Does the situation in Europe affect your future travel?

[Davey Interweb]

Lois, I'm sure you'll love AmaWaterways! I've cruised with them three times now (Vietnam/Cambodia, Danube, and Duro) with a fourth trip upcoming, and each has been fantastic. They're responsible for me catching the river cruising bug :D

Edited November 24, 2015 by Davey Interweb

[Lois R]

Lois, I'm sure you'll love AmaWaterways! I've cruised with them three times now (Vietnam/Cambodia, Danube, and Duro) with a fourth trip upcoming, and each has been fantastic. They're responsible for me catching the river cruising bug :D

 

Hi Davey:)...how did you know I am sailing AMA? You must have seen

my posts over on the River Cruise forum;)......my TA has sailed on AMA

multiple times and she loves them.....and my sister and bil have also

sailed with them. They loved it too!:)

[ptrpanpens]

Hi Davey:)...how did you know I am sailing AMA? You must have seen

my posts over on the River Cruise forum;)......my TA has sailed on AMA

multiple times and she loves them.....and my sister and bil have also

sailed with them. They loved it too!:)

 

Lois

 

Me too and going down to Paris for 10 days afterward. I may skip optional excursion to Brussels though. Hope you will post how you like the cruise afterward.

 

Anne

[Hlitner]

I am going on my first River Cruise in April:D and will not be cancelling

anything. I am sailing out of Amsterdam with stops around the Netherlands

and Belgium......it is called "Tulip Time":)......can't wait!!!!

 

If you have not already thought about it, you need to get to Amsterdam a least a day or two early so you can spend most of a day visiting Keukenhof Gardens. During Tulip Season this is one of the true wonders of the world.

 

Hank

[Davey Interweb]

Hi Lois! We initially wanted to do the Tulip Time itinerary, but the dates didn’t work for me. No matter, we toured Germany instead - we met some fine people onboard had a great time. I highly recommend the cycling tours!

[anniegb]

Interesting thread and it is influencing our own decision making. Normally, we would look to book a long spring cruise (sometime between March and May) which would most likely involve Europe. But after reading this thread we are thinking that perhaps a lot of folks will cancel or not book cruises. So we shall just wait until the cruise lines hit the panic button and start offering some great last minute deals. We would be fine going to Europe, the Middle East or Asia...although DW now does prefer to avoid North Africa.

 

In the past we have often taken advantage of "travel panic" and booked some tremendous deals for both cruises and just land trips.

 

Hank

 

I hope the tour operators cancel some itineraries rather than some passengers benefiting from heavy discounting. You are hoping to save money at the expense of someone's death??

 

I can't explain why but these statements sadden me.

 

Annie

[Lois R]

If you have not already thought about it, you need to get to Amsterdam a least a day or two early so you can spend most of a day visiting Keukenhof Gardens. During Tulip Season this is one of the true wonders of the world.

 

Hank

 

Hi Hank, I am arriving a day early. The Gardens are actually part of

the cruise:)

[hurwitz5]

Last summer we took a 14 night Viking River cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam. We have also taken 4 other European cruises on traditional cruise lines (Celebrity and Princess). Since there is a travel alert, we will not be booking any cruises in Europe at this time. I have discussed this with friends and neighbors and most of them feel the same way. Wonder how this will affect European cruises on the major cruise lines and River cruises in 2016.

[BosoxI]

What with 30,000 (about) people being shot each year I can assure I am a lot more concerned about a random with a gun suddenly deciding to shoot me! All the police and army are constantly looking for terrorists, so less concerned about them.

 

Say, Kerry, just to set the record straight, in 2013 approximately 32000 gun deaths occurred in the USA, a rather large country with 310 million residents. 11,000 were homicides and 21000 were suicides. Suicides, I repeat. I would bet that most of the homicides were drug and gang related or murders committed by family or friends. I don't understand your fears.

[OCruisers]

Since we don't already have a cruise booked to Europe and no big desire to go back anytime soon, we won't be booking one in the near future.

[Loujul]

I'll let the cruise line worry. If they cancel a cruise because of fear, then I'll abide by their decision. Until then, I refuse to be frightened. Life's too short to miss the world.

[Cruise Raider]

I guess it will all come down to the cruiselines canceling / changing itineraries as the determining factor. Many cruiselines pulled out of Mexico when reports of mass graves and state warnings for US tourists. I heard that Celebrity recently canceled stops in Israel, upsetting many passengers. I am booked on a cruise where Belize was taken off the itinerary due to safety concerns?? ..or so they claimed.

 

 

Anyhow, if cruiselines either have to cancel certain ports of call or change itineraries completely, due to safety concerns, then our travel plans will change. If they have to consistently drop the price to fill their ships (as what happened in Mexico several years ago), they will move the ships elsewhere and no longer offer those itineraries.

[norwegianwood57]

Hank, I think it is coming.

 

Have been told by Celebrity staff when I called about future deployment that they are having record cancellations.

[Fouremco]

On the other hand I always feel a bit scared going to USA. it seems like every week we hear about another shooting in America, whether it's some poor sod who's flipped their lid and gone on a killing spree or a little kid who's gotten hold of a gun and shot their friend/mun/dad/sister/brother. What with 30,000 (about) people being shot each year I can assure I am a lot more concerned about a random with a gun suddenly deciding to shoot me! All the police and army are constantly looking for terrorists, so less concerned about them.

 

Say, Kerry, just to set the record straight, in 2013 approximately 32000 gun deaths occurred in the USA, a rather large country with 310 million residents. 11,000 were homicides and 21000 were suicides. Suicides, I repeat. I would bet that most of the homicides were drug and gang related or murders committed by family or friends. I don't understand your fears.

These stats, particularly the homicides, are far from comforting and just prove Kerry's point IMO. In Canada, there were only 131 firearm-related homicides in 2013. Even taking into consideration the difference in populations, the US rate is significantly higher and understandably gives rise to concern for potential visitors.

[midwestchick]

If X or any cruiseline is going to drop ports or change itineraries, I hope they do it before final payment. Right now I have concerns about French ports and other European ports. I won't jump the gun and cancel yet. I've read all the comments about not canceling due to "them winning" but don't necessarily agree. In the final anology, if we travel and lose our lives, then they have won.

I know all the stats on the homicides in the U.S., but terrorism presents a whole new picture. Their goal is to destroy countries and people's lives. Paris travel/tourism is already down by 30%.

I will not be scared off, but I will also use common sense.

Everyone has to do what they are most comfortable with.

[perditax]

These stats, particularly the homicides, are far from comforting and just prove Kerry's point IMO. In Canada, there were only 131 firearm-related homicides in 2013. Even taking into consideration the difference in populations, the US rate is significantly higher and understandably gives rise to concern for potential visitors.

 

 

Are you sure you're doing statistics and risk assessment correctly? Doing anything remotely like calculating your risk of a stray bullet versus the risk of being in a car accident?

 

I'm not thrilled to be coming down on the side of pro-gun arguments, but these posts implying Americans are just dodging bullets on the way to the grocery store are getting silly.

 

Live in fear if you must, folks, but please at least do the research so you can be sure you're afraid of the right things.

Edited November 25, 2015 by perditax

[angeleyes27]

I agree with midwestchick

[Fouremco]

Are you sure you're doing statistics and risk assessment correctly?

I did neither. I simply pointed out that IMO the stats provided by BosoxI seemed to support Kerry's concerns rather than negate them. I think it's perfectly normal to have concerns, but please note that I made no mention about avoiding travel to the USA.

[Lynnees]

I'm sitting in the basil airport right now waiting for our flight o Amsterdam where will then pick up a flight to Toronto. Our plane here is delayed but that is all that is of concern to me.

[Higgy64]

[say, Kerry, just to set the record straight, in 2013 approximately 32000 gun deaths occurred in the USA, a rather large country with 310 million residents. 11,000 were homicides and 21000 were suicides. Suicides, I repeat. I would bet that most of the homicides were drug and gang related or murders committed by family or friends. I don't understand your fears.

/HTML]

 

Europe has around 745 million residents, so over twice the size of the US. In contrast the last figures I saw showed about 6,700 firearm-related deaths. That's a massive amount less per capita....I don't know how many were suicides or gang-related or any other form of death that "apparently" can be reduced from that figure. Terrorist-related deaths were a very tiny percentage of that total.

 

Maybe this helps to put into context Kerry's concerns ?

[LA_Design]

Understand a little of the fear but some of this is illogical. We didnt stop travelling to america after the awful 9/11 situation, people didnt stop visiting britain after the awful 7/7 situation . why stop visiting europe because of the recent paris tragedy.

 

I am not saying either one was worse than the other. Just that no-one predicted any of them and thankfully none have had repeats.

 

To not travel to Europe because of the Paris terrorist attack is everyone's prerogative. To me that is allowing these lunatics win and also illogical.

 

Wonder what our friends across the ponds would have thought if we had all cancelled trips to Florida after the New York tragedy. It never entered my head when I booked my trip .

[angeleyes27]

I think people are scared because it seems that there is one attack after the other and there are all these beheading videos etc which are terrifying. It seems every week or month there are attacks that they have thwarted. In previous attacks, it seemed to be more isolated incidents. I consider the mass shooters in the US who go into movie theaters or schools terrorists as well. I was supposed to go to an amusement park with a Christmas program here this weekend but they are calling for us to avoid crowds so I am not sure whether to go or not. It is having an impact on what we do here as well, not just whether we go to Europe. Some people I talk to dont want to fly after the Russian airliner.

[sylmack]

Afraid to travel to Europe ?

 

Stop watching the news. Their only goal is to make you afraid so you watch them more.

 

And the government is no different. They make you afraid so you forget about problems here at home and give them carte-blanche to do whatever they want.

 

 

example.... If there was a stabbing in your city, CNN would probably not carry it. Yet a stabbing in Jerusalem (other side of the world) gets continuous coverage. This gives you a distorted image of the world.

 

Europe is safe.

Flying is safe.

Cruising is safe.

[gowilk]

Afraid to travel to Europe ?

 

Stop watching the news. Their only goal is to make you afraid so you watch them more.

 

And the government is no different. They make you afraid so you forget about problems here at home and give them carte-blanche to do whatever they want.

 

 

example.... If there was a stabbing in your city, CNN would probably not carry it. Yet a stabbing in Jerusalem (other side of the world) gets continuous coverage. This gives you a distorted image of the world.

 

Europe is safe.

Flying is safe.

Cruising is safe.

Use common sense....

Syria is Not safe

Mali is not safe

Any country in the middle of a revolution is not safe

But that leaves about 98 percent of the world

Airlines and cruise company are a lot more worried about the publicity of even one casualty than you are and will always error on the side of caution, so if they're you're safer than driving to the grocery store.

[DYKWIA]

Understand a little of the fear but some of this is illogical. We didnt stop travelling to america after the awful 9/11 situation, people didnt stop visiting britain after the awful 7/7 situation . why stop visiting europe because of the recent paris tragedy.

 

I am not saying either one was worse than the other. Just that no-one predicted any of them and thankfully none have had repeats.

 

To not travel to Europe because of the Paris terrorist attack is everyone's prerogative. To me that is allowing these lunatics win and also illogical.

 

Wonder what our friends across the ponds would have thought if we had all cancelled trips to Florida after the New York tragedy. It never entered my head when I booked my trip .

 

I agree totally with this.

 

I travel to London quite regularly for work and this Monday was the first time since the awful incidents in Paris. London was most definitely quieter than I would normally expect - particularly in the run up to Christmas.