peteukmcr

1 hour ago, Presto2 said:

Well we aren't too far from you tonight then over here in Llanddulas. We can see the bay from here so we are waving to you. I am beginning to think you are stalking us though 🤔 😉  and would you believe that there is a heron!!!!!!!!

We’re here primarily to visit my parents in Abergele as my mum has had an eye operation today. Just a reflective time, 12 months ago to the date we were on our favourite “C” a cruise ship in Bar Harbor, Maine, USA and now we’re in what we are getting to be known for, another “C” caravan!
 

11 hours ago, wowzz said:

Discussed at length on the cruise cancellation thread.

Oh sorry for posting on here, I don’t have the time nor inclination to review every thread due to working and your curt response is not welcomed, but ok I’ll not post news again about P&O which I thought might be interesting to those that don’t have the time to read like me, all the threads on cc. 

4 hours ago, Presto2 said:

 

We're off to our caravan in North Wales tomorrow too - it is just heavenly there. Best decision we have made in a long time.

Still can't believe it is ours though yet! 

 

Where are you off to?

Kinmel Bay

I see P&O have now cancelled all Caribbean sailings up to end Jan 2021 and all sailings from/to Southampton up to end Feb 2021

Just now, Harry Peterson said:

Anyone remember BBC’s Triangle, set on a North Sea ferry?

 

https://youtu.be/AZ7iaEXJjc4

Oh I do!

What a roller coaster the last couple of weeks have been. Things are busier at work, but tinged with sadness at the loss of so many colleagues and friends due to redundancy. 
 

The loss of a lifelong friend due to cancer, thankfully he didn’t suffer too long, but now the trauma of a funeral with all the limitations now in place due to Covid-19. 
 

Continued local lockdown meaning we still haven’t been able to see any friends for now 6 months, and this is starting to bother me more than I realised. 
 

The cancellation of yet another holiday (thankfully before we made final payment) means nothing to look forward to, which is what we enjoy, the planning and research of places new. 
 

On a lighter note, people are referring to us a couple who have traded 1 “C” for another. Cruise to Caravan! 
 

Talking of caravans, we’re off to North Wales again tomorrow for our 3rd caravan stay of the year (a perfect swap for the 3 cruises we should have taken 😃) so that I can visit my parents (have to take into consideration the different rules in place there) and make sure mum is ok after her scheduled eye operation tomorrow. 

13 hours ago, ohnonotmeagain said:

This is my baby in better times,unfortunately we has to have him PTS on Monday afternoon. He was 15 and not the best of health for the last couple of months.The time was right.

 

I'm usually quite an upbeat type of person but today I  feel  really low and weepy. He was part of the family and losing them  is really  sad.  Sorry to be a Debbie Downer. 

Sincere condolences for the loss of your faithful companion 

11 hours ago, SarahHben said:

I've just re-watched Line of Duty Series 1, about to start series 2 😊

Binge watched all series, amazing what clicks into place in your memory when watching episode after episode. 

13 hours ago, Adawn47 said:

Renewed our passports at Max Speilmann's Monday afternoon. I recieved an email this afternoon that they have been printed and were dispatched today. It's only taken 3 days. Now we just need to be able to use them😁

Avril

That sounds promising for a friend who sent hers to be renewed earlier this week

7 hours ago, lancashire_cruisers said:

 

Pete do you mind me asking whereabouts in Northumberland your lodge was. We've got some time off coming up soon and we're looking for somewhere to go for a few days.

 

We've been looking at Northumberland, Abersoch, and the Lakes.

We stayed at Haggerston Castle which is a fantastic Haven park. We privately rented the lodge which was in what is known a the ‘Golf Retreat’ but there are numerous great locations with lodges around a massive lake too. It’s very easy to find on the A1, I’d say around 6 miles south of Berwick-upon-Tweed and so convenient for touring the area for places such as Holy Island and Lindisfarne, Bamburgh and Alnwick. 

10 hours ago, mrsgoggins said:

 

They are lovely caravan/lodges.  Do you use one company in particular?  We own a (very nice) touring caravan but I have never been a fan and I am always happy when other family members use it; I think I did 5 nights in it last year!  I am fussy about beds though, and a 4'6" one would not do and that's what I remember from my one night in one of those mobile homes many years ago.  How were the beds?  If they were good, I could be tempted.

The first had 3 bedrooms with a double in the master bedroom (which had an ensuite) and 2 twin bedded rooms. The lodge had a king in the master (again with ensuite with full bath) and 1 other bedroom with full size twin beds and basically en-suite as it had a door into the main shower room. Our upcoming also has a king bed in the master with en-suite shower room and 2 further twin bedded rooms with another main shower room. I used a couple of websites to book independently, easy to find using google. 

I’ve been reading a lot about caravans/lodges and we’re now known as the people who have swapped one ‘C’ for another ‘C’ - Cruise ship for Caravan!
 

We rented the following for the first weekend we could travel to Wales in July in order to visit my elderly parents and so we didn’t put them at risk by staying with them. This was £120 per night

Then our recent trip to Northumberland we rented this lodge for £100 per night. 
 

For our next visit to Wales (18th Sept) is another large lodge at £116 per night. 

Well another holiday hits the dust, Jet2holidays just cancelled a break we had booked for October. Oh well, just have to look back at the superb sights of Northumberland from the other week and perhaps we will end up stalking celebs in Abergele 😀

How are things around here? Well 512 of my colleagues will be leaving at the end of the month. These are those who elected for voluntary redundancy, but that doesn’t give the company the 30% reduction equating to 650 jobs they wanted, so the mandatory redundancy process starts tomorrow. 
 

The travel business is in tatters, several of my friends who worked elsewhere also were notified that they are to be made redundant today. This is before the furlough scheme ends, but of course as of 1st September the government is only supporting the wage bills to the amount of 70%. Next month only 60%, so most employers want this sorted before they have to pay more. 
 

A dear friend has been diagnosed with liver and pancreatic cancer and has been moved into a hospice, but as we are in lock down, I can’t visit.

My father had a fall and ended up in A&E and appears to have been very lucky. 
 

What’s the positive in this post, well my parents may come across Ant and Dec as ‘I’m a Celebrity Get me out of here’ is being held in Gwrych Castle, Abergele, literally around the corner from them. Not sure this is a positive, but it is amusing. 

2 hours ago, Purdey16 said:

 

Thank you everyone for your well wishes  for tomorrow’s op , I also couldn’t get cc working this afternoon and thought I’d done something wrong , glad it’s up and running now as  I will be taking my iPad in hospital with me so I can keep a eye on you guys 😉 just had my last meal for a few days probably ,as having part of my stomach put back in its place and wrapped in a jacket so the doctors say , supposed to be keyhole but could revert to open surgery and depending if I can swallow afterwards I might get home same day 

 

Eddie your new little pup is gorgeous 

Avril I’m going to make your pineapple tart when I’m back up and running sounds fantastic 

All the best for tomorrow 

On 8/29/2020 at 6:47 PM, AndyMichelle said:

Glad you have some positives Pete. 

How is your partners health? Hope you are both keeping safe and well. 

Andy 

He’s doing well thank you, still taking the drugs 😀

In reply to the thread question, here’s a summary of what things are like in Manchester. 

• Still subject to local lockdown due to a rise in covid cases (since end July)
• Disregard of lockdown restrictions in some areas by those in vulnerable groups
• Adherence to the requirement to wear face coverings in shops and on trams patchy
• ‘Eat out to help out’ scheme has meant Mon-Weds is the new ‘weekend’ 
• Ban on outdoor drinking over the Bank Holiday Weekend in public places
• Manchester Pride festival cancelled
• Awaiting the announcement of the 30% reduction in staff numbers (650) next week

On a positive note

• Bookings for Business Travel Improving (albeit very slowly)
• 3 more colleagues being brought back from furlough due to increase in business
• Discussions taking place on the reopening of the office
• Assisted in returning another 210 people to Saudi Arabia (1st wave done in June)
• As a result of the above, received 2nd negative COVID test result
• New  conservatory finally complete, just need the easing of lockdown so we can entertain again!
• Spent a great 5 days in Northumberland on a ‘staycation’
• Watching ‘Manctopia’ on BBC 2 which shows the highs and lows of the development of my home city. 

Not been around for awhile due to the pressure of work, but would like to give a bit of an update on other refunds in comparison with P&O. A major cruise TA refunded us our part payment within 3 weeks (we were not going to pay final payment as I suspected the cruise would be cancelled, which it subsequently was) our ‘cruise next’ deposits were reinstated in full and are still valid for another 3 years. British Airways cancelled one of our flights we booked for this cruise and so a non-refundable fare become refundable! Called on Monday to request full refund, credited to card today, 3 working days is pretty good I reckon. 
 

So with the refund from P&O, the money we didn’t spend on a Royal Caribbean cruise in June (moved before it was cancelled for no fee) and the latest NCL cancelled cruise, I’m sitting in our new conservatory considering my future. 
 

Not only am I working for 80% pay whilst my colleagues are receiving 80% on furlough, I’m in a small team where there is a maximum of 8 of us working at any one time, looking after around 180 corporate clients, instead of the 8 I used to!
 

Admittedly not all of them are travelling, but those that are mean we have extremely busy days. However, to confirm the message that the whole of the travel industry is in turmoil, it’s not restricted to leisure travel, we in business travel are suffering too. Before the furlough scheme ends, our business must lose 30% of the staff, 2 offices have closed during the pandemic and another 3 will be closing very soon. If the voluntary scheme doesn’t achieve the numbers, mandatory redundancy will follow. 

2 hours ago, majortom10 said:

It isnt rocket science to assume that many TA's and other companies throughout the UK will be making many redundancies in the near future.

Having now gone back to work from furlough (basically swapped with someone else) I can now see even more clearly the strain on Travel Agents. I will not condone P&O's shambolic handling of the refund process though, as our team is reduced in staff due to furloughing, but they are still processing them in a methodical order, unlike P&O which appears to be totally random. However, we are then dependant on the speed that the supplier will move.

However, from a travel agents perspective, the stumbling blocks we come across when trying to contact airlines, hotels, car rental companies, Eurostar etc are in some cases huge.

Some scheduled airlines despite being covered by UK law as they depart or travel to the UK are flatly refusing to provide refunds. Each one has their own different process which is mind blowing.

Several airlines are nigh on impossible to contact even via  'dedicated' agents lines. Emails are not answered in a timely fashion.

1 major car rental company has basically closed all telephone lines used by travel agents and despite all the voice recognition software, eventually tell you to book online. However, due to the number of our clients that have specific contracts in place offering discounts and 'billback' processes that cannot be entered online means they are losing much of our business because car rental is on the increase due to the reluctance to travel on public transport.

Even hotels, if they are open, are only taking bookings for key workers and they themselves have reduced staff (yesterday I spoke to a lady who is normal the financial director for a chain, but is back on reception to help out!).

The latest survey implies that nearly 4 out of every 10 of us in the travel trade are considering a change of career because of the stress of working in this pressured environment. 

There will inevitably be redundancies if the market does not improve by the time the job retention scheme ends in October. So the longer quarantine processes are in place in countries around the world, preventing free travel movement and the infection rates do not diminish, the travel market will suffer with huge redundancies in the coming months. It is seen that the leisure market will suffer more than the business market, but it will still be in trouble as it will take a long time to come back to previous levels unlike the housing market which is already seeing an increase in momentum.

40 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Well, I'll go to the foot of our stairs! Guess what our post lady brought us today ? Go on, guess, you won't believe the answer!

No, not an Avon catalogue,  but a lovely shiny cheque ! Whoopee Do!

For information we requested a refund on March 29th for our Arcadia April 12th cruise. We had paid by cc through a TA. I haven't done any chasing, but was going to start doing so this week, as the 60 days have been reached.

So, off to Lincoln tomorrow to pay the cheque in. My wife will be coming with me - she says it's because it will be the first time she can dress up after 12 weeks, but I think it's to make sure I don't run off with the cheque!

Congratulations

Well finally we have been made whole, final refund of shore excursions and pre paid flight seats received today, just 73 days since initial refund submission. 
 

Now we can draw a big line under this debacle and move on. 
 

Sad to hear today that more job losses in the travel business, easyJet announcement that 30% of staff need to go and prediction that the travel business will not recover to prior levels until 2023. 
 

43,000 BA staff to be made redundant in June with only 30,000 re-employed on far inferior contracts. Sad times.
 

Some scheduled airlines flatly refusing to provide refunds despite travel being booked in the UK and therefore subject to our legislation and should be refunding within 7 days for cancelled flights. These are not the ones in the headlines such as Ryanair, BA, Virgin Atlantic and easyJet. 

33 minutes ago, bobstheboy said:

Wait for it.   Woo hoo !  

 

Yes, got MY money. 

 

Just hope others who have been waiting as long as I have get theirs.

Congrats, about time

2 hours ago, AndyMichelle said:

Are you lot still going on about email addresses... 

 

Oh, by the way, both my refunds were back on the card today!!!! 

 

Swiftly followed by a message from P&O saying we will receive a cheque within 7 days... 

 

Very pleased, but the incompetence is astounding... 

 

Andy 

 

 

Absolutely fantastic news, bet you're relieved.

Sorry it's a long post, and if you have time to read it, I appreciate it. It's only now after nearly 9 weeks of lockdown do I realise the impact this pandemic has had and what has been affected, and it is still having, and will continue to do so for a long while.

Hi everyone, this is my first trip over to NCL during this pandemic as I have been concentrating on getting our refund from P&O Cruises for our cancelled transatlantic from Barbados to Southampton that should have departed 28th March. That was a feat in itself but we have now received 99% of the monies and just awaiting £250 for shore excursions.

Next on the list was RCI as we amended a cruise due to depart in June to the TA for Anthem of the Seas from Southampton to Cape Liberty in Oct 2021.

Next on the list is supposedly Breakaway from New York in Oct this year, who knows?

So what's it like in the UK? Well we live 200 miles north of London in the North West of England in Manchester.

We were "locked down" on 23rd March and this was extended for another 3 weeks on April 18th with the tag lines "Stay Home", "Protect the NHS" and "Save Lives". This meant only leaving your home for 1 hour of exercise, self isolation for the vulnerable, and only leaving your home for essential visits to the supermarkets for food or medicines where queuing is now the norm. Most other business were forced to close.

We then moved to the next phase on 13th May which now means we have the slogans "Stay Alert", "Control the Virus" and "Save Lives". People were encouraged to go back to work, but if possible work from home. You can meet people not from your own household in a public place like a park, but "social distancing of 2 metres" still applies. When visiting shops (more opening now) and if you cannot social distance, you should wear a face covering, but it's not mandatory. You can go outside as often as you want to exercise, and you can travel to other areas to exercise (that means lots of people are trying to the travel to beauty spots and coastal resorts with typical results of overcrowding). 

You are encouraged not use public transport and so the roads are now getting busier, although the city centre is still very quiet (we only live 2 miles from the centre).

Restrictions for entering the UK will come into force on 8th June. Anyone entering the country by air, rail or sea will have to complete documents and self isolate for 14 days with spot checks being made by officials. Breaking isolation will incur a fine of up to £1000.That includes all UK citizens. The only exemption is for those travelling from the Republic of Ireland. However, it's strange that if you travel to Ireland you are supposed to self isolate for 14 days! There was confusion about people travelling from France (I assume because of the channel tunnel) and initially French were supposed to be exempt, but that is not the case. There are a few people that will be exempt but that is down to their occupation.

The restrictions will be reviewed every 3 weeks.

The only issue is that obviously the UK is split into England, Scotland and Wales and the rules for Scotland and Wales are different. Which means, even if I could visit my elderly parents (just to stand outside and wave or do shopping for them as they are 84 and 85!) I couldn't because they live in Wales (only a 75 mile drive) but I wouldn't be allowed to enter the country!

Personally we were both furloughed at the start of April and put on the Governments Job Retention Scheme which guaranteed our salaries at the rate of 80%. This was initially for 2 months and was to end on 1st June. However, it was initially extended to end of June and the latest is end of July. So strictly speaking we could have been furloughed for 4 months! Then it was announced it would be extended yet again to October! However, from August to October, the government haven't yet announced what amount of support they will be providing and so employers will have to contribute to the 80% salary level.

However, I pleaded to go back to work as the strain of not working was starting to have a negative effect on my mental health. So, my employers (American Express Global Business Travel) swapped me with someone else who hadn't been furloughed and I started back this week. My partners employer is hopeful that as the housing market in terms of sales will improve and so could be back in the near future.

But as you can see from the name of my employer, I am involved in business travel, and that market (in addition to leisure) has been decimated. To give you an idea of the level of business I am now part of a team of 14 who are supporting all the UK clients we have. Now I was part of a team of 8 handling 8 clients, now we are potentially looking after 160! In reality a high percentage of these clients have travel bans in place so we're only dealing with a small number which are travelling because they are 'key or essential workers'. Most travel is in the UK but some is abroad. The strange thing is that even booking a hotel is a challenge as firstly you need to know if the property is open (so many closed and will stay closed for a few more months). If it is, are they allowing just 'key workers' or 'essential' too? What documentation do they require to validate the travellers status, what food and beverage options are available etc. This list goes on. No more straight forward booking of hotels! Flights are another headache as schedules have been cut to the bone, and where there is no direct service you have to ensure that the traveller is allowed to transit at the connection points and at the moment the UK is high on the list of countries being denied access to places around the world.

Anyway thanks for reading, I told you it was long!

Andy, I think you have the patience of a saint. But I truly hope your refunds turn up soon.

Now being back off furlough and back at work I have to say business travel is very strange. Only 14 of us (out of around 80) working and instead of managing 6-8 clients, we now have a list of 160! Needless to say a very high percentage of them are not travelling so we're not overloaded with work.

Our issue is the airlines and the length of time it's taking them to refund, and just like you see in the press, they are doing their best to get passengers to take vouchers. Our refunds team are working flat out and luckily the way flights are paid for we use what's called a Billing and Settlement Plan which means refunds are automated but the travellers may still have to wait for the airlines to cough up. Trouble is we deal with most of the major scheduled airlines around the world and they all have their own processes for vouchers/refunds and this changes on what feels like a daily basis.

Hotels in the UK keep emailing to say here's another 20 reservations we're cancelling because we're staying closed for another month! At least we're not in a refund situation there as 99% of business travellers pay on departure.

Although finding hotels for key and essential workers is a challenge, finding ones that are open, and then what proof they require for key workers, and what food and beverage options they can provide. Deliveroo and Uber Eats are thriving.

The nearest I've got to sea travel is a client sending people to do maintenance on HMS Echo!

Oh and if anyone saw the program about NCL Breakaway (Discovery channel "Mighty Ships") we were on that sailing is April 2013 from Rotterdam to Southampton?