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Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 5,891
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

My first post pandemic vacation will be Las Vegas!

I live in Canada and once my husband and I are fully vaccinated and the U.S./Canadian border re-opens we want to vacation in Las Vegas! We are so wanting to visit there again and can hardly wait until this is a dream come true! We are thinking this might be possible by September or October of this year. We are planning it now. We will drive to Bellingham, Washington from Vancouver, B.C. Canada and fly Allegiant Airlines to Las Vegas.

 

Just as an FYI, Canada does not manufacture covid vaccines so the rollout here is different than the U.S. Here the goal is to vaccinate everyone who wants one with one jab and then go back and administer the second jab with spacing between doses anywhere from 8 weeks to 16 weeks. It's basically an age based rollout for first and second doses. As supply has increased Canada has started to vaccinate the public with second doses more quickly and it's predicted to reach at least 70% for both doses by the end of August or beginning of September.

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 5,363
Registered: ‎03-12-2010

Re: My first post pandemic vacation will be Las Vegas!

I understand the US and Canadian border may open this month for fully vaccinated people. At least that’s the rumor. It’s been a long time.

Las Vegas would be a great first post-Pandemic trip. Have fun planning! (And, if you rent a car, fingers crossed the price will come down by the time you need one!)
Trusted Contributor
Posts: 1,588
Registered: ‎03-18-2010

Re: My first post pandemic vacation will be Las Vegas!

I live 8 miles from McCarran Airport.  I took Lyft home from a flight and it cost $47!  

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 5,880
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: My first post pandemic vacation will be Las Vegas!

[ Edited ]

We love Vegas ( 60 plus visits over 38 years).  Sometimes we don't gamble at all and just do our favorite restaurants for a week (Lotus of Siam, Baristas Hole in the Wall, etc).

Trusted Contributor
Posts: 1,465
Registered: ‎03-27-2010

Re: My first post pandemic vacation will be Las Vegas!

@TY Sounds wonderful.

 

I'm in Bellingham & our stores are really missing the border traffic.

 

& I know you mentioned Allegiant but the paper's been promoting Southwest Airlines the last couple weeks - don't know if they have any good deals but maybe...

Honored Contributor
Posts: 17,491
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: My first post pandemic vacation will be Las Vegas!

I had decided last weekend that Vegas is going to be my first trip as well.  I can see a bunch of shows and eat in a bunch of great restaurants all in one long weekend.

 

 

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QVC Shopper - 1993

# IAMTEAMWEN
Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 6,460
Registered: ‎04-20-2013

Re: My first post pandemic vacation will be Las Vegas!

We were just informed that our Croatian to Venice tour is confirmed for September. It’s a Tauck tour, small group. It was cancelled last September. I’m a bit nervous as I’ve been very cautious but I know Tauck has strict protocols in place so I’m just putting my trust in them. Italy has very tight protocols in place but lifting some this month and all but one area is in the “white zone” now with minor restrictions. So I’m hopeful that the entire world continues to recover.
Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 5,891
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Our trip to Vegas is off for now!

We canceled our trip to Las Vegas and will probably wait until next year to visit. The Canada and U.S. land border has not re-opened to Canadians to visit the U.S. for non-essential reasons which means my husband can't drive across the border even though I could if I wanted to. We do not want to fly from Vancouver, B.C. to Las Vegas either as we were planning on flying out of Bellingham, Washington.

 

The other reason is that covid cases have skyrocketed in Las Vegas (as well as in other parts of the U.S.) and we do not want that additional risk of contracting the delta variant even though my husband and I are fully vaccinated. We are taking a wait and see attitude and won't book any trips to the U.S. until the and border has re-opened to Canadians visiting the U.S.

 

I am guessing that the U.S. will not re-open the Canadian or Mexican land borders to non essential travel at all this year.

 

 

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 5,891
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

So we did make a trip to Las Vegas from Nov. 7-12

So my husband and I did make a trip to Las Vegas from Nov. 7 - 12 and we flew Air Canada from the Vancouver, B.C. Canada airport.

 

We already had friends who were down in Las Vegas so we could meet up with them and get rides to the various resorts on the strip.

 

Here's how the trip went:

 

We had to get to the Vancouver airport at least 3 hours ahead of our 11:30 am flight on Sunday, Nov. 7. Even with TSA pre check it took us 45 minutes to go through TSA security. There was one line for everyone whether you had a Nexus card or not and you had to go through a line of about 40 or 50 people before you got to the line where the TSA pre check line was separated from the regular passengers. I am guessing that it took regular passengers anywhere from an hour and half to 2 hours to go through TSA. There is absolutely no social distancing at all when going through TSA. You must wear a face mask indoors including the airport and the flight.

 

If you are flying into the U.S. from Canada you have to get a rapid antigen test with negative results within 72 hours of departure. So that means we booked our tests at Live Well medical in Richmond for Friday afternoon, Nov. 5 and it cost $99 CDN. We got the results while in the health clinic and they printed out the results and email a copy to you as well. You also have to be fully vaccinated for covid in order to fly within Canada or fly from Canada to the U.S. When you check in, you upload your covid antigen test results so the airline already knows. As of Nov. 8, Canadians need to be fully vaccinated against covid in order to enter the U.S.

 

In the U.S. departure area of the airport once you pass TSA and U.S. customs (FYI you are clearing U.S. customs at the Vancouver airport so you don't go through customs when you land in Las Vegas), there is no Maple Leaf lounge for Air Canada customers who have enough loyalty points or for first or business class passengers).

 

The flight to Las Vegas was fine. It's about 2 hours and 40 minutes. My husband and I don't check our bags, it's only carry on for us.

 

While in Las Vegas I wore a face mask everywhere including the elevators, casinos, and outside. There were a lot of people in Las Vegas, it's almost like everything is back to normal there. A lot of people didn't bother to wear a mask while in the elevator or in the casinos. You don't wear a mask when eating or drinking or smoking in a casino but you are supposed to wear one otherwise. I didn't see any enforcement of masks indoors for patrons or customers at all while in Las Vegas though.

 

Coming back from the U.S. to Canada. We booked ahead of time our PCR test at Worksite Labs in Las Vegas. They are located at the Orleans Casino and they have a drive through area so you stay in your car. We booked our tests while still in Canada and we use the address of where we are staying (in this case Planet Hollywood) and we pre-pay via credit card for our test. It cost $99 U.S. and you get a confirmation email. You need to show that confirmation number when you go to the Worksite Lab place. They have their site set up in the Orleans parking garage and they will swab you if you are not comfortable doing the swab yourself. As my husband and I nor the couple we were with had ever done any kind of covid test before we had the technician swab our noses. We did our tests before noon and got the results back about 5 pm or so. You have to have a negative PCR test in order to board the flight back to Canada. There was nowhere for us to upload our PCR test when we checked in our flight on Air Canada on Thursday, Nov. 11. So before we boarded our flight, the Air Canada customer agent called up a bunch of customers including my husband and myself to look at our PCR tests.

 

You also have to fill out your information in the ArriveCan app before you land in Canada. The flight back was fine except the jerk next to me in the window seat kept pulling his mask below his face when he thought the flight crew weren't around. I let the flight attendant know but other than a brief glance, she didn't do anything about it.

 

Landing back at YVR, it's along walk to get to Canadian customs. None of the Nexus scanners were working so we waited to use the regular passport scanners. We showed our passport and our vaccine passport to the customs agent but we weren't asked to look at our PCR test. The lineup was long and it took at least 40 minutes from landing to get out of the airport.

 

While I would travel again to Las Vegas, I will likely wait until Canada gets rid of the PCR tests for people coming to Canada.

 

Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,233
Registered: ‎07-18-2015

Re: So we did make a trip to Las Vegas from Nov. 7-12

@TY 

Thank you for posting this detailed notice of your recent trip. It really sounded like a hassle. I hope you and dh had a greyt time that made it worth while.

We have decided to not travel by plane for the time being after considering what you had to go through. I can't wait for all this unsettled time to wear off and we are all back to "normal".