Jim White

I can't believe it. I wrote a letter, submitted and found my internet was down at the time. I reconnected and whoa, my letter is gone. I mean gone gone. Not submitted. Why would it have to disappear and not a message back saying we could not submit your letter, try again later. That in my mind, stinks but I have to live with it now. What else stinks is RCL policy to test before boarding, perhaps other cruise lines are doing it too. We were on a cruise in January and had to pay $70 to have a video call confirmed testing of my wife and I. It is expensive and was also inconvenient. We have been vaccinated 4 times now and willing to show proof and wear our masks onboard like we did in January. We cruise again next week and then again in September. We are even willing to bring along our free RATs and do them on morning of boarding and sign an affidavit or have some of the many 'guides' showing the way into the terminal to confirm. We just getting tired of having to spend money before we get on the boat. We already paid for the cruise, we have to pay way too much to park at the terminal and so on. We also note that most of the world other than China has given up on testing and even mask wearing and proof of vaccination so why can't RCL let us onboard without a test. We are driving into Cape Liberty and it is very inconvenient to try and get a confirmed test somewhere. They will ask us screening questions as we enter and trust our answers so why not trust us to take our tests with a free kit? Especially at this point in the pandemic.

I am embarrassed to be Canadian if the story I just read on Cruisehive is correct. We have cruised to Alaska and in fact doing so again this September. We have taken the WP&YR train and enjoyed it immensely. I believe most persons do. The train goes through a small border crossing with the flags and if I remember a sign and a cabin and proceeds a few miles into the Yukon where the train stops beside a narrow lake. The engine disconnects and comes back around to the other end of the train and then takes us back down to Skagway. The train does not stop at the border, there are no border guards and nobody disembarks the train. That means there is nobody to show passports to, nobody to show ArriveCan to and other than pictures out the window and a story to tell, no proof of being in Alaska and the Yukon during a train ride. If we (Canada)changed this procedure at some point during the pandemic then we went overboard. There was no need to, the system worked and I do not believe there were any international incidents because of the way it was set up. Many people would be proud to tell their tale of their WP&YR train ride and the fact that they visited the Yukon and Alaska by rail. Now all they will get is probably a laugh at the fancy procedures of Canada to protect a vast wilderness and a couple of black bears from Covid. Amazing how we can complicate things!