Egypt Meets Thread

[Magnum_PI]

Uhh... anyone still planning on going this fall? lol

Our PIF is about two months away (edit: they extended the PIF extensions to trips departing through Sept 30th 2020). I'm feeling nervous about it though, and keep going back and forth between "going would be foolish" and "maybe it'll be fine". How are you guys with Sept-Oct trips feeling?

 

[couture1]

Our June 2 EGYPT adventure was just cancelled and they offered a full refund or credit toward a future trip.

 

[xiphoid76]

We are planning on October 20th still. If it gets canceled by ABD and if possible, we will take the itinerary and do it on our own with local guides. It will be significantly cheaper, and not Disney-esque, but to get so much time off from work again will be near impossible for me Hopefully things will be quiet enough to travel by October...

 

[CaliKris]

Uhh... anyone still planning on going this fall? lol

Our PIF is about two months away (edit: they extended the PIF extensions to trips departing through Sept 30th 2020). I'm feeling nervous about it though, and keep going back and forth between "going would be foolish" and "maybe it'll be fine". How are you guys with Sept-Oct trips feeling?

We are still on your ABD trip 9/15 to Egypt! I am not sure why it dropped off the ABD website, but I am not too concerned. I have seen similar glitches with ABD's site that eventually get corrected. We never ended up booking our flights, but if/when we do it will be through ABD. At this point, we are trying to be optimistic but believe we will have a better handle on the situation by mid-June when we will make our final decision regarding PIF.

 

[Magnum_PI]

We are still on your ABD trip 9/15 to Egypt! I am not sure why it dropped off the ABD website, but I am not too concerned. I have seen similar glitches with ABD's site that eventually get corrected. We never ended up booking our flights, but if/when we do it will be through ABD. At this point, we are trying to be optimistic but believe we will have a better handle on the situation by mid-June when we will make our final decision regarding PIF.

Oh hey there, nice to hear you're still on! We're trying to put off decisions to the last minute to see how the situation changes. We did book our flights back in Feb, but we booked through ABD so at least there's that. My waffling is coming from (1) me being on immunosuppressant meds for an autoimmune thing I have and (2) concern that many things may not be open in Sept if Egypt is also still struggling with the pandemic and/or its aftermath.

But like you, we're trying to stay optimistic and put off deciding anything until it actually needs to be decided.

When I look back at my behavior in February, I actually laugh because knowing what I know now I don't think I'd have done any of the travel I did. Mid Feb, went to the UK for work for a few days flying in/out through JFK where they had all the flights from Wuhan filtered in through! Had an imaging study done at a hospital here in NYC shortly after, took amtrak to philly for a day trip right near the end of Feb out of Penn Staion... Surely I touched SOMETHING I shouldn't have, already had an asymptomatic infection, and I'm all set now, right? (lol, jk - my wishful thinking!)

 

[Grifdog22]

We are planning on October 20th still. If it gets canceled by ABD and if possible, we will take the itinerary and do it on our own with local guides. It will be significantly cheaper, and not Disney-esque, but to get so much time off from work again will be near impossible for me Hopefully things will be quiet enough to travel by October...

We are also on this trip. We hope the world is safer by that time and this trip is a go - but we won't go without the Disney backup if it is cancelled. The flight schedules were not very nice for coming or going either. We booked an extra day with Marriott points to crash and recover from travel, and had planned to go to Alexandria, but now will probably do nothing on our own.

 

[CaliKris]

Oh hey there, nice to hear you're still on! We're trying to put off decisions to the last minute to see how the situation changes. We did book our flights back in Feb, but we booked through ABD so at least there's that. My waffling is coming from (1) me being on immunosuppressant meds for an autoimmune thing I have and (2) concern that many things may not be open in Sept if Egypt is also still struggling with the pandemic and/or its aftermath.

But like you, we're trying to stay optimistic and put off deciding anything until it actually needs to be decided.

When I look back at my behavior in February, I actually laugh because knowing what I know now I don't think I'd have done any of the travel I did. Mid Feb, went to the UK for work for a few days flying in/out through JFK where they had all the flights from Wuhan filtered in through! Had an imaging study done at a hospital here in NYC shortly after, took amtrak to philly for a day trip right near the end of Feb out of Penn Staion... Surely I touched SOMETHING I shouldn't have, already had an asymptomatic infection, and I'm all set now, right? (lol, jk - my wishful thinking!)

No kidding! We were at WDW late February. I feel like that is the germ capital of the US! I am hoping by September that COVID will have slowed way down. As it is, Egypt's number of COVID cases is still quite low; however, we are more concerned about getting on an airplane. You certainly have more to be concerned about with having an autoimmune disorder. I am trying to convince my husband that we need to fly Business class because it will give us some distance from other passengers. I am hoping we are able to receive antibody tests by then. A study done by Stanford University of 3,300 people from Santa Clara County (where we live) found many people tested positive for the antibody that didn't realize they were ever sick.

 

[xiphoid76]

I am still hopeful for Egypt trips taking off later this year...maybe July? More hopeful about September, October...The hardest part looks like getting there and getting home. The country itself is reopening up slowly. Airport still not taking international flights I think but domestic starting up May 16th from Egypt Air.

 

[lovetotravel]

The thing that worries me about this trip is the cruise portion. I wish ABD can do a private cruise.
All the July trips are still available for booking so maybe people have rescheduled their trips. But then they can run the trips half capacity and let everyone on the trip have room to spread out?

 

[Magnum_PI]

It's tough to say with so much unknown right now. I don't know about you guys, but I'm not exactly amped up about paying in full while the State Department still has a "Do Not Travel Abroad" Level 4 warning active. Still playing it by ear, I guess!

 

[lovetotravel]

It's tough to say with so much unknown right now. I don't know about you guys, but I'm not exactly amped up about paying in full while the State Department still has a "Do Not Travel Abroad" Level 4 warning active. Still playing it by ear, I guess!

Thanks for the reminder about checking travel bans. I had come across the SARS response timeline. While I understand that we are dealing with a different virus, it's interesting to see that it was not until July when the travel bans were lifted. I cannot see that travel will resume until warnings are lifted from CDC and State Dept.

https://www.cdc.gov/about/history/sars/timeline.htm

 

[Woodview]

It will be at least September or even November 2020 before International Travel gets going

We here in Ireland are advised NOT to Travel outside the country till 2021.

Most of European Borders will Not open till September

Europe is NOT LIKE the USA ............ ( where you can travel into every State without real Border

Check Points )

 

[Mickeyhuk]

We are booked for September 22nd. I am not comfortable with the thought of foreign travel at this moment. I hope ABD cancels the trip so we can reschedule for next year. As of now, our travel agent said we cannot change dates without penalty.

 

[neurosx1983]

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Egypt the one ABD that never actually happened? Even back in 2010 or whenever they tried to do it last?

 

[AddictedtoTravel]

We were booked the first year it was offered. I believe one trip went before they canceled the rest. Ours was canceled.

 

[kerry annette]

We were booked the first year it was offered. I believe one trip went before they canceled the rest. Ours was canceled.

Yes! A gentleman on our Peru ABD was on the one Egypt trip that went. Sounded like an amazing adventure. They had Chris Brown as one of their guides too. Love that guy!

 

[sayhello]

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Egypt the one ABD that never actually happened? Even back in 2010 or whenever they tried to do it last?

The Walt Disney World ABD never happened, either, I believe.

Sayhello

 

[neurosx1983]

Yes! A gentleman on our Peru ABD was on the one Egypt trip that went. Sounded like an amazing adventure. They had Chris Brown as one of their guides too. Love that guy!

Chris seems like the perfect guide for a place like Egypt!

 

[CaliKris]

It's tough to say with so much unknown right now. I don't know about you guys, but I'm not exactly amped up about paying in full while the State Department still has a "Do Not Travel Abroad" Level 4 warning active. Still playing it by ear, I guess!

Still not sure if our trip will be a go, but I did notice on the ABD website that we are now the inaugural Egypt ABD starting Sept 15. Ha, ha! They cancelled the July dates and I am not sure if there were August ones. In any case, they no longer appear on the website. We went ahead and booked our air through ABD assuming we will get full refunds should the trip be cancelled. At this point, even if the trip is a go regarding COVID-19, there may not be enough people on it for it to be a go due to cancellations. Right now any foreign travelers who arrive in Egypt must self-quarantine for 28 days! We are still hanging in there but are really not sure if this trip will happen. How about you? Paid in full date is coming up in June!

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Still not sure if our trip will be a go, but I did notice on the ABD website that we are now the inaugural Egypt ABD starting Sept 15. Ha, ha! They cancelled the July dates and I am not sure if there were August ones. In any case, they no longer appear on the website. We went ahead and booked our air through ABD assuming we will get full refunds should the trip be cancelled. At this point, even if the trip is a go regarding COVID-19, there may not be enough people on it for it to be a go due to cancellations. Right now any foreign travelers who arrive in Egypt must self-quarantine for 28 days! We are still hanging in there but are really not sure if this trip will happen. How about you? Paid in full date is coming up in June!

We are booked on the October Egypt ABD. I wasn't aware of the 28 day quarantine upon entering the country. Yikes. We don't want to travel until there is a vaccine, so at this point I'm hoping for a cancellation. Is the PIF still 120 days out? Or did they move it to 90 days? I am soon to be faced with the decision: PIF and hope for cancellation (and possibly lose the $$ if they decide to go) or move the deposit to another trip next year. Not keen on having any kind of non-refundable travel booked for next year, so leaning towards PIF, but would not be happy if forced to travel or lose our money. Decisions, decisions. I can talk myself out of either decision .