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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Apr 29, 2020 19:29:13 GMT -8
These schedule are actually real. Route 30 is getting revised schedule starting on May 6 to June 30 for Queen of Alberni the first and last round trips Monday to Friday are cargo only and two midday sailing are opening up to normal passengers. But are these routes staying until June 30? Route 3 schedule are effect and bring back route 2 with normal service on June 3. www.bcferries.com/schedules/mainland/tsdp-current.php?scheduleSelect=sch06032030.html
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Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,177
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Post by Neil on Apr 30, 2020 21:04:09 GMT -8
Gradually, almost surreptitiously, it seems like ferry traffic volumes are inching back toward normalcy. I'm seeing more service notices about delayed sailings, with that dumb reference to the time needed to load vehicles 'safely'. Aside from ferries, there's also anecdotal reports of more people visiting parks, and I'm seeing more customers in grocery stores. Just like BC Ferries, New York subways have seen an incredible drop in traffic, from 5.5 million a day to 450,000. It's impressive and heartening how people have paid attention to the science and changed how they live their lives, temporarily at least. Who knows how many lives have been saved because of it. It will be interesting to see how gradually ferry traffic returns to normal- if it does. I wonder, too, how long it will be before BC Ferries opens their food services. How trusting are people going to be about ordering and eating in the usual crowded conditions in the cafeterias, and would it even make sense to open up food service if the volume of passengers served is lessened due to the new reality?
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Post by futureferrydriver on May 1, 2020 5:44:35 GMT -8
Here’s an interesting COVID side effect I noticed this morning while loading in Tsawwassen (yes, my travel is essential...). Due to the high (as in higher demand than there is capacity) amount of commercial traffic BC Ferries has been loading underheight towables (ie. underheight vehicles with underheight trailers) on the upper deck. Typically this was a big no-no, but seems like a good solution to free up a bit more space on the lower deck for those who actually need the height. It always annoyed me to leave behind a semi truck because a bunch of pop-up tent trailers went on the bottom deck even though they could have fit up top.
The reason of course is the tighter turns on the upper ramp don’t always work well for trailers, but this is really only an issue for Horseshoe Bay. I would hope after the pandemic BC Ferries considers continuing this practice on routes 1 and 30, now that it has clearly been demonstrated as possible.
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Post by hwy19man on May 1, 2020 6:06:40 GMT -8
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on May 7, 2020 17:38:04 GMT -8
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Post by timmyc on May 15, 2020 13:59:27 GMT -8
Horseshoe Bay-Nanaimo passenger trips to resume June 3, maintaining other routes' current 50% max capacity:
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Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,177
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Post by Neil on May 15, 2020 22:28:24 GMT -8
Horseshoe Bay-Nanaimo passenger trips to resume June 3, maintaining other routes' current 50% max capacity: Lousy reporting from Liza Yuzda... Route 2 has not been operating on a cargo basis, unless I've got it wrong. It's been completely shut down.
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Post by Mike on May 15, 2020 23:47:20 GMT -8
Horseshoe Bay-Nanaimo passenger trips to resume June 3, maintaining other routes' current 50% max capacity: Lousy reporting from Liza Yuzda... Route 2 has not been operating on a cargo basis, unless I've got it wrong. It's been completely shut down. Route 2 has been operating on a Car-No-Go basis.
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Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,177
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Post by Neil on May 16, 2020 8:39:43 GMT -8
Route 2 has been operating on a Car-No-Go basis. Clarify? I thought it was shut down completely. Looking on vessel positions right now, I don't see any in dock or on the move for route two.
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Post by Mike on May 16, 2020 9:48:09 GMT -8
Route 2 has been operating on a Car-No-Go basis. Clarify? I thought it was shut down completely. Looking on vessel positions right now, I don't see any in dock or on the move for route two. That was an admittedly poor attempt at a play on words on my part. Not meant to be taken seriously.
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Post by Departure Bay on May 16, 2020 12:37:58 GMT -8
Clarify? I thought it was shut down completely. Looking on vessel positions right now, I don't see any in dock or on the move for route two. That was an admittedly poor attempt at a play on words on my part. Not meant to be taken seriously. Most definitely there have been no ferries serving Departure Bay since April 3. (Source: me, who has barely left my house overlooking Departure Bay since March 13.) Ms. Yuzda got it wrong.
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on May 16, 2020 19:33:35 GMT -8
Will BC Ferries eliminate Pacific Buffet on Spirit and Coastal Celebration and replace with different style of restaurant? I wonder what future of food options on BC Ferries is after COVID-19 pandemic?
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Koastal Karl
Voyager
Been on every BC Ferry now!!!!!
Posts: 7,747
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Post by Koastal Karl on May 17, 2020 11:29:38 GMT -8
I sure hope they don't eliminate the Pacific Buffet. I am sure they can limit the number of people in there at a time and maybe even have like menus or something so you can order the same food off a menu and have servers actually serve you but I do not know how well that would actually work. I guess it would not be called a Buffet then. I have been messaging BC Ferries on Facebook and they hope to have somewhat normal service this summer so I am hoping there might be even limited food service. They might just have to limit the number and people in the Cafeteria and just have different protocols to follow. Maybe just plastic cutlery. If Resturants are going to be opening I am sure BC Ferries can figure something out.
Is there not a way BC Ferries could of kept limited food service on the Northern runs through this whole Covid situation?? I mean I just think 24 hours on a boat is a long time for no food service. I am sure it's not busy so I think social distancing would not be an issue on that boat if it was just like locals using the service.
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Jess
Deckhand
Posts: 59
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Post by Jess on May 18, 2020 2:48:32 GMT -8
I sure hope they don't eliminate the Pacific Buffet. I am sure they can limit the number of people in there at a time and maybe even have like menus or something so you can order the same food off a menu and have servers actually serve you but I do not know how well that would actually work. I guess it would not be called a Buffet then. I have been messaging BC Ferries on Facebook and they hope to have somewhat normal service this summer so I am hoping there might be even limited food service. They might just have to limit the number and people in the Cafeteria and just have different protocols to follow. Maybe just plastic cutlery. If Resturants are going to be opening I am sure BC Ferries can figure something out. Is there not a way BC Ferries could of kept limited food service on the Northern runs through this whole Covid situation?? I mean I just think 24 hours on a boat is a long time for no food service. I am sure it's not busy so I think social distancing would not be an issue on that boat if it was just like locals using the service. Unfortunately, there is a possibility that even after there is a vaccine and things go back to normal, the Pacific Buffet and any other buffet would have to make some permanent changes including removing the self serve thing from the buffet. I guess they would have people bring the food to you if they did make that change. But for right now, they could do something like that where they would have menus and they would have disposable Cutlery, Less people in the "Buffet" at a time and they probably wouldn't have it self serve. For limiting the number of people in the cafeteria and other places, they could just have signs on the seats that would be closed and possibly staff there to direct people to seats.
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Post by Ferryman on May 18, 2020 7:57:01 GMT -8
Sorry, but I don’t quite understand why disposable cutlery would help? I would think the opposite since there’s never any guarantee how clean plastic is. At least metal cutlery is run through the dishwasher with piping hot water twice?
I do agree that it’ll be interesting to see how food services evolve from this on a global scale.
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Post by Starsteward on May 18, 2020 11:20:40 GMT -8
I sure hope they don't eliminate the Pacific Buffet. I am sure they can limit the number of people in there at a time and maybe even have like menus or something so you can order the same food off a menu and have servers actually serve you but I do not know how well that would actually work. I guess it would not be called a Buffet then. I have been messaging BC Ferries on Facebook and they hope to have somewhat normal service this summer so I am hoping there might be even limited food service. They might just have to limit the number and people in the Cafeteria and just have different protocols to follow. Maybe just plastic cutlery. If Resturants are going to be opening I am sure BC Ferries can figure something out. Is there not a way BC Ferries could of kept limited food service on the Northern runs through this whole Covid situation?? I mean I just think 24 hours on a boat is a long time for no food service. I am sure it's not busy so I think social distancing would not be an issue on that boat if it was just like locals using the service. BCFS should have, and could have, done a much better job at providing catering services on the Northern runs, period! Here's an idea that I'll toss into the suggestion box. Create up to 6 - boxed meal options that are assembled at a BCFS facility or under contract with one of the large catering companies that must have a lot of time on their hands as they aren't providing many meals for airlines these days. A couple of soup choices could be safely offered as soups would be the 'hot' component of the boxed meal options. As for the 'cutlery' situation, there is no need to use plastic utensils as they only add to the amount of trash we generate. Run all utensils, and any other equipment through the commercial dishwasher system as that would more than suffice Hate to do it to BCFS, but I'm going to call them a bit lazy on this lack of service situation.
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Post by northwesterner on May 18, 2020 12:15:05 GMT -8
Sorry, but I don’t quite understand why disposable cutlery would help? I would think the opposite since there’s never any guarantee how clean plastic is. At least metal cutlery is run through the dishwasher with piping hot water twice? I do agree that it’ll be interesting to see how food services evolve from this on a global scale. I don't understand the general food service panic in the prior posts. Restaurants are open for take out only. Food service workers can be facemasked, etc, while preparing food, reducing the risk of aerosolized transmission. Why should there be a higher risk from food preparation on BCF than at your local McDonalds? That being said, the real risk to restaurants is the whole sitting a table and eating, while someone infected is sitting near you and breathing out. Your risk level for transmission in a dining room on BCF should be the same as a sit down restaurant. That risk level may be pretty high. I don't understand why we're focusing on cutlery and plates and all that stuff. If you run it through a dishwasher, it'll kill the virus. That really isn't up for debate. The path forward is probably a limited menu with limited seating, and encouragement for passengers take their food out on the deck to consume.
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on May 22, 2020 17:51:48 GMT -8
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dave2
Chief Steward
Deckhand!: Todo: Introduction post (I was born less than 100 feet from the ocean. The tide was...)
Posts: 155
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Post by dave2 on May 23, 2020 17:45:27 GMT -8
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Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,177
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Post by Neil on May 23, 2020 20:00:58 GMT -8
Just another example of how this virus has screwed up every aspect of our lives. There really are no bad guys here. The province has initiated protocols for travel, and BC Ferries is trying to manage their service as best as possible, and losing a tremendous amount of revenue along the way. It's encouraging that there appears to be some flexibility and willingness to adjust service levels if it's prudent and safe to do so.
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on May 25, 2020 17:09:33 GMT -8
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Post by whalebreath on May 28, 2020 11:38:55 GMT -8
Yes I noticed that when making a reservation earlier today the later schedule looks to be much busier.
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on May 29, 2020 18:02:57 GMT -8
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Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,177
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Post by Neil on May 30, 2020 21:59:23 GMT -8
A service notice advising that travel back from the Gulf Islands to Tsawwassen tomorrow is fully booked points once again to the shortsighted decision to replace the Queen of Nanaimo with smaller vessels. The Salish class have about 25% less vehicle capacity, and, depending on license, 50% less pax capacity than the 'Nanaimo, which really becomes a factor with the COVID 19 reduction of 50% capacity all around.
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Post by 1foot2ships on May 31, 2020 0:35:19 GMT -8
a few of you were wondering (including me) why the corporation is likely going to be using disposable cutlery despite all the negatives (added costs, environmental impact, other stupid reasons)... i just thought of this and i dont know if it makes me a genius or not, but can the reason for throw away fork and knives be that they dont want customers going through the clean cutlery bin? i have no inside knowledge. im totally just speculating.
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