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How are things where YOU are? (in relation to the Corona Virus)


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I just saw this thread on Celebrity and thought it was a great idea, so I've made this thread so we can all chat about how things are with us.  The timing seemed perfect, with the Aussie way of life, which we all took for granted, now changing daily.  We are now experiencing the unknown unknowns so learning as we go!

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7 cases so far on the Central Coast NSW.

 

PS. Just got word from a mate over there, while Italy may be in strife with the number of cases and deaths, THEIR SUPERMARKETS ARE FULLY STOCKED AND THERE HAVE BEEN NO SHORTAGES OF ANYTHING.

Edited by Russell21
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I am in the burbs of Sydney.  Local Coles seems to have pretty much re-stocked most items with the exception of TP and tissues.

 

Hubby bought himself a laptop yesterday and will work from home as of tomorrow as will most of his Sydney CBD office.

 

Daughter works in tourism in the Sydney CBD and thankfully they closed down today due to the new restrictions.  Have Not been happy with her dealing with likely infected cruisers for past week or so.

 

Sporty son has no organised weekend sport for at least the next 6 weeks.  All cancelled.  I wonder if this will be the first winter season that he will not be able to play soccer.

 

My office is still open but it has been easy to practice distancing although we do all share a photocopier...

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New Zealand PM annouced that the whole country will go into lock down as of Wed middnight -  everything closed except essential services inc supermarkets. Schools close tomorrow. https://thespinoff.co.nz/covid-19/23-03-2020/the-stark-choice-jacinda-arderns-national-shutdown-speech-in-full/?fbclid=IwAR3fiK-Mp-7VXrvYj-g1aeNjNzBIt3cpcxgkWAbuLMMWylu6XPswfT62NJ0 

 

We're hoping to stop it before 10,000s die 

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We are doing good, I am staying home and luckily hubby has no contact with the public in his work.

Will shop once a week at our local IGA and not go into Port Mac town.

Our daughter in Western Sydney made the decision to keep the kids home now till the school holidays, she is a stay at home Mum so an easy decision.

One son works for Essential Energy so he and partner are working from home and other son is in Brisbane still working.

Thankfully so far none will be put off.

 

I cancelled our 2020 cruises today, lovely Princess rep from Sydney.......kept 2 FCD's in the Princess bank and cashed in one that was due to expire in September.

Cancelled two nights we had booked through Accor for the Caravan Camping show in Sydney in May (it's cancelled), called the hotel direct and they have recredited my card already....and the booking was a non refundable sale.

Cancelled 2 lots of return flights I had booked with Qantas using points. All money I had paid in taxes refunded and we will lose 6000 points each for the cancellation, no big deal.

Will tell Andy I made him $1000 today!!

 

We decided to call off our planned travel for this year, don't want to lose money or be worried about cancellation dates etc.

The new caravan will get a few weekends away when it's safe to move around.

A big thank you to Princess, Qantas and Accor hotels for being so helpful in a sad situation, I will always be a loyal customer. ( have been for years)

 

 

 

 

Edited by cheznandy
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13 minutes ago, cheznandy said:

We decided to call off our planned travel for this year, don't want to lose money or be worried about cancellation dates etc.

The new caravan will get a few weekends away when it's safe to move around.

I have been thinking of you and your plans to travel in your new caravan. That will have to be put on hold for a while.☹️

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14 minutes ago, cheznandy said:

We are doing good, I am staying home and luckily hubby has no contact with the public in his work.

Will shop once a week at our local IGA and not go into Port Mac town.

Our daughter in Western Sydney made the decision to keep the kids home now till the school holidays, she is a stay at home Mum so an easy decision.

One son works for Essential Energy so he and partner are working from home and other son is in Brisbane still working.

Thankfully so far none will be put off.

 

I cancelled our 2020 cruises today, lovely Princess rep from Sydney.......kept 2 FCD's in the Princess bank and cashed in one that was due to expire in September.

Cancelled two nights we had booked through Accor for the Caravan Camping show in Sydney in May (it's cancelled), called the hotel direct and they have recredited my card already....and the booking was a non refundable sale.

Cancelled 2 lots of return flights I had booked with Qantas using points. All money I had paid in taxes refunded and we will lose 6000 points each for the cancellation, no big deal.

Will tell Andy I made him $1000 today!!

 

We decided to call off our planned travel for this year, don't want to lose money or be worried about cancellation dates etc.

The new caravan will get a few weekends away when it's safe to move around.

A big thank you to Princess, Qantas and Accor hotels for being so helpful in a sad situation, I will always be a loyal customer. ( have been for years)

 

 

 

 

We are home, keeping in contact via phone calls, messages, emails and FaceTime. I went to the local chicken shop to pick up enough for three meals this morning. They are struggling to keep their supply up and the wholesale prices have increased so as a result so have their prices!

 

I cancelled our June 8th Princess cruise and managed to keep our FCDs too. When were your Qantas flights Cheryl? I haven't cancelled ours yet. 

 

Leigh

 

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9 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

I have been thinking of you and your plans to travel in your new caravan. That will have to be put on hold for a while.☹️

It's all good, we can wait. We haven't sold the old one yet so lots of work to do to get that one ready to sell.

If all is good in Spring we will get away for a few weekends, we have beaches, rivers, mountains and rain forests in every direction where we live. Will get away for 2 to 3 weeks over Xmas /New Year, head over the South Australia if they let us in by then!

We will probably have a camp out to test the bed, we have fire pit and camp oven in the back yard, make our own fun haha!!

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Well. Me, my wife and daughter are staying at home in Caldwell, NJ. Kinda enjoying our time together. We had a booked April cruise to Florida but we decided to stay at home. Its not like we are afraid of it or anything but we took some additional precautions. Who knows. Also we are working from home now and we dont feel like it will change in a near future. So we enjoy ourselves as much as we can at home.. 

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2 minutes ago, possum52 said:

 

We are home, keeping in contact via phone calls, messages, emails and FaceTime. I went to the local chicken shop to pick up enough for three meals this morning. They are struggling to keep their supply up and the wholesale prices have increased so as a result so have their prices!

 

I cancelled our June 8th Princess cruise and managed to keep our FCDs too. When were your Qantas flights Cheryl? I haven't cancelled ours yet. 

 

Leigh

 

They were for our New Year cruise.  Classic Reward cost 12000 plus $80 tax p/p (two flights,one ticket)

Refunded bar 6000 points. That's the standard for cancellations with reward bookings, I think you can cancel up to the day before. Also cancelled the return so should be refunded $320 plus 12000 points.

Hope you are staying well Leigh, June is too close to think about cruising.......I have written the year off🙄

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Thanks Cheryl, I’m fine thanks. I hope you are too. We were looking forward to the June cruise. Maybe next year. We’ll perhaps do some local trips in spring. Have cancelled everything up to then. My dad will be 90 at the end of April. He didn’t want a party so my 2 siblings along with their spouses and Rob and I were going to travel to country Victoria to have a birthday lunch with him. That’s now off - 2 siblings live interstate and I think we have to keep our parents safe. 
 

Qantas are refunding flights up to May 31st without penalty at this time. I think I’ll hang out a bit longer as our’s is June 6th and see what happens.  
 

Leigh

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30 minutes ago, possum52 said:

Qantas are refunding flights up to May 31st without penalty at this time. I think I’ll hang out a bit longer as our’s is June 6th and see what happens.  
 

Leigh

Aww shame about your Dad, so many things out of our control.

 

Yes, hang in with your flights. I only cancelled ours this soon as we had decided on the weekend to cancel this years cruises and by December I am sure everything will be back up and running in some capacity, and they wont be giving anyone special refunds.

Re the cruise, our penalties kicked in in a couple of weeks so best to cancel now than lose the FCD. Everyone has different situations, booked differently, thank god for FF points and Princess FCD, makes cancelling easier.....and no TA's

Edited by cheznandy
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2 hours ago, lissie said:

New Zealand PM annouced that the whole country will go into lock down as of Wed middnight -  everything closed except essential services inc supermarkets. Schools close tomorrow. https://thespinoff.co.nz/covid-19/23-03-2020/the-stark-choice-jacinda-arderns-national-shutdown-speech-in-full/?fbclid=IwAR3fiK-Mp-7VXrvYj-g1aeNjNzBIt3cpcxgkWAbuLMMWylu6XPswfT62NJ0 

 

We're hoping to stop it before 10,000s die 

I plan to watch her speech.  However I think I caught 2 meters distance separation and no take aways, both different from Australia;

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14 minutes ago, cheznandy said:

Aww shame about your Dad, so many things out of our control.

 

Yes, hang in with your flights. I only cancelled ours this soon as we had decided on the weekend to cancel this years cruises and by December I am sure everything will be back up and running in some capacity, and they wont be giving anyone special refunds.

Re the cruise, our penalties kicked in in a couple of weeks so best to cancel now than lose the FCD. Everyone has different situations, booked differently, thank god for FF points and Princess FCD, makes cancelling easier.....and no TA's

Yes it is sad for Dad but I guess growing up through the depression and WW2, he is quite resilient and he is the one who told us we couldn’t visit for all our sakes.

 

It certainly does help when booking to use FCD and FF points. 

 

Leigh

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I am home self isolating since Friday (Day 3).  I've never been so busy since I retired.  I am compiling a group email for our street.  We have a street Christmas Party, so know each other.   I have promised myself to do something special each day from next week (like read a book, listen to music, etc.)

Today's frustratIon - I haven't had any luck trying to cancel my flight booking to Melbourne for tomorrow morning.  I tried everything - cancelling, rescheduling, etc and tried to phone for hours, Virgin said to phone within 48 hours of your flight, which I did.  Once I got through to a line which was obviously meant for TAs, which was a bit of variety, but no live person.  I was calm until it told me I could check in for my booked flight!!  I will try again tonight.

Today's worry - Whilst I was proud of our Government letting in cruise ships after the curfew, I'm hoping the WA Premier stands firm that the latest ship (? M) should be refuelled, given supplies, but not allowed for passengers to disembark.  This was the same ship which didn't let passengers off in Hobart, Tasmania, although at least one member of staff got off and didn't get back on. 

Queensland has joined the other States closing its borders with NSW from Wednesday.  The border had already been closed between NT because of its vulnerable aboriginal population.

Sad sights -

  • seeing long queues at Cenrelink,
  • local cafe taking out all their new furniture for noon closedown of all cafes and restaurants.  I hope they continue to do takeaway.  However, I think Jacinta said no takeaway in NZ so want to research why. 
  • Aussie dollar is so low, we are lucky we can't travel at present.  
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1 hour ago, cheznandy said:

They were for our New Year cruise.  Classic Reward cost 12000 plus $80 tax p/p (two flights,one ticket)

Refunded bar 6000 points. That's the standard for cancellations with reward bookings, I think you can cancel up to the day before. Also cancelled the return so should be refunded $320 plus 12000 points.

Hope you are staying well Leigh, June is too close to think about cruising.......I have written the year off🙄

When you say "refunded bar 6000 points" do you mean you had some points refunded? I cancelled two QANTAS flights for two and was told I would be refunded cash and that it would "cost 6,000 points each". It's good news if we get some points back. 🙂

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What has changed ???

 

Shopping ..... now takes a Visit to three supermarket..... then can't get what i planned.... so changes in dinners....

                         Also the prices are going up on everything.... and no specials

                         and little or no meat..... went to the butchers....OMG...... full of people..... slim pickings and no prices 

  

 

Petrol .... gone up again... and now doing extra km's  going to all the supermarkets

 

Not going out........

 

Checking on my mum of 94..... and doing her gardening and shopping and playing taxi......

 

Other wise   not much has changed......   except not buying toilet paper, tissues and paper towels.....

 

Cheers Don

 

Just as well one is retired....  and no loans or mortgage. 

 

 

Edited by getting older slowly
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1 hour ago, possum52 said:

Qantas are refunding flights up to May 31st without penalty at this time. I think I’ll hang out a bit longer as our’s is June 6th and see what happens. 

Leigh

I cancelled two QANTAS flights for April and May last week. Ah well, that's gone. I have two international flights I haven't cancelled yet - B'ne to London and New York to B'ne booked through Princess EZair. I think I can cancel them up to 45 days prior without cost. Does anyone know?

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I’m a nurse so work is crazy busy, hubby is still going to work, as are both my children ( a teacher and an electrician).

My sons girlfriend just moved out here 10 days ago, with a working visa, she planned on doing 3 months rural work, to extend her visa to two years, its going to be tough for her to get a job in the current climate. My son also just returned from a 9 month stint travelling, so moved home with us, as he was broke. Looks like ill have them both staying with us for the foreseeable future...

It’s our wedding anniversary tomorrow (30 years), we had planned dinner in a posh restaurant which has now been cancelled, looks like it will be fish and chips in the back yard!

We have just started cancelling our April trip (for our wedding anniversary), to Egypt and Jordan. Cancelled my first flight, booked on points from Dubai to Amman (will wait to see how long it takes for points to be credited. We've cancelled a private tour inJordan after the company finally agreed to provide a 90% refund (figured we were best to cut out losses), we’ve still got our booking with Viking cruises to Egypt, as its early May and we are holding out for them to extend their offer of a full refund instead of a credit. Still have to cancel our flights over and back also booked on points, just waiting for Singapore airlines to either cancel our flight or provide better cancellation options.

My fridge is stocked with fresh food, for now we will eat fresh as much as we can. Life as we know it will change.

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6 minutes ago, gogo65 said:

I’m a nurse so work is crazy busy, hubby is still going to work, as are both my children ( a teacher and an electrician).

My sons girlfriend just moved out here 10 days ago, with a working visa, she planned on doing 3 months rural work, to extend her visa to two years, its going to be tough for her to get a job in the current climate. My son also just returned from a 9 month stint travelling, so moved home with us, as he was broke. Looks like ill have them both staying with us for the foreseeable future...

It’s our wedding anniversary tomorrow (30 years), we had planned dinner in a posh restaurant which has now been cancelled, looks like it will be fish and chips in the back yard!

We have just started cancelling our April trip (for our wedding anniversary), to Egypt and Jordan. Cancelled my first flight, booked on points from Dubai to Amman (will wait to see how long it takes for points to be credited. We've cancelled a private tour inJordan after the company finally agreed to provide a 90% refund (figured we were best to cut out losses), we’ve still got our booking with Viking cruises to Egypt, as its early May and we are holding out for them to extend their offer of a full refund instead of a credit. Still have to cancel our flights over and back also booked on points, just waiting for Singapore airlines to either cancel our flight or provide better cancellation options.

My fridge is stocked with fresh food, for now we will eat fresh as much as we can. Life as we know it will change.

Have a wonderful 30th Wedding anniversary!! ☺️ make sure you are stocked up on champagne - the bottle shops are still open! You must be very disappointed about cancelling your trip, but maybe you can schedule it for next year or the year after.

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14 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

When you say "refunded bar 6000 points" do you mean you had some points refunded? I cancelled two QANTAS flights for two and was told I would be refunded cash and that it would "cost 6,000 points each". It's good news if we get some points back. 🙂

Cost us 12000 points p/p, they keep 6000 points for the cancellation fee and we should have 6000 each refunded in 7 days.

Did you book with points or was it a cash fare? 

https://qantas.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/259/kw/cancelling

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1 minute ago, cheznandy said:

Cost us 12000 points p/p, they keep 6000 points for the cancellation fee and we should have 6000 each refunded in 7 days.

Did you book with points or was it a cash fare? 

https://qantas.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/259/kw/cancelling

Cash and points. Thanks for your answer. I will check my account (they were all bought on mine) and see what has happened.

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I am on the Gold Coast and the tourism industry is reeling.   I sell accommodation businesses and all I am hearing from my clients is they are getting call after call cancelling and, of course, no forward bookings.  This is going to be devastating for many of them and some won't recover as the drop in income will severely impact on their value.    DH is retired and because I still work (self-employed) he is not on the pension.    Inquiry for me has dried up so it is highly likely no income til at least the end of the year as there is a time lag of 4-5 months between a business going to contract and being paid for it.    Luckily no mortgage but will have to find some sort of income - don't really want to apply for Jobseeker payment or whatever it is called.   Only going out to supermarket when necessary and spending rest of time at home - really miss my social activities particularly sport.  Cancelled daughter-in-law's and hubby's combined birthday celebration this weekend.    Told my Mum at the weekend I won't be coming to visit her for a while as she is in an aged care facility and don't want to unknowingly take something in there as it would be disastrous.   That really sucks not being able to see her.   Have a back-to-back booked out of WA at the end of July which is very doubtful now.   Used FCD's to pay deposit and then Princess credited my FCC from my cancelled February Sapphire cruise to it, so hoping I get the FCD's back and FCC can be put back in my account to use another time.   

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