so confused on what to do now

[mevelandry]

ALLL of this ^^^^^^^
Im from Ireland and have spent a lot of time in America over the last 16 years, Ive been multiple times to New York and LA, as well as New Orleans, Orlando, San Francisco and Las Vegas .

So many Europeans just don’t understand why I continue to travel to USA. Not just with this new administration but due to the difference in gun laws, the mass shootings, and just how different life in Europe is in general.

For example, your 6 lane freeways and the ginormous 18 wheeler trucks just utterly petrify me. We don’t have that in Ireland, our freeways are max 3 lanes and we don’t have the 18 wheeler trucks here. Even your regular family cars are way larger than our regular family cars.

We don’t have mass shootings here, in fact our regular police on the street are not even armed, the same in the UK, the regular police in London are not armed.

Our gun laws are so strict that those who do own guns have to go through such huge red tape and bureaucracy and its only mainly people like vets or farmers in rural areas who have guns. Normal regular people just don’t have guns in their houses or even have access to ammo. We don’t have gun shops on the high street or in the malls.

I try not to think about it but it does go through my mind that when Im in America and Im in Mcdonalds or on a city bus, or walking down the street, that the person beside me could have a loaded gun in their bag, whether legally or illegally allowed. Ive lived in various parts of Ireland, as well as Munich, Edinburgh and London, and ive NEVER have that fear when living or visiting any city in Europe.

We don’t have earthquakes or tornados here in Europe. I try not to think about it, but I know that every time I go to LA there is a possibility that the next roller could be THE big one.



I remember when I first started using chat rooms and forums back around 1999 / 2000 So many Americans used to ask me was Dublin safe as they knew about the bombings in Belfast. Physically Dublin and Belfast are 2 hours drive apart. BUT that 2 hours is like the distance between New York and LA. And now with the peace agreement the bombings and killings have stopped and its soooo much different.

Im not saying we don’t have our problems, we do, but life in general in Europe is far far safer for the average person on the street.

And for people on Disney Cruises, you are so far removed from real life in Europe, that you would not even know if something happened during your cruise. I know from living in Dublin just how much the European ports depend on the revenue from the cruise industry. For a lot of countries like Ireland, the tourist industry is such a huge part of the economy.

You make me wanna move to Dublin (and I am from Canada!)...

 

[disneyholic family]

weve had the Med. cruise planned since the rate came out (it was to celebrate the end of my cancer treatments)

but now weve heard there warning people about possible terrorest attack this summer in Europe which has us worried and of course final is due next week

now I notice that theres a British Isles cruise for next Sept and I would love to go there England Ireland and Scotland

so now we dont know what to do--I know (well sort of ) thats theres no way they can predict where a terrorist will hit but just the fact that France is one of the spots and we have a port there--we also know that no cruise ship will sail into possible danger but its a little unerveing when your going someone when theres warnings out


so Id like to hear your thoughts

would you pay for the cruise thats due next week--if we cancel after that date we lose our deposit
even with the warning in the back of your mind


or change plans wait another year and do the British Isles-hopefully things will have settled down by then

I just dont know what to do--weve been talking about this for the last 5 years since I found out I had cancer --lucky it was caught so very early "all" i needed was surgery and 5 years of followups I have my last one next month and dr said last visit that by the time you reach 5 years its like it never happened-minus a few parts!!!)

so Id appreciate any advice or concerns

thanks all

lock yourself in your house and never leave...
and by the way, where do you live? if in any US city, you probably have more chance of being murdered than being killed in a terrorist attack while on a Mediterranean cruise..

 

[RedSox68]

lock yourself in your house and never leave...
and by the way, where do you live? if in any US city, you probably have more chance of being murdered than being killed in a terrorist attack while on a Mediterranean cruise..

So true.

 

[Anchors Away 2016]

Ug. I'm gonna comment now. Feel free to disagree with me. I hope this isn't seen as off topic, either or political. The topic is how safe people feel in various countries compared to how they feel in the US.

The United States is enjoying near record low levels in violent crime throughout the country in almost every category. With the exception of a small uptick in certain categories in certain places last year, the country hasn't been this safe since they started keeping records. Violent crime peaked in the late eighties and early nineties and has been dropping steadily since then and is now half of what it was. Terrorism too is WAY DOWN from its peak in the 70's.

Even worldwide the number of war zones and war deaths is near historic lows.

I know now we hear every incident that happens anywhere and we feel less safe, but actually, we are much safer.

Just wanted to put that out there. I am not belittling anyone's feelings or concerns. I just want to push back against this perception that everything is always getting worse, because I feel that it is in itself a danger.

 

[Dznypal]

thanks for all the wonderful helpful replies--my DH also read through all of them so we ARE going--the part that really helped make up his mind is that no cruise line would go to any port wheres theres trouble whether it be serevere weather or any type of unrest--
which is just common sense though--

so Im paying it off today!!! yeah!!!!

and were sort of thinking of the British Isle we went on a European cruise 2 yrs ago and spent one full day in London and of course it rained!!!
it was beautiful the day we got there and the day we left for the cruise but the one full day it rains!!!

so we would really love to go back and spend a few days in London before heading for the cruise--well thats just in the back of our minds now

now really looking forward to this one!!!

also thanks for all the congrats on being cancer free for so--it was a long up hill battle--I would get very moody before each check up just hoping and praying they wouldnt find anything

so all the replies really helps--thanks