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I would hope so and during the off hurricane season???
Airline is offering a change in plans with no penalty.
Cayman Villas (house rental) is supposed to call. What I am getting so far is that I will loose my $$ if I don't come unless the plane can't fly in. Then if the GC govt calls for an evacuation, they will reimburse me for $$ for nights I did not stay.
Gal there said: BUT, will have to pay for an airline ticket off the island. Guess I also loose the portion of the airline ticket I already have.
That's kind of a bummer!!! We also found out from experience that once you order your vacation package, you're stuck with it unless your vacation location is pretty much wiped out. It doesn't really seem fair to jeopardize people's lives like that. Not sure if it's survival or greed from the businesses.
Not to defend the travel industry or hotel owners, but I can see their point. What if the hurricane misses your vacation spot because it suddenly takes a weird jog to the left (or right)? If you decided not to go, but everything is intact, why should they lose money? Of course, this is a crap shoot. You have to weigh the risks very carefully. I'd err on the side of caution, because I really wouldn't want to get stuck because I couldn't find a flight off the island with a giant storm encroaching!
Cayman Villas boss called and was very very nice. She said while we would not get a refund, the cancellation policy allows us to cancel and we have up to a year to rent the house applying the funds we already paid.
Told us there is a chance that the house could be boarded up on Thursday. Read on Cayman sites that some govt offices are closed so employees can board up bldgs. Read people are going to the stores to stock up etc. Staying in a house, we had planned on going to restaurants and were concerned they would be boarded up, not sure how grocery supplies would be, etc.
At 5am decided we just could not risk the trip (our flight was to take off at 6am). Also concerned we would get there today and have to evacuate tomorrow.
USAir is being great about rescheduling. Hopefully all will work out well. I'll let you know where and when we are going. Thanks for all for your help.
God Bless the Cayman Islands and hope Gustav dies or totally misses them. Read on one site a woman in Cayman Brac said last night "the first outer band of Gustav passed over Cayman Brac at 11 pm EST with roaring thunder, lots of lightning, some wind and a good, healthy rain."
Cayman Villas boss called and was very very nice. She said while we would not get a refund, the cancellation policy allows us to cancel and we have up to a year to rent the house applying the funds we already paid.
Told us there is a chance that the house could be boarded up on Thursday. Read on Cayman sites that some govt offices are closed so employees can board up bldgs. Read people are going to the stores to stock up etc. Staying in a house, we had planned on going to restaurants and were concerned they would be boarded up, not sure how grocery supplies would be, etc.
At 5am decided we just could not risk the trip (our flight was to take off at 6am). Also concerned we would get there today and have to evacuate tomorrow.
USAir is being great about rescheduling. Hopefully all will work out well. I'll let you know where and when we are going. Thanks for all for your help.
God Bless the Cayman Islands and hope Gustav dies or totally misses them. Read on one site a woman in Cayman Brac said last night "the first outer band of Gustav passed over Cayman Brac at 11 pm EST with roaring thunder, lots of lightning, some wind and a good, healthy rain."
The GFDL model responds by intensifying Gustav to a Category 3 hurricane as it passes through the Caymans. I think it is plausible that Gustav could intensify further, to Category 4 strength, before hitting the Caymans, though the most likely intensity is Category 2
TY Matty.
I really like Weather Underground and JM's blog. He really puts the info from models etc together in a way that one can really understand.
We are still keeping an eye on GC. I read on a blog on another site that GC Airlines had cancelled flights to GC from 8/27-8/30. Bummer that USAir did not. If they had, I'd get my FF points back without a penalty. As it is, if I fly somewhere within 7 days then I pay no fee, it not, I pay $150 pp (3 of us) to redeposit my FF points. So while USAir is being kind, they could give me more of a break. Oh well, at least not all is lost. I checked and the flight did go as scheduled. Anyhow, still keeping an eye on Gustav, GC, and future Tropical Storms cuz playing with the thought of trying to go down next week (or somewhere) to avoid the redeposit fee.
I've been hopping from site to site to get the info on weather sites you guys and other sites have given me. So I am listing them all in one place in case anyone else is interested:
http://stormcarib.com/ - interesting info by clicking on these links on the site:
Gustav tools: distance closest point advisories storm centered image and loop
http://stormcarib.com/ - click on Cayman Islands on the right side of the webpage
There are blogs by people on the Caymans reporting what is going on
I agree with Angel. It's better to be safe then sorry and you'd be on edge that it'd be hard to enjoy your vacation.
I guess I should've been more specific about things I've learned when booking a flight. In our specific case, we cancelled and were charged a cancellation fee for the extra things~no fine through the airline. They gave us one year to use our balance. It's basically a vacation credit that we can use for car, motel, flight, or entertainment tickets. Unfortunately, it's through an airline that only flies to specific places.
As of today's information, my suggestion would be to not go. Aren't they already evacuating the Cayman's?
Good question. I don't find any "official" word on evacuation yet I find where hotels, etc. are strongly encouraging visitors to leave, the airport has set up tents and are allowing vendors to sell food, you can get a 1-way ticket out of GC for $250, etc.
Cayman has put a restriction on who enters the island - only residents, etc.
We had been in GC a 4-5 months before Ivan hit so we were very interested in what was going on. After Ivan you could barely find out anything on the news or anyplace about destruction on the island. It seemed like the GC govt put a lock-down on what word was getting out.
Only heard about the situation by posts on sites like stormcaribe.
Was in GC in March of 2007 and you could still see quite a bit of evidence of Hurricane Ivan (2004) if you got away from 7MB area - several homes with only 2-3 sides, the 2 end units on the place we stayed were mostly gone, trees gone, etc.
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We also found out from experience that once you order your vacation package, you're stuck with it unless your vacation location is pretty much wiped out. It doesn't really seem fair to jeopardize people's lives like that. Not sure if it's survival or greed from the businesses.
