As is our preferred routine, we flew in a day early, on the “red eye” from Vancouver that left at 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday and, with a transfer in Toronto and a 3 hour time difference, was scheduled to get us into Fort Lauderdale at just after 11 a.m.on Thursday. Our flights were booked through Princess cruises and our travel agent; it turns out that while there are direct flights to Cancun from Vancouver, there are none to Fort Lauderdale. The nearest thing to “direct” would have been Vancouver to Seattle, and Seattle to FLL, but that was on Alaska Airlines, and they haven’t exactly had the best press lately with parts falling off planes mid-flight.
It was a bit of an unusual day, with over 10 hours spent at the airport, because we had to be out of our VRBO by 11 a.m. and were hauling luggage that made it impractical to do much else. In some places, that would be a nuisance, but Vancouver International is such a comfortable airport that we quite enjoyed our day. We started in the public area of the departures level, sitting at a sunny window watching planes leave, and eating Italian sandwiches for lunch. After a couple of hours of that, we sailed through security (the only glitch being that I had put both of our liquids bags in my security bin instead of assigning one to Ted (cue my baggage being pulled aside for secondary screening) – but even that was taken care of by a smiling security agent who suggested I remember to split them up when we go through US Customs in Toronto. Once in the gate area, we found a place to plug in, sit, read, write, and play games on our iPads, each taking turns watching luggage while the other wandered around looking at the displays and coffee shops.
Most of the decoration at YVR is indigenous art, which is synonymous with British Columbia, but I was struck today by a new exhibit that exemplified our peculiar national sense of humour: two terra cotta sculptures by Langley BC ceramicist Elaine Brewer-White. Canadian Gothic is a humorous take on Grant Wood’s iconic American Gothic painting. Heroes come in many forms is “a portrait of a BC wildlife conservationist: Ryan Reynolds” !
Around 6 p.m, we headed to the Stanley Park Taphouse in the gated area for dinner, although neither of us indulged in one of its iconic Stanley Park Brewery craft beers. The food definitely exceeded my expectations for airport fare!
That left only 2-1/2 more hours until boarding time!
We were a bit worried about the weather predicted along our flightpath: high winds and the potential for LOTS of rain – or up to an inch of April snow! – in Toronto, and storm/high wind warnings in Florida, although the latter seemed to be over by the time our flight took off. On our last couple of lovely smooth flights I haven’t bothered taking my usual motion sickness meds, but a bit of pro-active dosing while still in the air halfway to Toronto seemed called for. After all, it’s too late once I’m actively feeling nauseous to do anything about it.
We are normally super impressed with WestJet, especially when we compare it to Air Canada, but today…. not so much.
Our first flight was on a plane that was formerly part of Swoop, WestJet’s discount line, and had not yet been refurbished or rebranded. That meant an almost 5 hour long flight with no leg room, seats so close together they couldn’t be reclined (Swoop was never designed for long haul overnight flights), no inflight entertainment system (neither video NOR music), no oven (for warm food), no pillow or blanket even though it was an overnight flight. That’s definitely not what we expected. There was just enough turbulence throughout the flight that even the minimal beverage and “snack” service (a choice of a either a tiny bag of pretzels or a single foil-packed Leclerc chocolate-topped biscuit) could only happen once. Turbulence, of course, cannot be blamed on the airline.
On a more positive note, we arrived in Toronto on time and absolutely flew through US customs at 6:30 a.m., even allowing for having to take our shoes off. We really love the MPC app (similar to ArriveCan) which makes customs clearance so easy.
Sadly, the Toronto to Florida flight was also on a cramped Swoop plane. At least it was only 3 hours long. If we’d booked a discount carrier (which we never ever do on long hauls), there’d be nothing to complain about, but in this case we paid standard carrier fares through the cruise company. That’s just not cool.
Arriving in Florida, we expected to really feel the heat, going from a cool 9°C/48°F in Vancouver to a predicted 26°C/79°F in Fort Lauderdale, but the weather was still slightly cool – even if not requiring a jacket – having only reached 22°C/71°F under overcast skies.
I independently (of the cruise line) booked our overnight stay at the Hyatt Place Fort Lauderdale Airport & Cruise Port Hotel in Dania Beach, quite close to the airport and just a few miles from the cruise port. The only down side to this hotel was that we found out just last week that they’d apparently discontinued the airport shuttle service which was one of the features for which we’d chosen them (months ago). When we contacted Expedia a couple of days before our flight to comment/complain that the app booking information had not been updated to match the hotel policy, the Expedia rep called the hotel, confirmed the change, and immediately gave us $75 in Expedia points to cover the cost of an airport limo – considerably more than we’d end up spending on an Uber. Now THAT’s great customer service!
Once at the airport, however, we found that there was indeed a shuttle running every 30 minutes. Confusing, but a nice surprise, as was the fact that our room was ready at noon, because we were both exhausted.
It was a toss-up as to whether we were more tired or hungry. Tired won out for the first few hours until our stomachs started to rumble.
There were lots of restaurant options within a 5 minute walk of the hotel, but we eventually settled on Toojay’s Deli for a late lunch. It’s extra hard to make decisions when we’re so very tired, but comfort food seemed like what both of us needed: matzo ball soup, crispy hot shredded potato pancakes with applesauce and sour cream, corned beef on rye, chopped liver and sliced fresh tomato on rye, tangy kosher pickles …
…and rugelach!
The first thing you smell when you walk into the deli is the freshly baked breads: rye, challah, wheat, and brioche buns. The first thing you see when you walk into the deli is the bakery counter. I immediately stopped in front of the displays of rugelach; my grandmother made wonderful raspberry and cinnamon ones, and I remember the tantalizing aroma of the cream cheese dough baking. We were headed into the dining room, but when I shared my memory with the lady behind the counter, she asked what my favourite flavour had been … and then simply handed us two cinnamon raisin ones!
Our young (well, young to when compared to us) server, Joel, was equally friendly and outgoing – and quite solicitous when we explained that we were looking for comfort food after a long tiring flight. Our lunch was amazing, reminding us of how much we miss the excellent Jewish delis that used to be a fixture in Toronto. Joel shared that they’re also not as ubiquitous in his home city of New York as they once were.
On our way out – past the bakery counter again – we decided to buy a half pound of rugelach in lieu of eating dinner later. As we resumed our earlier chat with the bakery counter person, she slipped four “black and whites” into our bag at no extra charge. On our walk home, Ted remarked at how friendly all of Toojay’s staff were. I responded that taking just a moment or two to chat and share stories inevitably created a quick personal bond. Humans are social animals, who crave connection. Why not foster as many of those as we can, even if it’s only briefly in some cases?
And that was our pre-cruise day.
Early to rise for breakfast tomorrow, and headed for the Regal Princess before noon.
Rose and Ted’s Excellent Adventure 