Porter! Porter! Porter!

Yes, I have now joined the growing Porter fanclub.
I'd already heard about their service, convenience and all that jazz and I got the chance to experience it for myself.
If you live in the city centre or don't mind driving into the core (as opposed to out to the boonies to get to Pearson), going to the City Centre airport is great. A shuttle bus from Union Station, an organized taxi stand, the ferry that actually gets to the island...it all seemed pretty good to me.
Check in was pretty much like any other airport. If you have luggage to check in you may have to lug it around a little bit more than usual, but I didn't have too much of a problem than that. The Bestseller with their gazillion garment bags on the other hand didn't enjoy the process as much.
Then, the part that I was waiting for. The airport lounge. It was better than I expected. Nice chairs. Good vibe. Computers to use. A fully stocked cafe with free(!!!) stuff. It was wonderful. I didn't get there with enough time to sit down and really make the most of the lounge, but that's part of the beauty of Porter as well. They only recommend that you get there 30min before before the flight, so with everyone else arriving last minute as well, after checking-in and going through security and stuff, there really wasn't much time to sit down and take advantage of the lounge.
Boarding was easy and the in-flight crew was wonderful.
I was looking forward to the chocolate brownies that they'd mentioned in the in-flight magazine (more free stuff!!!), but the double chocolate cookie that came with the sandwich, babybell cheese and melba toast snack package made up for it. Serving drinks in glass glasses was a nice touch.
There was definitely more leg room than in most economy sections and being a window seat lover, it was fun to be able to take in the Canadian landscape as we were flying at a lower altitude and could see everything. While we were flying over Lake Ontario, I swear the water was so blue and reflective that I got confused between where the horizon line was. I felt like I was just looking out at a sea of clouds and amazingness.
The only problem I can see with Porter is that there are still people out there who are a little antsy about flying in small planes. The only time that it was really obvious was when we whooshed down the runway and the plane kicked into high gear. The other time was on landing - the noise on impact kind of caught me off guard too. My particular flight had no turbulence and I've definitely been on some 777's with roller coaster dips, so people really can't use that as an excuse not to ride little planes. Big planes sometimes to weird things on take-off and landing so it's just luck of the draw. I have no fears of flying, so the random noises that happened on my flight didn't effect me too much, but I was trying to look for things that other people could potentially freak out at.
Anyway, I think Porter is amazing and I can't wait to take it again. Next time, I'm definitely going to arrive earlier than need be. Sure, lounging at home is great, but the TCCA airport lounge as darn good too.