The other thing I forgot to mention about the W Seattle is that the faucets were installed backwards in our room, or maybe inside out, I’m not sure. The one on the left was for cold water and you had to turn it to the right to make it go. The faucet on the right turned to the left as usual, but it was for hot water.
Sheraton Parkway North
As we step off the flight to Chicago, I turn on my Bat-phone (Nokia 6160) and see that I’ve got a message. It turns out to be from United Airlines. Apparently there’s a schedule change affecting a big itinerary that I just booked the day before! So in the RCC I hog two phones, one to view my United Connection itinerary and one to call the 1K hotline. I speak to Patrice and ask her, “Do I have a big problem, a little problem, or no problem?” She is very nice and competent and walks me through the schedule. There have been some minor time changes making one connection in Miami kind of tight, so she moves my incoming flight to one 45 minutes earlier. I then ask if she can fax me the new itinerary but they can’t do that because there is a segment on another carrier, she says, but suggests that since I’m in a RCC I just stroll over to the desk and have them print it out. Doh!
So I memorize the record locator and go over to the desk, which has nobodywaiting for three agents. They fight over me! I pick the loudest lady and ask her to print the itinerary. When I recite the record locator she nearly has a stroke. She cannot understand how I could memorize that six-letter code. She prints out the document, but goes on and on about my memorizing, so after a while I smile sheepishly and back away waving goodbye as her words trail off behind me. That was quite a feat, in her eyes.
After the long hike to concourse E, we go right aboard the 727 to Toronto. It’s a shock to see three pilots flying that little plane. It must be expensive. I understand why they’re phasing them out. We take our preferred seats in 1AB and I hang up our coats as the stewardess passes out the new Canada Customs form. Soon the steward who will be serving us appears and starts smashing ice. On a 727, every trip begins with the counds of smashing ice. I started making sound effects (“No! Stop! Ow!”) timed with every smash just to liven things up. There was a bit of a queue to take off but not as much as usual. A Champagne Gin Rickey for me and a glass of Chilean cabernet for Hunnybear and we were on the ground in Toronto before you could say “employee-owner.”
Canada customs was a breeze. Remember there are no restrooms in the baggage claim area, so use it before you go through immigration or lose it. It was only about five minutes until we heard the announcement for our flight, although they lied and said our priority bags would be on the priority belt. They were on the regular belt, mixed in just like in Seattle. I loaded them onto a cart. Carts are free in Toronto. In fact, you can use them to generate frequent-flyer points: use your credit card to pay the dollar deposit and when you return them outside you get a cash Loonie. You could spend the day renting and returning carts, cranking out the miles.
Hunnybear’s brother picked us up and we went for an amazing steak dinner at the secret place that I’m not supposed to mention because only Torontulas are supposed to know about it. But I accidentally mentioned it in a previous post, so if the search feature were working you could find out. After I posted it, I got all kinds of flak from the locals saying it was a secret. Anyway, they’ve raised their prices slightly but it’s still a bargain.
We spent the night at the Sheraton Parkway North (5 more stays to Plutonium now). This is one of those suburban Sheratons that I don’t really care for, the kind of place you have a wedding or a company banquet for an auto mechanic shop. The décor is garish and loud music from the bar recalls the last days of disco. As usual, there is a Starwood Preferred Guest sign but no one staffing it and no obvious place to queue up for the next available agent. I hover about and only one guy who got there after me gets served before me.
There are a dozen people in the lobby trying to get rooms. The entire city is booked for the Toronto Film Festival, which is why we’re staying way up here. We get a room on the fifth floor—10 is tops and nine is the Club level. I don’t push the upgrade thing this time because I just have a feeling that in this hotel it won’t matter. Later I find out that Club level has mini-bars and robes. Our level has a hole where the refrigerator used to be and a nice (although not Heavenly) king bed. I’m supposed to get feather pillows because it says so in my profile, but there aren’t any in the room. Hunnybear calls down and it takes them 40 minutes to deliver two of the lumpiest foam pillows I’ve ever seen. I tell her to call the manager. She does and within two minutes we get one feather pillow, which they tell us is the last one in the place. At $139 Canadian discounted rate, this place is not cheap for the location, and I expected better. Not recommended; stay at the Westin Prince instead if you’re up in the burbs.
Next: is the Airport Sheraton any better?