Flights and Toronto Stopover

To continue my series, here is some information on flights, airports, and exploring downtown Toronto on a stopover.

To review, I just returned from travelling to Orlando from St. John’s with my two kids, Penny and Rory who are 9f and 7m. They are autistic with ADHD and anxiety. One is a runner, one is a wanderer, and they’re both escape artists.

Booking Flights and Checking-in

In terms of actually booking flights, my suggestion would be to book for the back of the plane because I felt much less watched back there than when we were seated towards the middle of the plane. Rory at a couple of points wanted to stand up on the seat and take a look around – that was much less anxiety inducing when we were at the very back of the plane. It was also easier to get access to the bathrooms when needed. We had to sit Penny ahead of Rory, because Rory kicks a lot and she doesn’t mind it. That might be a consideration for others.

When checking-in for your flight at the airport, mention you need to pre-board. They’ll note it on your boarding pass. This would also be the time to get a wheelchair if your kid(s) might need one. We got a wheelchair for just Penny originally because she was having hard time not laying on the floor, which she does sometimes when she’s overwhelmed – it was easier for her to hide under the blanket.

We checked our luggage because it was much easier to wrangle the kids and push the wheelchair with only one backpack on as opposed to several pieces of luggage. A lot of people try to pack just a carry on (which is understandable) but on every flight we were on they asked passengers to check their baggage because there was no room on the plane. We were about 20 minutes delayed leaving Florida because there was no where for the carry-on luggage to go. It isn’t worth the stress, in my opinion. We were lucky and didn’t lose a single bag.

St. John’s Airport

I mentioned in my previous post, but I highly recommend booking an airport tour of the St. John’s Airport before you go. I think Penny’s (and my) anxiety would have been a lot worse if we hadn’t done that a couple of weeks beforehand.

At the St. John’s airport, Penny wouldn’t get out of the wheelchair for security so she had to get a pat down. Penny didn’t seem to care about that, but some kids or parents might. The staff ensured it was a female officer, and she talked through the whole thing and asked for consent as she went. It wasn’t very intrusive.

They let us go through the disability line, which was nice. The airport doesn’t have any sort of disability program (like the sunflower program I’m about to mention) but they were very accommodating.

Flights

Our first flight was from St. John’s to Toronto. The actual flight was tricky but overall not bad. The kids were a bit concerned when we started taking off, because the speed which the plane goes before it finally takes off can be a bit intense (I hate it too). Penny just repeated “oh no oh no oh no!” while squeezing my hand. Rory was smiling out the window the entire time.

My recommendations for flights (and open to more suggestions):

• Bring way more snacks on the flight than you think you’ll need
• Buy wi-fi onboard for tablets, half our flights didn’t have TVs
• Give your kids headphones for their shows (my kids couldn’t hear their shows without them, so although they hate listening with headphones at home, they tolerated it on the plane)
• Buy some surprise toys for your kids to play with if they get bored
• Buy sodas at the airport, because on board beverages take forever to get to you if you’re at the back of the plane. I also asked for the entire can of drink instead of just a cup – Rory guzzles drinks
• Bring a (charged) portable charger

Some very specific advice:

• Don’t let your kid get too close to the emergency exit at the back of the plane, or the visuals you always show him may go awry and he may try to open the emergency doors on your way to the bathroom. Then you’ll have to nearly tackle him to the ground on the plane…
• Don’t enter the airplane with a hot beverage in your hand all cocky and confident. You will likely need two hands to wrangle kids, someone will have to hold it, it will spill about 17 times and it will be cold by the time you get a chance to try and take a second sip. Not that this happened to me or anything…

Overall, I think the kids did fairly well for their first flights. The way back was a little easier as we got the hang of things. Penny just needed her tablet, snacks, a blanket, and the ability to close the airplane window screen when she wanted.

Rory did better with a window seat. He liked looking outside. He gets bored of his tablet fairly easily so we had to keep coming up with ways to distract him. I had some toys and candy, but he needed more than that too. He wanted to walk around and that wasn’t an option, obviously, but distraction worked fairly well. At one point he was looking at a map on the plane’s TV and I asked him to find Luxembourg (his favourite country) on the map – there are no boundary lines on the map at all so I thought it would take a while. Rory moved it over and zoomed in until he found Luxembourg almost immediately. He looked over at me and said, “it’s in Europe”. He napped on the flight between Toronto and Florida which was helpful!

Toronto Airport

They have a sunflower lanyard program where you wear a sunflower lanyard and the staff is supposed to treat you better. You can order it ahead of time or you can ask for it when you get to the airport.  Honestly, I have no idea how the staff would have treated us if we didn’t have that on. They were not accommodating at all, in my opinion. Penny was having a hard time walking without lying on the floor and I was sent all over the place before they finally let me get a wheelchair for her. Then they made her stand up from the wheelchair for security. It was over fairly quickly, I just didn’t find them very friendly or helpful. Shamus was so addled he ended up losing his keys at that point.

I do concede however, that could have just been the people we happened to deal with. Some people might have better experiences.

On our way through customs at Toronto airport, there was an area where they need to take a picture of everyone’s faces individually. During this time, Penny had to stand up from the wheelchair and take off her headphones. That was a surprise to me. She was not impressed but did do it.

We were able to use the disability line, which I’m assuming saved us from standing in long lines.

On the way back from Florida, we used the ArriveCan App and that saved us a lot of time in this airport. I’d recommend downloading it ahead of time though, because you can’t really use it until you get to the airport.

Orlando Airport

A surprise to me when we got to Orlando is that they had a train going from arrivals to baggage (and alternately, check-in to departures). It comes every 5 minutes or so, so not much waiting, I just didn’t know about it. I recommend getting a spot closer to the back of the car, just because there is a spot to lean, otherwise it’s all standing up and you need to hold on to your kid and the railing if your kid(s) don’t understand how to hold onto the pole. Orlando airport also has the sunflower program, so you can go to the disability lines which helps with any waiting. They were much more friendly than Toronto airport, honestly.

Stopover in Toronto

There’s one thing I would have done different when we got to Toronto. I think I might have booked a day-use hotel ahead of time to use if the kids needed it, and cancelled it if they didn’t. My mom had rented one here, but I didn’t, and when I tried to book one on the phone once we landed, it would have cost us over $500. I nope’d right out of that and made the trek to downtown (which was fun) but I think that would have relieved some stress.

So, if you’re suckers for punishment like us and decide to go into Toronto during a stopover, I’d recommend getting the return train ticket to downtown Toronto. You can follow the directions to the train at the airport (about a 5-10 minute walk) and when you get there, you can ask an agent about getting a return ticket for a long stopover. It cost approximately $25 total for the four of us.

My kids LOVED the train. You’re travelling backwards, which was different for us. It took about 15 minutes to get into Toronto and we got off at Union Station. You can walk through the skywalk to the CN Tower and Ripley’s Aquarium, which takes 5-10 minutes and there’s no real walking outside. It was easy to follow the signs to find those.

We were nervous about the kids running, so we also bought these pretty cool “bracelets”, I call them. Really they’re leashes but they go on the kids’ arm and one on a parent’s arm. The ones I bought from amazon (these ones) have a lock on them that the kids couldn’t figure out. The key is attached to the adult side, so it won’t get lost. It’s also very sturdy so I wasn’t concerned with them breaking it. Rory had it on more often than Penny during our trip, but they were great to let him explore and give us peace of mind. There was a few times it stopped him from wandering into traffic, so I truly do recommend them even if we probably looked a bit crazy. Safety over looking cool, I guess.  

Penny decided not to go to the top of the CN Tower so we didn’t do that, but we did do the Aquarium. It cost about $164 for the 4 of us, which was much more expensive than I was expecting, but the Aquarium is awesome and I had been dying to take the kids and Shamus there since I went with my mom and sister in 2019. In the Aquarium itself, Penny spent a lot of time either running through or hiding in corners. At one point, we sat in a quiet area of the play centre for about 30 minutes until she regulated.

My kids wanted Tim Horton’s and McDonalds while we were there (I’m assuming because it reminded them of home) so we tracked those down. The trickiest part of downtown Toronto was trying to find restaurants – they are hidden in buildings with no outside signage. Google maps helped though. Tim’s had pretty much the same menu, but the kids get milk with their McDonalds and that was different or not available at every McDonald’s we encountered. To be expected, but it irritated Penny. The kids really enjoyed a Tim Hortons we found near the Aquarium where there was a quiet indoor cafeteria to sit down.

The thing that we always have to remember when we go anywhere with the kids is that we have to enjoy slowing down as much as we enjoy exploring. Shamus and I on vacation try to be more “go go go” but the kids are like, “nope!”. And that’s just the way it is!

Next up – the start of Disney!