Why you should avoid booking WestJet flights to the United States

 I have just spent several hours on the phone with travel agencies because of WestJet unreliability in keeping the flight schedules to the United States.  Since I booked flights in the spring to the USA for a multi city , Orlando and Fort Lauderdale in October and just Fort Lauderdale next April, WestJet has changed the flight times for all 3 flights.  The flights which were supposed to leave in the morning were changed by more than 8 hours later.  The worst of this is they DO NOT send updates to you when they change the flight schedules. When I called my agency apologized but WestJet offered no help. 

For my flight next spring it was changed to 2 hours later. I will still get there in time for my cruise.

So below are tips

- do not book WestJet to the USA. There have been several news stories saying they are reducing flights to the USA. They do not send email updates when they change the flight times. You have to check their app daily.

- if you do book them, make sure it is fully refundable. I did this and was able to book on air Canada instead for my October trip

- book thru a travel agency. Expedia helped me for the October flights and yes it cost me more but I feel better about air Canada.  I used flights by RCL for next spring and the rep confirmed that the new flights were within their boarding parameters. Also Delta sent an update as soon as WestJet changed the flight times. the Rcl flights rep also said if they had changed the flight arrival outside of their 2 pm arrival they would rebook me on a different flight.

But overall, WestJet is too risky to use when you are taking a cruise . 

Hope this helps

Marcia

Lift Lock Cruise Peterborough on Little Lake... just ok

 I took the afternoon (3:30 pm) lift lock cruise in the downtown (small) harbour. It is listed as a 2 hour cruise and ours was less than 1.5 hours.  The length of the cruise depends on how many boats need to go thru the locks.  Its in downtown Peterborough which is quite shabby and uninteresting.

The cruise is $33 CDN for seniors and $35 for everyone else.  Unless you have never been thru a lock before or are interested in how Locks work I would give this cruise a pass.  You only go thru two locks.  The first one is small and takes 15 minutes for the water to fill.  The gem is the large lift lock which only takes 4 minutes to fill up and you rise more than 90 feet.  It was a bit scary to see how many cracks there are in the walls on either side of this lock.  And the old boat move backwards when the engine starts worrying me it might tip over.

The captain give an intelligible commentary thru out the cruise. You can only hear him if you are at the front of the boat as they only have a few speakers.  It's not really worth listening to him as it's a boring diatribe that I think is supposed to be funny. I didn't hear any laughter ... either they didn't hear him or ...

So if you take this cruise .. expect 40 minutes waiting to go thru the two locks and the rest going a short distance thru the locks and the lake.  In the lake they have a huge fountain of water which boaters like to go thru the mist. They say two hours because if there are a lot of boats the wait for the locks will be even longer. 

The best thing I saw was a river otter successfully crossing a road to get back into the river.  

Hope this helps

Marcia

Canoe Museum, Peterborough Ontario is worth seeing

 I just came back from Peterborough and really enjoyed the Canoe Museum in Peterborough.  I honestly have no real interest in canoes, but this museum  surprise me in that it was really interesting. It costs 18 CDN for seniors or $20 everyone else. The building itself has nice architecture. There is a small art collection and then a big exhibit of canoes from all over the world and many different cultures. They are displayed nicely in a large exhibit hall on the second floor.  Then you can look thru the glass at several hundred canoes stored in the warehouse.  There is a small gift shop and a tasty if slightly expensive coffee shop on the first level.  Lost of washrooms and an elevator if you need it on the second floor.

Another worthwhile thing to do is walk outside to the back of the building down to the lake (less than 5 minutes) to see people canoeing. You can rent canoes and the lake looked calm. There is also a playground and a small beach for swimming with a life guard.

This is a not to miss in Peterborough.

Hope this helps 

Marcia