Trip cancelled? Experience it from home
People get creative after COVID-19 spoils plans for their dream vacations
People all over the world have had to cancel their travel plans — some by choice, and some not — as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Airlines have dramatically decreased flight capacity, new cruises haven’t left ports and half of the hotels in the U.S. alone could shutter in the coming weeks.
So, what are travellers to do amid the novel coronavirus? Recreate those experiences at home, obviously.
Take a look at what people have been doing in lieu of the ability to actually go on vacation — maybe you’ll find inspiration.
A visit to Hogwarts from ‘Harry Potter’
Bryant Holt, 28, and his wife Moira, 29, have been visiting different places every day since they began quarantining. Inside their Montreal apartment, that is.
So far, they’ve “visited” Wrigley Field in Chicago, Temple Bar in Dublin, Ireland (for St. Patrick’s Day), Hogwarts from “Harry Potter” and more. That’s right: You can go anywhere you want, even somewhere that isn’t real.
Bryant, who works in venture capital, and Moira, a school social worker, are in quarantine because they travelled to Morocco on a spring break trip. The Quebec government, like others, asked those who travelled there from a foreign country to self-quarantine for two weeks.
“My wife was supposed to return to Chicago for a week to see her parents, but had to cancel her travel, so we ended up recreating a number of vacations to make up for it,” Bryant told USA Today.
‘A nice silver lining’
Derek Hartman and his partner always travel for Easter. This year, they planned a10-day road trip through the Balkans, including hikes to canyons, gorges and waterfalls.
That trip is cancelled for now. Hartman, 38, and his partner are from Philadelphia but live in Copenhagen on expat assignment. They planned to fly out of Dubrovnik.
The pair are opting to grab takeout from a local Croatian restaurant, enjoy the outdoors near their home that weekend and binge some YouTube videos and travel documentaries about the area.
It gives them a chance “to further scrutinize our planned itinerary and when we finally make the trip, we’ll be extremely prepared,” Hartman told USA Today. A bright spot in all this? After looking more into their stops and talking with other travellers, they realized they want to take a longer vacation.
“I think at this point we want to stretch it to 15 days when we rebook, depending on our work schedules,” Hartman said. “Since we are working from home and not using the vacation time this spring, we figure it will be a nice silver lining to do a longer trip whenever we can travel again.”
‘A little Disney magic’
Lindsay Watts Brightman, 30, and her family were supposed to go to Disney World March 14 to 18. They had to cancel amid the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the world. The park has been closed since March 16 and will be closed for the rest of the month.
Brightman is an avid Disney World fan, having visited the park eight or nine times. She also makes custom items for people’s Disney trips and sells them in an Etsy shop.
But then Brightman, of Providence, R.I., got an idea to distract herself: She decided to do a Disney-from-home vacation.
She wove iconic parts of a Disney trip into each day and had a running story on her Instagram. This included everything from making Mickey waffles to staging a Magic Kingdom dance party.
When it hit her how much she missed Disney’s Festival of Fantasy Parade (it’s her favourite), she decided to make one in her living room. She posted it “for everyone who may also be in need of a smile and a little Disney magic,” she told USA Today.
Viewers watch Disney figurines and stuffed animals, including Cinderella, go past the park’s iconic castle, followed by displays from Disney movies like “The Little Mermaid” and “Peter Pan” — and the parade music makes it feel like you’re almost there. Brightman wasn’t alone in recreating a Disney experience from home. One family’s Pirates of the Caribbean Disneyland ride has gotten attention with more than 200,000 views on YouTube.
Perhaps when the time comes for us all to travel again, we’ll appreciate it that much more — and remember that doing one at home could be another way to go on a journey.