General Chat

.... a very happy bunny.

As long as nothing else happens or covid-19 returns or gets worse ............. we'll be able to spend Christmas with our daughter :-D

I think at least some of you know that we love to take the trains across Canada at Christmas time to spend a week or so with our daughter and her family who live on the opposite coast to us.

The trip takes 6-7 days each way and involves 3 trains ............ 4 days on a sleeper train, overnight in a hotel, 5 hours on a day train, and 20 hours overnight on another sleeper train.

Covid-19 has affected all travel, and only the day train has been running, albeit at restricted schedules and service, because it is a busy train between 3 major cities. The sleeper trains have been suspended since early March until November 1st.

I usually do my bookings about now, so I phoned the call centre ................ if all stays as is or improves, the sleeper trains will be back in service on November 1st, with lots of added precautions of course.

I've done my research, sent it to my daughter and if she approves ............... I'll be making the reservations tomorrow morning (Tuesday) :-D

If covid-19 returns and the trains have to be cancelled, or if a province closes its borders again, or if we get ill ................... full refunds, with no arguments!

Sylvia,

I'm pleased for you that you have been able to look forward to better times and are making plans to stay with your daughter and her family.
Having a goal like that will be helpful and give you a boost,while you still have to live with restrictions.

I hope it all works out well for you.

Good news! <3

Good luck Sylvia; I know how much you look forward to Christmas with your daughter. <3

Something positive to look forward to good news x

Sylvia, that sounds like a wonderful journey :-D

Fingers crossed XXXX

Sylvia, no quarantine for you then! :-D

There'll be a fair few here who can't get away this summer because of the 14-day quarantine restriction. We had nothing booked but if we had, like most retired people we could have easily quarantined when we got back.

If that restriction remains in force throughout August, Dtr and family will have to forgo their holiday. She could go on her own because she works from home but her OH and son have work and school upon their return so it's a no-go situation.

It's the way the cookie crumbles, I guess.

Just a thought, if the airlines get cracking we oldies may just get cheaper holidays cos they'll want to fill seats and beds ..... ... ...... nah!

As if! :-D :-D :-D

A rider to my last post:

Dtr is talking about a Winter holiday at the moment. She did remember that Grandson 2 (her son) only arrived back home the week before lockdown after a skiing trip in France (a few miles from the Italian border).

I don't think any of us will forget March!

That's something good to focus on and I'll keep my fingers crossed everything works out well Sylvia X

Well done Sylvia fingers crossed all is ok for you.

I hope it can all go ahead as you usually do

Thank you all.

The dates fit perfectly with the daughter's work and school timings, so I'll be making the bookings in a little while :-D

I should point out that we have had 14 day quarantine for anyone arriving in Canada from the US or any other country since mid-March for some provinces and late March or April for all others when the Federal government imposed restrictions. Daughter and family and her in-laws were in 14 day full quarantine in Nova Scotia from March 18th when they all returned in a hurry from Florida. In addition, her in-laws were not allowed to take an overnight stop in New Brunswick, the province immediately west of NS and the province they had to enter by a land crossing ......... NS doesn't have a land border with the US. They had to drive non-stop to their home in NS, which had been closed up since early November, power and water turned off, with no food left there except canned ...... they had to do all that in pitch dark.

The borders are still closed to US and international traffic, except for essential workers and returning citizens., and all people are given health checks at the borders when entering. If they pass, they have to go into 14 day full quarantine either at their home which they have to be able to reach directly from the airport without taking public transit or in a government-approved hotel (government pays the cost). They are checked during the 14 days to make sure they are still well and obeying the restrictions. If they fail the health test, they have to be fully medically checked out, then go into full quarantine with self-separation from anyone else in the residence (if possible) or taken to hospital depending on their state. They receive daily or twice daily health checks.

In addition, some provinces imposed bans on their provincial borders .......... Alberta and BC, and NB with PQ and NS for example. That is the sort of ban that we would come across, if for example Ontario imposed a 14 day quarantine on anyone arriving there from elsewhere in Canada as well as international. We have an overnight stop in Toronto which would mean we'd have to do the 14 days.

It's been and still is much stricter and for much longer than you or the US!

There is a lot of science behind the rationale behind closing borders, checking health of people coming from other countries especially where the virus is present in large numbers, and insisting on quarantine for people entering from those countries. We now know that the majority of cases in BC can be linked to the outbreak in Washington State. The first cases here are linked to outbreaks in China and Iran, but the cases here were limited in number as the members of those communities were extremely good about self-isolating and containing he virus. Europe has been another major infection cause.

Some provinces are much better than others. About 5 have had no new cases for weeks, BC is down to 10 or less new cases a day and that mainly in Metro Vancouver and another area close to the US border. NS had no new cases for several days then had 1.

We'll all have to see what happens in the couple of weeks or so after these demonstrations!

Ontario might be the fly in your ointment Syvia :-D I'll go around spraying everyone to help out ;-)...mind you Quebec isn't much better......

Oh, all fingers and toes will be crossed for the next few months, Caroline.

it might make it a bit hard to walk, but still ............. :-D :-D

But I'm really hoping that both ON and PQ are in much better shape by then, and that the second wave hasn't come or has come and gone!

We currently have to overnight in Toronto on the way out, but I could change that to only changing trains there and staying in Montreal one night, if Ontario is a problem.

Coming home we have to spend 2 nights in hotels and I'm currently working on 1 night in Montreal (gives almost a full day in Montreal) and 1 night in Toronto, but that might change

I don't book hotels until much closer to the time ....... it's amazing how much cheaper a hotel for around Christmas becomes in late November compared to the price quoted in June ;-)

Life feels more normal to me ............. at least for the time being.

I've made all the train bookings at the time in early June that I usually make them, and have got all my requested dates, cabins, seats, etc. I have all the E-boarding passes to download and keep safe in the safe.

The only problem came when my credit card wouldn't accept the charge ........ the VIA guy was very pleasant, said his experience was that the company had put a hold on it because it was an unusually large amount.

I had to phone the card company, got a live operator immediately (wonder of wonders!!), and yes, their automatic programme had put a hold on the card. I had to answer some personal security questions to be sure it was me, hold was lifted. VIA guy phoned me back, and everything went smoothly.


I haven't been charging much recently on that card :-D

Lovely news, Sylvia! I hope everything goes to plan

Lizxx

Thank you, Liz xx

One can only hope these days!!

Sylvia Montreal isn't doing that well either right now....I have a tent you can borrow worse comes to the worse I mean Christmas in Canada is the time to camp isn't it ? :-D

As for not using your credit card I'm using mine more lately as it's safer than doing online with my debit card, I'm surprised they haven't questioned all the transaction I'm doing :-D

Of course winter is the time to camp in Canada :-D

Oh, I've been using my credit card, just not the Visa one I used yesterday for large amounts of money. I've been putting usually less than $200 on that.

I guess this was an "unusually large amount". True ..... large amounts usually go on when I make train bookings in June and then pay the bills around Christmas, so it's January since any large bills came in! Ah, the delights of automated systems!!

I've been ordering lots on-line, but not food. We've been able to get most everything reasonably easily locally.

I think the masks I ordered from Walmart have just arrived ..... only 1 day later than their estimated time of June 5-9. I'm wary of opening the package, knowing how many awful stories are around about masks from China.

OH has just walked in with my travel mug filled with my soy latte, so I think I'll go and relax with that, then deal with the package later :-D