Thanks to NCL booking me an 11:45pm flight, I had the full day to kill in Vancouver. I spent the day on the Hop-on, hop-off bus while my bags were stored at Canada Place. I’m now at Waterfront station where I’ll be taking a train to the airport. This is just a short walk from Canada Place. The ship was just behind this building.

Tickets are $3.15 at the kiosk. You just need to know which zone to buy it for and which line to go to. I got one for zone 1 and I’m going to the the Canada line. I think they said this isn’t the case everyday and it’s just zone one because it’s a holiday. 

 Its a lot like the New York City subway down here. It’s just newer and cleaner.

I feel like there are fewer seats and fewer handles in here than in New York. But there are also fewer people.

I made it to the airport it took me 30 minutes to get here from the subway platform at waterfront station.

This is a safety measure I haven’t seen. This girl just went through that with a huge duffel bag backpack that got bumped by a pole. She turned around and stared that pole down for a good five seconds.

No steps. This is a luggage friendly escalator. Or de escalator in this case.

This is a very nice airport. 

The people here have all been really nice since I didn’t know where I was going. Security even let me go through the pre-check line. They had no line. The airport isn’t very crowded right now. 

I was in the airport at 7:20 and I made it to my gate at 7:47. One hour after I was standing on the platform at waterfront station. One hour and twenty minutes after leaving the restaurant by the Olympic Cauldron on foot.

I do have one criticism of the airport. They don’t have nearly enough places for people to charge their devices. They have those stands that have about four plugs in them. Each set of seats in my area has one stand. There are only about three sets of seats in the area. The airport isn’t even crowded but all of them were taken.

I went down to the next gate. They had about 100 seats. They had one of those stands with four plugs for that entire area. I went down further get to one of those high top desks where people use their laptops. They had no power outlets. Finally found another one of those with power.

I made it on the plane. I bought the exit row aisle seat with additional legroom.

Air Canada always has free entertainment. I’m watching Below Deck.

Good Morning.

You can see downtown Toronto in the distance.

I’m a little concerned about my flight that boards in 15 minutes and leaves in 50 minutes with me still sitting on this plane. My gate closes in 32 minutes. It says I have to go through security and customs here. I told the fight attendant but she just told me I wasn’t the only one.

I have to go from D to F and it’s all on foot.

Now my flight is boarding and I’m in this line for security. 

In the security line this lady pushed her way past everyone saying her flight was boarding. I said mine is too. In customs a guy tried the same thing. I told him he wasn’t getting past me. My flight was before his. He didn’t get past me.

Now I’m in customs and they say it’s a 30 minute wait and my flight takes off in 10 minutes .

When I got to the front of the customs line the agent said “we have a problem. You aren’t booked on any flights.”

That’s because I missed my flight. I was supposed to have an hour between flights. I told NCL that wasn’t enough time. They told me they’re authorized to book with just 30 minutes between flights. I got off of my plane at 7:07 and my connection took off at 7:46. I spent an hour in the security and customs lines alone.

Now I get to wait in the customer service line.

I think I got about 30 minutes of sleep on the plane. But people kept getting up to use the bathroom during turbulence and the captain made at least five announcements to stay seated. One of those woke me up.

Instead of getting into Dallas at 10am it’s going to be somewhere around 6-8pm. I’m going to have to connect in either Chicago or Washington D.C..

And I lose the money I paid on the seat upgrade (update: I filed a claim after I got home and got it refunded along with a 10% discount on a future flight in the next three years) 

I emailed my former vacation planner but she’s never answered any of my emails so I don’t think she’ll start now.

I was standing at that counter for over an hour. Finally when I mentioned it she said I could sit over here. I don’t know what’s talking so long but even though I have the new itinerary I don’t have the seat yet. That’s a flight that had 1 seat left.

I got the last seat on this flight. The other option was to connect through Washington and get in at 7:15pm.

They didn’t give us food on the plane so I haven’t eaten since that burger 6pm yesterday 

This cough is getting worse. Hopefully it’s just because I’m eating and it’s irritating something.

Every seat I’ve seen in this airport has these big arm  rests so there’s no hope of laying down anywhere but the floor.

I laid down for an hour over there. The bed is a little stiff but it has plenty of outlets and some natural light.

Think I got 20 minutes of sleep.

It’s probably not good when you are given two of these in one day.

There is one restaurant in this section of the terminal. It’s a burger restaurant. I’m having a beer and lunch there.

This is a standard Air Canada seat. No legroom.

The only good thing about that stop was taking my shoes off for security. Apart from that I’ve had them on for the last 30 hours or so.

On this flight I’m watching A Man Called Otto.

Lake Michigan

I was told my flights are in the same terminal. They are not. I had to go E to C. You follow B/C signs and end up in B. Then you go down two floors below B and B’s luggage claim and fast walk it under B then back up stairs to C.

It kind of feels like you’re entering a casino down there.

I made it and they’re about to start pre-boarding.

I’m on United this time and I have a few inches of wiggle room here in the standard seat.

I have this thing pushing into my arm.

The girl in front of me has her window further back so her arm fits in that window cup. 

Look out for rows where you have two windows. I get two windows but I also get the hump. You don’t want the hump.

This is a time where the parking is going to work out for me. If you book for 8 days and 1 hour they still charge you the same as nine days. So I just do 9 days and my parking is good until tomorrow morning

I’m going to watch some more below deck on this flight.

I made it. My suitcase made it. If you allow NCL to book your flights, be prepared for a lot of potential problems. It has been a nightmare.

I made it to my car.

Next time we’re going on a Princess cruise.