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pochp

[Jun 8, 2013] Ultimate Montreal Air Dashers - Montreal, Canada

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Since I got back from NY, the last hour of my trip I thought I could use this opportunity to share my trip experience with everyone. Somethings went right, somethings could have gone better and if you are planning on traveling to UMAD, you might wanna read this as it'll also be really insightful once you get to Montreal. Note, this info is really just based on my experience of a trip from NY's Manhattan island to Montreal.

Feel free to skip points if you consider yourself knowledgeable, I'm really sharing this for those who have never travelled by bus before.

  1. Tickets and schedules
  2. Crossing the border
  3. Arriving in Montreal
  4. To sum it up

1. Tickets and schedules

When I checked the bus schedules online, I was under the impression that I could buy myself tickets but it doesn't seem that way sadly. I've just checked again and they don't always seem to offer the possibility to buy online. What does it matter at the end of the day? Well you can save a certain amount by ordering tickets way ahead of time. I don't recall what it was, but something along the lines of 10-15%. Pretty neat. Add to this certain "possible discounts" such as student discount and you could score yourself a pretty nice deal.

So how much does a round trip cost from NY's Port Central bus terminal all the way to Montreal?

140 Canadian dollars (Probably less or more 135 USD)

This isn't the cheapest option available, but it's a good compromise in between a 350$ (and above) round-trip flight and driving there for yourself at a smaller cost. But it sure has it's advantages as you can leave pretty much whenever you feel like it. Schedules are very flexible in that regard. You don't have to exhaust yourself so much with driving or anything of the sort, just kick back and try and enjoy the ride.

How do tickets work exactly?

You do not purchase a ticket for a set schedule I learned. The idea is more first arrived, first served. When I went to buy my ticket, they simply told me "Go to this gate and the next one is at this time". When I called for info, they recommended me I arrive an hour ahead of departure time and I should be fine. They give you tickets for the ride and they will be valid no matter what time you leave at. Since there's no schedule written on the tickets, they will be valid whenever you show up at the proper departure gate. It was that way in NY and in Montreal.

Where do I look for schedules?

Greyhound. From what I understood, there are multiple companies acting as one entity (Adirondack Trailways, Greyhound and Peter Pan). Reason I say this is because I took Adirondack on the way in and Greyhound on the way back with the same round trip tickets. But only Greyhound offered a proper online service regarding schedules. You can look up the departure times, arrival times, where the bus will take breaks to eat or for just a quick walk, etc etc. I kinda fucked up that part. I planned taking a transfer bus to Brooklyn (with an extra hour of break in between transfers), so I was under the impression the trip would round up to 9 hours. I only ended up taking Montreal straight to Port Central in New York. The bus ride took 1 hour less than expected. This is why I ended up arriving at 5AM rather than the estimated 9AM. This is probably the part I fucked up the most. Do plan your arrival time accordingly so you don't end up with 7 hours ahead of you.

Travel by night - Pros and cons

Pros : You don't have to take a day to travel, you arrive and your day starts. That means you save money on hotel fees. Plus the trip is shorter because there are no lunch breaks. Also the bus offers nice features. There are electrical outlets in the bus as well as Wi-Fi. You get to grind that twitter PSR on the go. That or just sleep... oh wait.

Cons : Assume you will share a seat with someone and that the bus will stop on 2 occasions minimum : One break and the customs. That means that you have to mind the person next to you and she's kinda of in your personal space. If you don't have a pillow or something similar, good luck trying to be comfortable. Not only that, but since the bus will take breaks, you will wake up at some point because the driver will warn the whole bus there's a break, the lights will turn on, the bus will stop and the people will get off. That means unless you have rock solid sleep capacities, expect to be a little sleep deprived. Nothing out of this world though if you've ever been to tournaments, but still worth mentioning. Next time I travel by bus, I'm bringing myself these little neck pillows.

post-28280-139515174182_thumb.jpg

Personal belongings

You have enough space in the bus for a backpack. Really that's about it. It was all I had and I kept carrying it through the whole trip. If you don't plan on having more, really minimize what you are bringing. It'll help. There's of course a little designated place in the bus above the seats to leave your stuff there, otherwise it's all accessible when the bus stops. Make sure you know what you need DURING the trip.

2. Crossing the border (and general travel tips I guess)

Crossing the Canadian border

It's pretty straightforward, everyone will get out of the bus and take their belongings with them while going through the procedure. Simple stuff, if you've never crossed the border before, they'll ask you where you are going, when you are coming back and what you will be doing exactly. Their job is to make sure you're just not saying bullshit. As simple as it gets. The canadian border had nothing noteworthy besides how dull it is when you compare it to the american border. Have your passport handy

Crossing the American border

This part is mad hype. You get out of the bus and leave EVERYTHING inside the bus. Then they'll take everyone's luggage from the bus and have dogs try and find w/e they can while you do the checkup inside. Speaking of which, you see border agents over border agents over border agents all over the place. It's so much more serious about it while the Canadian border has 5 people in the whole office. Have your passport handy

Planning on taking something back?

Since I've started traveling, I've also wondered how border taxes and all that stuff worked. The only homework I ever did was for bringing alcool across the border. Since we generated interest in our local brewing company Unibroue, I'm assuming some of you might consider stocking up a bit. When you go from Canada to the US with alcool, you have a limit of 1L per person that will not be taxed when declared. I don't know the costs, but this is what is written online on info sites regarding crossing the border. Just thought I'd share this little part. This could maybe apply to more than beer, but if you're bringing back something minor that is not alcohol, you shouldn't have to worry.

Currency

I'm guessing it works the same in the US regarding this, but you can change money for canadian currency (FUNNY MONEY) at your local bank. Good idea to do so ahead of time. You can always find offices for that downtown, but you'd probably have to pay an extra fee for it. Lastly, I'm not sure exactly if this would even work, but you could always change it in banks here. I don't recommend it as you might be shit out of luck, but I guess that it's still an "option" as a true last resort. Just plan ahead of time regarding this.

3. Arriving in Montreal

I was wondering how it'd be for someone to come from the US and arrive in MTL by bus. You'd arrive and everything is now visually in French. All signs and all that stuff, you can now never read. Fear not, even though this province is French, Montreal is more of a bilingual thing. You will find more people that can perfectly help you than those who don't speak a word of English. Plus, the public transportation is pretty damn kickass. If you're coming to Montreal for fighting games via plane or bus, you have great options. And these options are probably your best bet as otherwise I'd say this isn't the most intuitive town. When you arrive in New York, streets are named with a number in a grid system, it's so easy to know where you are and where to go. Not here, everything is sort of a grid but street names don't follow any said logic.

Arriving by bus

You will be arriving at the "Gare centrale d'autocars de Montréal". This place is literally the centerpoint of all public transportation in Montreal. It's awesome. When you get out of there, you will be on Berri St. Just go to your left and find the subway. You can't miss the subway in MTL as there are clear signs everywhere for it. You wanna look for these, these will lead you to the subway:

QykNweDh.jpg

You can't miss it, it's about a few hundred feets away from the bus terminal. Heck, you can even walk inside the bus terminal to that place. It shouldn't be a problem to find. Else just ask the peeps at the bus terminal and they'll point to you the right way.

Once you reach the subway, you'll have to buy tickets and there are booths for that. Pricing is about 5.50$ for 2 tickets and if I recall, there is also these tickets for a full day/3 days/week. It's also not shown anywhere on their site. One important detail to note : Keep your subway tickets for the whole ride. They don't check often, but if you throw away your ticket, you don't have a valid proof that you paid your ticket and they can fin you for it. Wouldn't want to get caught in this trouble. Though, I've never seen that myself, I just know it's a possibility.

So what will you be looking for? You are the central station and multiple choices are offered to you nor do you want to be lost. Assuming you just want to reach the venue AKA the Foonzo, you'll want to take the green line towards Angrignon. Here's a crude sign of what the look for once you're in the subway station.

QmXHQBP.jpg

Once you're set on this line, you'll want to get off at Peel. Which is only 4 station later. If you really don't want to miss it, Peel has this very particular design where the ads are surrounded by big colored dots. Really hard to miss

4SH1YHih.jpg

Get off at peel and you'll be 2-3 blocks away from the Venue. From there, just ask directions towards Sainte-Catherine Street and Drummond. Foonzo will be visible from this intersection. If people don't know where that is after asking directions, you can always ask directions for Centre bell as it's more known and can be seen from Drummond Street 2 blocks away from the Venue. Of course, if you're planning on coming, you can always just give us your phone number or ask for mine and I know I'd be glad to try and be available to make this easier on you. Someone else might too. For reference here is a map of the subway and trains offered in MTL :

XEw37c0.jpg

Arriving by plane

Depending on how much you'll be carrying, you can take the 747 bus shuttle from the airport to the "Gare Central d'autobus" which pretty much will lead you exactly where you would have arrived if you took the bus in the first place. Meaning you can just read the instructions above and manage. Other options are available like the train, but you sadly cannot take the subway straight up from the airport. I wouldn't know the details, but everything is nicely outlined on their site for you if you want information on how to travel around. http://www.stm.info/English/info/a-touristes.htm

Quick update: The 747 shuttle has a stop on corner Drummond street and Rene levesque, which is a few hundred feets from the venue.

Arrival by train (ADDED)

You can apparently also take the train. Some players have done that last year and the train station is about 15 minutes walking distance from Foonzo, I don't know anything about trains though. Just stating it's a possibility to really list all options.

4. To sum it up

Do try and take a yolo trip like this once. Really I recommend it. Seeing other places, talking with peeps, viewing how other communities and venues work, eating food after events, be left with your own thoughts on the way back. You will have time to take notes on yourself, your gameplay, re-evaluate stuff, etc. This will literally give you time to think about all this stuff and to really feel one of the best FGC experiences I've had, at least one of the more uniques. It's so surreal and uplifting to have nothing but your backpack with a stick and a change of clothes in it, to go to the central bus station alone, walk up to the counter and ask straight up : "I want to buy a ticket for the next ride in direction of New York". Really, find some time to do it once. It's worth it.

If you have any questions, please do ask them. I kind of did this on a whim and I tend to not re-read myself. I don't want to leave any stuff out.

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Official GG tournament, you say? Non-zero chance of making this.

Since the plane trip is decidedly of non-trivial expense (And there's no way I could get enough time off work to bus it), is there anyone who wouldn't mind putting up a guy for like, well, the weekend? I promise I'm not ax-crazy.

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We'd love to have you over, Mr. Watches. We've been discussing the possibility of hosting people. We'll see what we can do and get back to ya'll on that. :)

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I know I can house at least 2, maybe more, I'll see about that.

As for hotels, there's this one that is kinda close that is almost full : http://www.priceline.com/hotel/rateSelection.do?key=hfb9ca0b&propID=65045&occ=2&resetRate=Y&jsk=364a050a364b050a2013040916022157e010246456&plf=PCLH sad that there's so many in the area but they're all either full or jacked their prices because of the grand prix...

An okay alternative if someone is coming by car would be around the airport which is a 20 min drive from foonzosuch as http://www.priceline.com/hotel/rateSelection.do? key=hfb9ca0b&propID=65823&occ=2&resetRate=Y&jsk=364a050a364b050a2013040916022157e010246456&plf=PCLH (or in other similar areas that aren't downtown but not that far of a drive, like other areas of montreal or longueuil, brossard...)

gah it's so hard to plan these kind of events... next year we'll be way more careful.

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Just booked my room. I'll be getting in late Thursday night and staying till Monday morning. I expect to be treated like royalty. Only the finest poutine and strip clubs will do.

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Got my flight sorted out. I'll be flying in Friday morning and leaving Wednesday morning. Gonna take a bit of a vacation in Montreal while I'm there :D

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round trip flights for me are around $500 which is within my budget range! would anyone have a place for me to stay? i'll pay my fair share of course.

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round trip flights for me are around $500 which is within my budget range! would anyone have a place for me to stay? i'll pay my fair share of course.

Planning on booking one myself. Still undecided whether or not to book starting from thursday or friday. Check-out on Monday morning, I'd drive people around, 2 double beds + floor space available. I'll give an update whenever the room is actually booked (by tonight)

It'll be the room for those who are out of luck/$$$ for a decent place to stay. First arrived first served I guess (But wait until I actually book it)

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omg this is getting so hype!!! we might even have the legendary names i saw back when i first started playing fighting games for real and i could see them in the flesh in my city??!! life is so good sometimes :D

@St1ckBuG : can you keep up with the royal treatment sir?

@shtkn : if you do come let me show you what good stuff we drink up here in the north :)

as St1ckBuG stated on twitter you should plan double the budget on everything here in Canada. historically our money was lower than yours and we followed that, but since the recent years we're pretty much equal to you guys, but the price didn't change... shit sucks.

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I just booked a double bed room, I'll offer the 3 other available bed space + floor to whoever wants in. First arrived first served, I only expect of you that you pay a part for your stay there. I don't mean split the cost of the room, I don't mind being generous for people looking to sleep somewhere at a cheap price, but it's still a lot for 1 person to pay if no one contributes to the cost of the room.

Check in is on Thursday evening

Check out is on Monday evening

The actual fair share considering we'll probably end up being 4 would be 40$/night, but I don't mind receiving less if you're short on budget. Really, just don't expect this to be free housing. On the plus side, I'll have my car and I'll be willing to drive you in town or pick you up from the airport/bus terminal/train station.

I'd like to prioritize those who really end up being low on budget, but the room is open for those interested. St1ckbug already booked a room at the same location as well. There's only 1 double bed room available after I booked my room. If you're interested, it's still a fairly cheap deal considering location and other hotels. Just look up : McGill University New Residence Hall

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alright, flight booked! i touch down in mtl 9am on thursday. derQ, do you mind if i stay with you or should i ask others for a place to stay?

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Most welcome! That was the goal with my room :D Get moar ppl to coem!!!11! Though if you arrive at 9AM on a thursday, I will certainly not be the one to pick you up sadly... (finish work at 5PM that day)

2 bed space available from there.

quick edit: The hotel from the airport is about a 20 minutes car ride and there's a bus shuttle that brings you even closer if nobody can come and meet you at 9 AM.

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Any word, Sophisticat?

You have a options atm, you can either room with DerQ and shtkn, who are at the same hotel as st1ckbug, or you can sleep on the futon at my place.

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A'ight. Booked a good ol' redeye flight, arriving at 9ish AM on thursday.

That is to say, I am confirm.

:D :D :D :D

I'm assuming you're taking either my offer or Pochp's one, whichever is the case I'm slightly curious to know myself

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That's good to know, Watches! We'll look forward to getting bodied in GG. :D

And to anyone else who hasn't booked anything yet: do it now! Places are going fast, if they aren't all gone yet...

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I'll be acquiring my tickets on Monday. Should be flying in Thursday afternoon and leaving the following Wednesday. :toot:

Edit: Tickets acquired. Yay price drops~

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I've been putting a lot of work (and still am) to provide the best experience for both the players and the spectators at UMAD, and without any doubt, it'll be loud, really loud. If you are an audio cue enthusiast and don't own a pair of headphones I wouldn't mind letting you use mine but I personally only have one. I'm telling you this because, whatever happens on the screen and the sound coming out from the main speakers may be delayed, and the commentators will also be linked to the main speakers, but not your headphones, and I also believe that its a very good option to be one with the game and nothing else. The Asus monitors has built in speakers but their volume won't cut it.

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