When do you think the border will reopen?

[Frozen2014]

Or, what if in order to keep social distancing in classrooms, they do shifts where half the class does one week in class, one week learn from home online? Then on the weekends, the classrooms can be thoroughly cleaned for the next group of kids to come in for Monday?

Adding: but then workplaces would have to be flexible for parents to be able to work from home the week of online learning. That would help keep offices spread out as well.

My sister manages the custodians for our local school board. It can be quite the undertaking keeping schools clean on a normal day!

Did you guys get an email about locker cleanout? I know I haven't (in Ontario), but then we're only 'scheduled' to be off school until May 31.

Also, I'm not sure my HS teens will want be picking through their things from their lockers, lol.

Same...also in Ontario with schools closed until May 31....but suspecting it will be end of year. Wondering what will happen as well. I know some kids have taken things home to return (musical instruments, text books, reading books)....and then kids picking up their stuff at school in lockers or the classroom.

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

deleted

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

Whenever they do re-open, couple of things are for sure: there will be people that will be happy about it, and others that will not be... there will be people that will go ahead with their travel plans, and those that will stay away for a year or more! Regardless of which camp you fall into, we should all respect each other’s decisions. I for one hope to travel earlier rather than later... unless something unforeseen happens, or we are still asked not to travel. We may avoid flying for a few months, but have no problems driving to Florida if restrictions are lifted.

 

[wdwmom3]

Whenever they do re-open, couple of things are for sure: there will be people that will be happy about it, and others that will not be... there will be people that will go ahead with their travel plans, and those that will stay away for a year or more! Regardless of which camp you fall into, we should all respect each other’s decisions. I for one hope to travel earlier rather than later... unless something unforeseen happens, or we are still asked not to travel. We may avoid flying for a few months, but have no problems driving to Florida if restrictions are lifted.

That’s great if you feel it’s safe for your family to travel. But please respect the rest of us. And this means that as soon as you come back into this country, you and your family go into immediate lockdown for 2 weeks. And by this I mean don’t even step foot inside a grocery store.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

That’s great if you feel it’s safe for your family to travel. But please respect the rest of us. And this means that as soon as you come back into this country, you and your family go into immediate lockdown for 2 weeks. And by this I mean don’t even step foot inside a grocery store.

That’s exactly what I said - to be respectful of each other’s opinions or decisions to travel or not to travel.
Edit - I should add that if borders open and we are allowed to travel, we will obviously follow the recommendations of the government to quarantine if there are any at that point.

 

[Donald - my hero]

personally I hope people will choose to spend their money traveling within our own country for a while. This is not because I'm concerned about how the virus is spreading or not, how it's been dealt with or not in other countries but because I feel it's extremely important to help get Canada's economy moving first. I feel the same way about how we donate money to worthy causes, if I can see homeless, hungry people struggling on the streets of my own city I will give my money here first. My hubby has his own small business which is our sole source of income and even though it's usually more expensive, we make a very conscious effort to buy locally made/ grown products first and actively search out made in Canada products. We can't expect people to support us if we're not willing to support them. (All of those statements refer to this household, I'm not expecting others to feel the same way)

I'm only talking about traveling for pleasure, I'm very aware of the difficulties and anguish for those who have families split across borders, that needs to be addressed. Before anyone jumps on me, I'm extremely sad that we can't travel to Disney World for quite a long time (that's because we're both in high risk categories btw) since that's the only place, in the entire world, that I'm able to safely eat food that I don't prepare myself. I have significant dietary issues that only Disney can handle. We will travel in Canada but that requires staying somewhere with cooking facilities in our room.

 

[thr33boys]

@Donald - my hero I completely agree. My family's vacation dollars will be spent in Canada when it's permitted. As soon as we're able to travel within Ontario we're going to go see our parents. My MIL lives by herself and is not coping well with isolation. I'm not sure when we'll get back to Disney but we will one day. In the meantime, we are shopping local and will do our part to support the Canadian economy.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

personally I hope people will choose to spend their money traveling within our own country for a while. This is not because I'm concerned about how the virus is spreading or not, how it's been dealt with or not in other countries but because I feel it's extremely important to help get Canada's economy moving first. I feel the same way about how we donate money to worthy causes, if I can see homeless, hungry people struggling on the streets of my own city I will give my money here first. My hubby has his own small business which is our sole source of income and even though it's usually more expensive, we make a very conscious effort to buy locally made/ grown products first and actively search out made in Canada products. We can't expect people to support us if we're not willing to support them. (All of those statements refer to this household, I'm not expecting others to feel the same way)

I'm only talking about traveling for pleasure, I'm very aware of the difficulties and anguish for those who have families split across borders, that needs to be addressed. Before anyone jumps on me, I'm extremely sad that we can't travel to Disney World for quite a long time (that's because we're both in high risk categories btw) since that's the only place, in the entire world, that I'm able to safely eat food that I don't prepare myself. I have significant dietary issues that only Disney can handle. We will travel in Canada but that requires staying somewhere with cooking facilities in our room.

Also agree where feasible to do so...
We had the trip to wdw planned for months and if we had to cancel, most likely we wouldn’t be able to book anything else big on a whim, even if it was in Canada.
Add to that, travel in Canada is extremely expensive for some reason. We definitely do what we can to support our local economy by buying/spending local, and we have mini trips planned to the great wolf lodge in Niagara and the Toronto Zoo and others.
Really the only travel we could do in Canada is during the summer months, but where we can we will choose that this summer.
You touch on some really valid points.
Hope you get to have a wonderful summer.

 

[uandmfan]

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/pol...ed-to-stay-closed-to-non-essential-travel-to/
The Canada - US border is expected to stay closed to non-essential travel to June 21. I read this as the US will likely want it reopened after, but it's very hard to predict that far out. And I may be misreading it!

 

[Kaadk]

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/pol...ed-to-stay-closed-to-non-essential-travel-to/
The Canada - US border is expected to stay closed to non-essential travel to June 21. I read this as the US will likely want it reopened after, but it's very hard to predict that far out. And I may be misreading it!

That's the same way I've read it. That Canada is the one proposing the border stays closed and is in the middle of trying to convince the US of the need to keep it closed.

 

[Jrb1979]

Good. I hope it stays closed for awhile. Til we get better screening the border should stay closed

 

[Kaadk]

Good. I hope it stays closed for awhile. Til we get better screening the border should stay closed

I'm mixed on it. I've no desire to go across the border just because, like shopping or whatnot, but at the same time, I (admittedly, selfishly and with no real good reason) want to not have to cancel our booked trip at the end of Aug.

 

[Jrb1979]

I'm mixed on it. I've no desire to go across the border just because, like shopping or whatnot, but at the same time, I (admittedly, selfishly and with no real good reason) want to not have to cancel our booked trip at the end of Aug.

I have no interest in going to any park this year. Too many restrictions to fully enjoy it.

 

[Kaadk]

I have no interest in going to any park this year. Too many restrictions to fully enjoy it.

Agreed. If I didn't already have everything booked and paid for, I certainly wouldn't have been booking. Unfortunately, we booked all this back in Jan, before there was even any news about all this. And at the time, since there was no indication that it would be possible we couldn't go, we booked pretty much everything non-refundable and in some cases, pay in advance, non-refundable. We have until the end of July to cancel Disney and get a refund, so I'm not so worried about the Disney package, but the rest of the trip is where I'm in doubt.

1) Airfare: Delta has waived the change fees, but it's credit voucher only, and has to be used within the year.
2) SeaWorld: Tickets can be changed to anytime through 2021, since it's an international buy, but our day specific add-ons seem like they'll be forfeit.
3) Park and Fly Hotel: Paid in advance, non-refundable, but I'm lifetime Gold with Marriott, so I might be able to argue that one if I call the Gold line.
4) Mears Shuttle to SeaWorld: I believe I can cancel this one and get my money back.
5) Disney Beachcomber Shack rental at Typhoon Lagoon: I was told non-refundable at the time of booking, but from what we've seen of Disney, I hope I can get this back.

And then lastly, there's a couple of not straight forward considerations as well:

1) We booked under a Free Dining offer (had to be booked by Jan 16, we booked on Jan 15th). Changing our dates, we lose this offer. With two families of 4 going for 8 nights, that works out to a $3520 USD difference that's not redeemable unless we can get a Free Dining offer again. So while it's not money out of pocket gone directly, that's a significant difference in the potential re-booking budget. It's not as simple as just moving the dates. Outright cancelling on the other hand, means being out the various credits that I can't get refunded on.
2) For that other family, this is their once in a lifetime type of trip, they're not the Disney every 18 months like we are, so if we cancel, we might be cancelling on their ability to even go.

 

[isabellea]

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/pol...ed-to-stay-closed-to-non-essential-travel-to/
The Canada - US border is expected to stay closed to non-essential travel to June 21. I read this as the US will likely want it reopened after, but it's very hard to predict that far out. And I may be misreading it!

That's how I read it too. Sucks for those with families on the other side of the border but it's what makes the most sense right now for this country. It wouldn't make sense that we cannot visit another province but can go to the USA?!?

 

[uandmfan]

3) Park and Fly Hotel: Paid in advance, non-refundable, but I'm lifetime Gold with Marriott, so I might be able to argue that one if I call the Gold line.

I've seen several emails from Marriott that said they are waiving cancellation fees for trips that were booked as non-refundable. Especially as a gold member I think you can get the $$ back!

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

https://news.paxeditions.com/news/o...der-closure-june-talks-are-going-well-says-pm

 

[Iralyn]

I'm hearing reports (from a different travel group that I'm part of) that the U.S. border is fairly "permeable" - that U.S. border agents are pretty flexible about what is 'essential'. For instance, a Canadian teenager going to help out her American aunt with childcare (I can see the argument for that being essential) or someone going to visit a friend (I guess not technically a tourist?). Canadian border officials are being much more rigid according to all reports and are even denying a non-Canadian spouse from crossing the border to join family. Of course, this is hearsay so I can't be completely sure of its accuracy but I thought it was interesting. Until a couple weeks ago, I didn't realize that the U.S. as a whole didn't have the same quarantine requirements as Canada for those arriving from outside the country.

 

[wdwmom3]

I'm hearing reports (from a different travel group that I'm part of) that the U.S. border is fairly "permeable" - that U.S. border agents are pretty flexible about what is 'essential'. For instance, a Canadian teenager going to help out her American aunt with childcare (I can see the argument for that being essential) or someone going to visit a friend (I guess not technically a tourist?). Canadian border officials are being much more rigid according to all reports and are even denying a non-Canadian spouse from crossing the border to join family. Of course, this is hearsay so I can't be completely sure of its accuracy but I thought it was interesting. Until a couple weeks ago, I didn't realize that the U.S. as a whole didn't have the same quarantine requirements as Canada for those arriving from outside the country.

I’m not surprised. And I’m also glad that Canada is being very strict with who they let in. I really hope that the border does stay closed until at least the end of June.

i find the fact that they don’t have quarantine orders in place for people entering the US kind of representative of how the pandemic has been handled there.

 

[ottawamom]

Interesting, but are the Canadians insisting that whoever crosses back in self quarantine for 14 days?