 months from now things are settled down.
 
As of this morning, we are on the fence with our 2020 Rhine Cruise. PIF isn't for a few months, so we'll wait and see a bit, but I'm very hesitant to purchase our flights right now. We were planning some pre- and post-days in Switzerland and Germany and I've booked those hotels, but those are all refundable at this point. As others have said, I'm more worried about quarantines. I suppose if we decide not to go, we'll move the deposit to a 2021 ABD. I'm just not sure where to move it to at this point because if this becomes a true pandemic, where does one go? I know I can only switch it once, so will need to really think about that. My MIL had booked a trip to Northern Italy (non-ABD) and has cancelled at this point. I also have the SoCal/DL ADR booked and I'm not really sure what to do about that. My deposit for that is refundable for a few more days.
 
My husband is still flying into Milan tomorrow. He contacted the people running next week's wine certification course in Florence and they have no intention of cancelling. I think cancelling everything is a big risk too - the world economy cannot just come to a grinding halt. Especially when almost half the cases in Italy are quarantined at home with no symptoms or minor symptoms. I would like to think I will still be leaving for Italy on March 12th as well - however, I think we may have to rethink our plans.

I think this is already way more widespread than we are acknowledging. There is just not widespread testing unless people are in a specifically identified group.

Please don't misunderstand me, I do not want people to get sick and die. But it seems this only severely impacts high risk populations and the cat is already out of the bag.... Not sure how you are supposed to track cold/flu like symptoms around the work and assume it is Coronavirus.
 
We are booked for the Italy trip that leaves in 2 weeks. I just called ABD, and as of right now, the itinerary remains unchanged.

I'm not concerned about Rome or Florence. My biggest concern is trying to re-book airfare home if they decide not to go to Venice, because that is where we are supposed to fly home from. I know ABD will cover any change fees, but just hope there is room on flights leaving from other airports in Italy for us to make it back (hopefully together).
 
We have a trip to Zambia (with another operator) coming up in June. The tour operator hasn't said anything about the trip being cancelled and we have no plans to cancel it ourselves. We're flying through London and Johannesburg and are not concerned.

I'd be more concerned if I as going to the Caribbean or Central America. Cases of Dengue Fever are on the rise there. No cure or vaccine and it's spread by mosquitoes.
 
We are going to London (2 day layover )/Greece(ABD)/Paris/DLP for 23 days in May. It’s a big trip to celebrate me obtaining my Doctorate and my wife obtaining her Masters. We are PIF for everything including flights, ABD, hotels, tours etc and we will not be canceling. I will be monitoring the situation closely but am not very concerned. That said I would not head to Asia at this time.
 
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We just got back from Panama, a trip we took in lieu of going to Southeast Asia. I was kind of surprised about the lackadaisical approach the US is taking to screening potentially ill people entering the country. In Panama we had to do a health questionnaire and temp screening to enter the country. Here we were waived through no questions asked. It seems like if there is going to be a pandemic, the US will be no safer than elsewhere and possibly worse since we don't seem to be taking the steps that countries in southeast Asia have taken to screen and track for the disease.

We have been going back and forth on booking a Europe trip for the summer and I am glad we haven't pulled the trigger. I am definitely second guessing my decision on canceling our Borneo trip though. The situation in Singapore and Malaysia seems pretty stable now compared with elsewhere.
 
We have cancelled a family trip for March to Thailand. Would rather visit at a less stressful time. I was concerned about flying through Singapore and I think Thailand’s reported virus numbers are lower than reality given their huge numbers of Chinese travelers.

I have also postponed bringing my kids back to India to join my husband who is on expat assignment there. The kids and I will be staying at our home in the USA for the next couple months in hopes things calm down. Not particularly worried about India right now since it doesn’t *seem* to be having an outbreak. But worried about a worst case quarantine situation if the kids picked up the regular flu or a bad cold on the flight over.

We have a Disney Bahamian Cruise planned with my in-laws for early May that we have no plans to change. We also have a HAL Greek Odyssey Cruise planned for October with my parents. Keeping an eye on that one but hoping and praying it will be fairly normal by then.
 
We have the first ABD Rhine Cruise of the season (May) and we are PIF, airline tickets bought, pre days booked and paid for along with post trip bookings. Unless ABD cancels, we plan on going!
 
We are doing the Tauck Bridges Siene river cruise in early July. PIF is in a month. I am going to pay it off, airfare is already purchased. Not planning on canceling now. I truly believe that coronavirus is basically unstoppable and that at some point this year will be broadly in the community. I guess I just won't stop living my life over it, unless France shuts down for business like China did.

I saw on our elevator that tourism in France is down like 40%. I think a lot of that decline is from people from Asia who are choosing not to travel, but flights to and from Europe seem to be less than packed as well.
 

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