Settled in @ Sheraton Gateway @ YYZ

AC 1038, Air Canada’s daily 11:32a flight from DEN to YYZ, is the same one we took to get us to Toronto for our expedition to the Canadian High Arctic in July. Same aircraft, too … an Airbus A220 with tight seating in the economy cabin.

The flight was uneventful … with the aircraft not only boarding early, but pushing back from the gate early as well. Since this flight was a last minute purchase, there were no exit row seats available to give us extra legroom unfortunately. Luckily, the passenger load was light, so Mui jumped into the row behind me as soon as boarding was completed. Thus we managed to travel in comfort.

We landed at YYZ 10 minutes early at 4:20p. Luckily, our gate was available, so no delays waiting to deplane. When we got to immigration, we were directed to the automated kiosks instead of to the line snaking around a couple of layers deep for a face-to-face with an agent. In no time at all, we had our customs forms in hand and were on our way to baggage claim to collect our bags. Maybe a 5 minute-wait there. We still don’t know why the agent at the check-in counter at DEN tagged our bags for priority handling, but we thank him anyway.

For this last minute trip, we opted to ease our travel by booking the Sheraton Gateway at YYZ Terminal 3 for our overnight stay. No shuttle ride necessary. A quick ride on the LINK train from Terminal 1 got us to the hotel easily enough.

Since our flight tomorrow is not until 10:10p, I asked about a late check-out when we arrived at the Sheraton. I was given two options — keep the current rate and pay to extend our check out to 2:00p; or upgrade to the Club Level to extend until 5:00p, and also get appetizers at the Club Lounge tonight, and breakfast there tomorrow. Price-wise the latter was a much better deal, so a no-brainer decision netted us room 772 … with a city view.

Time to relax.Read more