My fiancé has decided we need a nice weekend away and want to start exploring Florida for future retirement. The opportunity to visit Ft. Myers has come up for next weekend at a good price.

Does anyone local know what the restrictions are for restaurants, bars, masks, etc?

Thanks!

General rule is you wear it on the way to the table, take off, eat, drink, talk, pay the bill, then put it on to leave.

No masks required in the parking lot...

FL is open for business this ain't New Yawk City... even though there are a shit ton of New Yawk City folk here....

Keys are thinking of putting in a midnight curfew to curtail the uptick they had in covid count. I didn't know that Covid spread better after midnight.

Oh yeah, our commie fucking Rino Charlie Baker just put in a 10 PM curfew, masks everywhere even outside and gatherings under 10 people at private homes. Of course he can go you know what as far as I'm concerned.

But good to hear about Florida. We aren't usually out after midnight anyhow. Glad we can get food and drinks. Hope the hotel pool is open. I don't think we decided on a hotel yet.

I'm open to hotel/resort recommendations, although the fiancé is online now and will likely have it booked before I can get replies.

She's looking at Pink Shell?

We have a place down there and can't wait to go. We live primarily in Wisc. and have a democrat dumbass of a governor who is shutting everything down again. Fort Myers was our favorite place in all of Florida that we looked at.

Sanibel has 47 cases.

I live across the river from Ft. Myers and businesses are open, most require (strongly request) masks be worn. Most restaurants are open and at full capacity with full service. The numbers have been going up as in most of the country, but nowhere near our peak from a few months ago.

Captiva 'Tween Waters.

Was in Sanibel/Captiva 2 weeks ago, previous posts are accurate. For eats: Prawnbroker (seafood) - place does not have too much eye appeal, but the food was great. It's on Macgregor Blvd in Ft Myers, worth the effort, IMO;

I live in Naples, and it is fine here, almost normal except for the mask thing. If you want really normal, go to Seed to Table on the corner of Immokalee Road and Livingston ( not far from I75) - so a short hop from Ft Myers.

the owner is suing the city because of the mandate they put in place. He is hostile to the mask mandate, but you can do what you like there. it is a farm stand on steroids, with multiple bars inside and amazing guacamole

Anyone snorkeling or scuba, must wear a mask.

quote:

Originally posted by sunburn:
Sanibel has 47 cases.

Can we please stop with the case count nonsense. That metric means absolutely nothing.

Governor DeSantis has the state open and has defanged all of these retarded Dem mayors who want to screw with people over the WuFlu. I've been going everyone I normally go here in Central Florida without wearing a mask, and haven't encountered much hassle about it. My suggestion, come on down, play in the sun, have a good time, and bring your wallet.

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:

quote:

Originally posted by sunburn:
Sanibel has 47 cases.

Can we please stop with the case count nonsense. That metric means absolutely nothing.

Governor DeSantis has the state open and has defanged all of these retarded Dem mayors who want to screw with people over the WuFlu. I've been going everyone I normally go here in Central Florida without wearing a mask, and haven't encountered much hassle about it. My suggestion, come on down, play in the sun, have a good time, and bring your wallet.

Thanks for that. I'm ignoring any silly crap about the virus. I'm only interested in if I was hypothetically visiting next week and hypothetically returning to Massachusetts with has a bunch of silly quarantine and testing rules if one were to go to Florida (hypothetically).

Looks like hypothetically this trip would be at the Pink Shell Resort, flying Jetblue. We are happy that if we were to visit (but this is entirely hypothetical) that things will be open and stuff to do.

We would theoretically drive around a bit and look at retirement communities or other areas to see where we may want to live. That is a long way away, like over 10 years, but it doesn't hurt to hypothetically see areas of the country we may want to live.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
Anyone snorkeling or scuba, must wear a mask.

Not me. I live on the edge.

quote:

Originally posted by frayedends:
Oh yeah, our commie fucking Rino Charlie Baker just put in a 10 PM curfew, masks everywhere even outside and gatherings under 10 people at private homes. Of course he can go you know what as far as I'm concerned.

MN is enacting the same bullshit on Friday at 10pm. We've had universal masking since July and yet 'cases' have continued to climb (never mind that testing also has). Our early year lock down did nothing but delay the inevitable, which the governor's own propaganda stated at that time, but now we have to prevent every case.

The problem is people are still fully buying the hype. When the numbers don’t work, they force the numbers. When they get caught, they create new metrics to measure it by.

If you don’t believe people are still buying into this, look at any social media post directly about the virus. People act like it has a fatality rate of 50 percent. Even with the fake numbers, more than 99 percent survive.

Until the hype dies down from the media, the BS will continue.

We stayed at the Pink Shell YEARS ago. Back when it was a motel. It was decent and we liked it. Then a few years later we wanted to go back and I believe (if I remember correctly) it was basically changed into condos. We really like Ft. Meyers Beach area. We used to have a time share on Captiva at Lands End. Sold it after a few years and actually made a very small profit. That was right before the hurricane went through.

Florida is open.

I travel from Sarasota on the west and Melbourne on the east, up to Jacksonville and over to Pensacola on business. What you will find are different levels of mask mandates and compliance.

In Orange County (Orlando), there is a mask mandate and nearly every business has a sign asking people to wear masks. And there is 98% compliance. It is very uncommon to see someone in a grocery store or similar business without a mask on.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Marion County (Ocala), which includes a large section of The Villages retirement community, there is hardly a mask in sight.

But bars are open, restaurants are allowed at full capacity, gyms are open, really the only thing I can think of still closed are some hotels, just because there are not enough tourists now to support all the hotels.

Have a great trip!

quote:

Massachusetts with has a bunch of silly quarantine and testing rules if one were to go to Florida (hypothetically).

So Fly to a state they don't have the restrictions with on a round trip, then take a round trip, separate ticket from there to FL. If it's possible.

Or just don't go back, find a place, settle here, pull your money and family out of MA.

check out Babcock Ranch - Babcock Ranch Link

it isn't a retirement community per se, but it is generating some interest around here.