 Poster: A snowHead
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I just feel so sorry for everyone who was ment to get the Eurostar ski train this morning.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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That'll be me the wife and the kids then. Another expensive night in the hotel and we have been told it will run tomorrow (Sunday). If it doesn't then I don't know what we'll do, I guess we'll have to try and blag some flights somewhere.
Such a nightmare as we were so fed up with airports we thought we'd give the train a go this year.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Hope you guys can claim on your travel insurance, seriously bad luck and horrible irony given snow has caused this. I managed to take the TGV in France in a snow storm after 2 days of solid snow - it left on time to the minute. I wish all other rail services were as good.
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Sorry to say but the BBC are reporting Eurostar will not run any services on Sunday.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I had been wondering what would have happened to the ski train.. how awful for people who have already missed two days of their skiing holiday. Wonder what has happened to those returning from france..are they stuck in Bourg or is this the first week of the eurostar ski train.
Dave B - I hope you and your family manage to get to the alps by plane today and that you get a lot of compensation.
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I'm just about to leave now for Bournemouth Airport to embark on plan C, Easyjet to GVA.
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Such a lot of people will have had a horrible start to their holidays - and still with no idea what's going to happen. Sympathies for all those involved.
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It just said on the BBC radio 1 news that eurostar are suspending all services until after Christmas - I'm not sure if that includes the 26th when I'm traveling 
But nothing on the eurostar website
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DaveB, 
scooby, to announce they are not going to run any till after Christmas is crazy, bet the airlines are rubbing their hands with glee.
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The eurostar website also says that they are giving compensation for all journeys cancelled today and yesterday (sat, sun) - a full refund, a free return ticket and £150 compensation.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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GrahamN, There is definately no snow in Bournemouth
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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scooby, I heard that Eurotunnel are not taking new bookings until after Christmas. Their website says
Customers without a reservation are advised NOT to make their way to Eurotunnel as they will not be able to purchase a ticket. Further information and travel advice will be published as soon as it becomes available.
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You know it makes sense.
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It got worse.
We managed to get a flight out of Stansted to Geneva for today...it was the only one canceled this morning
So, we've given up for this year and are back home. Massive massive shout to my two kids who endured a long weekend of non-stop travel, taxis and crap hotels..without one single moan. Insurance should cover it hopefully, soon as I've got the cash back I'll be interwebbing for another trip WE ARE GOING SKIING SOON, WHATEVER!
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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DaveB, what a shame. Hope you can salvage your Chrismas at home
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Hi All.
Sorry your holiday has been wrecked. If you can get the train up north (aviemore) cairngorm is open.
http://www.cairngormmountain.co.uk/
You can even see folk sliding down it now.
Cheers
bob
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I'd love to bob, but we would only jinx the roads/trains/snow for everyone else!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Yep know the feeling,,,,,
Sometimes when things go bad you just have to put your hands up and say ahhhh forget it. Hope you have a good time none the less.
Best regards
Bob; sunny Scotland
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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DaveB, sorry to hear that - after a couple of days I think the right call to say enough's enough.
Hope the insurance gets sorted quickly and you have a hassle free trip when you go
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They seemed pretty cool about it all.
Was on the phone to Eurostar for a refund and had to counsel the poor girl on the other end of the line. She was in shreds after 3 days of dealing with cases like mine. She did say she was amazed with how well the affected Brits had coped and had had very little abuse or shouting.
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Having just got back today, unfortunately plan 'C' ended up being not entirely straightforward either.
Just after check-in at Bournemouth (probably the longest check-in queue the poor little terminal had ever seen  ), the slightly ominous words come over the tannoy: "Important announcement for passengers intending to travel with Easyjet to Geneva, your plane is" - Oh no what's happening now? - "delayed by one hour". OK no major problem, I've loads of time to get from GVA around to Verbier. 3/4 hour later another announcement...the plan is delayed by a further hour . After another hour or so (and an excellent fryup from the greasy-spoon restaurant they have there), we get the "news" that our plane is finally in the air on the way to Bournemouth - and we should be taking off about 2.5 hours late....hmmm. That estimate actually ends up being not too bad. Captain's apology for the delay is a 2+ hour technical delay right at the beginning of the day in Newcastle, which they've not been able to claw back - so how come we were originally only delayed by one hour to start with...hmmm?
Coming into GVA, we seem to be circling for a while, and then eventually the Captain comes back on the tannoy...to say that GVA is in the grip of a snowstorm, and is closed, so we are having to divert to Zurich . We eventually land at ZRH at 18:30, nearly 3.5 hours late . Initial plan is to bus us back to GVA, which I don't really want as I fancy my chances better getting there directly by train. Pretty soon EJ make the same decision, given that there's snow all over Switzerland, and tell us we'll be given train tickets to get us to GVA ourselves. Only trouble is we're still parked out on the apron of the airport, 4 planes having diverted to ZRH from GVA and Basel. Finally a bus turns up to get us to the terminal, where we find a 20min queue to get through passport control. This just gets worse  . But we needn't have worried as the baggage then takes a load more time to turn up. It finally turns up, covered in snow (so had clearly been sitting on the tarmac for a while) at about 20:35 - over 2 hours after landing.
Now I don't really know what the best route from Zurich to Martigny is, but I do know that there's a train to Lausanne leaving at 20:43, so sprint to the platform with the bags and jump on the train with the intention of asking a conductor if it's best to change somewhere else - but I see no conductor for the next two hours (it turns out that this is actually the best route at this time of night). Now, we all know that Swiss trains always run to time, but after about an hour we've already got about 15 mins delay, and then we get stopped as the train in front of us has broken down. Fortunately we get moving again after about 10 mins. I still have no firm info about connections at Lausanne, but a nice lady opposite checks up the timetable on her iPhone, and it sounds like there may be a connection, although the delay means we will probably miss the intended connection. Eventually a conductor turns up and confirms that there will be a connection, but it will be an hour later than the one intended.
So at Lausanne I have a scheduled 50 minute wait, but then find out that the train will be delayed leaving by another 25 mins as it waits for a delayed connection from Bern, as it's the last train of the day. The one good thing about this is that I manage to recruit a couple of other lads heading for Verbier to share the taxi costs up the hill. I finally arrive at Le Chable at 2am, 28 hours late!
Top marks to Swiss railways though. The (multilingual) conductor went through the whole train checking up on people's connections. The connection for those going to Geneva had been missed, earlier in the journey, but they will extend the Lausanne-Geneva train on to the airport as there were about 200 people on this train trying to get there. There were also a few people trying to get to Sion and Sierre, and this train was only going as far as Martigny, so they sent them on by taxi.
Fortunately the return journey went pretty much without a hitch - until getting back into England when the Euro* picks up 15 mins delay. Interestingly the tannoy announcements in the SBB and TGVs were also way easier to understand than those on SouthWest Trains.
It now remains to be seen what expense I can recover. Euro* should be fine, but I'm not encouranged by the lack of response to emails I sent to TGV europe before setting out. I'll have to see what I can get out of them tomorrow.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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FAQ
However, as she had printed out the ticket (why wouldnt she have done so 
