The kids slept in their travelling clothes. They got up without much of a problem at about 2:30 am to go check in for our flight. They just had to put their shoes on and walk.
We pushed our our loaded luggage carts our of the Yotel and got lost in the mall trying to find an entrance to the Airport. The Cleaner helped us out with directions. We had to leave Jewel Mall and actually cross the street; the Mall entrance to the Airport downstairs was blocked off due to Covid.
The Security and the Airport staff were surprised to see us so early. But it took us a full 45 minutes to check us in, so it's a good thing we did arrive that hour early. Before we were done, a line was already forming behind us.
First was showing our Airline Tickets and Passports. Next displaying the Negative Covid Tests for 5 people. MsE's was still wrong. I had to call the Doctor's Anywhere 24 hour phone line to have MsE's Covid Certificate redone as her passport number was wrong. It was corrected within 10 minutes. Then their was the "AriveCAN" to show which included our Quarantine Plan for Canada. Even though everything was entered in the ArriveCAN app, we had to individually show our reservation for the Canada Quarentine Hotel. Jonathan showed everything electronically and had it all filed electronically in a very organized way; I still think it would have been faster to have paper copies for everything.
Then we had the weighing of the suitcases - yes, we know there are 3 overweight, no need to re-sort them. They didn't complain about our stroller, which I wanted to gate check. Technically, it should have been considered one of MsI's 2 pieces of luggage. If that had happened, I was prepared to garbage the stroller, right there. We would have been charged at least $200 for an 11th piece of luggage. They weren't really worried about being over weight though; the planes were no where near 50% seating.
After our luggage was off down the conveyor belt, we had to wait a few minutes for ticketing to actually open.
Next we went through a quick metal detector towards our gate. We were hoping to get breakfast or at least a little snack, but nothing was open. There was a Do not Return Entrance right before ours. They told us there was a 711 back where we had come from that was open. We popped in there and bought drinks; then crossed into the Do Not Return section.
The girls explored their swag (ANA airlines note paper, stickers, and pens) and their carry-on bags and drank their drinks. In Singapore, they scan the Carry-ons right as you enter your gate waiting area, but then you can't leave and their's no bathroom Gate-side, so you hang our outside your gate until near your boarding time.
Security opened up and not long after told us they would be loading the plane shortly. So, even with all that spare time, we still had to do "run" through the airport to use the bathroom one last time.
Everyone was settled on the plane soon. Despite having no more than 5 1/2 hours sleep, I think only MsI and I napped on the first plane ride. MsC said she had a little cry as the plane left Singapore.
Mostly the kids watched TV/movies on the plane, but they did some of the activities I included in their carry-ons. They had new felts and colouring/activity books. I don't think MsC read at all, even though she insisted on bringing at least 2 novels. The big girls also played their Nintendo Switches and on the 2nd plane ride they finally slept for a bit. MsE was the only person who complained about being bored.
Thankfully, I had packed us all lunch boxes full of snacks. We didn't have time to eat out in the Narita airport, because they dragged us all over kingdom-come to check us into our transfer flight, where they re-confirmed our Covid tests and our Canada Quarantine Plan. Poor MsI was so tired and she kept having to run to keep up with the group of us being led through the airport by the airline personnel.
They they finally let us loose in the almost deserted airport without much time till our next flight. It was afternoon, and most of the stores and food options were closed.
We boarded the Narita, Japan to Vancouver flight a little early and I was excited that our arrival time in Canada might be a little sooner then expected, only to see a flash of lightening.
We ended up sitting on the tarmac for 2 extra hours in heavy rain and lightening, waiting for the storm to pass so we could take off. It's actually the most patient I've ever felt waiting for a plane to leave; it must have been something to do with how tired we were and the fact that these flights were so long anyhow: 7 hours to Narita and then 10 hours to Vancouver. The heavy rain also made it feel a bit like you were in flight and they kept the engine running and just refueled right before we took off.
At one point MsE looked at me and asked me how much longer the flight was. She looked so shocked when I said we hadn't taken off yet. MsI fell asleep the moment the plane started to move and was sound asleep before the plane even left the ground.
That's when we found out that there were no allergy friendly meals aboard for us, even though we'd had them on our first flight and so there should have been no problem. The flight crew scrounged around and found us a few things we could eat, but mostly the kids scavenged from their lunch boxes. I was extra glad that I had asked our Helper to make us homemade rice crispie squares for our flights. We also did a good amount of sleeping on this 2nd flight.
The stewardess told us to spread out as much as we wanted on our Narita, Japan to Vancouver, Canada plane ride. She said there were only 50 passengers on it. I think our Singapore to Narita flight likely had about 50 passengers also. We were not as spaced as I would have liked on the Singapore departing flight. There was someone in the center section near us who kept pulling her mask down to talk across the aisle to her husband and the row directly behind us had people in it.
The entire centre section of the plane was kept empty on the Vancouver flight. The Stewardesses came through and reminded people to put their masks back on after eating. I felt more comfortable on the Vancouver flight, even though we were probably more at risk of Covid, because Japan's Covid cases were higher than Singapore's, but we had all passed our 72 hour Covid tests.
From our Airport Hotel to our Quarantine Hotel in Canada we double masked: A paper surgical mask on first and then a new cloth mask over top as an outer layer. It worked very well. The cloth mask over the top makes the surgical mask fit much closer. We changed masks every few hours and/or after eating. I noticed that the outer mask didn't get damp and also that if you were sleeping and not talking the inner one really didn't need to be changed as often either.
MsI's face is so small her masks went all the way up and covered her eyes while still staying down well over her chin while she was sleeping on the plane. This happens to her in Grabs too. I think she likes it. I had sleep masks for MsC and I. I felt pretty concealed with my masks and my sleep mask on.
Each of us had our 2 sets of masks in a large ziploc bag with each person's name on it in their carry-on; inside that was another ziploc that labelled "To Wash" for used ones. We didn't separate the 2 masks, just dumped them in the Wash bags and sanitized our hands. I tended to put the kids dirty masks in with mine, so I had a very full Wash bag when we were through. I was worried the kids might not cooperate with wearing masks for almost 24 hours non-stop. I had back up face shields to offer them, but everyone was totally fine with their masks.
I washed 26 cloth masks when we arrived at our new house, so we probably each used 5 cloth masks in about 24 hours. I know we used quite a few more surgical masks than cloth ones.
They had sat in the bag a number of days before I got to them. I poured boiling water over the cloth ones with some laundry soap and then washed them when the water was cool enough. I rinsed the soap from them and then poured another kettle of boiling hot water over them and left them to soak again, then I dried them in the sun. I imagine they're clean now.