MisterSG1

So, I came back today with the little one and his parents. And I was surprised how smoothly most things went. I was expecting the toll plaza to resemble a border crossing and to be questioned right there about the visit and reservation information. But it wasn’t the case, simply showed my Gold Pass and we got in like any other day in 2019. I was expecting to have temperature taken but only after crossing security, did we have to prove our reservation. Afterwards, while they get photos in front of the Royal fountains and bridge, I stepped into the international Street Tim Hortons. This was the first of many “growing pains” I noticed there. The entrance to Tim’s is a double door and the left door leads into the queue complete with two switch backs. Yet they had the right door open only, I made a suggestion that they should just open the left door as it leads directly into queue. While I thought we needed masks on at all times, around this time I was told guests only need to wear masks while in ride queues, on rides, and inside shops. In Planet Snoopy, I noticed that ride lineups weren’t exactly abnormal considering that guests had to social distance, but the ride ops appeared to be having growing pains, as in “traffic jams” happening on Wonderland’s swan ride where four or more swans were stuck at the end waiting to be cleared. I noticed this was happening on many rides, with incredible long times between some cycles to sanitize. I understand this is the first day so people are getting it together so I assume they’ll have a better plan as the summer rolls on. As for food lineups there wasn’t really any problems whatsoever with that. As he was a little one and it was a really hot day, air temperature alone was around 34C or just over 90F we never lasted long. Honoraius will most likely have a better story of how events transpired as I was confined to Planet Snoopy and KidZville. My only real complaint was of the music played. I know this is a contentious issue at Kings Island, but I found the music especially on I Street to be loud. On top of that, they had an over the top CANCON (Canadian Content) list of songs to the effect that I heard two songs completely in French. So yeah, when you hear Glass Tiger, Corey Hart, and Sarah McLachlan songs at the park, it seems more of an obligation to play these songs by someone. I know Wonderland has been wanting to embrace the “Canada” in its name in recent years which I kind of see as somewhat pointless. For the record I was never a fan of shoehorning Frontier Canada into the park.

For starters, the position of the freeway to the park is opposite to what it is at Kings Island. While both parks are east of Hwy 400 and I-71, Wonderland has its “back” facing the highway while Kings Island has the parking lot next to the highway. Coming from a distance the WindSeeker is close to the road.

Would be one friggin tall wall if that were the case….

I will be going to the park next Monday with a relative (they have a young one) and thus I will see how the park will run. So how will it work, will the park be silent? As in no music at all. I know masks are required at all times in the park but knowing Wonderland Security, they might turn a blind eye. My fear of that is not the virus but the angry health enforcers taking matters and shutting the park down. Also cue the NIMBYs who will be back complaining about the roar of Leviathan despite knowing they bought a house/condo next to a theme park/ (which leads to my only complaint, in my opinion, WindSeeker should have only steady lights as it runs at nighttime, that thing is a huge distraction for motorists on Hwy 400.)

Watch what you say or you will be called something that starts with the eighteenth letter of the alphabet. But nevertheless I see your point.

There is a border update today (but nothing really substantial) On July 5, fully vaccinated Canadians and permanent residents can skip the 14 day quarantine provided they are fully vaccinated. However, proof of a covid test before entering Canada as well as a covid test administered at the border crossing will still be in effect. (I assume this means there still is a quarantine in a way, in that you must quarantine until a negative result comes back) As it stands, this does not change the situation for tourists. I do however think this decision is mostly political, as the Liberal Party since the 1960s has been staunchly anti-American. Elsewhere in Canada, Saskatchewan will join Alberta in eliminating restrictions on July 11 I believe.

That’s another positive thing I forgot to mention, Ontario ended its non essential closure to/from Quebec and Manitoba, yes these “borders” were manned by the Ontario Provincial Police, I do understand that these measures would be unconstitutional in the US. Here in Canada, the law is basically written as “rights apply when we say they apply”. Which is why New Brunswick’s hard border to the rest of Canada was never challenged throughout the entire pandemic. Which I believe New Brunswick has finally loosened its “border” as well.

Guilty of entering Yukon, yes that’s right, Canada had borders closed within the country. That shows you the kind of place we live in up here.

By vaccination card you mean the CDC card right? in Ontario at least, there was no physical card given but I was given an email showing my first vaccine so far which basically displayed a virtual Ontario Ministry of Health receipt, which shows when I got my shot and so on. The headaches around cross border acceptance of this stuff is what concerns me. The awful bureaucracy of it.

I have a few questions/comments for you. The idea of the Excelsior app, let’s assume Ontario develops its own app, there would need to be some sort of reciprocity hopefully so Ontario’s app would work in New York, if you get what I mean. Which leads to a question, how does this currently work downstate where you have both those from Connecticut and New Jersey entering Manhattan on a regular basis. But nevertheless there appears to be some good news, or at least a blink of optimism. We are to hear about possible plans for the border reopening come Monday. Furthermore, the Province of Alberta although out west, is dropping practically all covid restrictions on July 1, so we’ll see how that goes. Keep in mind that Alberta is by far the most conservative province in Canada.

The one thing defines Canadians is anti-Americanism, heck even Wonderland opening 40 years ago was a nasty political battle. Perhaps it only got allowed to build because the Vaughan mayor and Premier of Ontario supported it. “You could say Yogi Bear won and Maple lost,” -Vaughan Councillor James Cameron ”Taft think they’re doing us a favour by building a plastic replica of the Canadian frontier when we have Black Creek Pioneer Village two miles down the road.” -Vaughan Councillor James Cameron “For God’s sake, Disneyland isn’t the real world. We don’t need a place like this. We have everything we need in Metro Toronto … It’s an abomination and I don’t want my children exposed to more of this kind of hucksterism,” -Mayor of King Township Margaret Britnell “Unless we want to turn Maple into a row of touristy boutiques, I can’t see the park doing much for local businessmen.” -Vaughan Councillor Lorne Jackson ”You could pick this thing up, lock stock and barrel, and move it to Pretoria and call it South Africa’s Wonderland. There is nothing Canadian about it at all,” -Vaughan Councillor James Cameron But we had those who supporter the park as well. “All this anti-American feeling is baloney. Building this park is no different than watching American television” -Mayor of Vaughan Garnet Williams ”Are you against children having fun?” -Premier of Ontario William Davis The point I’m making here is that there was strong opposition to Canada’s Wonderland, it wasn’t a hunky dory project. A good chunk of this opposition was again fuelled in part by anti-American hatred.

Which health region are you in by the way, Simcoe-Muskoka?

It’s socialized medicine, meaning that for the vast majority of procedure, we have “free healthcare”, in that we don’t pay for it out of our own pocket for each visit. Of course such a system needs to be funded strongly by government. I’m no expert on healthcare funding, but prior to COVID, over at Brampton Civic Hospital, the concept of “hallway medicine” was common, that is rooms being full and thus patients have to be in the hallways. I do recall reading that Ontario’s bed per 1000 capacity was less than 2. So yeah that means there are in essence one hospital bed available for every 500 citizens. Back in the 1980s, this number was 7. What happened earlier this year with the ICUs filling up stronger than ever were patients against their will being sent to other hospitals. I’m not sure how far the biggest patient transfers went, but to put this into perspective, to reach the city of Thunder Bay in north western Ontario, that’s actually a longer drive than driving from here to Florida!

Absolute compliance at least here in Ontario, where 14.5 million live. 75% of adults have gotten the first dose, as I explained in above posts, the second dose is delayed but people are getting it sooner than expected now. It harkens back to how Canada was founded in my opinion. But that’s a story for another day.

No seriously, remember other good deeds of altruism that Canada has done in the past. The Canadian Caper which got the hostages out of Iran, Ben Affeleck made a movie about it and said Canada basically did nothing to make it happen. That movie won Best Picture. Then there’s Operation Yellow Ribbon on 9/11 where Canada opened its airports to transatlantic-transpacific flights to land because all US airports were closed. In some places in Atlantic Canada some passengers were taken in by the locals to spend multiple nights. After all these good deeds, this is the thanks we get in return, that our largest trading partner is next to nothing?

Oh yeah, remember your government blocked any vaccine distribution to Canada. So much for friendly neighbours, so getting a vaccine isn’t entirely easy. The government instead has had to make a significant gambit in delaying the second shot for up to 16 weeks because they see getting everyone vaccinated with one shot with scarce supply is more important than administering the vaccines properly. Perhaps it should have been tit for tat, you refuse to give up vaccines, than Quebec should have shut off the power to the east coast.

Yeah, and the US has the highest deaths in the world, not exactly a model we should be embracing. But it’s more to me as a consumer if people do get sick.

No it is not, the delta variant will cause serious damage and has resistance to the vaccines, and factor in a huge chunk of the US who won’t get vaccinated and we’ll see spikes again. As I said, up here this is not the US, this is CANADA and we have a socialist health care system. If someone decides to go to an amusement park and gets sick, jams up the hospitals, then it is very much my problem as a taxpayer and a citizen. Seeing your condescending attitude makes me want to contact my local member of parliament and demand the border be closed longer as you can’t seem to grasp the severity of this.

I haven’t personally set foot into a Costco since March of 2020. Does Costco require people to sit on rides and touch handlebars/restraints that other people will touch all day long? As for hospitals, it was reported in the news that they were sending GTA patients to hospitals in SW Ontario because of overflow of GTA hospitals. Heck probably the hospitals close to you experienced this as well. The leaders in cottage country have basically made it clear that GTA residents aren’t welcome in town up there and thus I haven’t went up (heck, I can probably count on one hand how many times ive been on a 400 series highway since) in those towns, are these people following the health protocols? Guess what, despite living in the so called covid hell of Brampton in one of the nasty hot spots, I’ve never ever gotten sick. So, considering Wonderland’s cavalier attitude towards security, can we honesty trust Wonderland to enforce social distance and mask rules correctly?

I’m just saying, Wonderland in Phase 2 doesn’t make much sense, it should have been in Phase 3. The main reason why I’m acting like this as are most doctors is because of the socialist health care system we have. Since it is in fact a communal system of sorts, we must all work together to protect it so it doesn’t get overrun. You know as well as I do that there were involuntary patient transfer because GTA hospitals were getting overrun with COVID-19 cases over the last 6 months or so. This becomes problematic, if the hospitals become full with covid patients, then they lose the ability to deal with normal hospital patients, a system that was stretched to the brink even before covid. That hospital by Wonderland which you mentioned, other than Brampton Civic Hospital opening in 2007, how many other hospitals can you think of that have opened or underwent serious expansion. Not many, yet our entire metro area has probably gained over 2 million people over the last 20 years. So yes, I do understand why the medical officials are stuck between a rock and a hard place with regards to this. As for the long term effects of a covid infection, it’s still unknown. Some are potentially linking an infection to causing diabetes.

And what is more important, dealing with the current pandemic or your desires of gratification to ride a roller coaster.

I hate to burst your bubble, even prior to COVID, you never had a right to enter Canada unless you are a Canadian citizen. So that lame point you make that having a platinum pass demands you access to another sovereign country doesn’t stick. Perhaps you are naive as to how the border works, they can deny you entry if they don’t like the way you look, and also detain you on “suspicion”. On such suspicion, the Canada Border Services Agency can take apart your vehicle piece by piece and even if they find nothing, it’s your responsibility to get it fixed. Don’t believe me on this, search about this happening to people. it’s assumed from Honoraius’ post that he was speaking of booking to the park and we had established that the border was closed already. That being said, the Canadian federal government officially extended the border closure to at least July 21.

I find it mildly offensive that you practically ignored what I had to say. if the border was “open”, than I would say it is “open” for non essential travelers. For those being optimistic, let me remind you of the current situation in Canada. Anyone who enters Canada who isn’t an essential worker MUST quarantine for 14 days, failure to abide by this can lead to a fine of up to $750,000 and/or imprisonment of up to 6 months. Canada Quarantine Act from Government of Canada The fact this still stands means that you can kiss your dreams of coming across the border away this summer. And as I said, Canadians for the most part actually want this border to remain closed to Americans as they see them as being incredibly irresponsible in the handling of the virus, with having the highest case and death rate in the world. Public polling suggests that only about 1 in 3 Canadians support reopening the border at this point. To compare two similar sized jurisdictions, Ontario has had around 9,000 deaths so far while Ohio has had over 20,000 deaths I am but one person, who does not agree with this, but the fact a change.org petition is this strong tells you something. Keep the border closed

Well it is stupid and I agree, but go read the stuff on CBC, the comments sections that is, the media has basically framed that we have done a much better job because we have so fewer deaths. In fact at the beginning of this, there were stories of cars with US plates in Canada being vandalized.

Will you actually root for the Blue Jays or are you going just to cheer for the evil empire? I know it’s jarring when the Jays play in Buffalo and you have no way to easily watch them on TV, while everyone across the river can watch them on basic cable. Things are extremely slow to open up here for two reasons, the vaccine rollout which was delayed for reasons I won’t get into, and with ontario trying to protect what appears to be an incredibly fragile health care system, that’s why the harsh restrictions are in effect. But still as an aside, this shows absurdity, why is it fair that I can visit Wonderland but cannot go in for dinner at Joe’s Diner, or go work out at a gym. So are you predicting that an implosion of so called Delta variant cripples both Canada and the US, or does it lead to a lockdown in Canada only, which we will follow like totally obedient suckers.