Anyone familiar with Calgary airport?

[Stephen's Mom]

Thanks to Air Canada, our direct flight to Vancouver has been cancelled and now my 2 hour layover on the way to Disneyland has been changed to a 6 hour one in Calgary! I have never been to Calgary's airport and was just wondering what there is to do on a Sunday afternoon in the airport for 6 hours with a 3 year old? Are there any play areas etc. that he could spend some time in? Also, I assume we will have to clear US customs when we arrive in LA is that correct? Is there such a thing as preclearing customs while still in Canada? Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure we'll have to clear in LA which will make the whole day even longer than it's going to be already (but what can you do?). Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[funetics]

We're from calgary and have used the airport numerous times. There are play areas, but if your layover is that long, there are a lot of things to do close to the airport, if you want to leave. The zoo is open year round and is a 15 min. top cab ride from the airport. I spent 4 hr there in June with our 2 1/2 yr old and she did quite well. (Do to a delay in our flight leaving) We went for a meal, she played in the play areas--Air Canada has their own area outside of the security area. If you are leaving on a flight to the states, you do have to clear US immigration in Calgary-- You clear customs as you go to the US flight boarding area. Please email me at tnaclark@telusplanet.net if you have any specific questions that I can help more with.

 

[Timon]

There is a newly opened SpacePort which is pretty neat. There is also a kids play area but other than that there is not much to do.

You will go through customs here, which, I think, is much better than doing it in the US when you land..once you are on board, you have no worries about customs!

Sad to hear about your long layover....I know how you feel. We are going to WDW in Jan and all of our flights are United except for the first leg to Chicago. We originally had an hour stopover. I called last week to see if there were any changes and the only Air Canada leg of our journey was changed, which now leaves us with a 6 1/2 hour stopover at O'Hare!

I called Aeroplan ( was on hold for a total of 2 hours 10 mins!) and managed to get two seats on a different AC flight which now leaves us with a 3 hr stopover in Chicago...oh well...better than 6

Good Luck!

 

[Stephen's Mom]

Thanks for all the info. I'm so glad we'll be clearing customs in Calgary (good grief, we'll have over 6 hours so we may as well get one thing out of the way!). I doubt we'll go to the zoo only because we're planning to go to the one in San Diego. My only saving grace is that my DS loves Disney movies and my DH is going to bring his laptop which has a DVD player in it. I'm hiding the Snow White DVD until we leave and plan to buy a couple of other new ones as well. I guess we'll just have to find ourselves a plug in and let him watch (between running around of course!). It really is too bad 5 hours of flying takes over a whole day to accomplish. I know what you mean Timon about being on the phone forever. We booked through Air Miles and I've spent countless hours on the line trying to make changes. Unfortunately this was the best I could come up with. The flights they had originally booked us on after AC cancelled the initial one had us flying into Calgary, then Vancouver and then to LA (all with a plane change and less than 30 min. between connections - I can't imagine how that would have worked with a 3 yr old!). Not to mention on the way home they had us scheduled to leave Vancouver 3 hours before our plane from LA was going to land there! That would have been interesting. I'll guess at least with a 6 hour layover we shouldn't be late for anything!

 

[SandraC]

I am always amazed at how fast time flies in airports! For April 2001 trip, we arrived at the airport WAY TOO EARLY! We had a great time relaxing and talking about our vacation. We watched the planes take off and enjoyed a wonderful cup of coffee. We chatted with the nicest people too!