Total Eclipse 29 March 2006

monkeyspanner

For anyone who missed the UK eclipse. There is one due on 29 March 2006. Path of eclipse is Brazil, Africa (Max eclipse in Lybia 4 minutes), Eastern Med. (crosses coast virtually on Egyptian/Lybian border), Turkey (Antalya), Eastern Black Sea, and finishes in Asia. More info try this link.
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEmono/TSE2006/TSE2006.html

quoia

Damn, !!!!!! and blast !!!
I was aware of this eclipse and considered a while ago maybe tying in a holiday to Turkey or North africa in order to see it.
I went to France in Aug 1999 to get a better view than Cornwall and it was still mostly clouded out.
Why I'm so annoyed is that I've just booked a holiday to Brazil - literally 7 hours before finding this post (18:15 on 18th Jan)
I'm going on Feb 28th returning on March 15th - returning 2 weeks before the eclipse.
I've just checked and I could have gone on 21st or 28th March for exactly the same special offer discounted price.
Now I know Brazil is a big place and like back in 1999 you have to be in the right place to see totality (as per Cornwall) so I may have had to travel to get on the centre line.
WRONG !!
I going to a place called NATAL.
Where is the centreline of totality?
Within bloody walking distance.
Infact Natal will experience totality so I wouldn't have had to go anywhere !!!

Now the question is, do I call Thomsons back later today and see if I can change the booking ?
No doubt they will want to charge me for this. What's it worth ?

KizzyK_2

I would give it a go Quoia, it costs nothing to try / find out Afterall how many total eclipse's do you see during your lifetime. The next Solar Eclipse for the uk isn't until 2008 I think

sarahlouise210

I would definately try to change your booking - I went to Cornwall for the eclipse and it is an experience I will remember for the rest of my life - it was totally awe inspiring!

monkeyspanner

quoia----If you do have to pay an ammendment charge compare it to the price of a two day / one night trip to Turkey which is on offer on the net at around the £385ea mark.
What were the details of the discounted trip to Brazil you found?

quoia

I've phoned them and am awaiting a call back once they've spoke to admin to get a costing for a date change.

Re the details.
Sort of stumbled on this holiday having phoned an 0800 number from teletext enquiring about another (which turned out to be unsuitable) yesterday tea-time.

It's with Thomson
2 weeks all-inclusive flying from Gatwick to Natal on the north-east coast.
Hotel is Parque da Costeria http://www.parquedacosteira.com.br/ingles/index.htm

It's about 15 miles from the airport - 35 minutes transfer time.

Having got the details tried our local CoOp travel which is where we usually get the best deals, to see if we could beat the price.

They could only offer the full brochure price - £979 each + £15 for in-flight meals, + £50 for fuel surcharge + £20 "something" tax + some other thing at a couple of quid.(all per person)
Total amount over £2150
AND of course 1.5% or 2% to pay by credit card.

Checked the Thomson website and whilst there was a larger initial discount of £300 pp off the £979 ( = £679 net) this didn't include the meals or the fuel surcharge, which meant a total price of £1478.

However this was not as good as our original offer of £709 each - £1418

and to put the icing on the cake, the very nice gentleman called Kieran dealing with our enquiry, offered to waive the normal credit card charge of 2% for this booking.

This price appears to be currently available for departures from at least Feb 21st to Mar 28th (and probably either side of this period)

0800 027 8301 if anyone else interested.
Who knows - might see you there.

Marsh_Samphire

I live in South Devon and after the (cloudy) eclipse here in 1999 I decided to go to Africa for the next one. We had some wonderful eclipse chasers on the trip with GPS gadgets who got us to a place with the longest totality. IT WAS FANTASTIC! I wish I could afford to go to Brazil or Libya for the this one -sigh- but I'm all mortgaged up these days and can't take off like I used to!

quoia

Kieran called back around lunchtime and confirmed I could change the dates for NOTHING !!!!!!!

Not sure if it hadn't been put on the computer system or something, (because it was after 6pm Wed when I made the initial reservation and perhaps the update hadn't been processed into the system yet) but confirmed it was likely to be £35/pp if I left it until Friday, but providing the change was agreed before 6pm Thurs, I could do it for ZILCH !!!

I waited until the other half came back from the mother-in-law's, and suggested the change.
Little bit of opposition initially but we are now going on March 21st.

Question is should I pack my telescope?
If yes, how do I get a 4 footer into a 3 foot suitcase ?
And sadly "DIAGONALLY" is not an answer !

photome

quoia wrote:

Kieran called back around lunchtime and confirmed I could change the dates for NOTHING !!!!!!!

Not sure if it hadn't been put on the computer system or something, (because it was after 6pm Wed when I made the initial reservation and perhaps the update hadn't been processed into the system yet) but confirmed it was likely to be £35/pp if I left it until Friday, but providing the change was agreed before 6pm Thurs, I could do it for ZILCH !!!

I waited until the other half came back from the mother-in-law's, and suggested the change.
Little bit of opposition initially but we are now going on March 21st.

Question is should I pack my telescope?
If yes, how do I get a 4 footer into a 3 foot suitcase ?
And sadly "DIAGONALLY" is not an answer !

WOW thats brilliant...I am really jealous...just a shame you support Derby

quoia

That just leaves a couple of things to sort out.

Any recommendations regarding cheap (let me re-phrase that, value for money) insurance ?
I've seen that some people have had problems in making claims with http://www.secure-insurance-web.com so not too keen to use them.


Also car-parking at Gatwick?
Either just a car-park or a overnight hotel stay with 2 weeks for the car thrown in.

monkeyspanner

you should be able to find something on one of these:
http://www.aph.com/partners/?toysrus
http://www.parkandgo.co.uk
http://www.bcponline.co.uk use promocode BN221
http://www.holidayextras.co.uk
http://www.fhr-net.co.uk
http://www.ncp.co.uk try this one with and without promocode save£ as doesn't always give a discount.

If you have Tesco clubcard tokens you can use them to pay purple parking but you need to allow some time to apply. See this ebay item for £40 in purple parking vouchers.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/40-Tesco-Club-Card-deals-token-for-airport-parking_W0QQitemZ6598117861QQcategoryZ109197QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem