Portimao 29-31 May 2021. RTTL Extravaganza

[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.

[Bigyin]

Reassuring that they are already looking at the option of moving the May date to the end of the year.

As for Parcmotor i have only ever seen it used by car shows as a test facility. Look like a fast open track from what little i have seen of it.

Thanks for the update mate and prodding NL into life, i guess its watch this space time

[Yorick]

Barcelona is cold November. And prone to rain.
South east Spain is still warm and famously dry.

Jerez is stunning.
Cartagena great fun.
Almeria is pants.

[weeksy]

Barcelona is cold November. And prone to rain.
South east Spain is still warm and famously dry.

Jerez is stunning.
Cartagena great fun.
Almeria is pants.

Doesn't matter if they don't have any dates at any of the other places, we can only pick what's possible

[fil2]

Barcelona is cold November. And prone to rain.
South east Spain is still warm and famously dry.

Jerez is stunning.
Cartagena great fun.
Almeria is pants.

Almeria is not pants....its a great little circuit for a cheap winter bargain...we had 4 days all in for less than £700 flights car hire hotels etc...not a full summer GP circuit granted but for an early or late doors event its cracking

[Yorick]

Barcelona is cold November. And prone to rain.
South east Spain is still warm and famously dry.

Jerez is stunning.
Cartagena great fun.
Almeria is pants.

Almeria is not pants....its a great little circuit for a cheap winter bargain...we had 4 days all in for less than £700 flights car hire hotels etc...not a full summer GP circuit granted but for an early or late doors event its cracking

Just IMHO. Too many dull corners. I like a corner to make me grin. Quite often I was thinking "get these dull ones out of the way, then some ok ones".

[weeksy]

So then kiddies, here's the latest reply from NL so we can discuss and assess

Hi Steve,
Normally there would be a loss of deposit however we do understand where you are coming from.
I have looked at your booking and you have booked extra nights which are outside of our package. Also moving 18 could be a problem.
We do have a reserve list on this event which I could contact if you want to speak to your group before I try and sell some of your spaces.
There would be a nominal fee of £30 per person to move these bookings however any charges for the cancelled hotel rooms (outside our package) would also have to be covered.

My reply was basically.
That sounds fair, but before we decide, do any of the other dates you're 'holding' span over a weekend at Portimao or half term.
(i think it's actually 15 riders not 18)

The fact the Parcmotor date are Fri-Sun really helps out from the school/family situation for us.

I also asked her to contact the hotel and see how understanding they are and if there's any charges from them.

I've looked into the flight options and whilst you could argue that is a bit crap as we've paid a LOT more for the flights to Portimao than we'd be charged for flights to Barcelona, a flight is still a flight, we'd have to just suck it up and accpet it as expensive flights for Barcelona lol. But they have lots of options with Easyjet.

As always, i'll await any feedback on here before going in feet first...

[weeksy]

reply

We have the 3-5th September at Portimao but extra night prices are more expensive and we only have the circuit hotel at the moment. You could book tracktime/transport only and do your own hotel?

With our boy starting school that week i'm inclined to take the October date as it's a month later.

[Yorick]

I looked at hotels on Google and were cheaper than NL website.

[Couchy]

Ryanair want £180 to move flights to October, room cancellation, car rebooking and no limits charge takes it to nearly another £270 on top of what's been paid for me. It's a non issue as we have a family holiday booked in October anyway.

[weeksy]

Ryanair want £180 to move flights to October, room cancellation, car rebooking and no limits charge takes it to nearly another £270 on top of what's been paid for me. It's a non issue as we have a family holiday booked in October anyway.

It's a shit-fest for sure isn't it

I give up

[Couchy]

Ryanair want £180 to move flights to October, room cancellation, car rebooking and no limits charge takes it to nearly another £270 on top of what's been paid for me. It's a non issue as we have a family holiday booked in October anyway.

It's a shit-fest for sure isn't it

I give up

Aye nothing we can do tbh we all tried and we don't know about May being cancelled yet.

[Yorick]

Ryanair want £180 to move flights to October, room cancellation, car rebooking and no limits charge takes it to nearly another £270 on top of what's been paid for me. It's a non issue as we have a family holiday booked in October anyway.

Going anywhere nice ?

[weeksy]

Ryanair want £180 to move flights to October, room cancellation, car rebooking and no limits charge takes it to nearly another £270 on top of what's been paid for me. It's a non issue as we have a family holiday booked in October anyway.

It's a shit-fest for sure isn't it

I give up

Aye nothing we can do tbh we all tried and we don't know about May being cancelled yet.

The difference is, personally May isn't even in my equations, it's not in my discussion, i'm not comfortable going to an airport and flying in May, i don't care how many people tell me it's safe, for me, i'm not happy doing it. I think Mrs Weeksy may be more inclined to go in May than me, which may have to swing the debate, but TBH i'd rather lose the £580 than go in May.

[Couchy]

It's a shit-fest for sure isn't it

I give up

Aye nothing we can do tbh we all tried and we don't know about May being cancelled yet.

The difference is, personally May isn't even in my equations, it's not in my discussion, i'm not comfortable going to an airport and flying in May, i don't care how many people tell me it's safe, for me, i'm not happy doing it. I think Mrs Weeksy may be more inclined to go in May than me, which may have to swing the debate, but TBH i'd rather lose the £580 than go in May.

My view too, I can't imagine catching covid there and going through what I did but confined to a hotel room on your own with no one to look after you. Basically I'm saying goodbye to £1075, my choice though and like I said we couldn't predict this so was worth booking

[Tricky]

Ryanair want £180 to move flights to October, room cancellation, car rebooking and no limits charge takes it to nearly another £270 on top of what's been paid for me. It's a non issue as we have a family holiday booked in October anyway.

It's a shit-fest for sure isn't it

I give up

Do not despair matey- I'm not seeing it as any form of shit-fest from where I sit, yet, anyway- - end of May is is over 3 months away, a lot can change in that time and it could all still go ahead as planned

And if it doesn't, I at least will be up for ParcMotor in Oct, and if it does , I may well still be up for it in addition to Porto in May but I'm not making any rash decisions yet - Patience young (well, , relatively speaking only ) Grasshopper !

[Dodgy69]

Yep, hang on a few more weeks and see. and it's nearly 4 months away.

[Welsh Muffin]

Just to add to this, I have a client who I speak to on a weekly basis who's Portuguese and currently stuck in Portugal due to their lockdown. So getting first hand information from someone who is actually in the country. I know there's a while to go until we need to make a final decision. Current update from him............'things are shite', but we know that.

So I'll be getting regular updates from him and let you guys know. Information can only be a good thing

[Yorick]

I told the lads about the problems, and they've decided to skip coming to watch and they're all booking the ferry from here Sunday 30th.

If me and Penny do Portimao, that will be the ferry she will be going back on anyway, so will be ideal. There's a few hours turnaround so she gets to see the boys for a bit.
If we don't do the TD, then I'll jump on the ferry with them on the 30th

It's only 240€ as a resident, with a cabin

[Bigyin]

On the downside the UK Govt have now announced the 10 day quarantine hotel rule for Portugal among other countries starting Feb 15 but no mention of duration it will be in force

On the plus side figures released look like everyone in the UK over the age of 50 will be vaccinated by mid April and possibly earlier which inlcudes the majority of us old giffers booked onto the trackday so may be exempt from said quarantine on production of a vaccine certificate

More things to keep in mind for the next couple of months