Room Type: 1 king bed
Nights: 1
CAD199 + taxes (29.85) and breakfast
Club Carlson points earnt: 12,213
(Room, Food and Beverage Points + Silver 15% bonus: 4095; Triple Points Bonus: 7118; App Booking Bonus 1000)
From there, I immediately ran into a problem. I’d originally considered various IHG properties for this airport rest stop, but given the late (early?) arrival it sounded like transport would be a challenge. The Radisson, though, was able to confirm a complementary shuttle that could be requested on arrival, even at this unsociable an hour. However, whilst the arrivals area has a free phone system for airport hotels, the Radisson wasn’t included!
Fortunately, I had emailed to remind them of my late arrival, and their reply was both cached on my phone and had a contact number buried in the footer. Better still, I had a few coins left over from a Canadian trip many years ago – the only other money I was carrying was the unhelpful single hundred dollar bill my local bureau de change had been able to supply me with. So a local call from an old-fashioned payphone – I think the last time I used one of those was also in Canada! – got me an arrangement for a pickup and a useful ego-check after all that attention on flights, as my name got cheerfully mangled (there’s a particularly cutesy mispronunciation thanks to some superfluous Scottish vowels).
I was advised of a 15-20 minute wait, and directed to a seating area which is easily found even by my 2/5am brain (cross the road, turn right). In the event, it takes less than 10 minutes for a driver to appear, and fifteen minutes from pickup to bed – despite getting that hundred broken down, and grabbing you all some photos before I messed up the place:
Fearing I’d sleep straight through check-out, I had an emergency alarm set for 11am. But despite the excellent bed, I woke at 7... clearly in need of breakfast! I decided to wait long enough for it to be brunch, and therefore miss the buffet, which ends at 10. Menu items remained available, though, with a broader range and lower prices than room service (even before the delivery charge). I therefore splash out a bit, although the existence of a ‘carnivore bowl’ allows me to convince myself that the choice of an omelette is (relatively) restrained despite the impressive amount of food that arrived:
The weather looks changeable, with a possibility of rain, so in case I can’t get a room on arrival at my next stop, I decide to laze away the rest of the morning back in the room. It turns out I have a view of the runway, so I can watch some comings and goings; and in the distance I also get my first glimpse of some mountains!
Eventually though it was time to move on. As that last picture shows, the skytrain runs conveniently close to the Radisson, in my case taking five minutes from lobby to boarding. Better still, by joining from here you’ll be on the Richmond rather than ‘sea island’ (i.e., airport) branch, and thus dodge the 5 dollar surcharge that the latter carries. It’s a straightforward journey to Broadway City Hall, and from there another four blocks to my accommodation. As expected, I’m too early to get a room key, but negotiate a slightly earlier move in, ditch my case, and set off to explore.