Next Question - Did We Have a Room for the Night?

What was so good about Toronto Airport was that we never did go through Canadian Immigration.

We were separated from those ending their journeys here and we did hope that we wouldn't therefore need to go through security again.

We were wrong.  We did have to.  But next thing, we were directed to a machine to have our mug shots taken plus our fingerprints and, at the top of the machine a sign made it clear that this was US Immigration.  We knew you can do that in Dublin if you're flying to the US but didn't know that about Canada.

having finally satisfied the machine as to our bona fides we were then processed by an immigration officer and were officially in the United States - in Toronto.  And so it proved to be.  Once in Fort Lauderdale, we just got off the plane and our bags were - much to our relief - already on the carousel as we found it.  We'd been told by the hotel to phone them once ready and their shuttle would collect us.

Getting connected to a US phone network having just landed from the UK can be tricky and so it seemed to be at first.  While the phone was thinking about co-operating, we saw a bus stand for 'Hotel Shuttles'  and thought we'd wait there optimistically in any case.  Minibuses started to appear in a steady stream. First one - no, not ours.  Next one, again, no.  Next one - Crowne Plaza Hotel - yipee.  We gestured to the driver and he stopped.  We waited for the crowd around us to surge forward but no, we were the only ones who stepped up.  A slightly older man than me made short work of our 'sacks of potato-like' heavy cases and we got on board. Another could then joined us.  And we were off.  The driver slowed a couple of times as we passed other queues of people, but nobody showed any interest in us and away we went.  After around 10 minutes we pulled up at the hotel.  A very courteous middle-aged man checked us in and we were assigned to room 1005 on the 10th floor.  The semi-scenic express lift soon got us there, passing the outdoor pool on the 5th floor along the way.  We found our room. the digital key worked and 'Open Sesame' we were in!

Despite our temporary anxieties in Toronto, this had proven to be one of the least stressful outbound journeys and we had finally arrived after less than 24 hours en route.  Not bad considering we'd had that stopover in Canada.

One of the cheaper rooms - a king bed rather than 2 x queen beds, but we're not short of space

There's even room for a snuggler chair

The bathroom is beautifully fitted out and kitted out!