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Canada-U.S. border closure extended again amid tension over restrictions ...


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I think the airlines do have some strong lobby groups. But also, when you fly there is a paper trail that leads to your theoretical end point. I think it's still a little weak, but at least there's something to go on if contact tracing is required. 
 

The land border would have far too many people  crossing to make this possible without tracking the car or something of that nature. And I'm pretty certain that this would not go over well. 

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I think a lot of people know, and personally I'd been looking at possibly going to Hawaii at the end of year (changed mind and it will likely be a Caribbean resort if we go). And because many of us are not working or working from home, I think that the self-isolation period becomes less of an impediment.

But I think that many Canadians are still wary of going to the US because of the numbers there. If the numbers start going down and stay down in the US, then we'll see an upswing in southbound travel.

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6 hours ago, KWong said:

But I think that many Canadians are still wary of going to the US because of the numbers there. If the numbers start going down and stay down in the US, then we'll see an upswing in southbound travel.

Once the Government of Canada travel advisories to the US are lifted, the insurance companies will provide coverage.  This will instill consumer confidence.  I really hope the Canada/US government can negotiate something for immediate family members affected by the border closure.   The holidays are just around the corner...

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2 hours ago, cruisellama said:

Cruise radio had a story noting VBC may be closed to cruise traffic through 2021!  Very bad for cruising - unless ships reflag or exceptions to the Jone's act are solicited and granted.

I just read the article.  The govt official said cruise ships wouldn’t be allowed unless changes were made.  What changes do you think he is referring to and by whom?

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13 minutes ago, mjb1127 said:

I just read the article.  The govt official said cruise ships wouldn’t be allowed unless changes were made.  What changes do you think he is referring to and by whom?

In context it sounds like lines processes  and the passengers from other countries (behaviors) are influencing.  (Watching what protocols "they" put in place)  Sensing some mistrust in those making (US and others)  the "pass through" (from Seattle) and fouling VPC can't be controlled and until they change, the port will stay closed to cruise ships.    OK fine - then what about originating cruises from VBC?  Local gov't rules and make protocols for those entering the country through customs.  

 So seemed like a stonewall.  Could they accept a plan, to start, they accept cruises that originate from VBC?  (So they're not the "fill in the square" stop).  I read many of the locals do not like the cruise tourism anyway, so maybe the port authority has a lever to accommodate the local population.   That's their decision.  If the CA stop is sustained,  US cruises to AK will curtailed unless there's reflagging  exceptions to current law based upon special circumstances.  How bad do US lines want to service the AK market?    

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15 hours ago, cruisellama said:

Cruise radio had a story noting VBC may be closed to cruise traffic through 2021!  Very bad for cruising - unless ships reflag or exceptions to the Jone's act are solicited and granted.

Wouldn't surprise me....Our chief medical office stated it could be 2-3 years before things get back to normal in Canada..till then expect masks, social distancing, business closed, borders closed and travel restricted…...I wouldn't book a damn thing that involves Canada for the next year or two at least...

 

its crazy and insane...but seems like most sheep, I mean people in Canada are on board...…..

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59 minutes ago, monctonguy said:

Wouldn't surprise me....Our chief medical office stated it could be 2-3 years before things get back to normal in Canada..till then expect masks, social distancing, business closed, borders closed and travel restricted…...I wouldn't book a damn thing that involves Canada for the next year or two at least...

 

its crazy and insane...but seems like most sheep, I mean people in Canada are on board...…..

Hope it pushes some regulatory/statutory reform on the US side to allow the industry to operate between AK and lower 48.  But the cruise lines are going to need to lobby for it.

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https://globalnews.ca/news/7304292/coronavirus-canada-extending-international-travel-restrictions-mandatory-quarantine-until-sept-30/
 

“Canada is once again extending emergency orders that place restrictions on international travel and make mandatory 14-day quarantines for anyone entering the country during the novel coronavirus pandemic. The orders will be extended for at least another month.”
- now extended to Sept. 30. 

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A friend of mine (dual citizenship) born in Quebec, resides in US. He went to the Lewiston/Queenston bridge to cross, 2 weeks ago today. He was going up to race a horse tonite. Before leaving he spoke with the ministry of health, he gotsome kind of exemption that all he had to do was, Have a negative test within 12 hrs of arriving at the border. He already had rented a house and will be there for 8 weeks, some how got an exemption to only quarantine for 7 days, get a test and he was clear to race last Sat night. Only thing he had to do was stay away from the other people in the paddock area last week, now he is clear. Strange, but does show there can be loop holes.

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Even Fauci thinks the border closure at this time is a good idea...

“Keeping the Canada-United States border closed will help contain the spread of the coronavirus as long as there remains a huge disparity in numbers between the two nations, Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. government official on infectious diseases, said in an interview with Global News.

The coronavirus numbers in the U.S. are “unacceptably high” heading into the fall, Fauci said. As of Friday, there have been more than 6.1 million cases of the coronavirus in the U.S. In comparison, Canada had just over 132,000 cases, according to Johns Hopkins University.

“If you have an area of the country with very, very low activity, obviously there’s concern about letting people in from countries in which there’s a high rate of infection,” Fauci told Global News’ Jackson Proskow on Friday.

Because of the huge gap in numbers between the neighbouring countries, Fauci said he supports the border closure, as “it does have a positive effect on keeping a lid on things.” But when there isn’t such a large gap in COVID-19 numbers, there is debate on the effectiveness, he added.”

The article goes on to discuss the high death rate in the U.S.; Covid-19 fatigue; the fear of a spike in cases with the coming cold weather forcing more people indoors, specifically highlighting the risk with people in bars; and the realistic timing of a possible vaccine to be made available.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7315953/anthony-fauci-canada-u-s-border-closure-coronavirus/

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36 minutes ago, crisgold52 said:

Some are indicating that the US gods may be pressuring for a return to normalcy by opening the US CANADA land border. Of course this would be a risky endeavor. 

 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/09/opinions/us-canada-covid-19-bociurkiw/index.html 

Kind of a sweet irony that the US is complaining about being closed out of a border

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18 hours ago, twangster said:

The PVSA violation is only a $800 fine.  Just add it to the cruise fare and away we go!  Alaska here we come...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_Vessel_Services_Act_of_1886

This says $762 per person.  I don't see why a ship can't just stop somewhere in Canada and nobody gets off.  Would that meet the requirement?   I have already been to Victoria once so I wouldn't have to get off the ship.  It is after all, an Alaskan cruise.

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1 hour ago, Dad2Cue said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_Vessel_Services_Act_of_1886

This says $762 per person.  I don't see why a ship can't just stop somewhere in Canada and nobody gets off.  Would that meet the requirement?   I have already been to Victoria once so I wouldn't have to get off the ship.  It is after all, an Alaskan cruise.

The actual PVSA says $798 here:

https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2019-Sep/PVSA-ICP.pdf

"Non-coastwise-qualified vessels The Passenger Vessel Services Act September 2019 9 U.S. Customs and Border Protection that transport passengers between coastwise points will be penalized $300 for each passenger transported and landed on or before November 2, 2015 and $798 for each passenger transported and landed after November 2, 2015."

As far as visiting a country but not getting off I'm not sure CBP would accept that.  Technically as soon as a ship is within territorial boundaries they are subject to laws of that nation as if they landed.  There are exceptions that allow transit through territorial waters by international convention so in cases where a ship must transit through a nation's territorial limits to get somewhere else that is permitted and not counted as if the ship at that moment is subject to the jurisdiction of that nation.  Visiting a pier but not debarking is a gray area in between transiting and visiting. 

If a nation doesn't "clear" the ship and process passengers as visitors regardless if they don't debark then there's a strong argument those guests never visited that nation. 

Today, or up to this point, you might not get a physical stamp in your passport when you visit Canada but your passport is marked electronically that you entered Canada and CBP can see that when you return as they share data with Canada.  Would Canada be willing to allow a ship into port, process all guests as visitors but deny then debarking privileges?  I'm not sure Canada would sign up for that.  Why would they?  If Canada has closed a port due to health concerns why let a potential "plague ship" reach the pier at all?  Once a ship has been admitted to enter a port, if a medical emergency is declared that nation can't just close the port and force it off the pier.  Japan got stuck with a COVID ship very early on in this manner.   

Canadians are nice people and all, but I'm not sure they are going to bend the rules with no benefit and only risk just so Americans can vacation to Alaska on a cruise.

This idea seems to be accepted in certain European cruise itineraries that did exactly this "touch & go" recently but that's within Europe.  Something tells me that CBP wouldn't accept that here in the U.S.A. or that Canada isn't going to allow a ship from a country that doesn't have control of the virus to enter it's ports.

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I predict that it wont open before the US election but could open with restrictions(same as flying) before Christmas.

 

Obviously anything can happen before then....but i feel like its possibility. It really wouldn't affect much as most ppl aren't flying or driving if they have to quarantine for 2 weeks so kind a moot point but...

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1 hour ago, monctonguy said:

I predict that it wont open before the US election but could open with restrictions(same as flying) before Christmas.

 

Obviously anything can happen before then....but i feel like its possibility. It really wouldn't affect much as most ppl aren't flying or driving if they have to quarantine for 2 weeks so kind a moot point but...

I was just saying this to Hubby a few days ago.  Either just before Christmas, or right after the holidays.  My feeling is possibly right after the holidays.

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On 9/18/2020 at 3:09 PM, crisgold52 said:

 Ironic how Air Canada and Westjet now including Covid insurance coverage with all tickets ticketed by Oct 31. Excluded US for obvious reasons.

The Air Canada complimentary Covid coverage does not have a US exclusion.  The coverage does exclude travel during your cruise dates.  When shopping for Covid Coverage, make sure you read over policy wordings to review the policy exclusions.

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2 hours ago, cruisellama said:

I believe if the border stays closed too far into 2021 , the USG will grant exceptions for passenger ships to travel to AK from US ports.  Would guess the lines would lobby for it.   Exceptions have been granted in the past.

Exception are granted in response to emergencies such that impact a sailing in process such as hurricanes or medical diversions.  The verbiage of the law suggests that an actual waiver is only permitted due to issues related to national security. 

The verbiage makes it such that even if AK petitioned for a waiver on the basis of economic impacts that doesn't qualify since it's not a matter national security.  The government can't change the law temporarily without modifying the actual law.  

CBP can't advertise or solicit the cruise lines to evade the law on the basis of "trust us, we won't prosecute you... this time".   For a cruise line to purposely start a cruise they know is in violation of the law makes an exception highly unlikely.   

It's basically like suggesting the police state "go ahead and speed this weekend, we are not going to enforce any speed limit this weekend".

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50 minutes ago, monctonguy said:

Nope..pretty sure Canada closed their ports to US cruise ships.

Agreed.  The verbiage of the closure is:

“Non-essential” travel includes travel that is considered tourism or recreational in nature.

Note that commercial traffic is still flowing.  The border isn't closed absolutely, it's closed only to non-essential travel.  There are foreign flagged tanker ships in the port of Vancouver right now.  Ports are not closed to commercial ship traffic just like land borders are allowing commercial trucks to drive across.

In theory they could turn back someone flying to Canada on an airplane.  That tends to create more hardships and ramifications to the airlines who would then be responsible to fly that person back to their origin. 

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I remember not being able to dock (wind) in Vancouver and just sitting in the bay for half a day before heading back to Seattle on the backend of an Alaskan cruise.  Weather cancel is clearly ok (safety),  I think some financial levers foster some creativity if this border riff goes on too long.   US has just extended its border exclusion on its side.  Its a back-n-forth at this time.  We'll see what happens next season.

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1 hour ago, crisgold52 said:

Plus Air and Sea traffic are not affected by the current closure to begin with

Vessels with greater than 100 people are banned by Canada at the moment.  That is how some ferries are slipping through.  Most cruise ships are banned in Canada until October 31, 2020. 

"The Minister of Transport, the Honorable Marc Garneau, announced that cruise ships with overnight accommodations allowed to carry more than 100 persons are prohibited from operating in Canadian waters until October 31, 2020. The Minister also stated that all other passenger vessels must follow provincial, territorial, local and regional health authority covid-19 requirements for resuming operations. Those who do not comply with the new restrictions will be liable to a penalty of $5,000 per day for an individual and $25,000 per day for a corporation.

Furthermore, passenger vessels that carry more than 12 people are also prohibited from entering Arctic coastal waters (including Nunatsiavut, Nunavik and the Labrador Coast) until October 31, 2020. However, as of July 1, 2020, passenger vessels will be allowed to operate in inland rivers and lakes in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon. In Canada’s Arctic the restrictions do not apply to pleasure crafts used by local communities or vessels used as essential transportation or for subsistence fishing, harvesting and hunting."

  

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On 9/22/2020 at 6:26 AM, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I was just saying this to Hubby a few days ago.  Either just before Christmas, or right after the holidays.  My feeling is possibly right after the holidays.

You think they'll open that soon?   I'm feeling like our Mexico vacation in March will be a no-go because I don't think Canada will lift the two week quarantine until after spring break.  The last thing they want is everyone jetting out of here and then coming home and passing the virus on back at the schools.   I bet the 2 week quarantine stays in place until summer 2021 (despite me being hopeful that it's before then), especially with cases on the rise all over the place right now.

The caveat being if we can get a test that has a quick turnaround time mass produced for travelers landing in Canada.   There was talk here of a saliva test, which would be a great option as it could be self administered... or managed AT the airport, but as we are seeing in the Whitehouse right now testing doesn't prevent the spread of the virus - it just probably provides an earlier positive as people are tested whether they are symptomatic or not.    Such a hot mess.   I just need a beach ?

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