Leaving On A Jet Plane

We began our vacation travel yesterday even though we do not start our cruise until tomorrow. The flight was originally scheduled to leave from Montreal this morning at nine. Getting up at four in the morning to make the drive into Montreal did not go over well with the family. I had to consider alternate travel arrangements.

We decided to take the train from Kingston to Dorval yesterday. The train was very busy. Just enough room for our bags but, with the help of some cooperative travellers, we were able to find seats together. Train travel can be an interesting experience particularly when every seat is filled. A rather wide view of humanity presents itself. The sights, and the smells, make quite the impression.

We arrived in Dorval on time at 2:21pm. From there, a quick taxi ride took us to the Marriott at the airport. Beautiful hotel. We did not do too much other than read and walk around the airport shops.

The hotel is connected to U.S. departures which made it very quick to walk over to the check-in line. Matthew had been randomly selected for enhanced screening. I could not complete a web check-in for him. And that meant the dreaded queue. Fortunately, my Aeroplan Amex allows me to use the executive class line. I rarely use it because I generally prefer the web check-in. In this case, I am really glad we could make use of the line. We would have been at least an hour if we had used the alternate queue.

Although Lorraine and I did not have an enhanced screening request, we were all directed to the same area and we received our very first full body image scans. Such fun.

Once we made the Maple Leaf Club lounge, we found out that our flight was delayed almost two hours. Yet another reason to fly the day before a cruise. Assuming no further delays, we will arrive into Orlando at around 2pm. We will have about 30 minutes to deplane and gather our luggage and about 90 minutes to get to the port. If we were embarking on the cruise today, there is a good chance that we might not make the cutoff for boarding the ship.