OK, my fellow cruisers. I've started the serious packing, and there's a lightness of step around this house, but I started to fret a little today over the Crystal Cruises banning of people from Toronto. I like to believe I'm not much of a worrier (and we live a LONG way from Toronto -- probably further than most of you!), but a little niggle is starting to develop.
Our flight routes from Edmonton to Calgary and then thorugh Toronto on the way to Orlando May 2.
And there was a tiny little comment on one of the stories about other cruise lines 'monitoring' the situation in terms of Toronto.
If we have to answer a question about visiting or being in Toronto, I don't want it to be a problem. (Our situation is a little like someone living in Spokane being routed through New York, if NY had an outbreak.)
We're flying on points, and don't have a lot of flexibility. And buying flights, now, would be almost as expensive as our cruise. I'm not sure we'd be willing to do it. In a worst case scenario, *maybe* our travel insurance would cover a re-route through Denver on a partner airline with Air Canada.
I'm trying very hard not to get worked about it, but this is one scenario I had definitely not planned for.
Personally, I think the SARS situation is a little sensationalized right now (and none of the media seem to be mentioning the majority of deaths in Toronto have been of elderly people -- the last was a woman in or near her nineties -- who had pre-existing other conditions).
Caution and awareness are good; over-reacting is not so good.
People are pretty uptight about the disease, and apparently it was other Crystal passengers who expressed concerns about travelling with Torontonians, so who knows what could happen in the next week.
