Finally! Our first trip of 2026!
Today is our travel day. We start our day at Toronto's YYZ, where after check-in and security, we make our way to hangout at the lounge.
But that's not all this time. There's also the new Maple Leaf Cafe's now. They aren't that new anymore, but this was our first time visiting one. They cater more towards the grab and go style, but still have some room to sit.
Off we go! First stop, Vancouver for a 6hr layover. Sadly, we neglected to realized, that our 25k status didn't help us get the extra legroom seats unless we bought at least economy standard fares, and they stuck us in the middle 2 of 4 seats.
Michael and Winnie got us some wellness shots though. These were available as part of the business class offering. The didn‘t tell us until we were sitting in the lounge. They made a bid to upgrade to business class, and got it for the YYZ > YVR leg.
Once we landed in Vancouver, Ada was there to pick us up. Thank you to Ada for arranging the lunch plans, and our brief visit to Vancouver.
It was great to see everyone again, and catch up. It was short, but had a good time. After lunch, it was time to return to YVR. We went through security without a hitch. Next up, US pre-clearance. Earlier in the week, it was announced that Nexus lanes would be closed due to the partial government shutdown. While the Nexus machines were closed/unavailable, the line remained open and got us straight to the front of the line where we cleared customs with an Agent. This was still much quicker than non-nexus, so we were still greatful.
Once through customs, more lounge time. Unfortunately, the US pre-clearance area didn’t have access to the Maple Leaf Cafe, and so we ended up at the standard Maple Leaf Lounge in this section of the airport. Maybe it was just the time of day, but the spread was not good. For hot food, they had rice, coconut curry, and cream of broccoli soup. Or rather, that’s what they were suppose to have. The rice and coconut curry was pretty much empty. We weren’t really hungry though, since we just came from dim sum, so we just settled for desserts and snacks. AC Lounge cookies are always good 😎.
They did eventually refill the curry and rice, and so we thought we should eat something before the flight, since this flight didn’t include any meals. Overall, we rated the rice and curry a 3/10. The chicken had a pretty fake texture to it, and the curry had no flavour. They did have some teriyaki beef wraps though, so we grabbed a couple. On the salty side, but it was bearable. We then refilled our water bottles, And it was off to the gate for boarding. Good bye YVR, until next time!
While we were in the lounge, we were excited to see that there was no one seated next to us on this last leg. Unfortunately, that wasn't the reality. There were a lot of standby's put on the flight, and ended up being a full flight. This leg felt really long. We had already been up for a long time, and eyes were feeling really heavy. Took a nap and woke up kinda hungry. So time to have the wraps we grabbed from the lounge
After our snack, looked out the window and saw the beautiful sight
We decided to watch a movie together. Watched Jurassic Park Rebirth, which was a pretty good movie. With one hour left in the flight, we both passed out for 45 mins. Then it was Aloha Hawaii! Couldn't wait to get to our AirBnB, get settled in, take a shower and climb into bed. Before we could pass out for the night though, had to take care of some business. Because we were able to check an extra bag, and we were arriving late, I had this crazy idea 🫣
Had to get all this into the fridge, so it was nice and cool in the morning. Now, goodnight! 🤣
