Day 30 - Toronto to NYC Continental "Mickey Mouse" Airways to NYC....there's no life jackets or oxygen masks?!?!?

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So today I eventually head off to NYC, 1 day later than planned but so far the flight isn't cancelled so all good news. I have a lazy morning just pottering around, checking emails, sorting money & planning what I'm going to cram into 3 days in NYC. I've done most of the tourist stuff before but still in typical Louise fashion there can't be a minute lost so try to come up with a 3 day plan! So below is my "top line 80/20" schedule.

Wednesday
10am - meet up with Jason Thomas in hotel reception. (Jason & his girlfriend are also visiting so I'm hoping to catch up with them at some point. We are both staying in the same hotel (the same one as a few years back) so we are "on track" for a 10am meet up!
Go on Hop On Hop Off Bus - cover Lower Manhatten & Brooklyn. Eat the famous new york pizza at Grimaldi's in Brooklyn.

Thursday
Go on Hop On Hop Off Bus - cover Mid Town East - going up Top of the Rock at the Rockfeller Centre. Also do Central Park & go to the Metropolitan of Art Museum.
4.30pm - Afternoon Tea booked at The Plaza, 5th Avenue. (Always wanted to go to this hotel but it was shut when I was last here-- it's on the one in Home Alone 3 - Lost in New York!) Couldn't afford to stay here so afternoon tea will have to be the next best thing.... expect more to come on this one!!

Friday
Shop, Shop, Shop, Macys, Bloomingdales, 5th Avenue, ....shopping list already done

Saturday
Before 11am - cover all Midtown West
11am - leave for airport!

So not alot planned then!!!!!! It's going to be early mornings & late nights to get all this done! I still need to try & fit in Phantom of the Opera too as this is on my lists of things to do before I die.

I get the Toronto Airport Express bus to Pearson Airport and have the delights of US Immigration. Firstly it was an hour's queue & people were getting very pissed off as they were missing their flights as they are so slow. Secondly, there's the 20 million questions on my trip plan which scares the life out of me & I always feel guilty that I've done something wrong! For some reason immigration find it almost wierd how a single female can be travelling by herself, going in & out of the US / Canada so many times & how work can possibly give me 6 weeks off work! It's awful & they always seem to ask me a question on dates which I completely freeze on and have to bumble my way through. Anyway, they let me through so can't wait for the return journey when Canadian Immigration ask me why I'm only spending 2 days in Toronto before going back to the US!!!

So I'm actually writing this on the plane to NYC (but will be uploading it when I get some wi -fi) and OMG, where do I start...

Now most of you know I'm not a great flyer so you can imagine my horror when the first 2 things hit me 1) it's a small propeller plane where I'm virtually sitting on the pilots lap & 2) one of the pilots is a WOMEN! Now I'm sure she's fine, but still, I'm the first to admit I'm a crap driver & that's only contending with a gear stick & 3 pedals. How the hell does a women master a dash board of a plane! At this point I'm starting to panic as I've forgotten one thing I always carry with me on a plane...it's a card a Buddest Monk give me in Beijing which has come chinese writing about taking care & be safe on travels..blah, blah, blah!!

Now I'm sat in seat 2A - right at the very front so get to hear all the conversations between the pilot, cabin crew & ground staff. There's a problem.....firstly we have more passengers on the plane than on the passenger list!! Secondly, the cabin crew struggle to count & add up the passengers on the plane. After 3 attempts by 2 different air stewards they keep coming up with different numbers...for fuck's sake!! Control freak Louise nearly felt she had to take control of the situation & do the count herself. I was getting more worried that they were just going to go until the pilot stepped in & requested a full re-count & passenger check list. We were finally agreed on 55 passengers.

After a 30 minute delay it's take off & into the safety demonstration. Now I've travelled so much that I could almost do the in flight safety demonstration myself! That was until I travelled on a Continental Q-400. I'm on a mickey mouse plane where it DOESN'T even have LIFE JACKETS or OXYGEN MASKS!!! What sort of f**king plane am I on? Now I've been on some on planes in China & Brazil where I was surprised they even got off the ground but come on this is the US & Canada?!? To make it worse, as I'm in an emergency exit seat, if I'm going to sit here I have to agree to help the air steward should we need to make an emergency exit!!! For some one who doesn't like flying, my plan would be to be first off the plane but after seeing the state of the cabin crew operate I tell you what, I'll be taking full control of the emergency situation!!!

So lets just review the situation I'm in
1. It's a propeller plane
2. There's a women driver
3. Monkeys for cabin crew. (she also has to read off a script to do any annoucement & can't string a sentance together without messing it up)
4. There's no life jacket - you use the seats as floatation devices! (Note - to get to NYC you have to pass over Lake Ontario which is probably as big as the North Sea)
5. There's no oxygen masks so god knows what you do to breath at 29,000 ft
6. I haven't got my Buddest blessed safety travel card!!

It's only a 70 minute flight & it can't go quick enough for me.....well until I get the flight back & land back in Toronto. (As I've just written this the pilot has just come on to say we have been told to hold in the air for 20 minutes so make that 90 minutes!!)

What I will say, is you get an amazing view of Toronto as you leave the airport. I would have tried to take a photo but daren't switch on my camera in case I screw the plane's electronics! I'm actually surpised & I can use my lap top!)

Anyway, I'll sign off here for today. Hopefully the ride from Newark will run more smoothly than the flight. I'm on a Super Shuttle which can only hold 11 people so hopefully the driver can count more effectively than the cabin crew!

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