You're right...ABD is a business and they have to look out for their interests of course. And I've never suggested that they're willingly trying to put families at risk. Of course not. I can't imagine how difficult it must be for the administration of ABD to make decisions on the trips. Cancelling China and Italy is easy...the CDC and US Govt are saying "DONT GO" so its an easy call. What to do about France which is right next door, and has over a thousand cases and CDC hasn't said not to go yet? That's a tougher problem for them. To make matters even harder for them, maybe they don't want to cancel when nothing else in Paris has really closed. Louvre, Versailles, and even DLP are all still open. I can understand if people want to still go on this trip, and I'm sure many people will go unless they cancel. There were 32 people booked including my family. Maybe for a lot of those people, they see this whole COVID thing as a bit of BS and want to move on with life. And maybe for some of them as
@sayhello mentioned, they don't have insurance and don't want to lose everything. I want to emphasize if there's anyone on the ABD this week seeing this board, please keep in mind that the situation might be much worse when the ABD is over on the 20th and you might have a hard time getting back home, potentially.
My problem with this trip was that I didn't want to literally walk into a region of the world where cases are going haywire. I thought it irresponsible to literally fly into the eye of a storm. Again, not the UK, but my worry was and always has been France. I didn't want to be in a group traveling around France, going to crowded places like Louvre and Versailles, standing shoulder to shoulder with people jostling to see the mona lisa and be exposed to god knows what. Not worth it for me and my family. Also, I didn't want to be on the other side of the Atlantic and tell my colleagues at work that I'm stuck for 2 weeks. That wouldn't have gone over very well. My wife and I even thought of a plan of going on the ABD to London and basically leaving the group when they go to France...but we decided that was kind of dumb.
My problem with ABD is their lack of communication and attitude that nothing is going on. All is proceeding as usual. Nothing to see here...move on. I got a total of two emails from ABD and all they both said was "let us know if you've been to China or Italy in the last 2 weeks"
And I get what you're saying about hysteria. Hysteria doesn't help any situation. My point to ABD when I said "look, I'm a physician and I'm saying it doesn't seem safe to travel to France" was not to rub it in anyone's face that I'm a doctor...but to convey to them that this is my profession and I'm saying its serious. I think if I weren't a physician, and a physician told me that they themselves are feeling uncomfortable about traveling to a certain country, I would be a bit freaked out.
On a side note, almost all of my colleagues at work (other physicians) have literally told me I'm nuts to even think about going to Europe this week. That's just my experience.
Anyway, to each their own. I think one thing is clear. We are all Disney fans and we all on this board have a certain amount of affection of ABD. That's without a doubt. I'm incredibly bummed out that I'm not going on this trip this week. You guys dont know how much I had researched. Including listening to the podcasts from Pete/John/Kevin about both of their trips multiple times!
But its' important for us to be smart and not fall into the trap of thinking Disney can do no harm. They're a business after all. We just have to do what's right for our families.