Travel from SF to Montreal on RSSC Navigator with Bill & Mary Ann for 31 days 9/12/11

[WCB]

Report # 29 October 10, 2011 Monday Day at Sea Cruising the Gulf of St. Lawrence

 

Today was a most welcomed day at sea, actually a day sailing in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It was great to sleep in a bit later, instead of running to an early tour. So that was the reason we did not attend the "Special Event" for the gold, platinum, and titanium Mariner members. It was a lobster breakfast with officers and staff at 8am in the Compass Rose. Lobster benedict (poached eggs ) was not our cup of tea, but a quiet breakfast for two at 9am was more like it. The funny thing was those who attended the affair were finished with their meal the same time we did at 10am. Only they had to sit for two hours instead of one. Obviously, many folks like the special attention, but we can live without it. Truthfully, since this cruise started on October 3rd, we have been receiving the best of service in every venue. We are not complaining.

 

Since today the temperature plummeted to the low 50's with a windchill factor dropping it lower, it gives us the time to talk a bit about the ship. Because this vessel is smaller than most cruise ships we sail on, the shops and casino are on a deck that is seldom used, except by those who live there. Today these shops are advertising duty free watches. Those are probably the best choice for those who still have non-refundable shipboard credit to use.

 

There is an onboard art program featuring the usual art auctions we have found on all ships. Thankfully, these events are not announced, but only written in the daily newsletter or printed in an ad left on your door.

 

Bingo games go on daily, and sometimes those are announced. We remember the old days, when bingo games filled the showlounges, especially the final bingo. Those jackpots could pay for another cruise. We can't honestly say how well these are attended, because we are always elsewhere.

 

A special Seafood Extravaganza was held poolside at noon. We doubted that it would attract many passengers,but we were wrong. Many guests lined up in the freezing wind, then disappeared through the door with their plates full. We can only guess that they either went into La Veranda or went back to their suites to dine. Too bad it was far too chilly to eat outside, despite the fact that heaters were being used under the canvas overhang.

 

Future cruise talks have been delivered by Gudrun, the future cruise consultant, frequently during this 10 day trip. Daily mailings entice us to book onboard to receive extra shipboard credit. Since we have two big cruises coming up, we doubt we will book something on this particular trip.

 

This morning was a good time to start packing, since the next two days, we will be in port and on tours. Since we have to pack carefully not to exceed the 50 pound limit for the airlines, we joked that we should have either packed less or purchased fewer souveniers. Both of those are hard to control.

 

The outside decks had signs saying decks closed due to high winds. Did that stop us? No, of course not. Yes, it was windy, but we have seen much worse. It felt good to walk and get some fresh air. And we can add that in the hour we walked on deck 11, we saw no deck police!

 

For lunch, we had room service.....a chef salad and a cheese and pepperoni pizza. We will never tire of how nicely the waiters set the table for us. It is these special touches that keep people coming back.

 

The big job of the afternoon was exchanging our tour tickets for a less aggressive hike in the park tomorrow. One of us is still nursing a very sore knee, so holding up an energetic group would not be fair. Going up 450 feet in elevation sounds painful, especially the coming down part...it's worse.

 

We had another fine dinner in Prime 7 this evening. We had the veal chop and the chicken entree. Both were delicious, as were the sides of crunchy onion rings, crisp green beans, and tasty mushrooms. Key lime pie and a raspberry sorbet finished the meal quite nicely. Boy, we are going to miss this special cuisine when we get back home.

 

Bill & Mary Ann

 

PS For some strange reason, we are not receiving the Wall Street Journal, due to equipment problems. Too bad, we really enjoyed that special delivery every morning.

[mariners]

Bill and Mary Ann, it has been a pleasure to read your detailed postings on your cruise. They really make me miss the ship.

Hopefully, the weather will improve and you will have warmer days and less wind.

[I&J Cruisers]

Bill and Maryann,

Just happened to spot your thread today. Enjoying it immensly as usual. Having returned from our first Regent cruise about 4 months ago it is truggering lovely memories.

Irene

[SnoBirdCruiser]

On our B2B in Antarctica this past winter, the newspaper equipment "malfunctioned" a few days into a 44 day cruise....perhaps the machine needs replacing.... at least everything else was able to be printed.

Enjoy yourselves in Montreal,sorry it will be rainy....such a beautiful city. Quebec city is even more beautiful, especially Vieux Forte, where the ships dock......

[Travelcat2]

We also had newspaper delivery issues. Think it's time for Regent to consider sending the newspapers via the Ipads that are now in Penthouse Suites and above. This would save tons of paper (literally). Those passengers who pay for the delivery could perhaps be given access to the newspapers via a password? Just a thought. Sorry to go off topic:o

[rallydave]

We also had newspaper delivery issues. Think it's time for Regent to consider sending the newspapers via the Ipads that are now in Penthouse Suites and above. This would save tons of paper (literally). Those passengers who pay for the delivery could perhaps be given access to the newspapers via a password? Just a thought. Sorry to go off topic:o

 

Good idea and would like to expand on it. If Regent could provide an electronic version of the papers thru their on-board intranet, what's to prevent the papers being available to anyone who logs into the ships intranet. This would certainly be a cost and labor saving idea and any costs are covered no matter how many people access the site and download the papers. Would even work with PC's.

 

Only issue to the original idea as well as my add-on is the download time. Hopefully the on board intranet is very quick so if you are not trying to connect to an internet address, you would have better response.

 

I'll add to this, the menu's, nightly news papers as well as other papers that have to be reproduced for every passenger could be greatly reducet. Simply have the passengers option to get information on the intranet or via hard copy. Have some extras at Reception for those who need a hard copy every now and then or perhaps allow printing from the pads and pc's in the computer room and passengers could print themselves.

 

There are many possibilities for Regent to consider and this would result in significant cost savings across the fleets of both Regent and Oceania.

 

Thanks,

[SnoBirdCruiser]

Possible ways to get news:

 

Smoke signals, but, drat, hard to read in bed.

Morse code, but drat, where do you buy a telegraph key.

 

All joking aside, we were very dissapointed not being able to read our "Globe & Mail" everyday.....Good thing I was able to get it on my computer. Somehow we still like to read it on hard copy.

 

C'est la vie!

[Patti22]

Hi to Bill and Maryann, I have so enjoyed your posts along the way. Feels like I am shadowing you onboard. One question, you have posted about many eves in Prime 7. How did you accomplish this? Was the ship not very crowded? Thanks

[Wendy The Wanderer]

I was going to ask the same thing, what's the trick with P7? Maybe it's something to do with the fact that you are former world cruisers and probably platinum?

[WCB]

Report # 30 October 11, 2011 Tuesday Saguenay, Quebec Province, Canada

 

Today is a very special day, not only because we are in a beautiful area of the world, but because our darling granddaughter, Melanie, turns one today. What a delightful addition she has been for sister Julie and parents Monica and Ken. We wish her a very happy 1st birthday!

 

We woke up suddenly around 7am to the sound of the anchor being dropped in the bay outside the town of Saguenay. We were also pleasantly surprised when we looked out the window to discover the hillsides full of trees in full autumn color.....finally! Bright yellows, golden browns, orange, and red color of the birches, maples, beech, and aspens dotted the mountaintops between the dark green fir and spruce trees. What a sight. A good friend, Bob from Ohio, had emailed us last night and promised that we would see some fall colors today. He had done this same trip on the Maasdam last year, and he knew we would be pleased with the sites today. He was spot on!

 

This is our first time in this part of the woods. Apparently, it is a maiden port for the Navigator as well. A group of local officials came onboard, via tenderboat, to award the ship with a plack commemmorating this special day.

 

Since our tour did not leave until 1:30pm, we had plenty of time to enjoy a dining room breakfast. We are going to miss this pampering from the staff. They have been so professional and genuinely friendly this entire trip. Our waiter made sure that we had ample pastries, fresh-squeezed orange juice and entrees.

 

We had decided to leave the ship early, mainly because we had to tender over, and try to take in some of the town before our tour met onshore.

 

The population of the town was increased twice over this morning, because we were not the only ship in town. Taking the only dock space was the beautiful and large HAL Eurodam. We felt like we were looking at home, because HAL happens to be the cruise line we use frequently. You know how you get a feeling that you might meet someone you know, even though we do not know anyone that was on that ship? Well, we tendered over to the new cruise terminal around 10:30am, the ride really smooth as glass since we were on a river. Just before going out the door to the town, we ran right into Leslie, the shore excursion manager from HAL that we have known for ages. He was just as surprised as we were. His wife, Leslie, must have been dispatching tour groups from the lounge on the 2200 or so passenger ship. We'll be joining the two of them in a few months, so we bid busy Leslie goodbye. So nice to see someone we knew, but we could have told you so.

 

Back to the town of Saguenay. It is located up the Saguenay River, off of the St. Lawrence River. It is also located in a fjord, a stunning glacial valley with cliffs towering over 900 feet. And we would see some of this gorgeous country later on. We walked through the small town near the terminal, watching tourists going up in seaplanes and helicopters. It sure reminded us of being in Alaskan's Inside Passage. The local folks were very friendly, especially those near the church where there were souvenier stands. There are many artists in this area, paintings and jewelry seem to be their best talents.

 

There was an excellent riverfront walkway, which extended for a few miles. We only had 20 minutes to walk part of it, but could have spent a lot more time here if we had it. As nice as the weather was today, we cannot imagine what it's like when this river freezes up with 5 feet of ice in the winter. It must take a hardy group of people to live here year round. Of course there are ice sports as well as ice fishing.

 

Well, time flies, and it was near 1:30pm, and time to join our group for "A Stroll in the Park". Originally, we had booked Saguenay park Hike, but under the circumstances of a bum knee, a stroll would suffice. Our group of 25 got the honors of riding in a school bus....a brand new one at that. It would have been fine if we were all as tall as kids, but that was not the case with most of us. Good thing there were several extra seats, because we went directly to the back of the bus and each took a seat. It was working fine, until we started hitting some bumps and potholes. Lordy, that was a rough ride. Guess the kids here are just as tough as the parents.

 

We had about an hour ride to reach Saguenay National Park. Halfway there, we came to a dead stop, due to road construction. It appeared that this project was running late into the season, and they were working round the clock to complete the several mile job of widening and re-paving. Continuing on, the scenery was great with hillside homes and acreage of meadows and farm animals. They were all buried in the most gorgeous setting of forests, rivers, creeks, and lakes.

 

Once at the park entrance, we split into two groups, and walked the meandering Meandres des Falaises trail. We followed our guide, whose French was probably better than her English, but we all understood her with a little help from us. Skirting the serene lake, our guide pointed out the different type of trees, animals, fish, and fjord facts. We must have taken 1000 pictures with every turn of the trail. At one point, we spotted a fleeing marmot. If we had been quiet, we may have seen red foxes, lynx, porcupine, squirrels, rabbits, deer, moose and black bear. The woods were so dense, they probably were there, just hiding. We did see some birds like merganser ducks, crows, Canada and snow geese. As well as enjoying the sites, we learned a lot today from our nice guide.

 

We got back to town just in time to see the Eurodam sailing away. The Navigator followed shortly afterwards, leaving in the dark by 6:30pm. It had been one long and rewarding day. Dinnertime came quickly and we had a table for two. Since we had missed lunch, the meal was even more delicious.

 

One more port, Quebec, and we will be flying home.

 

Mary Ann & Bill

[count florida]

We're here in the old section of Montreal awaiting arrival of the Navigator in the morning. Today was nice, but the forcast is for rain tomorrow - 80% chance.

 

Thank you so mucch for the great review or depiction of the cruise from San Francisco. It has to be one of the best accounts of a substantial cruise we've followed.

[WCB]

Report # 31 October 12, 2011 Wednesday Quebec City, Canada

 

We have lots to tell you all about our exhausting day in this beautiful city of Quebec, but since it is already afer 11pm, we will have to write about our adventure soon after we get home. We just dragged our luggage out the door, and are ready to drop dead!

 

Tomorrow, going home, is not one of our favorite parts of the trip. Of course, there is no place like home, it's just the getting there that is the hassle.

 

Sooooo..........to be continued.........

 

Bill & Mary Ann

[azgkrudi]

Thank you, Bill & Mary Ann - following along with you has been most enjoyable!

[I&J Cruisers]

Thankyou so much Bill and Maryann for sharing. Your writing style is so descriptive and enjoyable. I look forward to the next one.

Irene

[mimito4]

Thanks so much for sharing your fabulous adventure. Will look forward for more when you get home and get some rest.

[gf]

As always, thoroughly enjoyed your description of your cruise; so much great detail! Safe travels and look forward to the wrapup!

[WCB]

Report # 32 October 12, 2011 Wednesday Quebec City Canada

 

The Navigator was docked in Quebec City at 8am, right on time. The weather looked a bit cloudy, but as the morning progressed, we could see the sun peeking out, promising a chilly, but fairly nice day.

 

We had the morning to ourselves to enjoy a hearty breakfast before we went off exploring. We were in Quebec over 5 years ago, but did not see Old Quebec, built on a steep hillside surrounded by original fortified city walls. It has been a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1985, and we would see why.

 

But first, we had to get off of the ship, which should have been a piece of cake. We're docked, right? Well, for the fourth time on this 31 day cruise, we just missed the gangplank on deck 5 by seconds. The tide of the river was going down, and the gangplank had to be moved to deck 6, which was not often used. The problem with that was the crew could not get the darned gangplank down from where it was secured. One half hour was what it took, with much more man-power to unglue the kinks. The gate on the railing was painted shut. They had to use a sledge hammer to dislodge it. Once the gangplank was lowered, the handrails did not line up correctly. The crew used duct tape to keep the railing together, so we made a note not to lean in that direction when we got off. Needless to say, we were not too impressed with this situation. Neither were the 30 other passengers who were lined up behind us.

 

However, it was well worth the wait to finally make our way through the nice terminal building. With the help of the very friendly tourist info lady, who handed us a map, we navigated our way to the Old Town. We have to say that the Canadians have been extremely welcoming to all of us, and that is something not always seen in other countries around the world. In our humble opinion, we find the Aussies and New Zealanders among the top in our book. Hard to top their hospitality and genuine friendliness.

 

Our destination this morning was to make our way to the top of the walled fortifications and the impressive 1893 Chateau Frontenac, a famous landmark built like a castle. It is now a Fairmont-owned hotel that dominates the skyline here.

 

We had been told that the hike uphill from the pier was strenuous, and we may wish to take the funicular to Upper Town ($2. each way). Except by the time we climbed some stairs and wove our way around the charming streets, we discovered that we were 3/4 of the way there. It was actually more fun window shopping past the hundreds of shops and cafes with the lively music of talented street musicians and singers in the backround.

 

A very well-built wooden promenade walkway lined the bluff above the St. Lawrence River here. It was the perfect spot to rest on one of the several benches watching tourists walk by the hotel on one side, and the river traffic below. Many local ferries travel this harbor all day, tying the city together with the surrounding countrysides.

 

Continuing on, we strolled to the main square and photographed the dozens of churches, impressive statues, government buildings and fountains, all built with stone blocks and copper-topped roofs. If you closed your eyes for a moment, and listened to the clip-clop of the approaching horse-drawn carriages, you could imagine what it was like living behind these ramparts 400 years ago. Only back then, these highly-ornamental carriages would be carrying colonial-clad royalty instead of tourists. Whatever, this form of travel made for some nice photos.

 

Another neat aspect were the many fall decorations for Halloween we saw. Canadians really take their holidays seriously. We saw display after display of pumpkins, sunflowers, and witch icons. With the backdrop of the beautiful fall trees, these Halloween decorations were a cameraman's delight.

 

Sadly, it was time to turn back and make our way downhill, passing even more small boutiques and cozy cafes on the narrow hillside streets. We arrived back at the pier just in time for our 1:30pm 4 hour tour of the Countryside of Quebec. We were looking forward to seeing the same sites we visited previously. The difference would be the presence of the fall trees turning colors. Last time, we were too early in September, and everything was green.

 

On this excursion, we got an older tour guide who was a bit on the strange side. From the moment he began speaking, we knew his "style" of lecturing was not our cup of tea. Some guides are better than others, making history more interesting for instance. This guy was more like a running recorded white noise delivery. In between his talk, he referred too many times about his prowess with the ladies, like what does that have to do with this tour? Oh well, maybe it works better with some folks, just not us.

 

The driver took us out of town and into the French countryside. We could see the Laurentian Mountains in the distance and the receding riverbanks of the St. Lawrence below the road. The tide had gone down even more since our arrival. Hope the ship isn't stuck in the mud....

 

Our first stop was at the bottom of the Montmorency Falls for photo-taking only. The falls are actually 90 feet higher than Niagara Falls. We would come back here later, but drive to the top for cake, coffee, or tea. Sounded like a good plan to us.

 

Next, we crossed the green bridge built in 1935 to the Island of Orleans, situated across from the mainland. This bit of land is 20 1/2 miles long by 4 1/2 miles wide. Sharply contrasting the city of Quebec, this pastural island is covered with maples, vineyards, fruit orchards, strawberry fields, and charming farmhouses.

 

The center of the island was heavily wooded with mostly sugar maples, the ones that produce the sweet maple syrup. And that was our next stop, a sugar shack by the name of L'En Tuilleur. Here we saw how the sugar maples are tapped, the watery sap collected in buckets, and the cooking process used to produce the tasty treat. It takes several gallons of this sappy water to make one gallon of syrup. Since it is not artificially flavored syrup, but the real thing, it is quite expensive.

 

Following the demo, we were more than happy to taste the strips of maple taffy, a thicker syrup that was poured from a pitcher over a bed of shaved ice. With a small wooden stick, we rolled the sticky taffy and ate it like a soft lollypop. It was so good, we went back for seconds, as many others did. Of course, there was a store where we could purchase some tasty syrup and candy to take home with us.

 

As promised, we returned to the top of the 272 foot Montmorency Falls and the Manior Montmorency, an elegant villa once occupied by royalty. We all enjoyed a piece of fancy chocolate cake and tea or coffee, sharing our table with a chatty couple from Louisiana. Too bad we did not have a chance to meet these nice folks sooner, but that is what happens when you are in a port everyday. There is no ccassion to meet each other....you are all too busy on the run.

 

Anyway, we were given some free time to browse the store, or hike to the bridge over the thundering falls. Naturally, we took the latter choice. The views were great halfway across the bridge, except for one crazy couple of older kids, who had climbed over the fencing at the opposite end of the bridge. What were they thinking? No wonder tragic accidents happen at sites like these.....plain foolish.

 

We still had one more stop to make at a place called Lac Beauport, north on the city's border. It is a ritzy lake area surrounded with mansions of the rich and famous. One such home was that of a famous hockey player, the name escapes us however.

 

This was where something weird happened to us. Our guide had allotted 20 minutes to cross the road and take pictures. Several tired people chose to stay on the coach, but at least half of us left. With 10 minutes to spare, we headed back for the bus, only to find it was pulling out of the parking space and proceeding to leave. This have never happened to us before, and for a fleeting moment, we wondered how the heck we were going to get back to the pier that was 10 or more miles away? With the injured knee, we could not run after the darned bus, so now we were getting angry. That's when the driver stopped, backed up, opened the doors, and let us in. The joke was on us by the strange guide, who thought that maneuver was funny. Trust us, it was NOT. The guide as well as the other passengers knew we were not late, they just wanted to leave early. And we did follow up with the shore excursion staff once back onboard the ship, for whatever good that will do.

 

Well, we had our last dinner date at 7pm in Prime 7 with Don and Alene. So we had about one hour to chill out, with the help of cocktails in the Galileo Lounge. Having missed lunch today, the hot cocktail treats of meat and cheese empanadas and veggie potstickers really hit the spot.

 

Our meals in Prime 7 were excellent as expected for the final evening of this 31 day journey, and so was our visit with our friends. We toasted to continued good health and good times together.

 

We still had the last of the packing to do, in order to have the luggage out by 11pm. When we started this trip in San Francisco, we had three slightly overweight pieces of luggage (or maybe a little more than slight). Now we had filled a duffel bag, making four pieces, all totally filled. We're still trying to figure out how we ended up with so much more stuff, despite the fact that we bought souveniers conservatively. And to complicate matters, our handheld luggage scale decided to malfunction. The bags weighed from 30 to 65 pounds each time we weighed them. The fees for United are $25. for one bag per person, and $35. for the second. If a piece is over by 1 to 20 pounds, they will charge $100. extra per bag. We did our best to re-arrange things, but figured it would be what it was. Worst case scenario, we would have to pay $300. in excess fees. Time will tell.

 

As tired as we both were, sleep did not come easily. The anticipation of tomorrow's debarking and wonderful? adventure of flying home kept us both restless. Or maybe it could have been the 16 ounce bone-in ribeye steaks and the chocolate sundaes we had for dessert, who knows?

 

Tomorrow, we will be in Montreal.

 

Mary Ann & Bill

[RachelG]

Have enjoyed your posts so much. Quebec City is one of my favorites anywhere. But that guide was just plain rude. If he said 20 minutes, that should mean 20 minutes.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Thanks for the great report on Quebec City. Glad you got to try some Canadian maple products. The Chateau Frontenac was part of the original chain of landmark "railway hotels", all very grand and gracious, built by Canadian Pacific and other railways. They included the Empress in Victoria, for example, and Chateaux Lake Louise. They were all purchased by Fairmont some time back.

 

That guide sure had one weird sense of humour--glad you complained, that's just crazy.

[Responder]

Have enjoyed your posts so much. Quebec City is one of my favorites anywhere. But that guide was just plain rude. If he said 20 minutes, that should mean 20 minutes.

Quebec City is one of our all time favorites...love it..

 

For those of you who may not have seen it, here is a NYT travel special on it..

 

http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/travel/36-hours-in-quebec-city.html?hpw

[Travelcat2]

Although we have not as yet visited Quebec City, it is a definite must on one of our future land cruises. While we love Montreal, Quebec CIty has much that needs to be explored!

[Wendy The Wanderer]

While we love Montreal, Quebec CIty has much that needs to be explored!

 

Just try not to go there in the height of the summer tourist season. It's really crowded.

[Travelcat2]

Just try not to go there in the height of the summer tourist season. It's really crowded.

 

Thanks for that information. Will try it in October or November. . . . will that work?

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Thanks for that information. Will try it in October or November. . . . will that work?

 

I think May/early June, late September/October would work, not sure about November, I would think it would be blustery and cold. I'm not an expert. I've been there only twice, once in summer, and once over New Years. Now *that's* great. Wonderful French cuisine, greatr winter ambience, but cold, cold, cold. Not for the faint of heart. Stayed at the Chateau, of course. That was years ago, mostly I skied.

[RachelG]

Actually, we were in Quebec City this July as my husband had a meeting there, and it did not seem crowded at all. I did make dinner reservations ahead of time at the restaurants we wanted to try out, but during the day, I spent my time walking all over and didn't feel crowded.