Thoughts on whether Greece trip in October 2021 will go?

cats3mom

Earning My Ears
Joined
Oct 18, 2007
We were scheduled for AbD Greece October 2020. When that was cancelled, we switched it to October 2021. It looks like they are now canceling the August 2021 Greece trips, a week at a time, giving only about 45 days notice. We haven't booked our airfare because we don't know if the trip will go or not. Any thoughts? Should we go ahead and book airfare? Should we continue to wait and see what happens? Is anyone else scheduled for a Greece trip this fall?
Thanks for any help you can give me.
 
We were scheduled for AbD Greece October 2020. When that was cancelled, we switched it to October 2021. It looks like they are now canceling the August 2021 Greece trips, a week at a time, giving only about 45 days notice. We haven't booked our airfare because we don't know if the trip will go or not. Any thoughts? Should we go ahead and book airfare? Should we continue to wait and see what happens? Is anyone else scheduled for a Greece trip this fall?
Thanks for any help you can give me.
I'm so sorry you are dealing with this. I don't have any insight on the Greece trips, but I'm appalled at the way ABD is handling all the European trips right now. 45 days is ridiculous and clearly driven by PIF at 60 days to force people to cancel. I'm in somewhat the same boat as you with a Rhine cruise scheduled in October. I have award tickets (easily cancelable) to London and then I planned to do cheap european flights to the start of the trip, but that is in flux right now with the UK being a European Pariah. I'm holding off on booking other flight tickets but prepared to buy something at last minute if I have to. I may reach out to ABD later in the summer to have them book my airfare. That way if they book something and it doesn't go, I don't have to deal with it (assuming that is still the rule).
 
I'm so sorry you are dealing with this. I don't have any insight on the Greece trips, but I'm appalled at the way ABD is handling all the European trips right now. 45 days is ridiculous and clearly driven by PIF at 60 days to force people to cancel. I'm in somewhat the same boat as you with a Rhine cruise scheduled in October. I have award tickets (easily cancelable) to London and then I planned to do cheap european flights to the start of the trip, but that is in flux right now with the UK being a European Pariah. I'm holding off on booking other flight tickets but prepared to buy something at last minute if I have to. I may reach out to ABD later in the summer to have them book my airfare. That way if they book something and it doesn't go, I don't have to deal with it (assuming that is still the rule).
We are also holding off on booking airfare for our Rhine cruise the end of September. I don't want to cancel on my own and lose our deposit, so I guess I'll make final payment by the end of July when it is due. I think if I do that, I will also book airfare and assume that we will actually travel.
 
Where did you see about the cancellations? I’m booked on an August departure and haven’t heard anything yet. :sad2:
 
Where did you see about the cancellations? I’m booked on an August departure and haven’t heard anything yet. :sad2:
ABD contacts the participants directly (or through their Travel Agents) when individual trips are canceled. They've only posted about it when it was a mass cancellation.

Sayhello
 
We're in the same boat (Oct 8-17). We also had reservations in Oct 2020 and rolled them over to 2021.
We're holding off on airline reservations until at least one ABD trip to Europe happens.
 
Well, it's not ABD, but Backroads posted yesterday that it was the first day of their first tour back in Greece in over a year. So if Backroads can do it, ABD should be able to....

Sayhello
 
Go on your own if you can - or use another tour agency. Greece is open and ready for tourists :) I have become disheartened with ABD though, so I may just be cranky :)
We had Egypt with ABD and they canceled on us..no real reason in my mind to cancel, so we did it on our own with some help on some tours from another company. The cost went from over 9,000 a person to down to 3,000. And we could have gotten cheaper but we were nervous about doing some stuff on our own. This trip made me realize that it is not too hard to do this stuff on your own - take the itinerary that ABD has and then just recreate it on your own. Use Viator if you need, they are quite helpful as well. The price Disney charges is unbelievable. Plus, I get they are a very cautious travel group, but at some point you just have to travel :) OK, mini-rant done. Go to Greece and have a blast!!
 
Yes, I thought Greece was one of the first countries to open to tourists?

A word of caution regarding Viator. It's just a third party reseller. It's always better to contact the companies directly. If you need to communicate to the company, need a refund or a change, going thru Viator can sometimes be impossible.
 
A word of caution regarding Viator. It's just a third party reseller. It's always better to contact the companies directly. If you need to communicate to the company, need a refund or a change, going thru Viator can sometimes be impossible.

While everyone’s experience is different, I use Viator frequently when I travel to book tours and have only had one problem with them in all the years I’ve used them. Once you book, Viator does list the tour company and their contact number in your confirmation. They also now seem to be listing the name of the company in the details section. They have an 800 number you can call to ask questions or lodge complaints.

The only problem I had with a tour I booked through them was years ago in Aruba. The tour company forgot to pick me up at the hotel for the tour. When I finally got through to the tour company (not Viator), they sent someone from the tour company to pick me up and take me to meet the tour. By time I caught up to the tour, I had missed the first two stops which happened to be one’s I really wanted to see. When I got back to the hotel, I called Viator and complained. They originally told me I would have to wait for the company to refund my money. I basically told them I had booked with them and they were responsible for refunding my money, not the other company. They did so and I can only imagine that they then went after the tour company for reimbursement. Apparently, the company that was running the tour contracted it out to someone else. Go figure!

As you say, it is easier to book directly with the tour company running the tour if you know who that is. I always check Viator first to see what type of tours can be done in a particular region and then I try to figure out who the tour companies are and whether booking directly with them gives me any perks. Viator is owned by TripAdvisor, which is why they are my go to when booking tours.
 
Where did you see about the cancellations? I’m booked on an August departure and haven’t heard anything yet. :sad2:
I look at the AbD website, go to Greece, then to Rates and Dates. If an upcoming trip has disappeared from the list, I figure it's been canceled, although I am not positive about that. As of today, the first Greece trip listed begins Sept. 24, 2021.
 
I don't know the reason, the cancellation went through our TA. But when we last called ABD there were 17 on the trip, which they said was enough to go, so my best guess is that they weren't able to figure out the safety protocols or guarantee they could in time. They did offer a rebooking discount (400-500 pp), but we opted to just get our money back. We'll see how long that takes...
 
My suspicion on why they cancelled it is due to the sharp uptick in COVID cases in Greece the past days/weeks. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/greece/

I am in London right now--this is my 5th/6th trip to the UK (depending on whether you count the initial shut down) since the pandemic started--and as much as it seems the world is ready to re-open, I think we are heading into a really uncertain period, and ABD should cancel the remaining of the fall European trips. This is from someone who is obviously very proactive about International travel and can't wait to get back to "normal." But the Delta variant is no joke, and the potential for serious disruption of these trips is very real. Not to mention the hoops that you have to jump through--hoops that aren't consistent and can change at any minute--are a nightmare for planning purposes.

I was in London about 6 weeks ago as well when cases were just starting to go up. Look what has happened since then with a country who has done extremely well with vaccinations. Cases have exploded. The good news is that if you are vaccinated the vaccinations seem to be lowering the curve of hospitalizations and death, but that doesn't help the portion of the population who is not vaccinated. There is also a potential for a new variant due to the "variant facotories" of the unvaccinated. My point is that in any country (US included) where you are starting to see a slight uptick ... be ready.

Organized/group travel right now is very problematic due to the fact that you are somewhat reliant on the behavior of other people around you. Right now, I feel a certain level of "control" in that most of my family is fully vaccinated (my daughter lives in England and only has her first shot as she's 21--she can get the second in a couple weeks), we can wear N95s, avoid eating inside, moderate our activities/calculate risk, and pretty much avoid other people as much as possible. This is not possible with a group trip. I also can't understate the amount of stress that is involved with testing, etc. In the UK right now, travelers from the US have to do 4 or 5 tests: pre-test to enter, day 2 test, test to release on day 5, a day 8 test, and a test to re-enter the US. Even just the last test is very stressful with 3 people. The three travelers in our party are fully vaccinated and have been since late February, but there is always the chance that one of us could test positive, and we'd be forced to isolate another 10 days (or longer if a second persons tests later). I'd be way more worried if we'd been sitting on a bus with fellow travelers who weren't wearing masks properly, who weren't vaccinated, etc, or inside tight places (i.e. many of the tourist sites).

We are signed up for an October ABD River Cruise and being on a boat/ship is a whole other can of worms. Disney seems very resistant to mandating vaccines, which is IMO the only responsible thing when you are talking about putting people on a ship in a closed environment and a potential for a disruption of travel with positive cases. I understand that you aren't eliminating the possibility with vaccinated travelers only, but you are definitely lowering the risk/chance of problems. I just googled, and in the past couple of days two cruise ships have cancelled/returned due to a few/handful of positive cases (Cunard & American Constellation). Is ABD really going to run river cruises when there is every chance that COVID cases are going to send the ship back and impact other passengers trips?

Don't get me wrong, I actually think we are going to have to adjust to COVID and start living our lives again. But International travel is different, and with the number of countries involved (and different rules), the uncertainty, and the potential for disruption and massive headaches with Delta running rampant, I don't think opening it up as we are heading into the colder months makes any sense. They also haven't issued any guidance on any of these trips, which to my mind suggests they aren't ready.

I know some of the counties these trips are going to have relatively low numbers right now, but Spain, Greece and Portugal have all opened travel and are seeing upticks. Even small upticks now, can turn into big upticks in a couple months (see England) with Delta. I think France is starting to see a slight rise, too.

I'm worried. I hope things settle down, but after being in the thick of it the past two weeks, I am very pessimistic as we head into the fall/winter.
 
Thank you, CaliforniaGirl09, for your insights, although they make me sad! I too wish AbD would just say all participants must be vaccinated, esp. on ships.

We are also scheduled for an AbD trip in January 2022, Winter in Wyoming Escape. Our Greece trip is 3 months away; our Wyoming trip is 6 months away; yet AbD contacted me the other day to go over health and safety rules for the Wyoming trip (no mention of the Greece trip). After she went through all the rules, she asked me to confirm that she'd gone over everything, that I didn't have any additional questions, and that I agreed to abide by all the rules.

It seems highly suspicious that they are prepared to make the rules for a January trip (within the U.S.) and yet haven't contacted us to confirm the rules for an October trip (outside the U.S.) I just wish they would go ahead and cancel, rather than make us wait and wonder, as well as pay up, before they cancel.
 
In case anyone is interested, here are the rules they gave us for the Wyoming trip:

Your travel pod consists of everyone you are traveling with. Travel pods need to stay 3 ft. away from other travel pods. Everyone will need proof of vaccination or a negative covid test. Proof will be submitted to a 3rd party, not directly to AbD. Everyone will need to submit an online health assessment prior to the trip. We must wear masks indoors and on the motor coach, and on the motor coach, we must wear one of the three masks they will be sending us that are made specifically for the motor coach environment. We will need to wear masks outdoors only if we can't distance our pod at least 3 ft. away from other pods. They will also be sending everyone hand sanitizer and wipes to have with on the trip.

I wonder what the masks are that are made specifically for the motor coach?
 
Thank you, CaliforniaGirl09, for your insights, although they make me sad! I too wish AbD would just say all participants must be vaccinated, esp. on ships.

We are also scheduled for an AbD trip in January 2022, Winter in Wyoming Escape. Our Greece trip is 3 months away; our Wyoming trip is 6 months away; yet AbD contacted me the other day to go over health and safety rules for the Wyoming trip (no mention of the Greece trip). After she went through all the rules, she asked me to confirm that she'd gone over everything, that I didn't have any additional questions, and that I agreed to abide by all the rules.

It seems highly suspicious that they are prepared to make the rules for a January trip (within the U.S.) and yet haven't contacted us to confirm the rules for an October trip (outside the U.S.) I just wish they would go ahead and cancel, rather than make us wait and wonder, as well as pay up, before they cancel.
In case anyone is interested, here are the rules they gave us for the Wyoming trip:

Your travel pod consists of everyone you are traveling with. Travel pods need to stay 3 ft. away from other travel pods. Everyone will need proof of vaccination or a negative covid test. Proof will be submitted to a 3rd party, not directly to AbD. Everyone will need to submit an online health assessment prior to the trip. We must wear masks indoors and on the motor coach, and on the motor coach, we must wear one of the three masks they will be sending us that are made specifically for the motor coach environment. We will need to wear masks outdoors only if we can't distance our pod at least 3 ft. away from other pods. They will also be sending everyone hand sanitizer and wipes to have with on the trip.

I wonder what the masks are that are made specifically for the motor coach?
Believe me, it depressed me just writing it. I've been very optimistic about foreign travel for a while, but what's happened in England is alarming especially given its vaccination rate. I do think there are specific countries that might be viable on your own. For example, Iceland seems like a good place to try for a family anxious to leave the US borders but group travel is problematic with restaurants, transportation and site seeing. I did a trial run 6 weeks ago to London on my own, and I will say the testing issue has more than tripled my anxiety with the three of us here. It's just so easy for something to go wrong with more than one person. Sitting at home, I way underestimated my stress on the issue, and we are all vaccinated!

And boy, that does seem suspicious. All I've been asked for so far on my River Cruise is the flight info. I have flights, but my plan was to go through Heathrow, which isn't going to work as it stands so if for some reason ABD does decide to go forward I'll have to get new flights. I wish they would go ahead and cancel, too. It's pretty ridiculous that the are waiting so long for these trips. If they were waiting for things to get a little more solid, Delta certainly threw a wrench into that plan.

Thanks for sharing the pod and mask info for Wyoming. I hope they are KN/N95s. I don't get on any public transportation with a regular mask even fully vaccinated.
 
I wonder what the masks are that are made specifically for the motor coach?
These are the face masks Disney is providing for their adventures. As I understand it, it’s not that they are specific to motor coaches. Rather, it’s for consistency among all guests for the mask materials, filtering ability, and working with the distancing they use on the coaches with assigned seating, to provide best possible protection for all. They are quite comfortable and lightweight.

https://evolon.freudenberg-pm.com/applications/face-masks
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!











facebook twitter
Top