Planning and organizing vacations is as much fun as taking the vacation. Or so I thought until the planned vacations never materialized.
We cancelled our New York trip and New England / Canada cruise that was scheduled for August 2020. We turned that trip into a snazzy patio couch and seats plus a twenty-two foot awning which makes being on the deck manageable. I really love our western facing backyard, but when it's warm outside the deck was unbearable. The awning has basically created an entire new living space for us during the warm weather months. The vacation would have been great, but the redirection of those funds will have a longer lasting impact.
We also had a Disney Cruise on the books for March of 2020. This was a seven night Mexican Riviera cruise. Sounds fancy right? Well, the ports were Mazatlán, Puerto Vallarta and Cabo. I was feeling a bit "meh" about this one. I was excited about going with friends and how much fun Lucy would have on a cruise with a buddy; she was so great on the old person Panama Canal trip. As COVID-19 started to amp up in the news, and cruise ships started to be the focus we began to re-think our plans.
February 5, 2020
Diamond Princess became the epicenter of the virus impact on the cruise industry in February 2020 (Photo via Princess)
- Diamond Princess is quarantined off the coast of Japan after multiple reports of respiratory illnesses onboard. By February 13, there would be 218 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus onboard. By February 18, the number of confirmed cases would soar to 542.
We called and called and called Costco travel to rebook into a different cruise a year later, and that took a long time to complete. The Costco Travel people worked incredibly hard during that time to help, basically every person in their programs. We finally landed on a future cruise out of Miami in April of 2021. I mean, the virus had to be under control by then right?
This change was a shorter cruise, but with a more appealing itinerary (to me anyway) and we were still meeting our travel friends on the ship. We also took note that multiple ships had to deny passengers from leaving, and passengers were sequestered into their cabins for the majority of that time. The idea of being in an inside cabin during a moment like that was not at all a risk I would be willing to take. If we ended up having to spend extra days on the ship at least we would have fresh air. Therefore while our trip shortened by two nights, we did select a room with a verandah. My expectations are not that we would be able to soak in the sun on our luxurious balcony, but we would have a window to open and an extra 80 square feet or so. This did increase our trip budget by $2,000 it was worth it.
We tried for a brief moment to book a March 2020 trip to San Diego to enjoy that planned vacation time in a sunny place, but even that was cancelled after the national quarantine was announced. Our original March 2020 cruise was eventually cancelled by Disney, and they offered every guest a premium for rebooking. We had already done so, but for some crazy customer focused logic they extended the credit to us as well. Thank you Mr. Disney.
Summer rolled around like it always does and we spent a week in Seabrook which was really fun, and then at the end of August, the in-laws came for a week. The back yard inflatable pool isn't as awesome as the Caribbean ocean, but it will do.
In December, during a fit of boredom I took a look online at future Disney cruise itineraries. I found our current itinerary but in April of 2022 and saw that for about $200 (LESS) we could book into our same cabin but in the concierge class. The perks aren't as fancy as a private butler and special restaurants like on the cancelled NY/Canada cruise, but it was less money! After a frantic conference with the travel companions we are now booked on a ship in April of 2022.
We are still moving air fare credits around and I am hopeful that we will get to use them some day.
The proactive move to change the Disney cruise proved to be a good one, as the April 2021 cruise has just been cancelled by Disney.
Looking at the cost of the trip we're now booked on the amount of rooms available are considerably less and the cost of the concierge class has jumped by $2000. Lucky us.
We have a replacement spring break trip planned to a resort in Palm Springs. We're hopeful that even with COVID still being an issue that we can go, hang by a pool and get warm.
Fingers crossed.
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