Confessions of a YYC Travel Junkie

[Ironhorse]

So my son’s passport guarantor slightly misspelled my son’s first name when doing the back of his photo. Can the guarantor rectify it and initial, or does he need a new set of photos?

Also, do you still need an appointment at the passport office, or can one go the Harry Hayes first thing in the morning and just spend a few hours at Service Canada? They don’t have appointments available until mid September...

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by Ironhorse

So my son’s passport guarantor slightly misspelled my son’s first name when doing the back of his photo. Can the guarantor rectify it and initial, or does he need a new set of photos?

Also, do you still need an appointment at the passport office, or can one go the Harry Hayes first thing in the morning and just spend a few hours at Service Canada? They don’t have appointments available until mid September...

I think you’ll be fine. I messed up something on a renewal form and they had no issue with crossing it out and initialling the change.

Don’t try and make an appointment — they should be able to accommodate you at either Harry Hays or at the Sundance location (which is where I went). Some people have reported going in the afternoon is better as there is less if any lineup. I would budget at least a few hours though — they have a webpage that shows “current wait times” but it is only updated a couple of times a day so I don’t know how accurate or helpful it is.

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Originally Posted by tvp2003

I think you’ll be fine. I messed up something on a renewal form and they had no issue with crossing it out and initialling the change.

Don’t try and make an appointment — they should be able to accommodate you at either Harry Hays or at the Sundance location (which is where I went). Some people have reported going in the afternoon is better as there is less if any lineup. I would budget at least a few hours though — they have a webpage that shows “current wait times” but it is only updated a couple of times a day so I don’t know how accurate or helpful it is.

I did Canada Place in Edmonton a few weeks ago. Showed up at 8 AM, got to the front of the first window around 9:15 and was all done by 10 AM. I would assume Harry Hays was similar? It was relatively painless overall. It was for an urgent passport and I went on a Monday morning. Had the new passport in hand by 3:00 PM on Wednesday.

[Barnet Flame]

A couple of people (Windsor Pilates and Btimbit) mentioned they are coming to London over the next few months. A few good suggestions have been posted - the Museums are fantastic, free and lifesavers whenever there is ####ty weather.

One thing that does get overlooked is the Gondola over the Thames between Royal Peninsula and North Greenwich. Essentially, it’s like taking the Gondola at Sunshine, but over the Thames. If anyone visits with kids, I always take them on that. You get excelllent views up and down the river, see planes take off and land from the City airport and can take in the O2 Arena and all the restaurants there.

If your kids are over 10, you can also book a climb up the O2 roof.

The gondola is reasonable - £6 each way for adults and half that for kids.

https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/london-cable-car/

Climb the 02 - https://www.theo2.co.uk/up-at-the-o2/climb

For Winsor, you may want to do the Emirates tour. They have guided tours led by an Arsenal legend for a bit extra - again, you’d need to book ahead for that. I had my tour with John Radford and it was really good. I’d love to do the tour with Perry Groves. https://arsenaldirect.arsenal.com/tour/tour-type/legend

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by Barnet Flame

A couple of people (Windsor Pilates and Btimbit) mentioned they are coming to London over the next few months. A few good suggestions have been posted - the Museums are fantastic, free and lifesavers whenever there is ####ty weather.

One thing that does get overlooked is the Gondola over the Thames between Royal Peninsula North Greenwich. Essentially, it’s like taking the Gondola at Sunshine, but over the Thames. If anyone visits with kids, I always take them on that. You get excelllent views up and down the river, see planes take off and land from the City airport and can take in the O2 Arena and all the restaurants there.

If your kids are over 10, you can also book a climb up the O2 roof.

The gondola is reasonable - £6 each way for adults and half that for kids.

https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/london-cable-car/

Climb the 02 - https://www.theo2.co.uk/up-at-the-o2/climb

For Winsor, you may want to do the Emirates tour. They have guided tours led by an Arsenal legend for a bit extra - again, you’d need to book ahead for that. I had my tour with John Radford and it was really good. I’d love to do the tour with Perry Groves. https://arsenaldirect.arsenal.com/tour/tour-type/legend

Cheers Barnet!
I've been to London many times; its home away from home for us.
We have lots of family there but the wife & I will likely grab a hotel in the city for a couple evenings & leave our son with family.
Any restaurant recommendations? There's just so many to choose from.

I've been to the Emirates twice (both wins!) but hadn't considered a tour.
hoping to catch my first North London Derby this season as we are there during that.
Got my London family scouring for tickets

[STeeLy]

When I was in London a few months ago I took a day to go out to Bletchley Park. It's about a 45 Minute train ride from London Euston. It the place where Alan Turing and the code breaking team broke the German Naval Enigma Code.

Some of the buildings are rebuilt, but the mansion still stands and you can go inside, it's not a bad place to be.

If you're into Formula 1, Red Bull Racing is located in Milton Keynes, decently close to Bletchley. I know they used to do tours of some of the facility but unsure as to whether they do now.

My nerdiness also took me to the London Transport Museum Depot (not the actual museum at Covent Garden), which only opens intermittently and tickets have to be booked in advance.

If you're into aviation, there is also the RAF museum, which I thought was quite impressive when I went more than a decade ago.

You can be a real tourist and go to Greenwich, straddle the prime meridian so you're in both the western and eastern hemispheres at the same time.

[V]

Are there ever any deals to fly to Perth? Holy crap that’s expensive, especially for a family of 6.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by V

Are there ever any deals to fly to Perth? Holy crap that’s expensive, especially for a family of 6.

I'd book any deal you can find fo Australia, even if to Sydney, Brisbane, or Melbourne. Intra-Australia flights are fairly cheap compared to Perth as a destination.

[calgarywinning]

Anybody with Barcelona information, in particular non-overly touristy highlights, and any hotels that are nice with a great location. More boutique style higher end than chain. Thanks

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat

I'll vouch for Teamlab Planets, it was so much fun. My daughter is 5 and she loved it but it was cool for us adults as well.

We were in Tokyo for 5 days. Not enough time (I don't know if anything is enough time, it's so amazing). It's super easy to get around but there's so much there. I'd plan to go to a specific area and spend your day in that area.

Not sure if going with kids, but this is a great guide on playgrounds:
https://bestlivingjapan.com/top-10-r...arks-in-tokyo/

For food, almost anything is great but if you want to really hone in on great food, the website https://tabelog.com/en/ is great. Even if you notice a place, just Google "Ippudo roppongi tabelog" or whatever and it'll tell you everything you need to know about the place. Japanese are very honest reviewers and a place that's 3.5 stars out of 5 will be excellent (4 stars and up will generally be a Michelin Star restaurant).

I was only in Tokyo for 5 days too and that was not definitely not enough time. Was in HK for 3 weeks earlier though so it was a stop on the way back.
If I knew Tokyo hotels were going to be that cheap I would have stayed 10 days. But somehow my wife booked a ticket for $1240 in July! My mother in law just booked to go back to HK in November(off season) and it was $2900!

Food is so cheap there. One of my ex-coworker from Disney took us to the Kill Bill Part 1 Restaurant in Roppongi. It was pretty cheap and less expensive than a Japanese restaurant here in Calgary. It was someone's birthday and before they sang happy bday they played the Kill Bill theme song. lol

https://gonpachi.jp/nishi-azabu/

Spoiler!

Team Labs was great too except it monsooned on us while we were waiting to get in. Good thing they had lots of towels in there...

[Ironhorse]

Update. Dropped the boy off at Harry Hayes for his passport application at around 9:30, he was done and paid just before 12:00. No issues with correction on his picture.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Ironhorse

Update. Dropped the boy off at Harry Hayes for his passport application at around 9:30, he was done and paid just before 12:00. No issues with correction on his picture.

My wife went to the sundance location today at 8:20. Was done at 9:20 for reference. Pretty reasonable in both cases.

[tvp2003]

Had plans to go to Invermere next week, how are the wildfires/smoke nowadays?

[Brendone]

Originally Posted by calgarywinning

Anybody with Barcelona information, in particular non-overly touristy highlights, and any hotels that are nice with a great location. More boutique style higher end than chain. Thanks

Not sure where it falls on the “touristy” scale, but the Montserrat Abbey outside of Barcelona was pretty fun if you like that sort of thing. Pretty cool cable car ride up to the Abbey, then a funicular to the top, with an easy walk bath down a beautiful pathway back down to the abbey. Some really tasty bread in the shop (made by the monks) for the bus back to Barcelona.

Also did a cool bike tour that hit a lot of key points in the city. Catalana music Hall, Sagrada Família, and the crappy red brick arc de triomphe the Catalans chose for their World Fair, instead if the Eiffel Tower (oops).

St Joseph Market is pretty cool to.

[RoadGame]

Originally Posted by tvp2003

Had plans to go to Invermere next week, how are the wildfires/smoke nowadays?

Was there on the weekend. Could see the first range of hills in silhouette only from the lake itself, the smokey smell wasn't too bad. In contrast with a lot of photos from the first week of the Mt. Bruce/Horsethief fire where you could see the plume going up in a well-defined way, this was a lot more diffuse as though it was blowing in from far away.

[soulchoice]

Originally Posted by calgarywinning

Anybody with Barcelona information, in particular non-overly touristy highlights, and any hotels that are nice with a great location. More boutique style higher end than chain. Thanks

Check out a place called “Hotel Brick”, as it’s a nice clean and modern boutique hotel. A safe and nice area of Barcelona and walkable to most places.

[Slacker]

How many days do you need to explore Barcelona? I'm planning to go there in the second week of October.

[MoneyGuy]

Anyone have good experiences on Alberta road trips simply stopping at hotels and getting better rates instead of booking in advance? I’m wondering if you can get better rates on empty rooms.

[Cappy]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

Anyone have good experiences on Alberta road trips simply stopping at hotels and getting better rates instead of booking in advance? I’m wondering if you can get better rates on empty rooms.

I've done this a few times. I usually make sure their is solid availability in the town first so im not sleeping in my car.

For the most part, i will usually look at Booking or Expedia etc. and see what hotels are offering cheap deals. I then go to the hotel and have them match

[Gundo]

Looking at joining our friends for a week in Mexico, Sunwing is offering the same All Inclusive package as WestJet for my family of 4 at a savings of about $1700.

Can I trust Sunwing or are we in for an absolute S-show if we book with them ?