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Old 4 Mar 18, 06:35 PM  
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Changes to make - should we cancel?

Just a few days after we booked and paid for our non-cancellable flights, our daughter announced that she and her boyfriend of 8 years were expecting a baby, our first grandchild. She’d only found out that morning.



This was obviously wonderful news, and even more so as due to a medical condition she has, she was told that she’d probably need medical intervention when it came to getting pregnant. We were so relieved for her that this wasn’t the case, as going through fertility treatment can be heartbreaking for couples.

Her timing could have been a little better though – her due date is the 22nd July, which is the day we go on holiday! This has caused some tremendous indecision with us. Do we try and postpone or just cancel our holiday? Can we sell our flights to our friends? Do we go as planned and feel enormous guilt for the rest of our lives? Perhaps a bit over dramatic, but that is how I felt.

We decided to hold fire and not make any decisions for a few weeks, let the news sink in and then discuss it with her at a later time.

The early weeks of her pregnancy were not worry free however, and everything else went out of the window while she wasn’t in the best of health. That initial panic has thankfully now passed and she has reached the 20th week of her pregnancy today. Her health has improved dramatically too and she can actually enjoy her pregnancy now.

We rang BA to double check what our options were and discovered that as expected, we could not cancel without forfeiting the entire cost, nor could we change the passengers travelling so that our friends could go instead. However we could move our flights to a later date, which was more than we’d expected. When we looked at other possible dates though, the only thing we could do was move them back by a couple of weeks - as I work in a school I am obviously unable to take my holidays in term time, but Martin could not change his dates due to others having holidays booked. As the changed flights would have to be taken by November, there was actually no other option. It was either cancel completely or go on holiday as planned. It actually also makes no difference to us financially if we cancel now or leave it until two days before we travel.

After lots of discussions between the two of us, and then similar discussions with DD, we have currently made the decision to go on holiday as planned. DD felt very strongly that we shouldn’t cancel. Her boyfriend will have two weeks off work, and his mum also works in a school so will be around to help if they need it initially. Then, when we’re back off holiday, I’ll still be off work for 3 weeks and can help her when she needs me to. If we’d moved our holiday dates back a couple of weeks, I’d perhaps have more chance of being around when the baby was born, but wouldn't be available to help when she needs me. I’d rather me be the one that’s upset at potentially not being around for the time of the birth, than her be upset that I wasn’t there for her when she wanted me to be.

I’m praying that the baby arrives a couple of days earlier than the due date, which would be the ideal solution.



This news though has changed our planned itinerary, with Vancouver Island being the casualty. We need to ensure we have good wifi where possible, for as much of the holiday as we can! We definitely want to be able to Facetime to be introduced to our new grandchild if they arrive after their due date.

We’d also been having a little bit of wobble about the length of the travelling back from Ucluelet to Kamloops. It shows on Google Maps as 8 hours 30 minutes, which we just felt was too much. It would be different if we were visiting Vancouver Island first, but we did not fancy that long in the car.

With the decision made, we started looking at an alternative destination, and have opted for Whistler. We understand that Whistler can be very busy in the summer months, so instead of staying there, we’ve chosen to stay on the outskirts, in a place called Creekside. As well as being cheaper, the accommodation is much more spacious than most in Whistler Village too.







We have a one bedroomed suite with full kitchen at the Evolution, and it has a handful of restaurants nearby if we don’t feel like driving or catching the bus back to Whistler to eat.

We’re disappointed about losing Vancouver Island from our plans, but as we hope to do an Alaskan Cruise in the future, we’ve decided that we’ll tag Vancouver Island onto that trip.
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Old 7 Mar 18, 09:38 AM  
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Wow your trip looks amazing Jo! I definitely want to go to that side of Canada one day.

We've also got a First Class leg (coming back from Vegas) in the summer. Very much looking forward to that!

What a situation with your daughter! Very selfish of her to arrange a baby for that date!

Full trippie afterwards please, if you're not too busy babysitting!
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Old 14 Mar 18, 06:48 AM  
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Originally Posted by neilhd View Post
Wow your trip looks amazing Jo! I definitely want to go to that side of Canada one day.

We've also got a First Class leg (coming back from Vegas) in the summer. Very much looking forward to that!

What a situation with your daughter! Very selfish of her to arrange a baby for that date!

Full trippie afterwards please, if you're not too busy babysitting!
Thanks Neil. I think my daughter was very quickly forgiven!

I shall try my best with a trippie afterwards, although I imagine it will be very photo heavy.
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Old 14 Mar 18, 08:03 AM  
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Following with interest as we would like to visit Vancouver next year. Sounds amazing so far.
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Old 14 Mar 18, 09:57 PM  
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Please post more! I love the sound of your trip! We have just booked a 7 night Alaska cruise from Seattle for 2019 but I want to add in a week beforehand, fly to Calgary and road trip - Banff - Lake Louise - Jasper - Vancouver then train to Seattle ... trying to work out how doable this is 😂
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Old 14 Mar 18, 10:06 PM  
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Originally Posted by tinytots View Post
Following with interest as we would like to visit Vancouver next year. Sounds amazing so far.
Originally Posted by janey2000 View Post
Please post more! I love the sound of your trip! We have just booked a 7 night Alaska cruise from Seattle for 2019 but I want to add in a week beforehand, fly to Calgary and road trip - Banff - Lake Louise - Jasper - Vancouver then train to Seattle ... trying to work out how doable this is 😂
Sounds great!

Will try and post a bit more in the next couple of days. Real life just gets in the way of holiday planning sometimes!
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Old 15 Mar 18, 05:14 PM  
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Originally Posted by jocat View Post
Thanks Neil. I think my daughter was very quickly forgiven!

I shall try my best with a trippie afterwards, although I imagine it will be very photo heavy.
I've got an almost similar situation actually - my sister is due to deliver me a new niece or nephew a few days before we get back from Florida this year!

Not quite the same though!
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Old 18 Mar 18, 07:42 PM  
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Overnight in Kamloops

After 3 nights in Whistler, we have an overnight stop in Kamloops. We’ve booked this as it is almost half way between Whistler and Jasper. Again, we didn’t really fancy a 9 hour drive in one day!

We’ve booked the Doubletree by Hilton, and managed to get a bed and breakfast rate in a Junior Suite for a bargain £109. If only all of the other hotels on this trip cost the same amount!



I’m not sure if there’s anything we should stop off and see on the way there, or if there’s much to see in Kamloops itself, but if not then the hotel has a small outdoor pool where I’m sure Martin will appreciate the chance to chill and catch a few rays, being the sun worshipper that he is. Let’s hope there’s a bit of shade for me, seeing as I go a not-so-lovely shade of pink after half an hour in the sun, despite smothering myself in gallons of SPF 30.



There seems to be several restaurants within walking distance of the hotel, so I'm sure we'll partake in a couple of drinks in the evening too.
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Old 18 Mar 18, 07:57 PM  
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Onwards to Jasper

As mentioned earlier, we had a real problem finding accommodation in Jasper, as most were showing as sold out with 90+ % of accommodation booked there by last November. I was hoping this was because they hadn’t all released their rooms for sale, but it was not to be. We booked a standard room at the Crimson Jasper for 3 nights, and that seems to be where we’re definitely staying. I checked again earlier today and this hotel is completely fully booked between April and mid October.

So with 2 full days to fill here, plus the afternoon of our arrival day, we still need to do some proper itinerary planning. On my list so far I have the following:

Jasper Sky Tram



For anyone who has been on this, should we pre-book or just try for an early slot on the day?

I’m worried about low visibility for any reason, so am hoping we can choose the day when we have a better idea about the weather. Don’t know if this is risky though, in case we can’t get tickets when we're there.

Maligne Lake/Spirit Island





Am assuming we might need to book a boat trip - does anyone have any recommendations for this?

Athabasca Falls



We do love a waterfall, and even more so that there's not a huge uphill hike first!

Miette Hot Springs



I still need to do lots of research, so I’m sure we’ve missed lots of things to see in Jasper. Please feel free to make any suggestions.
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Old 18 Mar 18, 08:59 PM  
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The Road to Banff

On our way to Banff, we intend to visit the Columbia Icefields.



Knowing my penchant for worrying, I’m sure I’ll have a panic on the day about leaving my luggage in the car though. If I do, at least we’re spending 5 nights in Banff, so could do a day trip back there.

We definitely won’t be rushing the day we travel to Banff though, as there’s lots of things to see along the way. The Icefields Parkway is the most scenic drive in the Rockies and has been voted the World’s Most Beautiful Mountain Drive.

We’ve downloaded the GyPSy driving guide, which works offline using GPS to provide an audio tour of stopping points along the way.
We cannot wait to see views like this:









When we arrive in Banff, we’re staying for 5 nights at the Banff Aspen Lodge. We wanted to be fairly close to the centre to walk for dinner in the evenings.





Our days will be spent visiting places such as these:

Bow Valley Parkway



Bow Falls



Johnston Canyon



Lake Louise



Lake Minnewanka



Moraine Lake



Sunshine Meadows



Again we haven’t done our full plan yet, so if anyone has any other suggestions, please let me know. I'll post a proper itinerary once we have finalised it.
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