disneyland paris Cancelation! Help please

[dalderman]

Hi
so, after almost a year of waiting, planning etc we were all set to board the train to Disneyland Paris on Monday morning
Sunday night however had other plans, my wife started being violently sick, followed my me then our son. When the dr came out he said we had the Norovirus. It was horrible, wont go into the details but by Friday we were on the mend. But the holiday was missed. I rang Disney on the Monday morning trying to explain but their line is that as we cancelled, 'no exchanges no refunds'. My son is being very good about it but being 3 keeps asking are we going tomorrow.
we didn't have travel insurance, and the whole package cost about £700
Trying to rebook this year is more like £900 incl trains, money i just don't have
does anyone have any advice? Should i ring Disney again? A pleading letter?

any hints or advice would be great, i don't know what to do. Cant afford to replace the holiday we missed due to sickness

Dave

I doubt you will get anywhere. Possibly if you had called on the Sunday or even Monday. They couldn't resell the room. Insurance is so vital even for short trips. You could try writing but, I wouldn't hold out much hope. sorry you were all ill.

Are you sure you don't have any insurance cover?

Did you pay on credit card? Is there any cover with your household insurance or bank account etc?

Glad you're all on the mend.

I'm sorry to say that without travel insurance there isn't much you can do. Like PP said, have a look and see if you have travel insurance through a bank account or even with home insurance. Disneyland Paris will not help you here, their policy is 100% cancellation that close to departure.

Unfortunately, it may be a case of lesson learnt and make sure you are covered next time.

sorry about this.

please take one thing away - always get insurance. Not only for this, but to guard against the small but non-zero possibility of an accident abroad leaving you with enormous medical bills. The EHIC does not cover everything, although you need that too. It is free and insurance for Europe is not pricey.

Two words

Travel insurance

I did pay on credit card, does this give me any sort of cover?

none of our bank account or cards come with free travel insurance
we didn't pay the extra for insurance to, ironically, keep costs down.
never again

looks like i will write them a letter and give MBNA a call

thanks everyone

I found this googling MBNA travel inconvenience. It looks like a tiny glimmer of hope.

doesn't hurt to try. But it shows how useless credit card policies are. No medical cover, no repatriation.