June 25, 2017



  Luggage was placed in hallway to be collected before going to sleep. It was taken to arrival hall at the Amsterdam Passenger Cruise Ship Terminal when the ship docked by 7 a.m. this morning.  Deck 9’s Lido Market buffet opened at 6 a.m., so that passengers could have breakfast before leaving the ship. 
   The morning was cloudy with a light wind and a temperature of 18 C.
 Fortunately, our group had one of the first time slots to leave the ship for transfer to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. We were loaded on the bus and were at the airport in about 25 minutes arriving at 8:15.  However the Air Canada counter did not open for Toronto and Vancouver passengers until 8:30. The line got longer and some people got self serve boarding passes and were whisked to the baggage drop-off, while others waited in line for boarding pass and dropping off their luggage. The luggage was coded to the final destination, so there was no getting the luggage in Toronto and then putting on a conveyor belt for your connecting flight.
   Our hostess, Bev, made sure our group checked in at the self serve kiosk.  We were directed to airport security screening, then on to Customs and Immigration, where the system did face recognition comparing the passport photo to your image, as you waited 10 seconds for the software to process the information, if okay then the gates opened and you proceeded to your gate.  By 9:45 (a total of 90 minutes) we had found the gate and a power supply then connected to Wi-Fi to post the text and photos from the last two days. It was over 25 minutes before the rest of the group arrived at the gate.  Steps 3,661.  We walked around the terminal to get our step count for the day and accumulated 10,017 before boarding the plane at 11:30 a.m., which would be 5:30 a.m. in Toronto.
   A hot lunch was served after an hour in the air with wine, juice or water. We were flying over Britain a bit south of Glasgow, Scotland then flying over the North Atlantic Ocean. At the four hour point the plane was over the southern tip of Greenland; Goose Bay, Labrador was nearby at five and a half hours. At six and a half hours into the flight the Canadian Customs forms were distributed followed by a small chicken or vegetarian fajita as a snack, the plane was several hundred kilometers north of Montreal.  We had to circle for an extra 15 minutes due to weather conditions interfering with flights around Ottawa.
    Toronto temperature was 19 C with a few clouds and a light wind.  The plane arrived at the gate at 2:20 and we were through Customs and Immigration as well as security before 3 p.m.  It was the quickest time that we have ever taken to go through that process in Toronto.  We found the gate and then went to get something to eat and walk, but we did not walk too much since we had done most of the daily goal in Amsterdam.  Our plane was scheduled to leave at 4:30, but at 4 an announcement was made to change gates and the in-bound plane was delayed an hour in Ottawa due to a thunder and lightning storm.  And within 20 minutes we were advised to change to another gate which was a five minute walk away.  The plane pushed away from the gate 80 minutes later than scheduled, but there were no further incidents.  We said our goodbyes to the rest of the group as we waited for the baggage to arrive. Our luggage came off the plane in the first dozen pieces and there were plenty of taxis waiting for passengers.

 

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