HELP - holiday of a lifetime about to be ruined and I don't know what to do.

[TadlowDogIncident]

I don't expect sympathy for this one but am wondering if anyone has any advice.

Ages ago, I booked us an incredibly expensive holiday to mark a special occasion, flying out to Italy and coming home by train. We're travelling next week. I checked when I paid the balance for the train trip that we could get into Italy without Covid tests, which we can as we're fully vaccinated, and obviously there's no requirement to test to come back to the UK. When I booked, the booking conditions said it was our responsibility to make sure we had appropriate passports, visas and vaccination certificates if required. All fine, all in place.

They've emailed today with the tickets, with a covering email saying we have to have a Covid test within the 24 hours before we get on the train. Which would be fine too, except that Italy still has Covid quarantine. So if one of us tests unexpectedly positive, we have to quarantine for at least 7 days and DD will miss the start of school the following week. If I'd had the foggiest clue they were going to do this to me, I wouldn't have paid the balance, but there was no mention of it when i did that 8 weeks ago. No reference on their website either.

I don't know what to do. Insurance not relevant - it doesn't cover disinclination to travel, which I'm sure is how they'd class this. We can all take Covid tests before we go, but that doesn't mean one of us won't catch it while we're there and test positive.

I'm in a flat spin. This was meant to be a lovely celebration trip and I'm now stressed out of my head. Anyone have any suggestions?

Im really sorry to read that @WakeyCakeyHeart

Your post should indeed be a proportion check to anyone.

Hang in there. 💐

We would have to quarantine under the Italian rules - that’s the one thing I have been able to check today. So if the insurers won’t do medical repatriation we’re potentially stuck in a hotel room for 7 days. I don’t have health anxiety but I am claustrophobic.

Any hotel room that you would need to quarantine in will be a hell of a lot bigger than a cabin on a train!

Have a home rapid test before you go. If positive stay home. If negative you are really unlikely to develop it in between leaving and getting your Italy test.

Have any of you had covid in the last 90 days (and reported it)? If so do a recovery test certification instead of the lat flow test use that instead.

Or do a video lat flow test. Do your own lab flow test an hour or so before. If you're all negative, crack on. If someone is positive, do the video ate flow one really, really badly ....

I get it as due to go to canary islands soon and no test needed but keep worrying what if someone gets ill and do they still have ling quarantine
Hopefully your insurance covers flight home instead

Now I'm no Hercule Poirot, but it does sounds like your master plan was to actively take Covid onto the orient express.

There's no salvaging, nothing is 'ruined' wouldn't you rather all other passengers were Covid free?

If you are that bothered about the quarantine.

Take many LT tests with you, test a few days before the trip to check you’re not positive then go and do the covid test you need to do.

you’d have to live with the idea that you KNOW you are positive, very likely to infect others but will still take a plan/train to get home…

@Spartak, but I can leave the cabin on the train whenever I like - makes all the difference. Claustrophobic is the wrong word, I can’t deal with being shut in.

I really am that bothered about the quarantine (who are these people who wouldn’t be bothered?). And yes, the plan is to test before we go. Part of today’s task is to ring the insurer and find what evidence they need if one of us tests positive before we go and we have to cancel the whole trip. There’s no reason to suppose we will, we’re all well, but part of my job is planning for the worst case situation.

why are you worrying about something that almost certainly won't happen ? I would hate to live a life of 'what if' - it must be bloody exhausting.

Evaluate your options based on your current information and make a decision.

@Sortilege I'm ok, 5 weeks ago things were 'normal' and now they aren't, but no good worrying as it won't achieve anything at all. Hopefully leaving hospital today after my surgery and then I'll deal with each day as it comes x

This whole thing is totally over the top. "holiday of a lifetime" "ruined"
Nothing has happened, nothing at all.
You get a covid test before boarding the train. In the highly unlikely event it is positive you will have to quarantine. You will then have to deal with that IF it happens.
You can choose not to go at all if you are that worried about quarantine.
But all this drama leaves a bad taste in the mouth when you read about people (such as on this thread) receiving an unexpected cancer diagnosis and all that brings with it, or the woman on another thread who is sitting in ICU today waiting for her 18 year old son's life support machine to be switched off after he attempted suicide.
You really do need to get a grip OP.

You do know you could get run over by a Vespa, or choke on a pizza or trip over a kerb and ruin your holiday? Literally anything could happen to stop you getting on the train but you’re not stressing about them. Go on the trip, take sensible precautions and if anything goes wrong, that’s what insurance is for.

You get one at a pharmacy. Not all are set up but many are. Some places ask you to book but most just get you to take a ticket, fill out forms and wait in line. It costs €15 (I think, it was a govt mandated price when we had restrictions, might have gone up again now). You then receive a QR code certificate which you can use as proof of a negative result and is valid EU wide.

If part of your job is planning for worst case scenarios you should surely be familiar with the notion of risk assessment?

It’s simply not that likely to happen that you are otherwise entirely well but test positive at the point you’re due to take the train. Admittedly it’s one of the more likely risks to the success of your trip but it’s still unlikely.

Take reasonable precautions ahead of your trip to reduce the chance of getting ill, test before you go, wear a high standard mask on the plane. Enjoy your trip.

Yes but you're only in the cabin for one night. Not 7! OP I wouldn't want to quarantine either. I would do what a pp said, take some LFTs and do them before you do the official test. Then if you are positive you can fly home (though you'd lose the money for the train in that case as you can't admit to them you are positive or you'd have to quarantine, but I'd rather lose the money than do the quarantine).

I can see why you are cross, they've changed the terms and conditions after you booked, but sadly they can do that for overriding health reasons like this.

I wouldn't go anywhere where quarantine was a possibility.

Actually they weren't entitled to do it - they gave me a refund because they'd varied the contract unilaterally (no overriding health reason, they've obviously just decided it will be a selling point for their customers, or at least most of them). We'll fly home instead. So we'll have two days in Italy in a nice hotel without worrying about what the Covid tests might turn up, which is a massive weight off my mind and means we can look forward to the trip.

Shame about the Orient Express, but maybe we'll be able to do that another time for the next really special occasion - but next time we'll make sure we're getting the train from the UK rather than trying to come home on it!