Travel -> apprehensive

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We've been on a couple of trips to the Blue Ridge & Smoky mountains this year. And we went to Las Vegas and 3 national parks last month.

We've found it very easy to travel in solitude pretty much--staying away from others.

Next up is Berlin & Dresden the end of September as I had a travel credit from last year's flight cancellation to the same cities. This will be a WWII history trip and will be hitting some great museums. We think we can pretty much avoid the masses of people if we plan carefully.
 
braumeister said:
Canada is on the amber list.
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Exactly. What I was reporting was a change to the country list, just in case it was of interest to folks here.

They have just announced that France is also being added to the amber list.
 
We are the forgotten group of people as far as all the rhetoric is concerned about travel, dining out, etc. DH is on meds that suppress his immune system and is fully vaccinated but current studies are indicating he may have zero protection from COVID. We have/had? a trip planned to Florida for late Fall but will probably cancel now. Just too risky for him.

Hopefully he will get an opportunity to get a booster shot if it's approved soon but with no way, still, of knowing if he will get any long lasting immunity we can't make any travel plans. His doctors have said we are to behave as if he was never vaccinated at all (mask at all times, socially distance).

Just wanted to bring up that there are some people trapped between 'I'm vaccinated, wearing a mask and fine' and 'not vaccinated and don't care'. We are vaccinated and still at high risk. So to answer the OP's question, apprehensive, yes, very much so.
 
goingtotravel said:
We are the forgotten group of people as far as all the rhetoric is concerned about travel, dining out, etc. DH is on meds that suppress his immune system and is fully vaccinated but current studies are indicating he may have zero protection from COVID. We have/had? a trip planned to Florida for late Fall but will probably cancel now. Just too risky for him.

Hopefully he will get an opportunity to get a booster shot if it's approved soon but with no way, still, of knowing if he will get any long lasting immunity we can't make any travel plans. His doctors have said we are to behave as if he was never vaccinated at all (mask at all times, socially distance).

Just wanted to bring up that there are some people trapped between 'I'm vaccinated, wearing a mask and fine' and 'not vaccinated and don't care'. We are vaccinated and still at high risk. So to answer the OP's question, apprehensive, yes, very much so.
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We are in the exact same position with DH's autoimmune disease and medications. So frustrating. DH is exploring getting a booster vaccine now before FDA approval, evidently many people are doing that.
 
goingtotravel said:
... current studies are indicating he may have zero protection from COVID. We have/had? a trip planned to Florida for late Fall but will probably cancel now. Just too risky for him.

...His doctors have said we are to behave as if he was never vaccinated at all (mask at all times, socially distance).
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For what it is worth I live in the most dangerous county and city in Florida with regards to cases of Covid and especially the Delta variant. The hospitals are maxed out and they are again putting non-Covid medical patients in areas converted from lunch rooms, waiting rooms, etc. To compound the problem is the burn out from the doctors, nurses, and other medical staff making the burden on them even greater. The vaccination rate is no greater than 50% and most (90+%) of the Covid patients have not received any vaccine.

I would hesitate to vacation in Florida for quite some time. Children are returning to school with many not vaccinated and not wearing masks. If history gives us any clue guess what is going to happen in about a month.


Cheers!
 
harllee said:
We are in the exact same position with DH's autoimmune disease and medications. So frustrating. DH is exploring getting a booster vaccine now before FDA approval, evidently many people are doing that.
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That they are...there has been quite the uptick on Reddit discussing this very thing.

DW and I are sticking with our trip to Mexico that is a short two months from now but could pull the trigger if it gets too much worse here in about a month. Until then, we are hunkering down and avoiding the masses of people.
 
JustCurious said:
Stop worrying about it and live your life.
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I’m sorry, but which post are you responding to? Hopefully not one expressing concern about covid risk with a suppressed autoimmune system.
 
MichaelB said:
I’m sorry, but which post are you responding to? Hopefully not one expressing concern about covid risk with a suppressed autoimmune system.
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I am responding to the original post. I re-read it and I do not see a reference to a suppressed autoimmune system.
 
Scuba said:
You can avoid this problem by going to the USVI. COVID test required to enter, but not when returning.
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Going to Puerto Rico requires either proving being fully vaccinated or a negative test. Coming back does not require the negative test since it's not considered outside the US. At least this is what I've found out in planning my trip there. So yeah, if you want to dive, that's probably a good option. I quit SCUBA many years ago, but still free dive. I just bought an underwater camera good to 26 feet, which I could exceed if something interesting appears.

The good news about being in a place like USVI, is that you're outdoors almost all the time, so Covid apprehensiveness minimized then. Of course there's that aluminum tube for all those hours getting there :(
 
I am currently in Central Europe visiting family & traveling in a very solitary manner. I was aiming to return to the US mid-August, but my return flight itinerary had been changed Four times in the past month by the carrier to account for canceled routes. I had had enough, so I canceled that part of my trip, and extended my stay to return the beginning of October.

Fortunately, some of the Central European Countries have extended the 90-day rule to 180-days, thereby allowing me (with a US Passport) to legally stay without a visa.
 
For travel I am cautious but not panicked. One has to accept the fact that COVID-19 will be with us for the rest of our lives. Even if vaccines are 95% effective, with 100% vaccination you will still have 50 out of 1000 getting Covid. On a given trip you will easily encounter 1000 people. If you goal is to never encounter anyone with Covid but still travel, good luck. I understand totally those with compromised immune systems should take extra precautions. But in fact that is not the majority of people. As there are no guarantees, one has to look at the odds and make a decision on the level of risk one is willing to take.

So far we have started traveling again, flying to Texas for a family wedding with about 200 people, a couple of weeks ago driving to New Jersey for another family wedding almost with about 200 people. Airports were crowded, rest stops along the NJ Turnpike were more crowded than I have seen them in years (and there almost no one wore masks). It has been more than two weeks after these events, and no one at those events has tested positive for Covid. Yes, this is anecdotal, like just about any other situation that has been posted here.

For international travel I'm more apprehensive about my travel plans being disrupted than of being exposed to the virus. The stories of folks - not even testing positive - being stuck extra days in locations, sometimes with forced quarantine sites not of their choosing and a their own expense - is what holds us back more.
 
jollystomper said:
For travel I am cautious but not panicked. One has to accept the fact that COVID-19 will be with us for the rest of our lives.
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Exactly. People who expect Covid to go away are living in a fantasy. I often hear people say..."When the pandemic is over I am going to...." And I ask "How will you know when it is over?" I haven't gotten a clear answer to that question yet.
 
God willing, next week at this time I'll be in Anchorage waiting for my flight to Juneau. I just broke down and scheduled a COVID test for $165 that guarantees next-day results rather than the no-cost-to-me version at CVS that says "typically" 1-2 days. I do not want to get results after I'm already en route. Cruise line requires a negative test.

And I'm flying American. Oh, joy. I checked the status of my most mission-critical flight (Chicago-Anchorage) last night and it was scheduled for 5:50 PM, moved to 7:30 and at 7:30 it was moved to 9:30 :mad: but eventually took off at 8:30. Nerve-wracking but that would work- my flight to Juneau is at 11 the next AM. My flight from my home airport to ORD has a 5-hour layover in ORD - just in case.

And this is why I'm a control freak about scheduling my own flights and why I'm grateful to be retired- I can do overnights both ways and not burn vacation days.
 
athena53 said:
God willing, next week at this time I'll be in Anchorage waiting for my flight to Juneau. I just broke down and scheduled a COVID test for $165 that guarantees next-day results rather than the no-cost-to-me version at CVS that says "typically" 1-2 days. I do not want to get results after I'm already en route. Cruise line requires a negative test.

And I'm flying American. Oh, joy. I checked the status of my most mission-critical flight (Chicago-Anchorage) last night and it was scheduled for 5:50 PM, moved to 7:30 and at 7:30 it was moved to 9:30 :mad: but eventually took off at 8:30. Nerve-wracking but that would work- my flight to Juneau is at 11 the next AM. My flight from my home airport to ORD has a 5-hour layover in ORD - just in case.

And this is why I'm a control freak about scheduling my own flights and why I'm grateful to be retired- I can do overnights both ways and not burn vacation days.
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Provided there are no issues getting a hotel! DW had that issue when she got stuck in DFW thanks to American Airlines.
 
JustCurious said:
Exactly. People who expect Covid to go away are living in a fantasy. I often hear people say..."When the pandemic is over I am going to...." And I ask "How will you know when it is over?" I haven't gotten a clear answer to that question yet.
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I agree. The city we live in just instituted mandatory vaccination card checks and mask wearing for indoor venues (restaurants, bars, retail). I wonder if this is going to become a permanent way of life? I imagine that COVID is likely to continue to mutate so not sure what will make these precautions viewed as no longer necessary.

DH and I are carrying on with our lives as normally as possible. We are currently in the Southeast and it is a quite a contrast - few masks anywhere and definitely no vaccination card checks.
 
JustCurious said:
Exactly. People who expect Covid to go away are living in a fantasy. I often hear people say..."When the pandemic is over I am going to...." And I ask "How will you know when it is over?" I haven't gotten a clear answer to that question yet.
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I'm not waiting for it to be 100% gone, but I live in an area where our cases are at an all time peak, and hospitalizations and deaths are in a similar upward curve. I'm also not going to travel internationally if there are moving targets on what is open, what's not, and what I can do when I go there.

At this point, I'd gladly take a post-covid world based on the numbers around the country from mid-june.
 
Planning some USA travel, but accepting that we will wear masks indoors for museums, etc, but are still willing to eat indoors.
 
Aerides said:
I'm also not going to travel internationally if there are moving targets on what is open, what's not, and what I can do when I go there.
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I agree- that's what made me postpone my E. European trip that was supposed to start this past June 26. Plenty of stops in countries where a peak in COVID cases would strain the healthcare system and with large segments of the population not vaccinated. I was scheduled to go through Heathrow both ways and the UK's quarantine requirements keep changing as things evolve- understandable but not very good for planning travel.
 
We've done a fair amount of US travel since the start of the pandemic.

  • a week in Utah
  • a week in Montana (twice)
  • a few days in Pennsylvania
  • a few days in Kansas
  • a few days in upstate New York (twice)
  • a few days in Tennessee
  • two weeks in Maine
  • a week in Alaska
They were all road trips except for Utah, the first Montana trip, and Alaska.
All flights were on either Delta or Alaska Air, and they were both great about everything. On road trips we found it easy to bring food in a cooler and picnic at highway rest areas. All the hotels we stayed at (typically Hampton Inns) were great and made us feel as safe as home.

We deliberately pushed any international travel off until autumn of 2022, and that seems to have been a good decision. We have a big one scheduled for then (Australia/New Zealand) and I'm still hopeful they will be open by that time.
 
I'm concerned about travel next month. We will be flying, and will wear N95 masks. We also have KN95 masks for use in more controlled situations. We will visit people, outdoors, and probably masked.

My problem is that community band has started up, and the band members do not even attempt to mask. Last week, at rehearsal, only 3 people were masked-myself, DS (who plays percussion) and one of the euphonium players, who is Director of Emergency Response for the state's health department. Yikes! I'm an essential player in the groups in which I participate, and DS is absolutely essential for a couple of groups as well.

Do I stop going to rehearsal? We have outdoor concerts scheduled two days before we fly across the country.

I do not want to mess up the travel plans. What to do, what to do? We're all vaccinated.
 
I really want to go to Ireland but am putting it off for a year because it would be horrible to get there and things closed because of the virus.
 
Teacher Terry said:
I really want to go to Ireland but am putting it off for a year because it would be horrible to get there and things closed because of the virus.
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I agree, it'd be no fun if the place was shut down and you couldn't do much after spending a lot of money just to get there. What bothers me is that in addition, you may need to have a negative COVID test to fly back home and what if the test comes back positive even if you're fully vaccinated and asymptomatic? Then you'd be stranded in a foreign country until the test comes back positive? Being stuck in some hotel for a week or two? That would be a huge bummer.
 
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