Grifdog22
Barking Mad!
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2008
Soooo
I almost hate to restart this thread....but...we were booked on the Egypt trip to depart last year, having been one of those lucky ones that got in first for the cattle call and got our pick of dates and the lowest rate when the trip was first released. We were also booked on the inaugural trip for Rhone River. Both were cancelled. Our Rhone trip was rescheduled and cancelled by ABD two more times. We then tried AMA and it was cancelled. After the Egypt trip was cancelled, we moved the reservation to Poland/Prague/Austria for late September 2021. That's not going now...but the exact same date of the now cancelled Poland trip is available for Egypt.
We are debating moving it to Egypt. The vacationista tells me they have 33 confirmed/paid people for the September 21 trip and it is still a go, and she said it was a likely go as well. She did caution me with all the disclaimers about health and conditions can change at any time, and was clear that no promises or guarantees are made. She also told us that as of right now there are no changes to the itinerary due to the pandemic, closures, etc so we would experience the trip as posted except a bit more with the movement in Cairo of some artifacts the names of the locations to see them may change.
We haven't made a choice - and if we go it probably will follow the Egyption curse and with us on the trip cancellation would happen.
Our trip insurance for Egypt was vouchered and is still good....
We will make a decision soon, and we alone are stuck with the consequences. I have learned a lot from these boards over the years, good and bad. All people are different and have different views on many things. I have followed some advice on the boards that literally saved my ***, and followed some that was not a good outcome, but I always appreciate the diversity of thoughts and experiences. Thus, my friends and compatriots, I ask for some input from these boards on a couple of points:
1. When we booked Egypt the first time (and our reservation number for these other trips is still that original reservation number) we were at the early booking discount lowest rate. Obviously that's not in place now. They've had my money as paid in full for 16 months....although it is LESS than what we paid for Egypt as we received a partial refund when the less expensive Poland trip was booked. Even at the original rate, it's still $3g pp more...should or would ABD honor that rate if we moved to this date. We are longtime loyalists and think they should. This may be a deciding factor for us on many levels with ABD. Otherwise, we are looking at an additional $11g which is really hard to justify as we are not the uber wealthy. (Nothing against those that have money - but I can only eat so much peanut butter for lunch). We will make the economic decision on the economic calculation of is it worth it to us. If they give us the proper rate, we are 99 44/100s going to go. If not, we are presently hovering at below 40% on taking the trip.
2. Over the last, geez, 15 years, we have seen a lot of good trips and only a couple of trips we thought were truly great and knocked our socks off. Here I am referring to the posted trip, not what actually took place. The 2017 Australia trip was one of those, and we went, and they promptly changed it after we returned. Still my favorite trip ever ever ever. Today we wouldn't book the current Australia if the price were cut 80% - but that's us. (Yes, we are the ones in the trip report that went OYO tandem skydiving onto the Gold Coast Beach when ABD took us there). Different people like different things. We felt the same way about the original Scotland trip, but we didn't get there in time and now it just doesn't have the magic appeal. The Rhone River trip hit us the same way as the Australia trip - and it's gone away, slipped downstream likely to never be seen again. We did try 4 times to take that trip. We are on the New Zealand trip 10/31/2022 before they change it too. We really like the Egypt trip as currently envisioned. My concern is that this one in a similar manner may change after its been run. But sometimes change has been positive - as reported in Iceland and Norway. But this trip really has a good plan.
2. With many less people there we will not have the crowds. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? We will stand out more as tourists, yet we may encounter much less of the chaos. Or is that chaos part of what makes Egypt special?
3. Any comments or concerns on Turkish Air? We usually fly Lufthansa and they are available but the schedule is tough. Emirates has some great prices, but the layovers are really really long. Air is also a factor on our decision to go or not.
4. We are not concerned about the safety aspects of the mid-east. It is what it is. (I still just cannot fathom being on the Sinai peninsula and not climbing Mt. Sinai but after countless debate years back the risk/reward calculation pointed unequivocally toward DO NOT DO THIS). We are vaccinated as are our families. We are weighing concerns about end of this year second wave of the pandemic/new variants appearing that are not covered by the current vaccine, etc. This puts us slightly more inclined to travel now, before things again fall apart, which we realistically understand could include us getting wiped next. We don't want to die at our desk at work waiting for things to clear. But we also don't want to do something incredibly stupid. Our trust in the ABD brand is honestly a bit tarnished after the last 18 months on their honesty, their handling of ABDers arriving in Australia and then cancelling the trip, handling of the trip processes, etc. So we think while there is comfort that ABD is not likely to now deliberately put us in harms way on a trip that should not go, we are less sure about that right now. On the other hand, this may be as good as it gets.
5. The USA. Not going down the political path, but for us the last four years was as bad as I can ever imagine. I still see what to me is shallow selfish intolerance reigning in the USA and in a couple of years it may be worse and may come back. I would not feel safe doing anything in those conditions. We feel like we have aged 12 years in the last 4, and as such we may be reaching the end of our adventure tolerance. Or maybe it's already here. I see a nation that has changed, in some ways good and some ways very bad.
Please share with me your thoughts on any or all of these points. Thanks for taking the time, and for being generous with your willingness to weigh in, good, bad ugly or indifferent - we gather it all to ponder to reach our next steps. Thank you.
I almost hate to restart this thread....but...we were booked on the Egypt trip to depart last year, having been one of those lucky ones that got in first for the cattle call and got our pick of dates and the lowest rate when the trip was first released. We were also booked on the inaugural trip for Rhone River. Both were cancelled. Our Rhone trip was rescheduled and cancelled by ABD two more times. We then tried AMA and it was cancelled. After the Egypt trip was cancelled, we moved the reservation to Poland/Prague/Austria for late September 2021. That's not going now...but the exact same date of the now cancelled Poland trip is available for Egypt.
We are debating moving it to Egypt. The vacationista tells me they have 33 confirmed/paid people for the September 21 trip and it is still a go, and she said it was a likely go as well. She did caution me with all the disclaimers about health and conditions can change at any time, and was clear that no promises or guarantees are made. She also told us that as of right now there are no changes to the itinerary due to the pandemic, closures, etc so we would experience the trip as posted except a bit more with the movement in Cairo of some artifacts the names of the locations to see them may change.
We haven't made a choice - and if we go it probably will follow the Egyption curse and with us on the trip cancellation would happen.
Our trip insurance for Egypt was vouchered and is still good....
We will make a decision soon, and we alone are stuck with the consequences. I have learned a lot from these boards over the years, good and bad. All people are different and have different views on many things. I have followed some advice on the boards that literally saved my ***, and followed some that was not a good outcome, but I always appreciate the diversity of thoughts and experiences. Thus, my friends and compatriots, I ask for some input from these boards on a couple of points:
1. When we booked Egypt the first time (and our reservation number for these other trips is still that original reservation number) we were at the early booking discount lowest rate. Obviously that's not in place now. They've had my money as paid in full for 16 months....although it is LESS than what we paid for Egypt as we received a partial refund when the less expensive Poland trip was booked. Even at the original rate, it's still $3g pp more...should or would ABD honor that rate if we moved to this date. We are longtime loyalists and think they should. This may be a deciding factor for us on many levels with ABD. Otherwise, we are looking at an additional $11g which is really hard to justify as we are not the uber wealthy. (Nothing against those that have money - but I can only eat so much peanut butter for lunch). We will make the economic decision on the economic calculation of is it worth it to us. If they give us the proper rate, we are 99 44/100s going to go. If not, we are presently hovering at below 40% on taking the trip.
2. Over the last, geez, 15 years, we have seen a lot of good trips and only a couple of trips we thought were truly great and knocked our socks off. Here I am referring to the posted trip, not what actually took place. The 2017 Australia trip was one of those, and we went, and they promptly changed it after we returned. Still my favorite trip ever ever ever. Today we wouldn't book the current Australia if the price were cut 80% - but that's us. (Yes, we are the ones in the trip report that went OYO tandem skydiving onto the Gold Coast Beach when ABD took us there). Different people like different things. We felt the same way about the original Scotland trip, but we didn't get there in time and now it just doesn't have the magic appeal. The Rhone River trip hit us the same way as the Australia trip - and it's gone away, slipped downstream likely to never be seen again. We did try 4 times to take that trip. We are on the New Zealand trip 10/31/2022 before they change it too. We really like the Egypt trip as currently envisioned. My concern is that this one in a similar manner may change after its been run. But sometimes change has been positive - as reported in Iceland and Norway. But this trip really has a good plan.
2. With many less people there we will not have the crowds. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? We will stand out more as tourists, yet we may encounter much less of the chaos. Or is that chaos part of what makes Egypt special?
3. Any comments or concerns on Turkish Air? We usually fly Lufthansa and they are available but the schedule is tough. Emirates has some great prices, but the layovers are really really long. Air is also a factor on our decision to go or not.
4. We are not concerned about the safety aspects of the mid-east. It is what it is. (I still just cannot fathom being on the Sinai peninsula and not climbing Mt. Sinai but after countless debate years back the risk/reward calculation pointed unequivocally toward DO NOT DO THIS). We are vaccinated as are our families. We are weighing concerns about end of this year second wave of the pandemic/new variants appearing that are not covered by the current vaccine, etc. This puts us slightly more inclined to travel now, before things again fall apart, which we realistically understand could include us getting wiped next. We don't want to die at our desk at work waiting for things to clear. But we also don't want to do something incredibly stupid. Our trust in the ABD brand is honestly a bit tarnished after the last 18 months on their honesty, their handling of ABDers arriving in Australia and then cancelling the trip, handling of the trip processes, etc. So we think while there is comfort that ABD is not likely to now deliberately put us in harms way on a trip that should not go, we are less sure about that right now. On the other hand, this may be as good as it gets.
5. The USA. Not going down the political path, but for us the last four years was as bad as I can ever imagine. I still see what to me is shallow selfish intolerance reigning in the USA and in a couple of years it may be worse and may come back. I would not feel safe doing anything in those conditions. We feel like we have aged 12 years in the last 4, and as such we may be reaching the end of our adventure tolerance. Or maybe it's already here. I see a nation that has changed, in some ways good and some ways very bad.
Please share with me your thoughts on any or all of these points. Thanks for taking the time, and for being generous with your willingness to weigh in, good, bad ugly or indifferent - we gather it all to ponder to reach our next steps. Thank you.
