I had not even thought of these reasons when we cancelled this summer's cruise

[ontheweb]

We were going to do a Norwegian fjords cruise touring London before the cruise and having our back to the airport excursion include Stonehenge. We saw Norway was closing some of our ports. We wondered if the airlines would still be flying at the times that we had booked that worked out for what we wanted to do. It was enough to say cancel, especially since we had only a small refundable deposit.

 

And then earlier today, I read over in the Northern Europe section of these boards that England was severely limiting travel with tourism not being one of the allowable things plus hotels were closing. I checked the website of the hotel we were booked for (no payment due in advance), and on their website it said they were closed until further notice.

 

I think we made a wise decision.

[clo]

48 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

England

We have a couple of English friends (not London) and they're only allowed to go to the grocery or to "essential" work. Good decision.

[George C]

agree definitely would not do Europe this summer . 

[ontheweb]

9 hours ago, clo said:

We have a couple of English friends (not London) and they're only allowed to go to the grocery or to "essential" work. Good decision.

I can't imagine what it would have been like to get there and find out that our hotel was closed. And we would have found out very quickly as our hotel was the one that is right there in Terminal 5 where British Airways lands.

 

So much for the advice of flying in at least a day early. lol

[clo]

4 hours ago, ontheweb said:

I can't imagine what it would have been like to get there and find out that our hotel was closed. And we would have found out very quickly as our hotel was the one that is right there in Terminal 5 where British Airways lands.

 

So much for the advice of flying in at least a day early. lol

Didn't I read here about a cruise line that canceled the cruise the day before? Imagine if, like we always do, you'd come in day or a week ahead?

[lenquixote66]

16 hours ago, clo said:

We have a couple of English friends (not London) and they're only allowed to go to the grocery or to "essential" work. Good decision.

Not me,but one of my daughters who went to college in the UK has friends who do not go anywhere,not even the grocery.

[clo]

8 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

Not me,but one of my daughters who went to college in the UK has friends who do not go anywhere,not even the grocery.

Our friends live in what appears to be farm country so I doubt that they have delivery available.

[lenquixote66]

5 minutes ago, clo said:

Our friends live in what appears to be farm country so I doubt that they have delivery available.

Prior to the pandemic we never ordered food or anything.Now we are ordering groceries ,medicinal items,etc.

In January a woman at my Parkinson’s support group told me that she buys a herbal product that has helped her greatly.It is not available in the US as it is packaged in Italy.

I ordered a large supply before I heard about the pandemic in Italy.It is helping me and I have no choice.Well,I do have a choice but I choose to take it.

I contacted the manufacturer in March and was told that their entire supply is from the early part of 2019

[ontheweb]

4 hours ago, clo said:

Didn't I read here about a cruise line that canceled the cruise the day before? Imagine if, like we always do, you'd come in day or a week ahead?

And I wonder if we would have been informed that they were closing indefinitely. Our one day stay would have been July 24th. They could have rationalized that maybe they would be open again by then. I do not know when this closure started. I learned of it one these boards at the very end of April; I informed them of our cancellation during the first week in April. I do not know if it had already been implemented or was started somewhere in that 3+ week window.

[ducklite]

9 hours ago, ontheweb said:

I can't imagine what it would have been like to get there and find out that our hotel was closed. And we would have found out very quickly as our hotel was the one that is right there in Terminal 5 where British Airways lands.

 

So much for the advice of flying in at least a day early. lol

The Sofitel is lovely, too bad you wont' have the opportunity to enjoy it.  Hopefully you'll be able to re-book it in the future!

[ontheweb]

2 minutes ago, ducklite said:

The Sofitel is lovely, too bad you wont' have the opportunity to enjoy it.  Hopefully you'll be able to re-book it in the future!

Yes, it would be nice to someday use all the research we did on where to stay before the cruise. DW said she was actually looking forward to the day in London before the cruise more than the cruise itself. We were both looking forward to the excursion back to the airport from Southampton that included Stonehenge.

 

The only other time we cruised from London, the port was Dover. Our back to the airport excursion included Canterbury and was fabulous. It also seemed like we were still on the cruise as we were with fellow passengers some of whom we knew from our roll call.

[jocap]

On 5/1/2020 at 7:20 PM, lenquixote66 said:

Not me,but one of my daughters who went to college in the UK has friends who do not go anywhere,not even the grocery.

The first call from the UK government in March was for over 70s and those with various ailments, to stay indoors, except for necessary shopping/medical needs- which meant us.

As my OH has a couple of medical problems, I went to the shop, but when the following week, everything shut down, we were advised that both of us should stay at home, because of our ages.

The local council has organised voluntary shoppers for us all, including repeat prescriptions,  although most of our shopping is delivered from a big supermarket.

Our last trip out was to lock the 2 churches we look after. 

We are allowed outside for exercise by walking or cycling once a day, and there have been checks by the police.

Nothing is open, apart from essential items, and it probably will stay like this for some time.

 

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, jocap said:

The first call from the UK government in March was for over 70s and those with various ailments, to stay indoors, except for necessary shopping/medical needs- which meant us.

As my OH has a couple of medical problems, I went to the shop, but when the following week, everything shut down, we were advised that both of us should stay at home, because of our ages.

The local council has organised voluntary shoppers for us all, including repeat prescriptions,  although most of our shopping is delivered from a big supermarket.

Our last trip out was to lock the 2 churches we look after. 

We are allowed outside for exercise by walking or cycling once a day, and there have been checks by the police.

Nothing is open, apart from essential items, and it probably will stay like this for some time.

 

Given what you have said, I wonder if our hotel was already closed until further notice when we cancelled in the first week of April. And unless things change before then, it does not sound like we could see anything in London in July or Stonehenge after our cruise.

[clo]

29 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

Given what you have said, I wonder if our hotel was already closed until further notice when we cancelled in the first week of April. And unless things change before then, it does not sound like we could see anything in London in July or Stonehenge after our cruise.

I know why the cruise lines are delaying cancellations - those pesky refunds - but it sure is unfair to their "CUSTOMERS" (quotes and caps deliberate) who have multiple things that are frequently part of their itinerary. I had 16 things to deal with when Norwegian canceled our flights. Gratefully I had enough time.

[navybankerteacher]

On 5/1/2020 at 5:12 PM, ducklite said:

The Sofitel is lovely, too bad you wont' have the opportunity to enjoy it.  Hopefully you'll be able to re-book it in the future!

The Sofitel is a great place to check in after a daytime flight from NY. You grab a supper and go to bed about midnight (GMT) feeling like 7:00 PM US east coast time . Because you were probably up very early to get to JFK for the 8:00 AM flight (and kept yourself awake during the flight) it is easy to get to sleep - and then wake up the next morning adjusted to UK time.  Looking out the window, you were very close to taxi-ing planes, but the windows were so good there were no sounds.

[wowzz]

On 5/1/2020 at 7:29 PM, clo said:

Our friends live in what appears to be farm country so I doubt that they have delivery available.

Not sure what you mean by farm country,  but the major supermarket groups in the UK deliver virtually anywhere,  although at the start of the lock down, it was difficult to get delivery slots. 

[dsrdsrdsr]

On 5/1/2020 at 10:08 PM, ontheweb said:

And I wonder if we would have been informed that they were closing indefinitely. Our one day stay would have been July 24th. They could have rationalized that maybe they would be open again by then. I do not know when this closure started. I learned of it one these boards at the very end of April; I informed them of our cancellation during the first week in April. I do not know if it had already been implemented or was started somewhere in that 3+ week window.

Obviously you would have been informed.  Why on earth would you not have been?  

 

I don't know exactly what the situation is in the USa or any part of it, but I would be very surprised if every hotel has its plans fixed and known for the foreseeable future.  There must be a degree of uncertainty.  It's the same in the UK.

 

But at present, your hotel is closed and does not know when it will reopen.  That is obvious to everyone in the UK and most people in America would at least have an inkling that there might be a doubt - like you did.  So the hotel has not sent out emails to everyone travelling in 3 months' or more time to say they are closed now but expect/hope to be open before July - what would be the point?

Edited May 3, 2020 by dsrdsrdsr

[navybankerteacher]

Exactly —- unless the hotel in question would be sending daily emails to all booked future guests with updates.

15 minutes ago, dsrdsrdsr said:

...

 

...So the hotel has not sent out emails to everyone travelling in 3 months' or more time to say they are closed now but expect/hope to be open before July - what would be the point?

 

[jocap]

18 hours ago, ontheweb said:

Given what you have said, I wonder if our hotel was already closed until further notice when we cancelled in the first week of April. And unless things change before then, it does not sound like we could see anything in London in July or Stonehenge after our cruise.

Lock down for 70+ and underlying conditions started the weekend of March 14th; lockdown for everyone was a week later. So, yes, the hotel would have closed on Saturday 21st.

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, jocap said:

Lock down for 70+ and underlying conditions started the weekend of March 14th; lockdown for everyone was a week later. So, yes, the hotel would have closed on Saturday 21st.

So it would have been closed well before we cancelled (even if they did not know I was 70+, but DW was under 70). 

 

How close to our July date, do you think they would have informed me?

[wowzz]

24 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

So it would have been closed well before we cancelled (even if they did not know I was 70+, but DW was under 70). 

 

How close to our July date, do you think they would have informed me?

Probably 7 days in advance.

[ontheweb]

3 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Probably 7 days in advance.

Really inadequate notice for cancelling the cruise and the flights. And I imagine that basically all the hotels would be closed.

 

Assuming the flight and cruise were still happening, I guess we would have just had to camp out at the airport until our transfer the next day. And everyone says to fly in at least a day early!

[ducklite]

17 hours ago, wowzz said:

Probably 7 days in advance.

That is inadequate for people flying in from overseas.  Unacceptable, really.  

[Roger88]

On 5/1/2020 at 4:28 AM, ontheweb said:

We were going to do a Norwegian fjords cruise touring London before the cruise and having our back to the airport excursion include Stonehenge. We saw Norway was closing some of our ports. We wondered if the airlines would still be flying at the times that we had booked that worked out for what we wanted to do. It was enough to say cancel, especially since we had only a small refundable deposit.

 

And then earlier today, I read over in the Northern Europe section of these boards that England was severely limiting travel with tourism not being one of the allowable things plus hotels were closing. I checked the website of the hotel we were booked for (no payment due in advance), and on their website it said they were closed until further notice.

 

I think we made a wise decision.

I would add to this saying that you made a VERY wise decision. Its not worth risking right now and its good that you didnt pay in advance. You will not have to go through all those horrible refund periods, talking to agents and company managers and etc. I am glad that you are at home and safe. Take care my friend 

[SRF]

On 5/1/2020 at 12:10 PM, clo said:

Didn't I read here about a cruise line that canceled the cruise the day before? Imagine if, like we always do, you'd come in day or a week ahead?

 

The one I remember is that they changed and would not allow anyone who transited Hong Kong to board.  While people were in the air to the cruise when the policy change occured