09/23/2021 – DCYC 2022 Tour Update

As many of you know, New York City has ordered extremely strict Covid Protocols over the past month.  Given this order, ALL tour participants would need to be fully vaccinated in order to fully participate in the NYC portion of the tour (Carnegie performance, Broadway performance, 9/11 Museum, etc).  We thought we could work around this requirement with a negative covid test prior to leaving, but that negative test exception is only in place for those who are not yet eligible for a vaccine (and come April, we expect that vaccines will be widely available for all of our tour participants).

I’ve taken the past few days to do a lot of thinking and reflecting on our 2022 Tour.  The reason for planning this Choir Tour was not solely to visit New York City.   Would I love to take our singers to New York?  Of course I would.  But the true purpose of a choir tour is to offer our singers enriching musical opportunities, both clinics and performances, in new places and to make memories together as a group.  A Choir Tour should be inclusive and it should bring our group closer together through our shared experiences.

I believe that we can amend our tour plans by leaving off our time in NYC and extending our time in Philadelphia and Princeton and still offer an exciting, unique and special tour opportunity for our young singers.  It has been such a challenging time for our children and I really don’t want to postpone this trip (As we travel every other year, we should have taken a trip in Spring 2021!)  Our kids need something to be excited about and I know we can make this happen for them this year.

I’m attaching a Revised Itinerary from Brian at Kaleidoscope Tours.  He has been so supportive and flexible and I am grateful for his help through this challenging and constantly changing time.  You will see that removing NYC from the itinerary will significantly decrease the tour cost.

A few things to consider regarding Covid and our updated Tour Plans:

– Given our plans for group bus transportation, and knowing we will have varying vaccination statuses, we will ask that ALL tour participants show proof of a negative covid test within 72 hours of departure on Friday April 8th.

– Rooming assignments will be arranged at the end of January and we are flexible and willing to group singers and parents together based on your preference at that time.

– We strongly recommend that all participants add CFAR Travel Protection (Cancel For Any Reason) to their tour package on the WeTravel Page.  The cost is $45 for quad occupancy and would reimburse up to 75% of the tour costs.  If the reason for cancellation was due to a positive covid test, it is likely that closer to 100% would be covered with a doctor’s note.  This can be done by clicking the “add more options to booking” button on your WeTravel Page.

I hope that everyone will take some time to think and reflect on all of this new information.  I truly hope that this change will allow everyone who had planned to join us on tour, to continue with that plan.  We are also still able to register new participants for those who have not yet signed up.  Please let me know if you would like more information to register for the Tour.

Thank you all for your support through all of this.  I am grateful for each of you – your varying perspectives, questions and guidance are all greatly appreciated.