Euro Event 2020

[66andBlue]

Hello Rick,
just like Rolf-Dieter I never got a request to make a down payment! 
Can you check please?
Alfred

[Garry]

I had originally hoped to have a Pagoda for this event but due to circumstances it has not turned out that way.


I am thus looking for a passenger seat if anyone has a spare otherwise i feel i need to withdraw to allow someone with a Pagoda to attend as some others have had to do.


Any spare seats?


Garry

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

I too have to withdraw since I had planned to either secure a passenger seat in a Pagoda or catch a ride in a rented car and share the cost.
I understand that preference is given to Members that attend with a Pagoda. I fully understand this. I cannot at this point ship my Pagoda to Europe (perhaps later in years to come) ). I did enjoy last year's Event in France very much (Garry and I shared Andrew’s Pagoda).

Anyway, I learned last week that the Event is fully booked, (and I was not selected) I wish everyone much fun at the 2020 Event.

Happy Holidays to all and your Families.

Dieter

[66andBlue]

Garry,
I have actually started to make arrangements to ship my 230SL because Rick had informed me that they only wanted Pagodas at the event.
Since we shared a Pagoda at the Merano event you might have had a seat again. 
Now it appears that a new reason popped, that is, to give new members a chance to attend.
I guess we have done our bit keeping the group going and can now be discarded. 
Fine, I'll just save my efforts and money for something else.

[Rick007]

Dear members ,

It is off course very disappointing to hear that we cannot please everyone .
Especially when all we wanted to do is organize an Event when nobody wanted to , or made promises and then backed out.

Again we don't want to exclude any one from this event ! 
But we are not a professional travel agency , we do this because we enjoyed former events.
We gain nothing with this , as a matter affect we loose ! ( time , effort and money )

And yes we are restricted to a maximum number of attendees … why ?  Because the Hotel can only handle so many people in the area we want to visit .
We want nice stopover and lunch stop's So we need nice pitoresk places who can handle 60 or 70 people.
We want winding roads and nice places to visit .. Doing this with 30 a 35 cars is a challenge , and needs to be safe.
This is why we have to restrict the number of attendees .

Last couple of years we have gathered a group of enthusiastic attendees who always sign up immediately . And this is great but also leaves no room for new attendees that are willing to drive 1000 and more km with their pagoda to join up .
This is why we stated that members coming with a Pagoda have priority at first ! By no means that former loyal attendees are excluded.

We apologize that we did not communicate as much as we wanted last couple of months , and that it has lead to misunderstandings .
We will continue with the event , and pick up communication where left off in November .


Thank you ,

On behalve of the 2020 Pagoda Event team .

[Garry]

Alfred,


Have they resolved this and you are included?  I thought you were shipping your car. I see Rolf Dieter has moved to the Polish event. If necessary I could do the same as I have already financially committed to the flights and extra accommodation before and after in Europe for a month.

Thanks to a generous offer from Achim, i will be in a Pagoda with Kate.


Garry

[66andBlue]

Garry,
check your email.

[Tom]

Rick,

What you and the organizing committee have done in the past is amazing.  To put those bringing a Pagoda at the top of the list only makes sense.  This is the Pagoda Group, not the AMG 63 Group.

I am aware that in the past, some entered without their Pagoda because there was room.  If this year's hotel venue has limited openings and the organizers must restrict entry, it only makes sense to start by restricting attendance to those driving a Pagoda.

My experience from organizing large Pagoda events mirrors your thoughts - you can't please everyone.  Sadly, some can't be pleased regardless of how hard you try.  You might consider a slight "oversell" knowing that some are initially enthusiastic and fade once it becomes time to ship their car, etc.  I know this is difficult if everyone shows, but something to consider.

Maybe you can repost those that cleared the final list.  Hoping I see my name!

Best,

Tom

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

I feel that I am somehow being pointed out here since I own a SL 63 AMG ... I therefore like to clarify the following.

1) I always loved the Mercedes, my dad owned one until it was taken from him in 1944 for the war effort. I was 7 at the time and remember the day as if it was yesterday.

2) I first saw a Pagoda in Montreal Canada in 1965 (I immigrated to Canada from Germany in 1957). I knew the Manager at the Montreal Que. dealership since I visited that dealership quite often to admire the cars. When I saw the Pagoda I fell in love with the car. The Manager let me take one for a test drive along the Trans Canada highway. Since I could not afford the price it had to be put on the back burner until such time that I could afford it. That time was 2013 when I found a suitable 280SL from a multi millionaire here in London, Ontario Canada.

3) I became a Full Member here in 2013.

4) since 2013 I attended the following Pagoda SL Group Events ..

A) The Ontario AUTOBAHN Event east of TORONTO (my Pagoda got 1st price - judged by a judge in training)
B) The Virginia 50 Year Pagoda Event (my Pagoda got 2nd price Peoples choice).   
C) Two Pagoda SL Group Events in Blacklick Ohio (with my Pagoda)
D) The Virginia Pagoda SL Group Event (with my Pagoda)
E) The Mosel Tour Event in Germany (as a passenger in a Pagoda from Heinrich B. Member of Pagoetreff.de)
F) A German Car Show in New York State (with my Pagoda - it was the only Pagoda on the field)
G) The 2018 French Euro Event (Garry Marks and I drove Andrew T. pagoda that he so kindly offered us)
H) PagodaFest in San Diego (I used my SL 63 AMG - Driving along Route 66, I did not want to expose my Pagoda to this 9,749 KM round trip).
I)  Yearly Car Shows here in London Ontario (with my Pagoda - only a 15 minute drive for me, events are every Thursday in the Summer).

I enjoyed each and every event and must say the Pagoda Events are getting better every year!

5) I only used my SL 63 AMG once (when I combined the trip along Route 66 to PagodaFest H above),

6) when I put my name down for the 2020 Euro Event my plan and hope was to be able to secure a passenger seat somehow. I then noticed from Rick’s post that I was not selected since I did not receive a request for down payment and according to Rick’s Post the 2020 Event is fully booked. I communicated with Rick via e-mail(s) and let him know that I fully understand that the Event Team prefers Pagoda cars after all this is  a Pagoda SL Group Event.

7) I do plan to attend the Polish Event (I have been planning this for several years - also from my East German education I still speak some Russian since it was at that time my second language). My Polish Event trip is dependant upon finding a passenger seat - two of our Members are looking into that possibility for me. If I am unsuccessful to find a passenger seat, then I just will attend local events this year.

I have no plans to join a SL 63 AMG Group for, I found the Pagoda SL Group Even and consider it one of the best car groups I’ve come across.

9) perhaps in a few years I will ship my Pagoda to Germany and take an extended vacation around a timeframe when a Europe Pagoda Event is planned.

Sorry for the long write-up, however, I do have friends here in the forum and just wanted to clarify and to avoid any misunderstandings.

Dieter

[lucteblick]

Hi as a new owner of a pagoda 280Sl, and new member of the user group, i would love to attend the 2020 event with my car!
Please put us on the waiting list, you never know somebody cancels.

Luc

[MMCL1968]

Please add me to list
Regards
John

[Rick007]

Hello All ,

I have been sending out confirmations about the deposit with the request to check the info you have given us.
If you payed us the deposit , but did not received the confirmation please email me and i will check.
But again email me with a PM , and i Will send it to your private Email address, as we requested.
We do this not to overload the Pagoda site with big files / programs. ( 5 message limit )

Like you we are also following the current situation about the Corona Virus with great concern.
We checked the region we intent to visit in September and it is reasonably safe , for now.

In this regard we would please ask you to wait with the final payment until the end of May.
Some of you already did this and normally the event is a go …. but you never know and we don't want to take any risks should the
the situation get out of hand.

We will keep you informed …

The 2020 Euro Event Team

 

 

[Benz280]

If only a road existed from the US to the Netherlands, I would do the drive .

[Rick007]

Dear attendees ,

Offcourse we are following the current events concerning the Covid-19 pandamic with great concern .
The question if we should proceed or not is popping up all he time , and with good reason off course .

Should we postpone our event to 2021 , in spring or even Autumn ?
Should we proceed while country's are slowly opening up, and this might be the only trip we could make this summer ?
Should we just call it off , and name this year lost ?

Of course nobody expected something like this virus could have such a in pact , and normally we would have say its a no go .
But on the other hand nobody backed out the event because of it !?   

The last couple of weeks we are puzzling with these questions , and among us as a team there were a lot different opinions what to do.
As a matter affect we are still not sure .

So due to current positive news about the development of the pandemic ,  we decided to wait a couple of weeks before we make our final decision.
But rest assured we will not take any chance with the health of our attendees .

The 2020 Pagoda Euro Event team .



   


 

[Garry]

Looks like it is a no go from Australia.  Qantas have advised that they will not be accepting tourist flights to Europe. 

Am waiting for confirmation that my tickets i hold will not be honoured and have been cancelled.

I have already been advised that my post meeting accommodation in Bavaria and a river cruise after from Bern, Switzerland to Amsterdam have been cancelled. 

Garry

[JamesL]

Thanks Rick
Obviously it’s not easy. Hotels and restaurants, if open, may be desperate for any business. But if we are still not allowed to gather in any numbers, may have our “own country” travel restrictions etc, it makes it terribly difficult. Plus, if things do start to normalise, while we may all be desperate for a break/ change of scenery, those working may be swamped trying to get their businesses off life support.

Keep well.

[neelyrc]

Thanks for the update Rick,

In a normal world I would have departed for Europe tomorrow for my usual six month stint but that set of flights was cancelled some time ago when the Italian government shut down flights early in the crisis.

Don’t know when travel will be possible or if I will be ready even when flights are restarted.  Consequently car shipment was been shelved. 

At this point it is not possible to make any travel plans at all.  Staged relaxation of restrictions in Italy will start May 4.  Possibly some clarity will start to emerge by the end of May.

Meanwhile, the last span of the replacement bridge across the Polcevera at Genoa was lifted into place today.  The original bridge collapsed in August, 2018, with the loss of 43 lives.  Work has continued around the clock seven days a week throughout the quarantine.  At least something positive has been happening!

Keep us posted Rick, and stay safe.

[Rick007]

Update

We are sorry to report that we have to call off the Euro event for 2020.

There are simply to many uncertainties to go on with our event. Covid-19 is still keeping us in grips and even if it would all calm down again this month
the Hotels , restaurants would still have a lot of restrictions .  Also it would not let us move freely among the sights that we wanted to visit and the roads
we wanted to tour. We really tried to give it our best if we could do it safely , but there's simply no way.
So regrettably we have to call it of , and we will look if we can postpone it to next year or call it off al togehter . At the moment we are talking with our hotel , which we payed the deposit, if we can postpone it or call it off and have a refund. But for those who already payed the second payment i will return this asap . And if we have an agreement with the hotel we will refund everyone who does not want to be part of next years event.

Now we don't know if our full team will be organizing next year , but if we don't we will refund everyone , providing we can get an agreement and refund from our hotel.
I hope for your understanding in this , and be assured we do our best to get our money back.

We will keep you posted .



 

[Paul & Dolly]

Thanks Ric for the update, Please add us to the next event.

Keep well

Paul & Dolly

[Jonny B]

Rick,

Thank you for keeping us up to date.

Sad to read, but completely understandable. And as Paul and Dolly have written, add Martijn and I to the next event.

[JamesL]

Thanks guys.
Tough call but makes sense

Stay safe and have a good summer

[jmbour]

Rick and all

what a sad news, but it was predictable. All the MB events have been cancelled in France, we now cannot drive more than 100 km from home, and we even don't know if and when we could cross the (internal EU) borders again.
Thanks for the efforts you are doing to get a refund or postpone the event for next year.
We will continue to support you, and would like to stay on the list.
Hope we could enjoy another wonderfull Euro Event as soon as possible. Pagodas are immune from viruses !

[Martijn]

Hi Rick,

Thanks for your update. Too bad it's been cancelled, but I fully understand your decision. We all looked forward to it, but we know that there are too many uncertainties and risks. We wouldn't be able to experience it like at previous events.

Thank you event team for your efforts to organize it.
Hopefully we can meet each other next year.

[hansr433]

I have been jealously following this thread. Jealously since a) I do not own a Pagoda anymore, b) I had already plans for that week.  I can only image the agonizing discussions of the organizing committee that took place behind the scenes.  Rick et al, you may need to be very insistent with the hotel to get a refund, and please reschedule the tour for next year.  I will do my best to find a nice pagoda and hopefully will have the time to meet all of you in person.  Since joining the forum recently, I have had nothing but nice exchanges.

[gwuisman]

I fully understand the decision of the team. Many thanks for Rick and his team members. Preparing a tour is a tremendous job. It is a hard time to decide not to execute the results of the panning. So keep the setup in order to use it next year.
Next year Corona will probably be reduced to an average influenza. Until then the virus will be amongst us. There will easily be a second breakout. Therefore, precaution is important.