Civil Unrest

[chrism23]

This is a brief fun note.  Find out where and when I am traveling and pick a new date and destination.  Trouble seems to follow me.  Yesterday they overthrew they President of Peru.  Two people have gotten killed so far.  I am due there in January.  Then they just put the VP of Argentina in jail..  Due there in January. My best story is I was in a bar my Marrakech hotel the night of Paris terrorist attack.  I was there to watch the soccer game.  When the TV coverage cut away to the violence many of the patrons  in the bar started cheering.  Naturally I opened my my big mouth and said to the guy next to me "What the f**k are you cheering about?  Whoops.   Vacated the bar in a hurry.  Then I was in Jerusalem when the 2nd intifada kicked. off.  I had walked to the Damascus Gate, with East Jerusalem across the Street,  Got there, and a couple of hundred kids were across the street letting go with rocks and sling shots. I was with my wife and mother-law.  I jumped in front of a cab, threw them inside and said to the driver "King David Hotel fast"  Then I was in Paris for the last major protest by ETA.  I remember walking around a corner and there were over 500 French cops in full riot gear.  A good street fight ensued.  And then the best/worst  one.  I was in St. Petersburg, when there was both, a Euro Cup soccer game between Shaktar Donetsk and Spartak Moscow.  The soccer Ultras wore all black military gear and were up for a riot.  There were thousands.  Our hotel was right off Nevsky Prospect near the Hermitage, the route Lenin took.  The day I was there there was also s LGBTQ march.  Then soccer ultras, led by Putin's personal motorcycle gang, the Night Wolves, waded into the gay crowd and were absolutely kicking the crap out of them.  I grabbed one guys arm, just as he was about to hit a protester with a steel pipe.  I got out of there in a hurry.   I am much, much too old to engage in street fighting.  I realize this posting will probably be deleted for being off topic.  So one cruise trip to make it relevant.  Always find out if there is big trouble, say a revolution, going on where you are going.   And then head the other way.  I wonder if Silversea gives a discount for avoiding war zones.  I know this because I thought best to look it up.  SS's trip insurance does not cover acts of war. With my luck the Brits will start another war over the Falklands while we are there. Cheers.   

[Mr Luxury]

Deleting the post would be a smart move.

[drron29]

We are known for our being in the right place at the wrong time.

Our first visit to Thailand was in May 1974. It was the time of the student protests with many deaths and tanks in the streets.

 

We have visited Fiji within a week of 3 of their 4 coups and ended up talking to 2 of their PMs. First Colonel Rambuka who was staying in the room above us at the Sheraton.

 

Then Mr Quaraise who was meeting the Australian High Commissioner at the Sheraton. His body quark was trying to serve himself at the buffet whilst trying to hold onto his Uzi. So I served him what he wanted. The PM came over and thanked me for helping. He introduced himself as Mr Quaraise though most call me crazy.  
 

We have also been present at many episodes of civil disobedience. Moral if you are booked to a place we are visiting then cancel.

[labrasett]

2 hours ago, chrism23 said:

This is a brief fun note.  Find out where and when I am traveling and pick a new date and destination.  Trouble seems to follow me.  Yesterday they overthrew they President of Peru.  Two people have gotten killed so far.  I am due there in January.  Then they just put the VP of Argentina in jail..  Due there in January. My best story is I was in a bar my Marrakech hotel the night of Paris terrorist attack.  I was there to watch the soccer game.  When the TV coverage cut away to the violence many of the patrons  in the bar started cheering.  Naturally I opened my my big mouth and said to the guy next to me "What the f**k are you cheering about?  Whoops.   Vacated the bar in a hurry.  Then I was in Jerusalem when the 2nd intifada kicked. off.  I had walked to the Damascus Gate, with East Jerusalem across the Street,  Got there, and a couple of hundred kids were across the street letting go with rocks and sling shots. I was with my wife and mother-law.  I jumped in front of a cab, threw them inside and said to the driver "King David Hotel fast"  Then I was in Paris for the last major protest by ETA.  I remember walking around a corner and there were over 500 French cops in full riot gear.  A good street fight ensued.  And then the best/worst  one.  I was in St. Petersburg, when there was both, a Euro Cup soccer game between Shaktar Donetsk and Spartak Moscow.  The soccer Ultras wore all black military gear and were up for a riot.  There were thousands.  Our hotel was right off Nevsky Prospect near the Hermitage, the route Lenin took.  The day I was there there was also s LGBTQ march.  Then soccer ultras, led by Putin's personal motorcycle gang, the Night Wolves, waded into the gay crowd and were absolutely kicking the crap out of them.  I grabbed one guys arm just as he was about to hit a protester with a steel pipe.  I got out of there in a hurry.   I am much, much too old to engage in street fighting.  I realize this posting will probably be deleted for being off topic.  So one cruise trip to make it relevant.  Always find out if there is big trouble, say a revolution, going on where you are going.   And then head the other way.  I wonder if Silversea gives a discount for avoiding war zones.  I know this because I thought best to look it up.  SS's trip insurance does not cover acts of war. With my luck the Brits will start another war over the Falklands while we are there. Cheers.   

Would you please keep a running commentary going as to your future travel plans so we can plot our own lives avoiding your choices!!!

[Tothesunset]

Hey, I'm from Belfast. 

 

And I've experience of 3 other war zones: The Falklands, the Balkans and Detroit. 

[fdnycruiser]

It if it wasn’t for bad luck, you’d have no luck at all . You definitely have had some interesting trips 

[cruiseej]

@chrism23 I'm trying to connect the dots, and it seems that if you stop traveling completely, world peace might break out! 🤣

[les37b]

How long ago were you in Sevastopol?

 

 

[chrism23]

OK.  I hope people read this because it may be very relevant to your trip.  A headline from this mornings New York Times 12/14 reads "At Least 7 Dead in Peru as...."   Where this effects SS passengers is that they have closed airports including Cusco which is the jumping off point to Machu Picchu.  Many people, myself included, added an after or before excursion to Machu Picchu as part of a Galapagos trip.  For the moment, that is off the table, which is a shame.  Yes, and naturally I am flying into Lima next month.  

[Silver Spectre]

@chrism23dont worry about Argentina, nothing changes there. And the fragrant Christina is not in jail, she has been found guilty but has immunity. She will also appeal and the chances of her being jailed are about likely as them ever stealing the Falklands again.

[les37b]

21 hours ago, Silver Spectre said:

@chrism23dont worry about Argentina, nothing changes there. And the fragrant Christina is not in jail, she has been found guilty but has immunity. She will also appeal and the chances of her being jailed are about likely as them ever stealing the Falklands again.

 

Hopefully they'll be celebrating with a World Cup win.

[SWFLAOK]

We've had our share of cruises that ended up being poorly timed, but the more cruises you book seems to make it more likely to happen. And in some cases, we've been lucky as well.

After successfully completing back to back cruises in SE Asia from Singapore to Vietnam and Singapore to Sydney, in December 2019 and January 2020, we just missed the start of Covid. And it also gave us a chance to cancel our Fort Lauderdale to New Zealand cruise in February and March in 2021,  and get our deposit back. After that, we found out that the Easter Island stop that we were looking forward to rarely happened, but you could see some of the heads from the ship. Someone knocked them down with a truck, and they could not be seen when our cruise was scheduled (but I'm sure it didn't sail due to Covid).

Unfortunately, we held out until our Paul Gauguin cruise from Fiji to Bali in April 2020 was cancelled and were only offered a future cruise credit that expired before the next cruise with the same itinerary. In mid March, we received an e-mail that said we could cancel with a refund that day. It was sent the day after the offer expired.  We rebooked numerous times for other cruises, but they were for an itinerary that we had done before, and they were all cancelled.  Sometimes you just have to give up. But we didn't, and tried one more time for our original itinerary in January 2023. This time, there were problems with booking air back from Bali, since they were still contracted with Cathay Pacific through Hong Kong (we had booked our own airfare from Bali to Sydney back in 2020). Since they couldn't confirm our flights before final payment, we cancelled and got our money back.

We had booked back to back cruises in the UK, continuing on to Barcelona. Our reservation was for September 2020. It was cancelled so we rebooked to  September 2021. That cruise actually sailed as Regent's first post-covid cruise, with many missed ports. But we were able to rebook to 2022. We had booked 3 nights pre in London since we had not been there before. We were in a nice hotel across from Hyde Park, with a nice chance to see the area by foot. The Queen died right before our trip. Everything that wasn't closed was unbelievably crowded. We still, however, enjoyed our time there, and we watched the ceremonies on TV, while seeing the amazingly long lines in person, but didn't wait in them. We had booked a 4 night post from Barcelona to Madrid (where we needed to go to fly home), but it was only available in 2020, and 2021, but not 2022. We spent a very long day arriving at the Barcelona airport (with the worst signs to find your airline check-in, and the business class security had the longest line and the strictest requirements). The flight was, or course, delayed. We have transited through the Madrid Airport before and knew what to expect. We had just enough time to make it to our flight back to Florida, and were able to help another couple from our cruise make it there as well.

After watching a travel show, we booked a Scenic River Cruise in Myanmar. We had booked one of the best cabins, and it looked really nice.  The cruise had several nights in Yangon (Rangoon) in a very nice hotel included, with included excursions for the best sites. Then we headed off (by air, which was a little scary) to a very nice lake front hotel for several nights before heading to the river cruise portion. Amazing excursions were included before returning to Yangon.  Three weeks after we booked, the president of Myanmar was arrested and jailed. We waited a while, but then cancelled. We used our down payment to book a cruise that started with 3 nights in Paris, then a fast train to Bordeaux, with a river cruise from there. A few months later, they cancelled the Paris portion, and required us to get to Bordeaux and back from Florida on our own. We cancelled and they eventually refunded our deposit.

But we did successfully complete 3 cruises this year, with one being to back, and have 2 recently booked next year, 1 in 2024, and the world cruise on Silver Dawn in 2025. If you w3ant to cruise, you have to try.

[chrism23]

@SWFLAOK-  you have more guts than I do,  I wouldn't go to Myanmar unless you held a gun to my head, and to go on a leisurely scenic cruise, phew.  I am very gun shy,  for that reason I no longer go to Mexico.  It seems there used to be an understanding between the cartels and the authorities to leave the tourists alone. No more.  Restaurant have been shot up in Cabo and Cancun  And then there is Acapulco,oncethe playground of the rich, now home to the cartels;   Lest we forget the unsolved murder capitol of the western hemisphere, ciudad Juarez 

 

Sorry to go on.  My point, finally to get to it, is that it is becoming increasingly to travel, of course, due to COVID, but also due to rapidly evolving political events,  I started this thread half tongue and cheek and self referential, and mentioned Peru and Argentina being on the edge. The next damn day, Peru comes apart  Thousands of tourists are stranded around Machu Picco . The discontented  have seized Cusco airport where most wide trips to Macchu Picco depart.  

 

This was also s bit of seriousness behind my remark about Travel Insurance.  If one  ia caught up in one of these fright situations and misses flight, incur hotel and all sorts of other expenses, does the travel insurance cove it.  This might currently be an issue for SS pax.  

[les37b]

6 hours ago, chrism23 said:

@SWFLAOK-  you have more guts than I do,  I wouldn't go to Myanmar unless you held a gun to my head, and to go on a leisurely scenic cruise, phew.  I am very gun shy,  for that reason I no longer go to Mexico.  It seems there used to be an understanding between the cartels and the authorities to leave the tourists alone. No more.  Restaurant have been shot up in Cabo and Cancun  And then there is Acapulco,oncethe playground of the rich, now home to the cartels;   Lest we forget the unsolved murder capitol of the western hemisphere, ciudad Juarez 

 

Sorry to go on.  My point, finally to get to it, is that it is becoming increasingly to travel, of course, due to COVID, but also due to rapidly evolving political events,  I started this thread half tongue and cheek and self referential, and mentioned Peru and Argentina being on the edge. The next damn day, Peru comes apart  Thousands of tourists are stranded around Machu Picco . The discontented  have seized Cusco airport where most wide trips to Macchu Picco depart.  

 

This was also s bit of seriousness behind my remark about Travel Insurance.  If one  ia caught up in one of these fright situations and misses flight, incur hotel and all sorts of other expenses, does the travel insurance cove it.  This might currently be an issue for SS pax.  

 

Would travel insurance even cover in the case of a coup or regard it as a terrorist event? 

 

Makes my biggest displacement to date with a week FOA Hotel and food in Singapore because of the Icelandic volcano sound very tame....... and the Insurance didn't cover us as apparently God did it. (Luckily Singapore Air cover the £4K unplanned additional costs for the 4 of us.)

[SWFLAOK]

8 hours ago, les37b said:

 

Would travel insurance even cover in the case of a coup or regard it as a terrorist event? 

 

Makes my biggest displacement to date with a week FOA Hotel and food in Singapore because of the Icelandic volcano sound very tame....... and the Insurance didn't cover us as apparently God did it. (Luckily Singapore Air cover the £4K unplanned additional costs for the 4 of us.)

We always buy travel insurance, and in recent years it's covered Covid but we haven't to need to use that in the cruises that were cancelled by the cruise line, or that we rebooked. The 3 cruises that we've taken would have had insurance coverage for us if we had gotten Covid, but luckily we did not. I don't think our insurance would  cover a coup or a  terrorist event. We now look very carefully before making our final payment, especially when it comes to when it comes to what will happen if the cruise is  cancelled by the cruise line. Any pre or post hotel reservations, parking reservations, or flights that we've had to make on our own need to be evaluated for the cost to us if the cruise is cancelled. We are willing to pay 10 or 20 dollars extra for a hotel reservation if we can cancel it without penalty at least a few days in advance.

[daddyo]

A note of positivity here.  We were supposed to depart yesterday 12/16 with a pre-cruise tour of Machu Picchu before boarding the Moon on 12/21 in Lima.  Due to the political unrest, the  pre-cruise tour was canceled because of concern for the safety of the group.  We were given the option of staying at the Westin Lima for 5 nights with will room and meals included.  Silversea said they would provide tours in and around Lima if possible.  Since the tour was the main draw for us as we had been to most of the cruise ports before,  we asked for a refund on 12/14.  The full refund for the tour and voyage hit the Amex Card last night.  Yes,  we were surprised if not shocked!!

[Stumblefoot]

3 hours ago, daddyo said:

The full refund for the tour and voyage hit the Amex Card last night.

Good. That’s the way it should be.  Especially since 5-nights in Lima with meals is in no way comparable to the tour you paid for.

[daddyo]

6 hours ago, daddyo said:

A note of positivity here.  We were supposed to depart yesterday 12/16 with a pre-cruise tour of Machu Picchu before boarding the Moon on 12/21 in Lima.  Due to the political unrest, the  pre-cruise tour was canceled because of concern for the safety of the group.  We were given the option of staying at the Westin Lima for 5 nights with will room and meals included.  Silversea said they would provide tours in and around Lima if possible.  Since the tour was the main draw for us as we had been to most of the cruise ports before,  we asked for a refund on 12/14.  The full refund for the tour and voyage hit the Amex Card last night.  Yes,  we were surprised if not shocked!!

I would like to add that we were offered a pre cruise refund with the 5 nights in Lima. But opted for the full refund. 

[mcand]

As of today 12/20, Siversea has not cancelled our Machu Picchu trip, set to begin 1/22/2023, when we disembark Silver Moon. I find it very risky that- knowing what is happening at Cusco-  a cruise line would not take passenger safety first and call it cancelled immediately. I have booked another trip home for the 22nd, so that we have a fall back plan and a seat home. First time with Silversea; not sure what to think about passenger care

[Daveywavey70]

16 minutes ago, mcand said:

As of today 12/20, Siversea has not cancelled our Machu Picchu trip, set to begin 1/22/2023, when we disembark Silver Moon. I find it very risky that- knowing what is happening at Cusco-  a cruise line would not take passenger safety first and call it cancelled immediately. I have booked another trip home for the 22nd, so that we have a fall back plan and a seat home. First time with Silversea; not sure what to think about passenger care

They’ll probably sort it out in the end but maybe a little later than you would feel comfortable. Have you spoken to them directly? They do tend to react to situations “alla maniera Italiana” but give them a call to discuss your options. I Recently walked away from an epic Amazon/Beunos Aires/Rio/ Iguazu/Santiago/Easter Island/ Machu Pichu trip when this all kicked off. I Hope you are able to sort a decent alternative.

[mcand]

yes called them today- the lady said they are monitoring but not cancelling as of today. My options are not to do anything until they cancel or hold

(trip insurance and flights)

[Daveywavey70]

I Hope you can sort it soon. I Gave up trying to book a SS cruise recently because they couldn’t move beyond the monitoring the situation stage 3 weeks before departure and lots of flights/tours/hotels depended upon it. We are living in strange times.

[chrism23]

A few things.  I will see Daddyo and others at the Westin in Lima because I will be embarking from there.(if I get to Lima) I'll buy you all a Pisco if we can hook up   I have one MAJOR complaint about the Macchu Picchu tour,  In the promotional material they say that by staying at the Belmond Micchu Picchu, which is literally at the gate, you will have the park and the sunrise all to your self.  Wrong.  At about 5:00 AM you are awakened to the sound of tour buses, lining up for admission to the park.  Quiet it is not.  Second this version has  SS using the Marriot in Lima.  We stayed at the Belmond Miraflores Park(a SS choice) which was one of the best hotels I have ever stayed in-imagine a giant whirlpool in the bathroom that could hold 10  people in warm bubbly comfort.  You can have one helluva of a party.   

 

Also mentioned above is the issue of insurance.  Read the small print carefully if you are using the trip insurance from SS, and I assume most others do the same-no insurance refund in event of war.  Now what is happening in Peru, is not a "war" it is an insurrection.  But I am about 100% certain the insurance company will call it a war, if it continues,  and you are out the bucks.  The only real out here is if SS cancels the excursion.  So if things heat up over the next few weeks one will have to deal with SS.  

 

 

[Mr Luxury]

11 hours ago, Daveywavey70 said:

I Hope you can sort it soon. I Gave up trying to book a SS cruise recently because they couldn’t move beyond the monitoring the situation stage 3 weeks before departure and lots of flights/tours/hotels depended upon it. We are living in strange times.

I'm available for tours of Greenwich and a trip on the Woolwich ferry don't forget 😁

[chrism23]

Sort of my bad.  Sorry.  I reread the insurance policy and it does cover something called TERRORISM.  I can imagine if things go really south we all might have dueling lawyers for years arguing over the definition of terrorism.

 

 BTW My offer to pick up the bar tab for Piscos at the Westin the night before embarking still stands.  Hell, it will be the last time I pay for a drink for the next month.  Cheers