Upper Arlington Woman’s Mexican Trip Canceled
Less than 24 hours before Beth Siracuse was supposed to leave for Cabo San Lucas, Rovia World Ventures cancelled her all-inclusive trip because of the swine flu.
UPPER ARLINGTON, Ohio— With the concern over the potential worldwide spread of swine flu, the first line of attack is travel as more governments are advising citizens not to travel to Mexico unless absolutely necessary.
Less than 24 hours before Beth Siracuse was supposed to leave for Cabo San Lucas, Rovia World Ventures canceled her all-inclusive trip because of swine flu.
She’s been planning her trip for nine months as she and five college friends planned to meet there for an all-inclusive vacation—despite a government warning.
“We have all of our Purell hand sanitizers. We’ve got wipes to wipe down the airplane. We’re actually bringing some masks down and it’s one of those things my doctor said, if you see other people walking around wearing masks, then put the mask on,“ Siracuse said.
During Siracuse’s interview with NBC 4, she received notification that part of her trip was canceled.
She was left with several options. She could choose to fly to Mexico anyway and possibly pay more for her accommodations, postpone her trip to Mexico or go to another destination.
After a few more phone calls and checking online, Siracuse and her friends in three other states decided to move forward.
“I think we’re still going to go. We had too many moving parts. Six people with four different airlines, trying to figure out a different location and negotiating all the babysitting we’d have to do with the 14 children we all have together. We’re just going to go,“ she said.
Siracuse said she was a little nervous on Monday with all the media coverage and almost panicked. But she said as long as the planes are going, they’re going.
She also has trip insurance that covers government issues, personal health or sickness.
The U.S. Government is discouraging travel to Mexico. AAA Travel is not, although some customers are requesting changes.
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Reader Reactions
For Pete’s sake. Even if hundreds of people have the flu it’s still only a tiny fraction of the population anywhere. Every year, the media and the government conspire to scare the living . . . uh . . . crap out of people about one or another illnesses. Remember SARS? Remember Bird Flu? Gullible people have been whipped into a frenzy over a few hundred people WORLD WIDE getting the flu. Last week, I calculated the confirmed cases as being .0000000478% of the population. Even if every one of the cases were in Ohio, it’d be ridiculous to give the matter as much media attention as the story has had. Just goes to show you, people will buy all the fear you want to sell them. Go on the trip. Have fun. Forget about the doomsayers.
No one should make decisions based solely on others’ opinions but it would behoove these travelers to read the comments posted here. It’s a dose of reality if for no other reason than the reaction they can expect if they would, God forbid, contact the flu and bring it back with them. He-llo!
Just goes to show you can live in a really nice part of Columbus and still have no brains whatsoever. The real irony would be if the borders are closed once they are in Mexico. Then I guess they’d better hope they speak the lingo.
I am dumbfounded over the selfishness of these Mothers. They are consciously and deliberately putting their children in harms way. It’s a gamble that I certainly would not be willing to take for the sake of a little fun in the sun with a bunch of like minded idiots.
If they planned it once, they can plan it twice. It’s my understanding that ALL in the travel industry are waving their rescheduling fee’s, so what is wrong with these women? Other than the obvious…
I am trying very hard to be “nice” about a “group” of rich women whining about a “vacation” being cancelled.
This is not news and not worthy of air time ....... They almost showed some real arrogant ignorance !!!!!
and FYI not envious! A little Commonsense needs to be used here! The World Health Organization has given this outbreak the highest alert that it has ever given for an epidemic! and while our administration has yet to ban travel to Mexico other countries have and all of this needs to be taken into consideration!
It has been reported on NBC4 this morning that these women are going ahead with their trip! because they had planned it for so long and it would be difficult to reschedule, and where they are going is not the epicenter of the virus! well yea for them! my only hope is that upon their return we do not see our first case in central Ohio! Some one posted that comments from others have not been very nice that may be true but you have to wonder what are they thinking! they have stated that they have trip insurance airlines are refunding monies that people have paid for tickets to Mexico wouldn’t it be wise to cancel the trip now then wait if possible 9 more months then go when this thing has subsided!
Some of these viewer’s comments are really not very nice. (They must be envious) This is a young lady who had a vacation planned with friends for awhile. I know several people who are debating whether to travel or not. It is a nice local story that wasn’t about someone being killed or some other awful thing that makes me turn off the tv! Thank you channel 4 for going with your instincts on what viewers are interested in seeing!
I think it’s supposed to be a human interest story, a way to tie in an international story to the local level. It’s still not news, in that it was inevitable that someone in the area was planning a trip to Mexico. Apparently there isn’t enough happening in the area. . oh wait, that’s not true. Must be someone is too lazy to go out there and get the real stories.
i just got to ask how is this considered news?
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