The Canadian will have to wait.
Well, I finally listened to my wife, my daughter, and my doctor and so I have just finished canceling my trip to Washington, DC. I was scheduled to leave in ten days to attend the annual Spring meeting of the Rail Passengers Association in Washington, but from there I was going up to Boston for Opening Day festivities and a ballgame at Fenway Park. It was scheduled for the afternoon of April 2nd, but has been cancelled because of the coronavirus.
Next was to be Toronto where a travel pal and I would enjoy the fabulous ride from there to Vancouver on VIA Rail’s Train #1, The Canadian. Then more baseball games, since, by a happy coincidence, the Red Sox were scheduled to play in Seattle the day after we would be arriving in Vancouver. From Seattle i was the Coast Starlight overnight to Oakland, where the Sox had critically important series.
I’ve learned an interesting factoid from this experience: It’s a whole lot easier and a lot faster to book something than it is to cancel it.
Amtrak’s Julie said it would be at least an hour on hold before I could talk to an agent and cancel my train reservations. Actually, the wait was close to 70 minutes and the time was filled with recorded announcements from Amtrak’s Marketing Department. (Amtrak uses an obviously non-professional female voice to read these announcements. What could possibly be the reason for that?)
I had booked Delta Airlines on my original schedule to get me from Boston to Toronto. Today, the Delta website says I shouldn’t try to cancel my flight until 72 hours from original departure. Same with American Airlines for my flight home to Maui from L.A.
On this cross-country ride home, I actually had a total of seven Amtrak segments, and a very professional, very competent reservations agent got me 100% refunds on all seven segments of what would have been a very nice trip.
Meanwhile—Word just in!—the Rail Passengers Association’s annual Spring meeting has been re-scheduled for June 21-24 in Washington.
OK . . . first, I gotta find out where the Red Sox will be playing on the 25th of June . . .
What are the consequences of Covid-19 in Hawaii, now, Jim? Here, public life has virtually grinded to a halt, the neighbours are cheering on the care workers and other vital workers at 8 pm sharp from our balconies, but other than that, very few people are out, trains and buses are decimated and only necessary trips are allowed as to allow social distancing… It’s bad, and it’s not even half as bad as in Italy or Spain.
Things have pretty much come to a halt. As you know, we are an island state, a minimum of 2600 miles from anywhere, and almost completely dependent on tourism to keep the local economy going. (11 million tourists a year vs local population of about 1.5 million.) A few days ago, our governor directed that everyone arriving here by plane, locals and visitors alike, will be quarantined for 14 days. New cases of the virus are popping up every day, although I would guess we will have much less of a problem than almost anywhere else in the country. Me? I’m fine. Bored to tears, but fine. Mahalo/thanks for asking.
Totally feel you Jim! Had to cancel our trip on the Texas Eagle, but I’m hoping to rebook somewhere else!
I’m disappointed, of course. I’m not sure, but I think it would have been my 9th or 10th trip on the train.