Honest opinion on April 2021

[landandword17]

My hunch is that air travel will resume with some sort of testing. I got this news story on my inbox this morning
“ The International Air Travel Association is calling for the development of a “rapid, accurate, affordable, easy-to-operate, scalable and systematic” COVID-19 test, which could be offered to passengers on international flights prior to departure.”

I also see that United airlines are going to offer Covid testing in SFO airport for Hawaii bound passengers.

[BallroomMom]

I would love to book early 2021 but because kids have missed so much time off school already i cant bring myself to go on hols and have to face a 2 week self quarantine plus I dont even know when US will allow international flights back in properly

So Im going to hold out hope for Oct 2021 and if not then i'm upping the holiday to 3 weeks in 2022 instead

[Whoppery5k]

You know what, I'm not sure. April could very well still happen.
I'm not sure what it's like in the US but in the UK people seem to be coming round to the idea that covid is going to be around for our life time and well beyond.
Even if a vaccine came out tomorrow it would take almost 6 years to make give it to everyone on the planet.
Now the virus is mutating, they say that the vaccine will need to be changed every year like we do with the flu.
So we will never ever protect the whole planet.
Hospital admissions are still very low, deaths are very low, if the numbers in the UK continue to shot up the way they have, at some point someone will say ok enough is enough.

[Pupbelly]

The Government and indeed the public need to determine what the 'end game' is. A decision needs to be made as to when things are going to be deemed "normal". The fact of the matter is that Covid is here and the idea that we will reach 0 deaths is not realistic, so there there must be a point where by we say, ok we expect "X" number of deaths and "Y" number of daily cases, and at that point we stop all of the restrictions. It is just not realistic to expect the world to walk around with a face mask and to withhold free movement.
Covid is a 'thing' but at some point a line has to be drawn in the sand to allow us all to progress with our lives not limping from one worry to the next.

[Rafiki22]

We booked a package with TUI in January for October 2021. Now TUI aren't even selling packages to the US next year after cancelling all of this years bookings and the store I booked it at is still closed. It's just a waiting game isn't it?

[Grandee]

Originally Posted by Pupbelly

We are booked to fly out on the 15th of April with Delta and staying in a Debbies Villas villa moved from November this year.
Surely there must be some normality by April

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Seems like you're of the same mind as me pupbelly! We're booked to fly to MCO on 26 Apr and tour the East coast as far as Charleston then back down to a villa in Kissimmee for a week. No parks or water parks this time, so hopefully should be OK - if we can fly!

[landandword17]

I hope this is not too off topic but I have the TV on in the background and there was just a report on the NYC hotel industry. Several hotels have closed for good. They had a hotel owner on who has closed one of his hotels and his second is at 15% capacity. A further 200 hotels have been closed since March and they said 92% of hotel staff are furloughed in the city. They showed a clip of the major saying testing would be the way forward. They also said 2/3 of hotels will only last another 6 months of shut down.

I suppose Orlando is in a slightly better position but it is a big conference destination and you have to wonder about all the hotels on idrive...

As pupbelly says ''The Government and indeed the public need to determine what the 'end game' is''.

[1RGJ]

I think you seriously have to apply common sense.
I see so many people saying we are staying positive, and that's OK, but with all the issues surrounding refunds and cancelling flights/holidays, the current restrictions in parks, lack of DDP.
I'm not prepared to book and spend half the year trying to get my money back.
I just can't see why you would book under the current flight ban.

[Pupbelly]

I think 1RGJ the thing is once there is the slightest whiff of flights being allowed back to the USA the prices will skyrocket with out a doubt and the demand will be barmy. Whilst there is an element of ‘risk’ booking now, you can be assured of getting what you want went you want at a relatively sensible price. Don’t forget there are a bucketload of folk deferring holidays from this year plus all the normal bookings so next year will potentially be rammed.
Will those of us who have booked actually get to go? Who knows, but I’m confident that prices will be higher in 2021.

[Squidgyness]

Originally Posted by Pupbelly

The Government and indeed the public need to determine what the 'end game' is. A decision needs to be made as to when things are going to be deemed "normal". The fact of the matter is that Covid is here and the idea that we will reach 0 deaths is not realistic, so there there must be a point where by we say, ok we expect "X" number of deaths and "Y" number of daily cases, and at that point we stop all of the restrictions. It is just not realistic to expect the world to walk around with a face mask and to withhold free movement.
Covid is a 'thing' but at some point a line has to be drawn in the sand to allow us all to progress with our lives not limping from one worry to the next.

See more...

The problem with that is that a pandemic does not respect targets.

The moment you relax the restrictions because you're under your "goal" of cases is the moment cases exponentially rise.

It's all well and good saying that the current level is fine, but if the number is trending up, that wont be fine for long. And evidence has already shown that in order to keep the number flat we need restrictions, restrictions that are 99% likely to include severe curtailing of flights and holidays abroad, which are, unfortunately, a luxury.