Hurricane Irma and St Maarten Vacation - How to Proceed?
I feel bad for even asking about this already. People are suffering, dying even, and there is severe devastation throughout the Caribbean with even more to come. My problem is awfully first world compared to the situation, but it is a problem, nonetheless, and I feel like taking action sooner than later is in my best interest.
My wife and I booked a trip to St. Maarten for September 30 - October 7. It's a free stay for sitting through a time share presentation, so we only had to pay for airfare, which I purchased through Expedia. Not taking into account the very real possibility of a hurricane, I didn't buy any kind of travel insurance. Feeling pretty stupid about that now.
From news reports I've read, the airport was severely damaged, about 95% of the French side is destroyed, and there is a "substantial" amount of damage to the Dutch side, which is where we are staying. Not to mention, there is another hurricane on the way, with the island also in its path.
Other than that, I'm not finding a whole lot of information about this island specifically. Does anyone have experience with traveling somewhere that has been hit by a hurricane recently? Any idea of how long it would take to make repairs to an airport to make it functional? Is this trip still possible? Is there any possibility of any kind of reimbursement for travel tickets if no insurance was purchased but the reason is caused by an act of God? I'll be reaching out to the place we're staying in the next couple days to see what their situation is (I want to give them a day or two to recuperate a bit) and will likely call Expedia too just to see what protocol is.
My wife suggested, if we're still able to go, we try to make the trip a disaster relief effort and help out while we're there. We just looked into Red Cross, and there was stuff about Puerto Rico, but no other islands, and it required a 10 day commitment, which we can't do. But I'm open to other options like that if anyone knows of anything. We feel like if we're going to go, we should at least help out if we're enjoying any amenities while these people are going through what they're going through.
As far as rescheduling the trip, I'm not sure how that works with the stay being booked through a time share place; again, no insurance was placed on the stay. Also, I have family coming from out of town to watch the kids while we're gone, and I would hate to put the expense and inconvenience on them of having to reschedule their flights and all that.
Anybody have any kind of insight, answers, suggestions, anecdotes? All help is appreciated.
Submitted September 07, 2017 at 06:49PM by st_maarten_bound http://ift.tt/2vQnAb8
0 Response to "Hurricane Irma and St Maarten Vacation - How to Proceed?"
Post a Comment