It has been an extremely busy 3 months and I have not been able to find time to write my review on my Fukuoka hotel and ryokan. But as of today (and the next 10 days), things have changed.
I was looking forward to end of February for a few reasons:
- My upcoming break in Shanghai and Nanjing (finally!)
- The joy of securing tickets using the 51% Spontaneous Escape promotion
- My chance finally to try out and review the 2017 Business Class and Suites
- Intercontinental Shanghai Wonderland
- China bullet train
In less than a week after securing my SQ830 tickets and converting my Intercontinental Wonderland booking to a non-refundable one, the big news came in. The novel Coronavirus (nCoV) has spread beyond the city of Wuhan and even beyond the borders of Hubei. With much reluctance, I had to cancel all my bookings and I was extremely thankful to both Intercontinental and Singapore Airlines to allow the cancellation and refunding me my miles which was otherwise non-refundable.
I decided to switch my destination to Male (the Mrs. has always wanted to go to Maldives). It was one of the destinations on the Spontaneous Escape list and it fits the date I wanted (to coincide with my wedding anniversary). It is also one of the newest hotels in Maldives (opened only in November 2019) and the one and only Intercontinental where all rooms are given Club Intercontinental privilege (including reward nights!). Best reason? I managed to arrange it such that I get to stay 5 nights by paying only 2! (1 night using the Ambassador Weekend Night certificate and 2 nights using reward night). This is one property with fairly good availability using reward night and is certainly worth the 100,000 points per night! (don’t forget, you get Club benefits too!).
Unfortunately, even that trip too had to be cancelled with the escalation of the nCoV situation in Singapore. Long story short, I am now on quarantine as one of the patients I had treated and referred to the Emergency Department turned out to be a confirmed nCoV case. So here I am writing this from the confinement of my quarantine room.
Meanwhile, I shall hope that I will remain well the next 10 days and my swab result will turn out to be negative. Then perhaps I can hope that there will be opening for 2 on SQ346 or SQ345 Suites Saver redemption for me to review the 2017 Suites.
As for the nCoV situation, I can only cross my fingers that things will improve but till then we must all stay vigilant and do our part in curbing the spread by minimally observing a good personal hygiene and be socially responsible. On my end (and for my primary care colleagues), things will get more challenging given that travel history itself will no longer be adequate to screen a patient for potential nCoV infection.
Before I end, I would like to thank my partners CHC and AF for hanging on in my absence and I wish all healthcare personnel in Singapore and worldwide to stay healthy! Big thanks to my flyer buddies for keeping me company on Whatsapp.
That Time Of The Year! 