Venezia Transatlantic: Travel Day

By
Saint Greg

June 19, 2023

Good Morning! On recent trips I have been parking in the remote south parking lot at DFW airport. This time I’m going with express south. This lot is costing me an extra dollar per day for this trip.

The express lot advantages are more shuttles, shuttles that only go to your terminal, and they pick you up and drop you off at your parking space. The person working the booth will tell you which row to park on, then immediately radio a shuttle bus driver to pick you up.

It was quick. If anything I felt a little rushed getting things out of my car because the shuttle was waiting on me.

There were just three of us on the shuttle and it dropped me right where I needed to be.

Air Canada allows 50lbs but I wanted to be under 40 so I’ll be good for my flight home on Spirit.

Security says 10 minutes wait time for the general line but there are only 15 people in front of me. It’s a 2-minute wait for TSA pre-check.

It was a 20 minute wait for Chick-Fil-A and they were out of Chicken Minis. I found a nice quiet spot in a BBQ place that is closed.

Boarding should start at any moment.

This is very civil. I’m used to people crowding around the entrance. I wonder if it’s the nice Canadians.

I paid an extra $50 for an exit row preferred seat with additional leg room.

Totally worth it.

That’s the alternative.

Another factor in picking this seat is there are two seat rows on this side and three seat rows on the other side.

I left my regular headphones in my other bag. They have them for sale on this flight.

Power options.

The lady next to me reclined her seat 7 minutes before takeoff. Now she’s talking on her phone during announcements and taxi.

She’s been told to put her bag under the seat and it’s out again. Talking on the phone during the safety video. She shouldn’t be in an exit row. If there’s a problem its going to be all on me. I’ll let her open the door. Maybe she wasn’t listening when the Flight Attendant said if you don’t let go you could fly out with it.

Finally before we get to the runway the flight attendant comes back and tells her off the phone and bag under the seat. Her seat is still reclined.

Here are the Wi-Fi options.

They have a good selection of inflight movies at no additional charge (unless you need headphones).

They also have games.

I’ll play some Blackjack.

9:45am beverage service.

Diet Coke. I guess they don’t use ice in Canada.

It took about 40 minutes to lose that $1,000 on blackjack.

It looks like we’re running early so we can add another 10 minutes onto my six hour layover.

They have a lot of food options. Sandwiches and pizza are about 10 CAD or about $7.50.

Two hours until landing. One good long game of Monopoly should get me there.

We had a second beverage service with one hour to go. I needed to hydrate so I went with water.

13 minutes until landing.

That’s the normal customs for people staying here. Connections keep walking.

This guy has to scan your next ticket. Domestic go to a computer in this room. International downstairs.

The airport has complimentary WiFi.

I made it to the international terminal.

I guess I’ll get my coffee here.

This was a good spot while it lasted but I got kicked out by the guy who works at the bar behind me. I am going to be looking for drinks and food after I finish my coffee, but I won’t be coming here.

I’m ready for food and beverages. I was told that a thing to try here is Poutine. I went around to the various eateries looking for that menu item. I found it at Ubar.

This is basically fries, cheese, and gravy. It’s good.

I had a couple Canadian beers as well.

I moved to a different bar where I could charge my phone.

For a snack before my flight I’m going to try a couple of types of chips that are specific to Canada: Ketchup and All dressed. I got a LaBatt Blue beer from the sandwich shop to go with it.

Yeah. Tastes like ketchup.

If you like a plate of fries with ketchup all over, this might be the chip for you. But if you’re a dipper. Half ketchup half no ketchup, this might be too much ketchup.

Let’s try the all dressed.

That flavor is very familiar. I want to say sour cream and onion. It’s very similar.

This is a weird situation. I went to check if my plane is here and on time and all that. My gate is on the other side of a security border. And it’s like Tom Hanks in Splash. If I go there, I can never come back.

I found my flight information on this big board at the other end of the terminal.

It looks like my arrival has been pushed back 30 minutes.

20 minutes until boarding. I’m ready to leave the international terminal. I’m feeling like Viktor Navorski.

It actually looks like you can go back and forth but you’re behind a glass wall on that side. All you can access is the two gates and there is no place to sit. It’s packed.

This is my ride to Barcelona.

Boarding has begun.

I paid an extra $110 for this additional legroom seat.

The only problem here is that’s the bathroom in front of me so people are going to be standing here constantly. Also, with the TV thing there are four seats here and only two TVs.

I took some bad advice on seats. I read that the aisle seat behind first class didn’t have additonal legroom. It looks like it actually does plus they have a TV screen for each seat and it isn’t by the bathroom.

We actually took off at 9pm. At 10 our meal service began. We had a chicken or pasta option. I went with chicken.

Wooden utensils.

The chicken was actually pretty good.

They had to stop the service and return to their seats due to turbulance.

10:30 flight map 38,000 feet, 521 knots.

It wasn’t until 10:45 that they came around and took our trays. After that it was just a constant stream of 2-5 people at a time standing outside of the bathroom.

A couple of times people even crossed our row to get to the bathroom on the other side. This one stepped on my foot.

Fortunately, turbulence is coming up and the seatbelt sign is going to come back up.

Well, the seatbelt sign isn’t stopping them. But it’s about 1 at at time instead of 3-4. The Flight Attendant tried to stop one guy but nothing was stopping him.

11:30 flight map. 38,000 feet. 504 knots.

I got some sleep here. But every time someone opened the bathroom door, it woke me up.

2am flight map. 38,000 feet. 452 knots.

This guy from the aisle behind me almost face planted going to the bathroom. He got his foot caught on his bag handle under his seat and the only thing that saved him was the flight attendant’s seat.

Actually, it’s the same guy who didn’t listen to the flight attendant when she told him not to go to the bathroom during the turbulence.

The guy next to me has a little bit of a B.O. problem. It’s not constant but every now and then you get that whiff of locker room after football practice. I’m guessing he got an early start and skipped the shower. Not a good way to go. Hopefully when we part ways the o stays with the b.

3am flight map. 38,000 feet 468 knots.

Breakfast came at 3am.

3:15 beverage service. I need hydration so I’m going water.

I made it the entire flight without going to the bathroom. I only drank the mini bottle of water and a little cup of Diet Coke.

I have firsthand knowledge that the bathroom has been used 5,000 times. Some of those times were during turbulence. I have no interest in using it.

3:50 30 mins till landing. We just started a very aggressive descent from 36,000 feet. None of that gradual stuff.

4am flight map. 21,000 feet 380 knots

After landing we were told the company that buses us to the terminal is on strike and they have to take us one bus at a time. 50 people at a time. And I’m in the back of the plane.

It was a 40-minute wait for me to get off of the plane.

This says carousel 9.

There’s an issue with the luggage. It said carousel 9 on the big board. Carousel 9 said Montreal. Now they our flight has disappeared from both. We’ve been waiting awhile.

The baggage complaint guy is telling everybody they’re backed up. It will be on the carousel it was supposed to be on…when they get to it.

The Carnival rep is telling people today is Election Day and workers are given two hours to go vote so the airport is short staffed.

All we have is a couple of snack machines, so I got a water.

As we watch flights come and go it’s becoming clear that this issue is only affecting our flight.

We are comparing notes and the general belief is that it’s just a problem with our plane because our plane isn’t at a gate and the luggage handlers aren’t going out to our plane because they have planes at the gates to unload.

Security let me step out of here grab a snack and coffee and come back.