Portimao 29-31 May 2021. RTTL Extravaganza

[weeksy]

If it all goes tits up, whether we lose the deposit or not, we'll be booking a couple of extra Pembreys and making the most of UK dates instead

[Bigyin]

If it all goes tits up, whether we lose the deposit or not, we'll be booking a couple of extra Pembreys and making the most of UK dates instead

If it goes tits up and they keep the deposit because we cant go due to restrictions or paying for quarantine on return with no option to transfer to the following year or some sort of credit then i wont be booking so much as an afternoon tea with them again

[weeksy]

If it all goes tits up, whether we lose the deposit or not, we'll be booking a couple of extra Pembreys and making the most of UK dates instead

If it goes tits up and they keep the deposit because we cant go due to restrictions or paying for quarantine on return with no option to transfer to the following year or some sort of credit then i wont be booking so much as an afternoon tea with them again

I hear you there

[Couchy]

My personal view having just had Covid is I don’t want to go without the vaccine, it took me down in 2 days and then 8 days in bed being looked after. If you’re in a hotel in a foreign country you ain’t getting looked after and you can’t fly home. I wasn’t too worried before but I didn’t think it would hit me so hard or be so bad. How you’d deal with that not being at home I don’t know tbh. I guess I’m saying I’m pretty much out.

[weeksy]

My personal view having just had Covid is I don’t want to go without the vaccine, it took me down in 2 days and then 8 days in bed being looked after. If you’re in a hotel in a foreign country you ain’t getting looked after and you can’t fly home. I wasn’t too worried before but I didn’t think it would hit me so hard or be so bad. How you’d deal with that not being at home I don’t know tbh. I guess I’m saying I’m pretty much out.

Nothing at all wrong with that.

[Dodgy69]

I hope no limits are sensible about this. If there's any chance of the event not running as normal, also entry and exit of Portugal as normal, then they need to make an early decision so we don't lose out.

Personally, I don't mind it getting put back until all is rosey and back to normal. I'd rather have a later date then take any chances. Like I said, hope no limits are sensible.

[scottyuk]

It probably depends if they're treated well. If the track deems they can operate and holds them to the booking then they'll need to cover their costs.

[Yorick]

The ferry is the big cost for us. Not gonna book until get the all clear from NoLimits.

[weeksy]

NL just cancelled their trip for 1-3 of March at Cartagena. I don't know yet if people had paid their balance payment yet or not.

[Cousin Jack]

.................. and then argue with Ryanair for crediting the flights or refunding them as they were paid on credit card.

Good luck with arguing with Ryanair. IME, both personal and professional, they are a very nasty piece of work. Even with formal business contracts they will tear them up when it suits them, and invite you to sue, knowing most businesses are very reluctant to risk court action that will cost 10s of £000s and take years.

[weeksy]

well fuck me if i'm not being the prophet of doom here again.... sorry fellas.

https://www.google.com/search?q=coronavirus+portugal

Looking at the last two weeks’ data, Portugal has both the highest case rate (16,829 per million people) and death rate (340 deaths per million people). These numbers exceed both the UK (case rates 6,480, death rate 250 per million) and the US (case rates 6,920, death rate 131 per million) by a considerable margin. Portugal’s neighbour, Spain, also has lower numbers (case rates 10,500 and deaths 107 per million).

[Yorick]

Might have to move it to Jerez

Or a week enduro riding in Lanzarote

[weeksy]

Might have to move it to Jerez

Or a week enduro riding in Lanzarote

The problem comes with 'dates' due to my boy. NL don't have anything in the Oct half-term currently and indeed may not at all. We can't really take him out of school for a week. So if we were to move it, we may have to consider moving to one that crosses a weekend and then just doing it out-back instead of spending extra days there for a family break.
They do have
Option 1. https://eurotracks.nolimitstrackdays.co ... &aff=&src=

Parcmotor which is Fri/Sat/Sun on track. So he'd miss 2 days of school assuming we flew back on the Monday.

Option 2 at the moment is to just do it next April/May instead....

Option 3 (assuming it's cancelled of course) is just to use the credit on UK dates, but i think option 1-2 is likely better as Mrs Weeksy hasn't really experienced a Euro properly and they are absolutely awesome.

[Tricky]

If it does come to it, Option 1 would definitely get my vote, and TBH I'd probably do it even if others here didn't- would love to try ParcMoto, and (fingers and absolutely everything else crossed!) am very hopeful that the Covid infection rates/hospital admissions will have calmed down and be more under control by then

[weeksy]

If it does come to it, Option 1 would definitely get my vote, and TBH I'd probably do it even if others here didn't- would love to try ParcMoto, and (fingers and absolutely everything else crossed!) am very hopeful that the Covid infection rates/hospital admissions will have calmed down and be more under control by then

OK, so here's where we are. I've pinged NL an email as follows

Morning Claire/all.

I'm sitting here looking at the cases in Portugal sky-rocketing up and thinking "there's no chance of Portugal going ahead"

But the problem we potentially face is, if we wait until you're forced to cancel (which i know isn't your fault) then the other dates we
could potentially book for later in the year may already be full.

There's a date at Parcmotor in Oct that would half-suit our requirements
https://eurotracks.nolimitstrackdays.co ... &aff=&src=

But we'd have to shorten the trip down to fly in, trackday and fly out... Rather than making more of a family holiday.

Now i understand you're in a very tricky position here, but is there no way to potentially move it to that date ?

Just to make it more complex before you answer, if we were to say yes to that, there would be an influx of emails asking the same
thing as there's 18 of me and the lads (and a lady) booked on the Portimao trip. But for transparency i thought to give you the full
information before anything was discussed in more depth.

I know you said that may not be an option if the Portimao date goes ahead, but I'm feeling as the days pass and with Portugal being
the worst cases/instances in Europe at the moment that's looking less and less likely.

So with all that in mind, i thought i'd send you a mail for a bit of a discussion to see where we are.

I want to be as open as possible with everyone on here, everyone there at NL and not end up booking something just because it suits me. But as we're getting closer to Portimao each day, with things looking more and more bleak day on day there, my inclination to either fly or say in Portugal in May is getting lower and lower. But i don't want to completely miss out on the Euro Trip if at all possible.

As you can see above, i've not said to NL "ok, do it...." but if they give us the option, i'm very very much inclined to do so ASAP. Partly because i think it will fill and partly because it would give me a sense of relief that something has been done and i think it's a far more realistic proposition.

Of course, NL may simply say "bugger off, no chance". But I thought i'd ask.

[Yorick]

On a personal note, Parkmotor is a definite no no from me.

But it's your birthday

[weeksy]

SO i got a response from NL

Thanks for the email. Let me speak to Mark about the options however we have kept aside all our Europeans on Portimao/cartagena circuits etc for the end of the year to ensure you have the option to move.

So i'm reading that as saying "we've not put them on the website so you'll have the option to move".

Which is of course a brilliant thing and potentially gives us options for Portimao as well as Parcmotor. Hopefully anyway. I'm not expecting any other steps for a little while as the wheels and cogs sometimes turn slowly as people make decisions, but you all know me by now, i just things to be sorted, organised and planned... Hence why i sent them the initial email.

[Tricky]

On a personal note, Parkmotor is a definite no no from me.

But it's your birthday

It's a win- win then!
Only joking Yoz- seriously- it would be good to see you again ( at least I think it would), and the May trip will definitely be a cracker if it happens with all the current signed up gang, we will all have lots of laughs, of that I'm certain

SO i got a response from NL

Thanks for the email. Let me speak to Mark about the options however we have kept aside all our Europeans on Portimao/cartagena circuits etc for the end of the year to ensure you have the option to move.

So i'm reading that as saying "we've not put them on the website so you'll have the option to move".

Which is of course a brilliant thing and potentially gives us options for Portimao as well as Parcmotor. Hopefully anyway. I'm not expecting any other steps for a little while as the wheels and cogs sometimes turn slowly as people make decisions, but you all know me by now, i just things to be sorted, organised and planned... Hence why i sent them the initial email.

Excellent, that sounds good cheers

[Dodgy69]

When is end of year. ??? I'm definitely wanting a euro trip. Would prefer portimao later, rather than Spain earlier. Then there's the flights to sort aswel.

Covid could still be a problem later in the year. Good comms though.

[weeksy]

I'd assume Oct/Nov but i honestly only have this information at this stage. Before i do anything hasty i will put any thoughts up both on here and in the Portimao whatsapp so people can throw their input in.

It's completely possible that Portimao may be pear shaped in Oct, but maybe Spain too... but all we can do is try our best to make the most of what we can change... I'm not saying the May date is dead to me... but my personal preference would be to pull May and move to something/anything several months later.