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Maybe you are finding yourself in the same unfortunate boat right now. Our trip is cancelled and we are heartbroken. That simple fact affected me more than I would care to admit. Our bags are in a pile and are still half-packed. Camera gear was being prepared, our playlist was made, reservations were checked, our bunny had a sitter, new underpants had been purchased (is that just me?). We were counting down the days until we could be in my favorite place with some of my favorite people creating memories that I had played over and over again in my head.
Note for future trips : Keep grandiose expectations in check.
This week was meant to be a super exciting week for our family. We were gearing up to share a story with you that we’ve been planning officially for 14 months now, although we’ve been dreaming about it a lot longer. I know we are all in this together and you have had to deal with this crazy virus in ways that are far less pleasant than just losing a vacation that you were dreaming about. Loss of income, health, and even life is far more serious than having to “unplan” a vacation. Please don’t read this as any where near that level. With Spring Break just around the corner, I know you might be facing uncertainty with travel plans and I wanted to offer some insight into the next steps if you too find yourself saying, “our trip is cancelled”.
The news has been on our radar for months, but nothing in my mind was registering the magnitude of the problem or the fact that the entire world could come to a standstill in less than a week’s time. We wavered between getting on a flight that could leave us stranded or staying home. When the news came that Europe was off limits and our flight followed with a cancellation almost immediately, we had our answer.
If you are finding yourself in these rather stinky shoes, know that you aren’t alone. I’d like to share a few tips with how we’ve unplanned the trip of our dreams.
Start with your Travel Agent
Congratulations! If you booked your trip through your travel agent, the words “our trip is cancelled” don’t ring as heavily in your ears because you have one point of contact. Give your favorite travel agent a call or send them an email. Chances are, they are already working on it for you. You might also want to send them a little treat for all of the extra hours they are putting in right now mopping up everyone’s travel messes.
Unfortunately, when we do a trip like this one, we prefer to plan it ourself, so the weight of un-planning this trip was also on our shoulders.
Contact Your Airline
If I’m honest, until 4pm last Friday, our plans were still to get on a plane if they would let us, but our hopes of that happening were dwindling. When we knew our trip was cancelled, Step 1 of the plan was to contact the airline. Thankfully, so much of that work can be done online now without ever having to wait to speak to someone on the phone. Call volumes are at an all time high, but it isn’t impossible if you would like to speak to someone. Since our flight was actually cancelled with no hopes of rerouting, our options were to request a refund or a travel voucher that would be good for the next 12 months. Because of the uncertainty, we opted for the refund in the hopes that we would be able to try again soon.
For a really awesome list of airlines and their policies regarding COVID-19, check out this post from The Krazy Coupon Lady.
Contact Your Accommodations
Step 2 was the next biggest item on our list. For this trip, we had two homes reserved through HomeAway and Airbnb (links to COVID-19 policies). Our hosts at one of the homes has been super supportive and was able to cancel our reservation with a full refund with very little work on our part. Airbnb made their cancellation process easy for us as well. The travel industry is taking a huge hit right now, but both of these platforms are handling it so well, recognizing traveler’s needs through this unparalleled time. A note to both of our hosts with our sincere apologies and a few clicks through our trips on HomeAway and Airbnb’s websites had our full refunds on the way in a short amount of time.
Up Next : Ground Transport
Step 3 on our “our trip is cancelled” agenda : contacting our rental car agency. We decided to “unbook” our trip in a way that reflected the biggest ticket item down to the smallest. Our rental car company made this simple again with an option to either request a refund for our deposit or accept a voucher to honor the car’s price for 24 months. We went with the later option, again hoping that the dream isn’t dead – just delayed.
Tickets & Excursions
The final piece to this rather unpleasant puzzle was undoing the things that we were looking forward to the most. I had booked a session with a photographer to take some family pictures for us. It was going to be the first time that we weren’t in DIY mode with family photos in about 4 years and my heart was set on these beautiful photographs that would fill our home. Thankfully, the photographer was gracious and kind and assured me that when we finally made our dream trip happen, we could count on her to schedule us in. The other was a ticket to a dream location that would be one of the highlights of our trip. I am still communicating with the company directly but haven’t been able to get a refund as of yet.
Check on those reservations and tickets that you have already purchased to see what specific companies policies are. Here is some info regarding Disney. I know so many were looking forward to that with kids for Spring Break.
Travel Insurance
And that brings me to travel insurance. We get travel insurance for every single trip that we go on. Scratch that – every single trip that we go on that involves a plane. Road trips not so much. Time and again, it has proved itself more than useful. This trip was no different and for any expenses that aren’t being refunded, I am hopeful that our insurance will cover it.
In another weird twist, where most of the travel industry is stepping up to help out their customers, travel insurance seems to be all over the place. I’m reading reports of some policies doing an awesome job to cover losses where others are saying that COVID-19 is a completely unique situation that will leave you exposed financially if purchased after a certain date. Check with your provider to make sure you have the most accurate information.
Staying Home
Now that we know we are home for the foreseeable future, it’s actually lightened the load that I was carrying with indecision about staying or going. Only you can decide what is right for you and your family. Be sure to do your research and make an educated decision. In our case, the decision was made for us. This homeschooling, slightly OCD, germaphobic (on a normal day), homebody truly doesn’t mind shutting ourselves in with my favorite people. I’ve been training for this my whole life. 🙂 To take care of ourselves, we are still doing the things that we normally do.
- Get lots of rest.
- Boost our immune systems with Encompass Nutrients, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Zinc, and Elderberry (we normally take all of those anyways during cold & flu season). For the record, you’ll find Vitamin C, D, and Zinc in Encompass Nutrients (along with about 20 other vitamins and minerals that will help give your immune system a boost). Those vitamins are getting increasingly difficult to find on their own in stores and online, so you might as well enjoy the benefits of purchasing them as an all-in-one nutrient. Just sayin’.
- Enjoy the extra relaxed time with family. We are reading even more books than normal, playing even more games, are enjoying lots of family walks, and intend to make this a really special time together. It’s still really cold here, so yesterday we laid the seats down in the back of our SUV and had a family picnic. It doesn’t take much.
- We aren’t worrying. Friends, I am a perpetual worrier, but where the rest of the world seems to have lost its mind, I am actually quite calm through all of this.
1 Peter 5:7 says, “Cast all of your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”
In Phillippians 4:8, you’ll see, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
Don’t allow your mind to get swept up in the storm of panic that seems to surround us. It isn’t doing anything to help your mind or body.
In completely unprecedented moves, the travel industry is making changes to allow for the uncertainty of the days to come with flexible options in flights, travel insurance, and cruising among other things. We aren’t sure of what will come, but we continue to dream about making this vacation happen. It might not be the timeline that I was hoping for, but we are going to continue to pray and trust God through this uncertain time.
How are you doing? What dreams are you putting on hold for someday? Stay well, enjoy those you love, appreciate the small moments with gratitude, and keep on dreaming!
