It seems like just yesterday we wrapped up our South Pacific sojourn with a Bromont chaser – but now it’s time to depart on the last of our extra-long trips, the final hurrah before our son must sharpen his pencil and devote his efforts to high school instead of mastering the perfect wet landing from aboard an expedition ship. Heavy sigh.
But what a hurrah it will be. We are flying to Sydney, Australia before moving on to Tasmania for roughly 10 days. Then over to Melbourne, where we will board the Silver Moon for a 47 day combo-cruise past southern and western Australia – Kangaroo Island, Adelaide, Albany, Busselton and Perth – before setting course for Southeast Asia.
We will then continue to Bali, Singapore, Thailand – breaking briefly for an overland journey to Angkor Wat – then Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea. The cruise will end in Japan, where we will spend another two weeks before returning home.
We’ve learned much during our previous extensive travels, but not how to pack lightly – our luggage weighs in at a whopping 352 pounds:
How does one end up with such a mass of luggage, you ask?
Well, it seems a natural consequence of bringing ten changes of clothing; wetsuits, snorkels and masks; cold weather gear suitable for skiing and snowboarding in Hokkaido; two full tuxedos and assorted evening gowns; sandals, Blundstones, hiking shoes and reef shoes; three laptops to correspond to three months worth of homework; and – last but not least – an entire carry-on devoted to camera equipment, including a telephoto lens, a compact extended zoom, two fixed primes, a macro lens and a teleconverter.
So it’s unlikely we’ll make much headway in regards to packing until someone invents the combination wetsuit / tuxedo.
Speaking of tuxedos, this is our first ever classic cruise – and we’re not entirely sure how to feel about it. There has been a special kinship amongst us expedition folks, and it’s hard to imagine how the ship will feel when we are no longer all packed into Explorer’s Lounge waiting to hear whether swells will permit us a much-anticipated landing, or to share a laugh over photos of a guide falling in the water. Again.
But we’ve already heard that some former cruising compatriots will be joining us on the Moon, so I’m cautiously optimistic that we will find some new form of camaraderie.
There was one major victory this time around, however, and that was my ability to “clear the decks” before we get underway. No more hasty e-mails to the accountant moments before we depart the vessel on our latest excursions! (Hopefully – best laid plans and all that.)
This is good for many reasons, not the least of which is the Very Long, No Good Travel Day that we are anticipating on our way out to Australia.
We had hoped to score a last-minute upgrade to business class pods, but unfortunately a bout of nasty weather caused a string of flight cancellations, pushing others onto our now-full flight.
At least, we suspect that this is why the Signature class section filled up – I sincerely doubt it was because the tickets had sold out, particularly as Air Canada was asking US$12,000 per leg per seat. I doubt there are many with pockets that deep – leastwise who wouldn’t opt to fly private instead.
So Premium Economy it is, then. We even brought Turtl pillows so our necks don’t flop around like little rag dolls. Clearly Signature class has spoiled us… but as pleasant as Premium Economy may be, it’s not a place for which I am enthused to spend 23 hours.
At least we are on a “non-stop” flight. Or rather, there is one stop – in Vancouver – but it’s the same plane. With luck, we might even be able to leave our carry-on bags in the overhead bins. One can hope…
Three months is a very long time to park a car, so we reached out to Awan Imtiaz – our airport driver for our previous Antarctica to Zimbabwe trip – who showed up ten minutes early.
Bags were promptly stowed in Awan’s Escalade, and we were on our way. The heavy hit of snow has impacted the roads, but they’ve mostly been cleared by the time we hit the highway.
An entirely representative photo of how many transport trucks are on Highway 401
It took roughly the usual amount of time to get out to Toronto Pearson Airport – some slowdowns near Toronto, but I’m simply glad to be a passenger instead of a driver. (And to have spared myself the pain of dropping everyone off at the airport before heading out to ditch our vehicle at the Park ‘n’ Fly.)
We forgot to take a photo this time – so here’s one from the last time Awan dropped us at Pearson
Awan delivered at 3 pm for a 6:45 pm flight, and we were soon wandering Terminal 1 searching for a check-in desk. Premium Economy earns you priority check-in, so we went to Aisle 1. There was a modest line, and we could have likely ditched our bags faster by printing out the baggage tag and loading them ourselves, but – it’s a pain, so we had someone else do it for us.
Aisle 1 was also close to the Nexus line for security screening – which wasn’t only shorter than the non-Nexus line, there was also no need to remove your shoes, coats, liquids or electronics as they go through the scanner. This is by far my favourite part of travelling through Pearson.
The Terminal 1 Plaza lounge varies between adequate and mediocre. This being a Friday afternoon, we weren’t surprised that it was resting solidly on mediocre and attempting to dig toward “terrible”.
The seats? Fine, if you could find them. We ended up at a “sharing table” while we did manage to eventually find solo seats for the kids.
The food? Hardly any selection. There was a fish dish on offer and it looked like the pan had been scraped clean. (Though the mini-butter tarts were decent.)
The bar service? Abysmal. I waited at the bar for 10 minutes, and it was one of the busboys who eventually took my order. But full credit to him – he makes a mean gin and tonic.
And the line to get in? Actually not terrible. We were checked in within 5 minutes, which is much better than we’ve experienced in the past.
Final verdict? Better than spending an hour waiting in the terminal, but not by much – and I doubt we would have bothered if not for the fact that my wife’s Dragon Passes were about to expire.
Oh, and what does it look like? I wasn’t able to take a photo without also taking terrible candid shots of the other poor souls struggling to endure an airport wait, so here is an unrealistic stock photo instead:
A perfect photo – all that’s missing is the ravening hordes, stripping the place clean (Photo Credit: Plaza Premium Lounge)
And a more realistic stock photo:
No bartender – just like real life! (Photo Credit: Plaza Premium Lounge)
Time marches on, and it’s soon time to head off for dinner. We opt for the Mill Street Pub, which I know from past airport visits to be perfectly serviceable – if a bit on the expensive side. But what isn’t, especially at an airport?
Three pints of Organic Lager later, and everyone’s faces will look blurry to you too (Photo Credit: TorontoPearson.com)
Our kids had the chicken fingers:
While my wife had the chicken Caesar:
I had the Korean spicy chicken sandwich, which I completely forgot to photograph in my enthusiasm. It was good, though I would have asked for it without coleslaw if I knew it came with coleslaw on top of it. Ah, well. I did enjoy the kimchi, though.
It also turns out that our DragonPass gives us a 10% discount at Mill Street. The app told me to give them a number, but our server asked for a QR code. So I gave her the QR code that I would use to get into the lounge, and it worked – and indeed got us a 20% discount. All without using up any of our lounge passes.
Off to the gate. We’ve previously been surprised by how early these long haul flights board, but this was set to be an exception – there was an unexpected medical event at the gate, and paramedics were on site.
Thankfully the man affected seemed to be stable, and – unlike both the flights to Calgary and to Halifax – our flight wasn’t cancelled as a knock-on effect of yesterday’s inclement weather.
Not that it’s looking particularly nice out there at the moment, either…
Our flight was pushed back roughly an hour in total, and then another hour as we waited to de-ice. But at least we were underway!
Premium Economy is a relatively intimate affair on the Toronto to Sydney flight with a mere three rows – 24 seats in total – set aside.
This is a photo from a 787 DreamLiner – Air Canada flies a 777 for this route, which has the same seat layout. It’s also a lot grottier, and the overhead bins are on their last legs (Photo Credit: Air Canada)
Premium Economy doesn’t have it’s own bathroom, so you’ll have to share with Economy. (Or attempt to brazen it out by – gasp – crossing the Fabric Curtain into Signature class. )
But it does have some tasty food:
Tonight’s options were chicken teriyaki or gnocchi in pomodoro sauce. We both opted for the chicken, and it was one of the better airline meals I’ve had.
Service also exceeded expectations. First, they defended our overhead bin space against interlopers from Economy. As in, they actually removed pieces of luggage and shamed their owners into admitting they’d tossed them in a bin other than their own. At which point the flight attendant popped the excess economy luggage into Signature class. I guess in this case it’s better to ask permission rather than beg forgiveness?
Then – soon after we were airborne – we received the always-appreciated hot towels, and a flight attendant came through multiple times to offer beverages. We accepted. It seemed the polite thing to do.
A flight attendant also had words with the passengers across the aisle who was under the impression that the best way to pass a 23 hour flight is to watch TikToks on top volume. Thankfully that attendant was of my school of thought, which is that playing TikToks in public should be subject to summary ejection from the aircraft via inflatable slide – over the Pacific.
They compromised by turning it off. Good enough.
Complaints? Always a few. The aforementioned bathroom issue, for one. And there’s no bedding on offer for this leg. But by and large, we’re living pretty well. I could certainly think of worse ways to spend 23 hours. (Or will it be 25 hours, factoring in the delay?)
The four-hour flight (five if you count de-icing delays) passed uneventfully. We arrived in Vancouver at roughly 10:15 pm Pacific time, where we unfortunately had to remove all our belongings and circle round the airport before we could re-board the plane. Nothing open in the airport, so we picked up some Sunchips and Smart Pop from the vending machine instead.
The wait here seemed endless. It did not help that it was closing in on 3 am Eastern time, and that we had already been on the road for more than 14 hours. But eventually the flight re-boarded, we reclaimed our overhead bin space, collected our freshly-laid blankets and pillows, and settled ourselves once more into the same seats that we’d occupied on the way down from Pearson.
We were surprised to find that most of the seats had turned over, with very few passengers continuing all the way to Sydney from Pearson. Perhaps they realized – as we should have – that it’s a long flight to do in a single shot. 14 hours down, another 16 hours to go.
Dinner #3 – slow-cooked beef and mushrooms with mashed potatoes:
Decent, but I preferred the chicken teriyaki
With dinner complete, the full weight of the day settled upon us. We had overcome weather delays, medical emergencies and (gulp) a failed upgrade bid to finally find ourselves on the last leg to Australia.
It was now 5 am Eastern time. Even without the lie-flats, we dropped off to sleep – one after the next.