After a few days of work and pleasure in
Orlando, it was time for me to head back home.
For the ride to Orlando International Airport, I opted to take an Uber
for a change. What a great call on my
part as not only was it a quick 25 minute ride, but my driver was one of the
most memorable characters I have ever met.
Shelly and I had a great conversation for the majority of the ride. We talked about how she works Uber full time
and only daytime hours. It turns out
that I was lucky to even have Shelly as my Uber driver as she “don’t do
civilians.” Rather than deal with the
headaches and stress of driving locals all over the place, especially after a
night of debauchery at local watering holes, Shelly only accepts airport
pickups and drop off requests now.
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| Leaving Mickey Mouse Country |
Orlando is one of a handful of cities in
America that are popular for conventions and trade shows because of its low
cost and ease of access for business travelers.
While I understand her reasoning for going this route, I couldn’t help
but notice that she was a rather attractive African-American woman and asked
her how often she gets hit on by Corporate Executives. Without missing a beat, she admitted to me
that it happens every now and then, including a recent customer who was overly
obnoxious with the pickup lines. But for
this street smart ex-New Yorker, she “don’t do Executives, either.” We had a great laugh over that before having
a more serious conversation about the “Me, Too” Movement, particularly Bill Cosby. That part of the conversation didn’t go over
as well as we were in disagreement as to whether or not Cosby’s alleged victims
should have spoken up about their sexual assaults decades ago or not. But we both agreed that we were severely
disappointed and saddened by the man Cosby is instead of the beloved actor and
comedian that we grew up with during the Eighties.
Fortunately, that part of the conversation only last a few minutes as we
had arrived at the airport – just over three hours before my scheduled flight.
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| Waiting for the tram to take me to Terminal B |
Despite the extra time that I had, I had to
wait for almost 30 minutes before Air Canada was able to check me in as they
had flights to Halifax, Montreal, and Toronto all within 45 minutes of each
other. Because the Toronto flight was
the last one of the day, the passengers heading to Halifax and Montreal were
given first priority. Following check
in, I spent close to another 30 minutes waiting in line to go through TSA
Security. That was a complete chaotic
process as there were clusters of people just randomly standing in line instead
of listening to the TSA Officers who were trying to organize all of us in five
different lines. Overall, it took me
about an hour to check in and go through security leaving me with 90 minutes to
kill before boarding.
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| The galley on Air Canada Flight 1677 |
Since I had plenty of time to grab something to
eat, I headed over towards Bahama Breeze for some dinner. I’ll save the details for a later date, but I
essentially picked it because it was the only restaurant near my gate that
seemed lively and the tropical theme was really appealing. Following dinner, I headed to Gate B94 where
I had a few minutes to spare prior to boarding.
Nothing of significance to note for this flight as it was pretty similar
to my Air Canada flight down to Orlando only a few days earlier. However, I ended up losing my window seat to
a five year old child due to a booking mishap his family had when they made
reservations for this flight.
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| Air Canada Flight 1677 |
His father explained to me that Air Canada had
accidentally separated his entire family of four, and because both of his
children were under the age of seven, the Air Canada agents paired the father
and son together in my seat while the Mother and Daughter were sat a few rows
up on the other side of the plane. No
one told me about the change in seating planes when I boarded the flight, but
given my history with Air Canada, I wasn’t surprised, either. The father apologized for the confusion, but
how could any reasonable person be upset given this situation? I was just unsure where I would now sit as it
was full flight. Fortunately, the Father’s
original seat was actually right beside me in the middle row, thus saving me
the trouble of asking one of the flight attendants to help me find a new seat.
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| Toronto Pearson International Airport |
With an estimated arrival time of 1am EST, I
decided to take a nap during the flight.
Toronto has a noise by-law which prevents flights from departing between
Midnight and 6am and arriving between 1am to 6am. So, it was eerily quiet by the time we
arrived at Pearson International Airport as we were one of the last arrivals
for the day. On the bright side,
Canadian Customs wasn’t as busy as a result, so I was able to grab my luggage
and head home all within 20 – 30 minutes of arriving. Since this will be my last business trip for
an indefinite period of time, the only thing I could think of while I headed
for home was when and where my next flight would be. And more importantly, when would I return to
Orlando again?
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| An eerily quiet Toronto Pearson International Airport |
AC 1670 – MCO to YYZ
Operated by: Air Canada Rouge
Aircraft: Boeing 767-300 (twin-jet); Seat: 46A
Departure: 10:26PM EST – Orlando International
Airport (MCO) – Gate B94
Arrival:
12:58am EST – Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) – Terminal 1, Gate
F69
Flight
Time: 2:32; Non Stop Flight – 1090 Miles/1754 Kilometers; Date: March 20-21,
2019
