VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — When the choral group at Landstown High School decided to cancel a trip to New York, it wasn’t exactly in harmony with the travel company when it came to a refund.
24 students and chaperones had booked the trip last fall through WorldStrides, a company that specializes in educational travel based in Charlottesville. They would perform at Carnegie Hall and take in a Broadway show.
The fee for the four-day trip was about $1,100 per person, but the group canceled the trip in January after discovering they would have to pay extra for ground transportation and music materials.
“We canceled two days before the deadline,” said Torie Lee Hooven, whose daughter Ci is part of the group. “They were saying we didn’t cancel in time.”
At that point, the group had paid a total of $7,000 in deposits to WorldStrides. Hooven had paid more than $500 herself, and says her daughter was crushed when she learned the trip was canceled.
“Solos are her main thing. She was most excited that she might have an actual Carnegie Hall solo.”
Hooven says Ci had called the opportunity the “trip of a lifetime.” She told 10 On Your Side about the problems the group was having getting their money back, so we contacted WorldStrides on Thursday.
“They would not listen to me until y’all spoke to them,” Hooven said.
This morning the firm told us that they would refund the money. But Hooven’s daughter would rather recover the trip instead of the money.
“See if they can just keep the money, see if they can get the trip back on,” Hooven said her daughter told her. “That’s how heartbroken she is — it’s almost in denial.”
