NTSC-RePlay 023: On The Wings and a Prayer

[Neon Ignition]

Twenty Three out of Twenty Five threads and we reach one spun around one I started myself. The time was 26 January 2012 and we had had several country specific threads running so the aim of this general thread was simple:


This isn't NTSC-UK.... this is NTSC-RePlay


The thread was focused on centralising all holiday talk into one place. A place for discussing plans, sharing snaps and talking about memories of holidays old. It worked well too as it was a time when I'd just begun thinking about booking the first holiday for me and my now wife together.

Little did I know that ten years later it would still be the last true holiday I've been on.

So, here we stand in a world where COVID and costs have had a massive impact on where and when we travel.


What notable holidays have you had in the last ten years?

If you've travelled of late, how different is the experience?

What are your holiday plans for the coming years?

[wakka]

Oooh, it's like getting your barnet done.

This year all of my travel has been dominated by weddings and a stag do. I'm just at that time of life, I guess. It's been good in the sense that I've probably travelled more than I would have done this year otherwise, and bad in the sense that it's like a thermonuclear bomb has gone off in my Natwest account.

I visited Edinburgh, Marrakech, and Boston for weddings, and Ibiza for a stag. Really enjoyed all the trips and it was so refreshing to get away after two and a half years basically just inside my flat.

[Asura]

If you've travelled of late, how different is the experience?

We've talked about our Florida honeymoon already, but I'll mention something we glossed over that seems more appropriate here - the day of the flight was nerve-wracking, because we had to take a rapid-response COVID test at the airport after spending the prior 8 weeks avoiding crowds and minimising our time outside/in the company of others.

Not gonna lie; we took the test and were sitting in the terminal at Heathrow waiting for the results, and we were absolutely bricking it. Fortunately it was all okay, but we would've been screwed if there had been a problem.

[Hirst]

I've got a long trip to Bangkok booked for January - straight after the new year so I'm going off work on Christmas Eve and not coming back until nearly February. Fingers crossed!

It was something I started doing a few years back to break up the miserable British winter, but the last time I've been able to go was January 2020 despite various attempts and cancellations since - mostly at their end but one at mine (which would have ultimately been cancelled anyway as it turns out). It was just looking far too sketchy, it seemed likely I'd get there but that it could go into lockdown while I was still there. I'm not too bothered about bars being shut, but it would have been a bit dull if all the non-essential shops and attractions were also closed, with the possibility that it could even be a "stay at home" lockdown where I'd only be allowed to leave the hotel to get food.

At that time, the process would have been pretty insane but I was prepared to do it as I was just sick of being here. I'd have had to drive to Leeds for a pre-flight Covid test the day before so I could present my certificate. I'd need to have my Thailand Pass approved to say I'd had all my vaccinations too, plus proof of my medical insurance. Then I'd have a 7 hour flight (masks on 100%), airport transfer at Qatar (masks on 100%), 8 hour flight (masks on 100%), arrive at the airport (masks on 100%) and have to take a seat whilst they did a PCR test (immediate isolation in hospital if it failed), then a special Covid taxi to the quarantine hotel where I'd be confined to my room and brought meals until they call me out for another Covid test, straight back to the room until the test results (8 hours or next morning usually). Then I'd have to get all my luggage and take another taxi to my actual hotel (because that's different than the quarantine hotel). And at that point I would finally be able to enjoy my holiday, with the legal requirement of wearing a mask both indoors and out unless seated whilst eating/drinking. Phew!

The rules have significantly relaxed since - no testing whatsoever providing you've had your vaccines and no requirement for Thailand Pass any more. The rules on everything else are changing now and then so it's unclear what will happen by the time I go. The main thing that keeps changing are mask rules, whether I need to wear them on the flights or at the airport or when I'm there. I never had a real problem with wearing masks so I'm not as worried as most.

[wakka]

For what it's worth Hirst, the masks thing on planes and in airports seems mostly gone. I had to be masked up for my flights back in March, but by the time I visited the US and Spain in June and July, there was no requirement and no one was wearing them.

[Wools]

The thread was focused on centralising all holiday talk into one place. A place for discussing plans, sharing snaps and talking about memories of holidays old. It worked well too as it was a time when I'd just begun thinking about booking the first holiday for me and my now wife together.

Little did I know that ten years later it would still be the last true holiday I've been on.

So, here we stand in a world where COVID and costs have had a massive impact on where and when we travel.

What notable holidays have you had in the last ten years?

If you've travelled of late, how different is the experience?

What are your holiday plans for the coming years?

It's been 10 years since you last went away? Where did you and your Wife go?

I've done most of my traveling in the past deacade, truth be told! From the age or 0 to the age of 19, all my holidays were in the UK like Devon and Cornwall, with 1 burst of foreign travel as we went to the opening of Euro Disney and I loved it! However, that was the only trip abroard till I was 19 when me and my mate went to Croatia.

In the past 10 years, I've been lucky to travel enough once every 2 or so years. Off the top of my head, I've been to Barbados, Greece, Algarve, Mauritius and been on a 2 week work trip to my old US office in San Francisco. Also, went on a long road trip with a mate from the UK across to France, then Germany, to Belgium then back home on a whistlestop trip. I've not been away since 2019 due to COVID-19 but my Wife and me went away last month to the Algarve, back to the old hotel we stayed at previously. It was wonderful and it was a joy to go away after thinking we were done for during COVID, as I swore my Wife wasn't going to make it as she was a frontline Nurse during the worse initial 2020 lockdown. So to dream of the Algarve while I was WFH and she was front line, not thinking we'll get there and to eventually go away this year, was epic.

My last real dream place to go that I've not been to is Japan. I wanted to go back when I was a teeneager when Japan was truly exciting as a gamer but now isn't the same, due to the deaths of the Arcade and consoles not really being the same as they were. However, my teenage lust of Japan for gaming has been replaced as a love for the country and once again, while being locked up during COVID, I begun watching Abroard in Japan on YouTube and his Podcast. It was a real escape and fantasy of adventure while I was locked up at home. That time made me want to visit the place for a proper trip and now we ticked the Algarve back off our list, me and Mrs Wools have agreed Japan is next.

There's currently issues getting to the country as a visitior (Business and residents only I believe) but there's talk of the country opening up mid next year. So we've already lined up 3 hotels we love the look of, have a small itenary of places we want to visit and things we want to do. So now we're just waiting for more solid confirmation about the state of the country before we'll lay the money down for a trip. Can't wait!

[Hirst]

For what it's worth Hirst, the masks thing on planes and in airports seems mostly gone. I had to be masked up for my flights back in March, but by the time I visited the US and Spain in June and July, there was no requirement and no one was wearing them.

Cheers! It's a bit unclear what the situation is for me now as Qatar went back to a mask rule and the specific airline now seems to require it on all flights regardless (though looking at recent videos it doesn't seem to be properly enforced). But it's still a while away yet. Would be more just annoying for me than anything else, though the missus hasn't ever been on a plane before so I'm hoping it eases off by then as she might be a bit anxious! It's a while off yet though.

That said, my folks were on a flight to Greece back during 2020 when masks were very much required and enforced. They said it was alright, if they needed a breather they'd just get a bottle of water out and have a few breaths between drinking it.

[Neon Ignition]

We went to the US, doing Vegas and LA for the 2012. I posted the thread in the January but by March we'd adapted our holiday plans so that it would also be where we got married. Good job we did as if we hadn't we likely still wouldn't be married today. We arrived in Vegas on the Sunday, picked up the marriage license on the Monday, married at Red Rock Canyon on the Wednesday and then drove to LA on the Friday to spend the weekend doing Disney. Then back to Vegas for the remaining days.

We put off a holiday in 2013 because we'd started trying for a baby and were mindful of booking something only to potentially not be able to go. By 2014 we were still waiting so in the December we did 3 nights outside of EuroDisney which ironically she ended up being pregnant during it so missed half the rides. It was absolutely freezing and they put nothing out for hot food or drink, enjoyed it but a trip like that felt wholesale like a daytrip rather than a holiday. It's way too similar to being over here.

Jr 1 arrived in 2015 and we then had a long and steady journey through the other two kids chaining us through 2017 and 2020 straight into lockdown era too.

As it stands Jr3 is too young for the travel. The other two for longhaul too, they'd be a nightmare. We've looked at cost and logistics, it's very much our big thing now as I don't want them growing up without us ever being able to take them away. The trouble atm is the state of travel as much as the cost. They no longer do direct flights like they used to near us and many of the 1 stop flights bizarrely have waits between flights of 16-24hrs which is insane and impractical. Coupled with the cost we're now kind of thinking our best bet is to spend the next couple of years really pushing on improving our career status.

Ideally the first big holiday would be around the time they're 9, 7 and 4

[QualityChimp]

Florida at Easter was awesome.
I reckon there's loooads more we could have done, but you really can't cram it all into two weeks.
Some people love walking holidays in the Lake District, but I'm happiest in a theme park!

We also do a family holiday together where up to 14 of us stay in a massive house together somewhere in the UK near the coast.
It's a lovely way to see different areas. We've just come back from a week in Devon (near Beer!) and had a lovely time.
Last night, we booked for next year, in Burnham-On-Sea, but we've done Devon, Cornwall, Wales, Norfolk etc.

DaysOutWithTheKids is a brilliant site for planning trips, by the way.

Future plans? Keep the house heated.
Can't forsee when we'll ever go abroad again.
Not saying we won't, but just can't see it at the minute.
Would like to visit Florida again, but with a friend who works for Universal, so gets loads of perks!
We can stay for free at a relative's house in Folkestone, which we love.
May go from there on to EuroDisney one day?

Me and a couple of mates are trying to save up to go to West Coast America in about 5 years time.
Problem is, we keep using it to pay for garden offices and a PS5.
I fear my savings will be spent on heating.

[charlesr]

I managed to get to Jersey in between lockdowns. Really great time.

Just got back from Spain at GF's villa near Valencia. Also great.

[Soundwave]

Last biggies for me were Vegas in 2017 for a week for my 40th birthday & big family trip to Florida in 2019 for both mine & the other halves family

Coming up is Florida again in October for Halloween for us & my parents & my brother...this will be the last big holiday for my parents as they are both 72 & Dad is getting pretty bad on his feet due to serious feet issues that look likely to end up with toe removal should they not clear up in the next few months so going to make the most of him still being slightly mobile

After that I'll be planning Vegas again next year & then depending on what trips are like then a family holiday to somewhere in Spain for the Summer holidays

Neil

[Neon Ignition]

It's nuts that it's cheaper to travel twice as far to west coast US than to do Florida