YYZ Questions

[TammyLynn33]

Hu guys ! It’s here finally Thursday DD and I leave for her grad girls trip . We are used to flying out of the US so I have a few questions.
I know I ca prebook a security time . Our flight is 725.. what time should I book and should I still be there 3 hours prior ?
Silly question but food wise what can we bring through security/customs ? I’m just thinking breakfast sandwich ? P3 protein packs ( prepackaged meat cheese nuts kinda things ) just trying to save a little if I can .
Any other tips would be great ..
any tips on Uber too once we get there would be lovely .
My son is usually our planner guide ha ha and Dd and I are directionally challenged. Maps aren’t our friends.
Thanks everyone. Happy family day weekend

 

[Donald - my hero]

You can do this! Pearson is bigger than Buffalo for sure but there are several things you can do to help you navigate quickly and with (a tiny bit) less stress

Use THIS WEBPAGE to pre-book your spot in security. I still wouldn't use this as a way to avoid arriving at the airport less than 3 hours in advance because you still need to clear customs AFTER security and flights before 10 am make things very chaotic!

THIS WEBPAGE :Make sure you Download US CBP’s Mobile Passport Control app and fill out the form to speed up your customs experience as well. It's called MPC and you will enter in all of your passport info and details about your trip, basically all of the questions an agent asks you in person are already done, you can do it before you leave home and then once you're at Pearson just submit the form before you enter the customs hall. We are always amazed at how many people don't take advantage of it - think of it like fastpass for customs! It will make things easier and hopefully quicker as well. Be sure to the question about declaring food as YES for your snack items. I hand over a written list of every single food item we've got with us, right down to the cough drops hubby keeps in his pockets! We take an entire carry-on bag of my safe food since I have a lot of food allergies and this has made the process much easier.

Once you're ready to come home you can use a similar procedure for the Orlando airport (OMG that place is a zoo!) They have their own version of the pre-clearance that is run by the same company you'll be using in Pearson Booking a spot for that disaster of a line is worth the extra effort, trust me on this!! The hours aren't always convenient but check it out to see if you can make use of it.
THIS WEBPAGE

 

[mort1331]

Hu guys ! It’s here finally Thursday DD and I leave for her grad girls trip . We are used to flying out of the US so I have a few questions.
I know I ca prebook a security time . Our flight is 725.. what time should I book and should I still be there 3 hours prior ?
Silly question but food wise what can we bring through security/customs ? I’m just thinking breakfast sandwich ? P3 protein packs ( prepackaged meat cheese nuts kinda things ) just trying to save a little if I can .
Any other tips would be great ..
any tips on Uber too once we get there would be lovely .
My son is usually our planner guide ha ha and Dd and I are directionally challenged. Maps aren’t our friends.
Thanks everyone. Happy family day weekend

Not 100% but check to see when security opens up. 3 hours prior puts you at 425am,,,dont think its open that early. So book 1st available. Yes to food, just no fruit, and declare what your bringing. If its prepackaged even better. There is a few places inside,,Tims,,that you can get hot breakfest sandwiches as well,,and not over priced. No liquids, so not sure what the p3s are. Thursdays should not be too busy.
plug in on Uber even the day before to see what cost would be,,,and compare parking near airport,,,there are a few. If you have CAA discounts on Parknfly.
Enjoy trip.

 

[alohamom]

You can do this! Pearson is bigger than Buffalo for sure but there are several things you can do to help you navigate quickly and with (a tiny bit) less stress

Use THIS WEBPAGE to pre-book your spot in security. I still wouldn't use this as a way to avoid arriving at the airport less than 3 hours in advance because you still need to clear customs AFTER security and flights before 10 am make things very chaotic!

THIS WEBPAGE :Make sure you Download US CBP’s Mobile Passport Control app and fill out the form to speed up your customs experience as well. It's called MPC and you will enter in all of your passport info and details about your trip, basically all of the questions an agent asks you in person are already done, you can do it before you leave home and then once you're at Pearson just submit the form before you enter the customs hall. We are always amazed at how many people don't take advantage of it - think of it like fastpass for customs! It will make things easier and hopefully quicker as well. Be sure to the question about declaring food as YES for your snack items. I hand over a written list of every single food item we've got with us, right down to the cough drops hubby keeps in his pockets! We take an entire carry-on bag of my safe food since I have a lot of food allergies and this has made the process much easier.

Once you're ready to come home you can use a similar procedure for the Orlando airport (OMG that place is a zoo!) They have their own version of the pre-clearance that is run by the same company you'll be using in Pearson Booking a spot for that disaster of a line is worth the extra effort, trust me on this!! The hours aren't always convenient but check it out to see if you can make use of it.
THIS WEBPAGE

I am bookmarking this on my laptop @Donald - my hero Thanks so much!

@TammyLynn33 I have come to think of going early to YYZ as part of the trip and once I accepted it, it doesn't bug me as much LOL.

 

[TammyLynn33]

I am bookmarking this on my laptop @Donald - my hero Thanks so much!

@TammyLynn33 I have come to think of going early to YYZ as part of the trip and once I accepted it, it doesn't bug me as much LOL.

I’m working 36 hours in the three days prior and now trying to juggle little boys and their care at home and hockey playoffs are starting for one of course .. and we will be getting up super early Friday am too for the Princess 5k if I can sneak in an extra 20 mins somewhere without feeling more stressed I would love to

 

[TammyLynn33]

You can do this! Pearson is bigger than Buffalo for sure but there are several things you can do to help you navigate quickly and with (a tiny bit) less stress

Use THIS WEBPAGE to pre-book your spot in security. I still wouldn't use this as a way to avoid arriving at the airport less than 3 hours in advance because you still need to clear customs AFTER security and flights before 10 am make things very chaotic!

THIS WEBPAGE :Make sure you Download US CBP’s Mobile Passport Control app and fill out the form to speed up your customs experience as well. It's called MPC and you will enter in all of your passport info and details about your trip, basically all of the questions an agent asks you in person are already done, you can do it before you leave home and then once you're at Pearson just submit the form before you enter the customs hall. We are always amazed at how many people don't take advantage of it - think of it like fastpass for customs! It will make things easier and hopefully quicker as well. Be sure to the question about declaring food as YES for your snack items. I hand over a written list of every single food item we've got with us, right down to the cough drops hubby keeps in his pockets! We take an entire carry-on bag of my safe food since I have a lot of food allergies and this has made the process much easier.

Once you're ready to come home you can use a similar procedure for the Orlando airport (OMG that place is a zoo!) They have their own version of the pre-clearance that is run by the same company you'll be using in Pearson Booking a spot for that disaster of a line is worth the extra effort, trust me on this!! The hours aren't always convenient but check it out to see if you can make use of it.
THIS WEBPAGE

Thank you so so much

 

[samsteele]

that disaster of a line

That's no joke. I just went through MCO security at early dark thirty last Tuesday morning and it took 45 minutes. I arrived by 4:20am for my 6:20am AC flight and thought for sure I had lots of time for the first AC flight out. But when I got into the line for security it was crowded with cheerleaders down at WDW for a competition and fewer TSA staff than required. I made it to my gate with enough time to grab a breakfast sammy at Burger King (use one of the 2 self-serve kiosks to the right of the BK entrance to avoid waiting in line then just go pick up your order at the counter) and a bathroom break. If using the Mears Connect shuttle they will pick you up extra early and you'll have a full 3 hours before your flight departure. Never thought I'd actually need the extra time that early on a weekday morning.

 

[samsteele]

Does anyone remember when MCO security line used to have sniffer dogs in a corral in the middle of the lines and everyone had to file by the dogs slowly multiple times? They were beautiful labs when I did this. Not trying to freak anyone out or frighten as realistically haven't seen this for at least 10 years. It certainly made a slow process even slower as little kids wanted to reach out and pet. Remember thinking they needed uglier dogs. Sure it was needed at the time and for our safety but it didn't improve the wait whatsoever.

 

[Disney Addicted]

I never knew pre-booking a spot to get through security was a thing!
Thanks for mentioning it @TammyLynn33!
Thank you for all the info @Donald - my hero.

I'm another person bookmarking the webpages, and linking this thread into my Sept 2024 document.

 

[TammyLynn33]

Any thoughts on park and fly vs parking at the airport itself ?
Waiting on ex to tell me if parking is included at the hotel . We are staying at 4 points by Sheraton at Pearson airport . It seems really close. Or if he’s covering it .
I want this trip all about the ease

 

[hcortesis]

Any thoughts on park and fly vs parking at the airport itself ?
Waiting on ex to tell me if parking is included at the hotel . We are staying at 4 points by Sheraton at Pearson airport . It seems really close. Or if he’s covering it .
I want this trip all about the ease

Waiting for the Park n Fly shuttle on our return was always annoying to me. Standing outside on a cold day isn't fun. But if you stand inside, you risk not getting on the shuttle if many others do line up. Parking at the terminals takes all of the non-controllable issues out of play.

 

[wdwmom3]

You should be there 3 hours before your flight. Morning is the busiest time for US flights and you don’t just have security to worry about but also customs.

You can bring food through security and customs that is not liquid. We always bring things like protein bars and trail mix.

The value parking garage at the airport is convenient because they have a monorail that takes you to the terminal. But it will be more expensive then park n fly. I would say allow yourself about an extra 20 mins if you use park n fly versus the value garage.

 

[Donald - my hero]

Feels good to know that I've helped other out with the info for navigating thru Pearson. Here's a couple of other suggestions that can help:
Both YYZ and MCO participate in the Sunflower Lanyard program and it was a game changer for us. You can order one free of charge (allow 2 weeks for it to get mailed) or pick it up in person at any information kiosk. First trip in Feb 2023 no one at Pearson noticed or commented on it but coming home from Orlando they have a massive Sunflower emblem in the same line as the wheelchair one and the service we got was topnotch. No need to provide any documentation, you self-identify as needing extra assistance, anyone who uses DAS pass will appreciate this. On our trip in November I was fumbling with the Border app and an employee told us to get into the Nexus line, side note- it was dead in the customs hall so no idea if this will happen on Thursday morning or not.

Sunflower Lanyard info

An absolute game changer that I just stumbled on during one sleepless night, was to be prepared, before we left the house, with an empty canvas bag that is big enough to hold everything that will need to go in the dreaded grey bins - laptops, tablets, liquids, oversized medications and an empty zippered pouch. When we got to the airport, we took an extra 5 minutes to empty our pockets into the pouch and stuck that inside a backpack, put all of the items needing to be screened into the canvas bag, took off our jackets/sweaters and put them inside the carry-on bag. When it was our turn, there was no frenzied opening of numerous zippers, bags, worrying that something would get missed. Put the suitcases in the first bins, backpacks in the next ones, then our shoes & the now empty canvas bag, and the final bin was the electronics and liquids so that nothing overly important was ever out of sight. They also allowed me to wear my noise cancelling headphones right up to the point that I needed to go thru the scanner.

If anyone needs extra special help going thru security on the way home you can contact TSA for what's called TSA Cares and an agent will actually help you thru the entire process. Haven't officially used this (didn't know it existed) but when we came home last March, after my mom had died, I was an obvious mess, headphones on, clutching the sunflower lanyard, deer-in-the headlights look and the most kind-hearted woman came over, touched my elbow and never left my side until we were on the other side of the entire security section.

I know most of you are just looking for ways to speed thru the airport and streamline the process and all of the links I provided allow that to happen but I wanted people to know that there are also systems in place to help those of us who really need extra time and compassion.

I've booked our security time for Thursday morning and I will report back once we get to the other side to let people know if it helps!

 

[TammyLynn33]

Feels good to know that I've helped other out with the info for navigating thru Pearson. Here's a couple of other suggestions that can help:
Both YYZ and MCO participate in the Sunflower Lanyard program and it was a game changer for us. You can order one free of charge (allow 2 weeks for it to get mailed) or pick it up in person at any information kiosk. First trip in Feb 2023 no one at Pearson noticed or commented on it but coming home from Orlando they have a massive Sunflower emblem in the same line as the wheelchair one and the service we got was topnotch. No need to provide any documentation, you self-identify as needing extra assistance, anyone who uses DAS pass will appreciate this. On our trip in November I was fumbling with the Border app and an employee told us to get into the Nexus line, side note- it was dead in the customs hall so no idea if this will happen on Thursday morning or not.

Sunflower Lanyard info

An absolute game changer that I just stumbled on during one sleepless night, was to be prepared, before we left the house, with an empty canvas bag that is big enough to hold everything that will need to go in the dreaded grey bins - laptops, tablets, liquids, oversized medications and an empty zippered pouch. When we got to the airport, we took an extra 5 minutes to empty our pockets into the pouch and stuck that inside a backpack, put all of the items needing to be screened into the canvas bag, took off our jackets/sweaters and put them inside the carry-on bag. When it was our turn, there was no frenzied opening of numerous zippers, bags, worrying that something would get missed. Put the suitcases in the first bins, backpacks in the next ones, then our shoes & the now empty canvas bag, and the final bin was the electronics and liquids so that nothing overly important was ever out of sight. They also allowed me to wear my noise cancelling headphones right up to the point that I needed to go thru the scanner.

If anyone needs extra special help going thru security on the way home you can contact TSA for what's called TSA Cares and an agent will actually help you thru the entire process. Haven't officially used this (didn't know it existed) but when we came home last March, after my mom had died, I was an obvious mess, headphones on, clutching the sunflower lanyard, deer-in-the headlights look and the most kind-hearted woman came over, touched my elbow and never left my side until we were on the other side of the entire security section.

I know most of you are just looking for ways to speed thru the airport and streamline the process and all of the links I provided allow that to happen but I wanted people to know that there are also systems in place to help those of us who really need extra time and compassion.

I've booked our security time for Thursday morning and I will report back once we get to the other side to let people know if it helps!

Donald what flight are you on Thursday ? We are westjet 730 am

 

[starvenger]

I never knew pre-booking a spot to get through security was a thing!

It's relatively new. You can even book a spot while you're at the airport. My brother tried it out during our last cruise (his NEXUS was revoked because he was stupid so I told him about pre-booking) and it's about as fast as using NEXUS/Global Entry at Early O'Clock. I can only imagine how much time you'd save during peak hours. The real issue is making sure you're there for your time slot. But as long as you check in online and get your bags dropped off it should be fine.

Any thoughts on park and fly vs parking at the airport itself ?
Waiting on ex to tell me if parking is included at the hotel . We are staying at 4 points by Sheraton at Pearson airport . It seems really close. Or if he’s covering it .
I want this trip all about the ease

Don't bother using Park N Fly unless you use Valet. Self-park and Economy are cheaper, yes, but the shuttles are less frequent and you have to find your car, brush snow off etc. With valet, there are more shuttles, a shorter ride to the pick up centre and they will brush off enough snow so that you can get in and go home.

As for the airport, I think the value garage is your best option. It's about the same as PnF valet, but it's covered, and the tram is very convenient.

 

[Donald - my hero]

Donald what flight are you on Thursday ? We are westjet 730 am

That's too early for us! We're taking the 10:30 flight, can't believe it's here already. Still feel like we're stuck in the time warp that covid times created. Have fun running, I'll be (hopefully) sleeping in

 

[Lesverts]

That's too early for us! We're taking the 10:30 flight, can't believe it's here already. Still feel like we're stuck in the time warp that covid times created. Have fun running, I'll be (hopefully) sleeping in

I love first thing in the morning flights out of Pearson. Just booked a WJ flight and the earliest they have is 11:15am departure. I don't like taking the risk of being on a snowballed flight. Only thing is now I won't get the sideways looks from a flight attendant for ordering whiskey at 8am. Only good thing is straight to the hotel and into the room. Hopefully.

 

[Donald - my hero]

ok we're on the other side of security and customs. We got to the airport at 6:50 and there were maybe 10% of the check in kiosks available to use, slight hiccups getting the luggage tags printed and the bags onto the conveyor belt but we were at the entrance to the security area with our items organized and ready to go. The agent confirmed the time via the QR code but the machine refused to scan our boarding passes. The person standing there just told us to go thru the regular line - at least 10 lanes open and not one single person waiting. Zero problems getting to the other side and my Sunflower Lanyard let me not use the full body scanner, just the walk thru. Walked into the customs hall and there were about 10 groups in the regular line, no one in the line for those using the MPC app so right up to an agent. Had us look into the camera, asked where we were headed and for how long and just told us to have a nice trip. I glanced behind us and the other line was busier and people were definitely taking much longer to get thru customs.

had plenty of time to get hubby a great full breakie for a very reasonable price and organize our one carry-on bag to get gate checked. Looking at time stamps on my family chat it took us 17 minutes from my "we're at Pearson" text to the "we're on the US side"

 

[starvenger]

@Donald - my hero I need to know where this "reasonable price" at Pearson was. Timmys? Sbucks?

 

[Donald - my hero]

@Donald - my hero I need to know where this "reasonable price" at Pearson was. Timmys? Sbucks?

As soon as you exit the duty free shop in T3 you will see a bar type setup but if you look across from that there are 2 or 3-ish counters like in a food court in a mall. The one in the middle has a huge grille type thing and hubby had "le grand matin" and the total, with tax was 16.94. Not bad for food in the airport and he said it was yummy

Me? Yeah, the food I brought from home and some milk