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| - Okay, I'm a proud Canafian, living in the States. I extol all things Canuck and even have a maple leaf proudly tattooed on my ankle. But I was SO very embarrassed when I recently had to transfer in Toronto from a Nassau flight, on my way to Montreal. Despite traveling all over the world, I have to say, this airport here in Toronto, in the biggest and busiest city in all of Canada, was the WORST ever. At least it was for connections. In fact, Pearson Airport here made the Nassau airport look like a model in modernity and efficiency in comparison. Nssau! In the Bahamas! Their airport was infinitely better designed than Pearson. Go figure.
I was really embarrassed for my country.
Deplaning the Nassau flight, many of us on board went to find our way to customs. As is usually the case, many of us had to use the bathroom. You know how, when you get off a plane (especially if it was a longer flight), in any terminal you arrive in, there are nearby bathrooms? Like, usually every 50 feet or so from the gates? Not here!!!! We all looked, en masse, for bathrooms. Nowhere remotely close. I heard other passengers asking where bathrooms were. We all found out, they were far away, and many of us were in disbelief.
Before getting to the bathrooms, we reached the customs area where an employee (customs agent? Pearson employee? Not sure) stood at the entryway to the customs area, barking/shouting repetitive instructions over and over and over to the hordes of arriving masses and throngs of people from flights all over the world. Why they don't have an overhead speaker system that repeated the info in French and English, like all other Canadian airports, I don't know. Some other passengers and I were unsure which of the many lines to get into, and we tried to ask this woman, but she kept shouting and barking her scripted info, over and over, and was apparently unable to actually talk to any of us, to answer our questions, where we should be going.
My kids and I went to the left. There we found the women's bathroom. Hallelujah! Many of the women from my flight and other ladies from other flights ran toward this area only to be stunned that the bathroom had only TWO stalls! And one of those stalls was being cleaned by a cleaning lady! Imagine this, the biggest and busiest airport in Canada, with a 2-stall bathroom to accommodate over 30 women in the Customs area, arriving on international flights and needing to pass Customs go catch connecting flights. AND ONE STALL WAS OUT OF SERVICE. I have never in all my life seen this at any airport, regardless how small. Here's where my embarrassment for my country came into play. All the women in line with me and my daughters were stunned, saying this is unacceptable, how could this be. And the cleaning lady, like the barking woman outside, wasn't very nice, either, as she curtly told us all we could go elsewhere, there are other bathrooms in other areas of the airport. (What???). It was unreal, that's all I can say.
After the never-ending bathroom wait, the kids and I wended our way through the Customs line. Many people were in the wrong line and were told to leave our queue to go Into another line. Others in line commented how disorganized this airport is, and how lacking it is in signage. And I had to agree. Again, the tiny Nassau airport was 1000 times clearer and more efficient (and after experiencing barking woman and dour cleaning woman, I have to say, the Nassau airport staff were 1000 times more pleasant, too).
After passing through Customs, we then had to get our luggage at a carousel downstairs. The main escalator to get there was out of service. Most people were lugging their carry-on luggage down the stairs, swearing as they went. There were no signs, where to access another escalator or an elevator. I didn't want my young daughters lugging their larger roll-on carry-ons down a flight of stairs. Too dangerous. I saw some flight attendants and a pilot purposefully walking by with their luggage and I decided to follow them. Sure enough, there was another escalator down the way. Whew!
After getting our luggage, we then had to figure out which belt to put them on for our connecting flight to Montreal. Of course there were no signs to inform us. Of course. At the connections area, a woman told us "second line!", so my kids and I bypassed the first line - only to find out, there WAS no second line! There were two conveyor belts, though. Another family was asking an employee "where's the second line??", and kids were crying, and we all were confused. My folks went through here 20 minutes earlier (no lines for first class), and they later told me that they were also really confused where to put their check-in luggage. One guy there hoisted our luggage up on the second conveyor belt and away it went. We all said a little prayer.
Sorry for the verbose review here, but SO many of us passengers were so confused and upset, I know it wasn't just me. Just terrible.Embarrassing.
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