Travel Changes?

[CaliforniaGirl09]

there are articles all over the Japanese press attacking the government for not testing..
the government claims that testing doesn't serve a clinical purpose, so they're only doing limited testing for epidemiological research.
As i said, bogus excuses. What they're really doing is attempting to make it look like everything is A-OK.
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If this is true, it will eventually catch up with them though. There is no way to hide it once the deaths start coming. This is all just so horrible.

 

[disneyholic family]

If this is true, it will eventually catch up with them though. There is no way to hide it once the deaths start coming. This is all just so horrible.

I agree. I would think it will have to catch up with them at some point. Although, Russia's doing a good job of hiding their numbers.
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[Calfan]

I have wondered this as it seems strange their numbers are not really increasing and the Diamond Princess cases are still a good number of their cases. It does make you wonder though, as delaying the Olympics would be devastating.

there are articles all over the Japanese press attacking the government for not testing..
the government claims that testing doesn't serve a clinical purpose, so they're only doing limited testing for epidemiological research.
As i said, bogus excuses. What they're really doing is attempting to make it look like everything is A-OK.
.

If this is true, it will eventually catch up with them though. There is no way to hide it once the deaths start coming. This is all just so horrible.

Well, all of this is making me even more glad that Thomson is giving us an extra 30 days for a PIF decision.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

I agree. I would think it will have to catch up with them at some point. Although, Russia's doing a good job of hiding their numbers.
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Russia's numbers are not believable at all. We are supposed to be traveling there May 24-28 and Scott Dunn is forcing us to pay in full for the trip. Apparently the tour operators in Russia won't refund them any money (even though I asked that they not give any deposits to Russia tour operators until I had my visa, so don't know how this happened). Now they have closed their borders. And I read that they are building a hospital specifically for virus patients. Yes, all 63 of them (that's what I read they've reported). Okey dokey.

 

[TeeKo]

We have travelled with Thomson on 2 occasions, and travel insurance was included both times.

This is my second Thomson trip and travel insurance wasn’t included. Is this something I should have haggled for?

 

[Calfan]

This is my second Thomson trip and travel insurance wasn’t included. Is this something I should have haggled for?

Maybe it's just an early booking benefit? Not sure when you booked. But we booked Japan waaayyy early, and China also more than a year in advance. I just went back to my email folder for our China trip, and I don't see any indication that we bought insurance separately.

 

[TeeKo]

Maybe it's just an early booking benefit? Not sure when you booked. But we booked Japan waaayyy early, and China also more than a year in advance. I just went back to my email folder for our China trip, and I don't see any indication that we bought insurance separately.

Not sure. I put a deposit down on this specific trip 15 to 18 months in advance. I was directed to purchase travel insurance through an outside agency

 

[RSM]

Maybe it's just an early booking benefit? Not sure when you booked. But we booked Japan waaayyy early, and China also more than a year in advance. I just went back to my email folder for our China trip, and I don't see any indication that we bought insurance separately.

You might be right. For each of our trips we booked way in advance (not as far as Calfan --3 years is impressive) but about 10-12 months in advance and we did get early booking discounts, a GO Pro, a repeat customer discount, and some other perks. One of which I think is the free trip insurance.

 

[TeeKo]

You might be right. For each of our trips we booked way in advance (not as far as Calfan --3 years is impressive) but about 10-12 months in advance and we did get early booking discounts, a GO Pro, a repeat customer discount, and some other perks. One of which I think is the free trip insurance.

We received all the discounts you mentioned and have a collection of GO Pros now. Free trip insurance would definitely be the most valuable although not sure it would help with the current pandemic situation.

 

[Grotto]

Just got off the phone with AbD. Our PIF day is tomorrow and I was ready to fight for a delay or to move my deposit to a different trip next year. The lady I spoke with said they just received a notice in the past hour that PIFs can be delayed an additional 30 days. So I have until April 18th to decide whether or not to commit to our upcoming Germany trip. She said we would be receiving emails about the policy tonight or tomorrow.

 

[disneyholic family]

Russia's numbers are not believable at all. We are supposed to be traveling there May 24-28 and Scott Dunn is forcing us to pay in full for the trip. Apparently the tour operators in Russia won't refund them any money (even though I asked that they not give any deposits to Russia tour operators until I had my visa, so don't know how this happened). Now they have closed their borders. And I read that they are building a hospital specifically for virus patients. Yes, all 63 of them (that's what I read they've reported). Okey dokey.

yes, for sure they're totally lying.....no doubt about it......the iron curtain may have fallen, but they're still very much state controlled...

 

[disneyholic family]

Just got off the phone with AbD. Our PIF day is tomorrow and I was ready to fight for a delay or to move my deposit to a different trip next year. The lady I spoke with said they just received a notice in the past hour that PIFs can be delayed an additional 30 days. So I have until April 18th to decide whether or not to commit to our upcoming Germany trip. She said we would be receiving emails about the policy tonight or tomorrow.

that's good news!!!!

 

[disneyholic family]

Related to travel, but certainly not ABD sort of travel.
Israeli kids have a tradition of backpacking after they finish compulsory military service.
They backpack for months to a year, trekking through 3 preferred locations: Southeast Asia, Nepal, and all around South America.

The border in Peru was closed yesterday, so hundreds of israeli backpackers are now stranded in Peru, unable to get out (there were no flights available to anywhere).
So Israel is sending planes to Peru to bring them all back home.

A lot of families are breathing easier today, knowing their kids will be coming home soon.
If you do end up needing medical care, you'd much rather be at home.
Even if the medical system crashes, you'd rather be in the crashing system you know with your family nearby.
.

so remember this story i told you about? turns out there are a 1,000 of these backpacking kids in peru...
600 of them are stuck in Cusco, Peru (in the Peruvian Andes where they were trekking).
they had tickets on specially organized local charter flights to get them to Lima, to get to the planes that Israel is sending to Peru to get them out.
But Peru wouldn't let the 600 board the internal flights to get to Lima and made them leave the area of the airport...
So now they're still stuck in Cusco.
In the meantime, the Israeli foreign ministry is desperately negotiating with Peru to try to get them out of Cusco to get to Lima for the convoy of planes coming to pick up the stranded Israelis.
The flight in each direction is 16 hours. The planes were standing by last i heard to take off for Peru.
The flights are free. But the backpackers have to get there to be able to get on board.

And I've heard there are hundreds of other foreign nationals stuck in Peru with no way to get out, also begging their countries to help them leave.
And the other South American countries are closing their borders as well.
The foreign ministry warned everyone anywhere in South America to get out now as if they don't leave immediately, they won't be able to leave until who knows when.
Indeed a nightmare.
.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Just got off the phone with AbD. Our PIF day is tomorrow and I was ready to fight for a delay or to move my deposit to a different trip next year. The lady I spoke with said they just received a notice in the past hour that PIFs can be delayed an additional 30 days. So I have until April 18th to decide whether or not to commit to our upcoming Germany trip. She said we would be receiving emails about the policy tonight or tomorrow.

Oh my gosh. Thank you so much for posting this! We have one PIF due at the end of the week and another in early April. This is really good news!

 

[DisneyWishes14]

so remember this story i told you about? turns out there are a 1,000 of these backpacking kids in peru...
600 of them are stuck in Cusco, Peru (in the Peruvian Andes where they were trekking).
they had tickets on specially organized local charter flights to get them to Lima, to get to the planes that Israel is sending to Peru to get them out.
But Peru wouldn't let the 600 board the internal flights to get to Lima and made them leave the area of the airport...
So now they're still stuck in Cusco.
In the meantime, the Israeli foreign ministry is desperately negotiating with Peru to try to get them out of Cusco to get to Lima for the convoy of planes coming to pick up the stranded Israelis.
The flight in each direction is 16 hours. The planes were standing by last i heard to take off for Peru.
The flights are free. But the backpackers have to get there to be able to get on board.

And I've heard there are hundreds of other foreign nationals stuck in Peru with no way to get out, also begging their countries to help them leave.
And the other South American countries are closing their borders as well.
The foreign ministry warned everyone anywhere in South America to get out now as if they don't leave immediately, they won't be able to leave until who knows when.
Indeed a nightmare.
.

Yes, apparently there are also hundreds of US citizens trapped there as well. I have read there are many also stuck in Morocco. My DH and I were just discussing today how relieved we are that we didn't fly to Mexico last Friday. Our borders with Mexico remain open for now, but circumstances have changed so rapidly over the past week. Praying everyone remains safe and can get home soon. It's a very scary situation.

 

[chuff88]

Just got off the phone with AbD. Our PIF day is tomorrow and I was ready to fight for a delay or to move my deposit to a different trip next year. The lady I spoke with said they just received a notice in the past hour that PIFs can be delayed an additional 30 days. So I have until April 18th to decide whether or not to commit to our upcoming Germany trip. She said we would be receiving emails about the policy tonight or tomorrow.

Do you know what the timeframe for this is? Our PIF is end of April and another month would be... great.

 

[dolewhipdreams]

Do you know what the timeframe for this is? Our PIF is end of April and another month would be... great.

I was just about to ask the same question! Ours is May 1

 

[kaseyC]

I was just about to ask the same question! Ours is May 1

I'm wondering the same. Our PIF date is May 9.

 

[Cliffside]

Just read over on another thread that DCL has taken off all European cruises off their website until July 25th. Don’t know if and when they will officially cancel them or what it will mean for the Adventures in May, June and July?

 

[E-Ticket]

The State Dept may go to a Level 4 Warning! (Please google I it, I can’t get the link to work)


If the State Department goes to Level 4 it may change Disney’s approach. They may HAVE to be more forthcoming and consider the liabilities of their choices.