There’s no pun in the title. It’s pure description.
I’m going to break the arrivals process out here, because it’s actually more than “gave passports, got bags, gave immigration card” and our stay at the HI isn’t overly large so this pads it up and plus there’s more continuity.
This time in, we made it through immigration without a hitch but then of all the luck we got nailed at the baggage belt when MrsBarn remembered the hard way you can’t bring fruit into Canada. Even if it’s an apple from the lounge in WAW. Whoops. So thanks to a keen spaniel we were off to secondary, which I had really hoped to avoid because we were already an hour late and we had evening plans with some friends from Cork (now back in TO) and their one-year-old.
As you can imagine, those plans fell apart.
Remember that part about no napping on the plane? Well it’s been determined that BtY handles jetlag very strangely. In this case, bedtime happened suddenly and abruptly as we were standing in line for secondary. And that was it. Totally out. Until morning. So now we’ve got the same huge amount of luggage but the added bonus of getting to carry a previously-self-propelled child. And to add to it all I completely forgot to go through my Canadian change before we go for the extortionate carts at YYZ. This would have been terrible if not for some very fortuitous timing: before any of this customs business happened, while on the escalators down from immigration, I happened to notice a guy walking across the baggage hall pushing a row of carts. So I extrapolated his path back and there it was. A fresh, unguarded row of carts. So I just looked at MrsBarn and said “when we get to the belt I need you to watch everything and I don’t have time to explain” and it worked. Free cart.
Take that, “pay carts on arrival”.
And, as an aside, our bags actually came out in under ten minutes. I have NEVER had this happen at YYZ, so this was a very welcome and unexpected surprise.
So back on the business end of secondary I had forgotten just what it meant to be back in Canada. The agent we talked to was really professional and friendly, just explained the issues with fruit, and then we spent the rest of the inspection talking about his recent trip to Krakow. And that was basically it. So off we went through the doors to find our shuttle. One quick question to the guy at the desk and we discovered that it would be downstairs, way at the end, so that’s where we headed. With the family waiting inside I popped outside to check the schedule and of all the luck the shuttle was just arriving. Unfortunately, according to the driver, there would be no waiting around for us so it was another mad dash to get everyone ready for going outside (thankfully this was much faster than it could have been) and powered out there to try and load everything. And because of a few other riders delaying the shuttle it worked, we were now on the way to the hotel. Score. Ten minutes later MrsBarn was checking in while I got all the bags up to the lobby.
Hotel: Holiday Inn Toronto Airport East
Rate: 15,000 IHG points
I chose this hotel for a three reasons: It was a quick shuttle to the airport, it had a pool, and I got it on IHG points. Most of these points were actually from back in the day when I was running Topguest, with the rest made up from surveys and one night in Berlin (Indigo Ku’Damm, our 36-hour vacation in 2012). I had to buy up a few, which I sort of regretted, but it all worked out. At one point I was really tempted to cancel this reservation and rebook a paid night to get the “book two online” points from the Big Win, but it turns out in the end that was unnecessary and adding this one more stay wouldn’t have made a difference in the scope of the promo anyway, just added expense. While I could have cancelled this booking and rebooked a PointsBreak night in the HI Mississauga, I did not for the proximity reason. For some strange reason (to me) they booked us on the “IHG Club Floor” which certainly did not seem like a “club” floor and for the life of me I can’t find the pictures from it. Must be on my old phone. The free WiFi was a nice touch, though.
“Club” floor room - HI Toronto Airport East
“Club” floor room - HI Toronto Airport East
But the stay. Right. So where we last left our group, BtY was done for the evening. Using said free WiFi I got in touch with our friends and found out that their kid actually goes to bed at a reasonable hour, so it wasn’t looking like we’d get together. It’d have to be next time, then.
The stay itself was fine. There wasn’t much aircraft noise - only a bit at night - and early the next morning we were all up and ready to go. At 6 am. So by the time we got motivated and decided what to do, it was nearly 6:30 and time to head down to pick up some toast. Then the pool. BtY loves the pool. And this time they had the hot tub set at a temperature approaching hot.
The Pool at the HI Toronto Airport East
Ultimately the plan from here on out was that we’d head to the airport with plenty of time to spare, just in case. I had my doubts about the smoothness of this next leg and I would unfortunately be right.
Views from our room