LIVE! Dragon OfTheSeas and the Snowbird Migration from Quebec to FLL Oct 7-20, 2019

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Welcome to Dragon’s excellent Adventure LIVE from the Adventure of the Seas October 7-20, 2019.  My DH and I have taken one round trip Canada/New England cruise from Baltimore.  However, this one begins in Quebec City with an overnight stay on the ship and ends in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  It is called the “Snowbird Migration” because a number of Canadians use it to head south for the winter. 

 

We visit:

Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

Sydney, Nova Scotia

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Saint John, New Brunswick

Bar Harbor, Maine

Portland, Maine

Boston, Massachusetts

Port Canaveral, Florida

 

We flew in from BWI via Montreal today.  We went through an immigration check at the Montreal airport.  We did not have to get our luggage.  That was tagged all the way through to Quebec City.   First we answered a series of questions on a self-serve kiosk, scanned our passports and took a picture of each person.  [likely the worst picture of me ever. ] Then we printed it all out and took the sheet along with passports to the agent.  The whole process was fast—10 minutes max. 

 

We had to wind our way through the airport.  The Montreal airport is huge and we felt like we had taken a scenic tour of the whole thing.  One surprise was that we had to go through security again to get to our connection to Quebec City.  We had to throw away the water and Coke we had gotten. Our second surprise was seeing that our plane had propellers.  I have not flown on a prop jet in a long time.  We arrived safe and sound!

The closer we got to Quebec the more the leaves began to change colors.  Our taxi driver said that they are several weeks late changing this year.

 

It is a beautiful day and the views from the plane were great. The pictures do not do them justice. 

Lush green fields

 

 

Lots of winding rivers

 

 

. . . and then the trees began to change.

 

 

 

 

 

 

DH and I walked around upper town this afternoon.  I mentioned it is beautiful outside today.  It is a sunny and crisp fall day.  I will share some pictures after dinner. 😁

Edited October 5, 2019 by DragonOfTheSeas

[Another_Critic]

36 minutes ago, DragonOfTheSeas said:

We flew in from BWI via Montreal today.  We went through an immigration check at the Montreal airport.  We did not have to get our luggage.  That was tagged all the way through to Quebec City.   First we answered a series of questions on a self-serve kiosk, scanned our passports and took a picture of each person.  [likely the worst picture of me ever. ] Then we printed it all out and took the sheet along with passports to the agent.  The whole process was fast—10 minutes max. 

 

We had to wind our way through the airport.  The Montreal airport is huge and we felt like we had taken a scenic tour of the whole thing.  One surprise was that we had to go through security again to get to our connection to Quebec City.  We had to throw away the water and Coke we had gotten. Our second surprise was seeing that our plane had propellers.  I have not flown on a prop jet in a long time.  We arrived safe and sound!

The closer we got to Quebec the more the leaves began to change colors.  Our taxi driver said that they are several weeks late changing this year.

 

We had a different adventure at the end of our Northbound "Fall Foliage" cruise 9/6/ to 9/16.

 

1) No fall foliage.  😞

2) We drove from Quebec City to Wilmington, DE (via Montreal) on 9/16. 

3) Very quick stop at Canada/NY border.  Showed passports; no pictures required.  😄

 

Enjoy your cruise!

[DragonOfTheSeas]

1 hour ago, Another_Critic said:

 

We had a different adventure at the end of our Northbound "Fall Foliage" cruise 9/6/ to 9/16.

 

1) No fall foliage.  😞

2) We drove from Quebec City to Wilmington, DE (via Montreal) on 9/16. 

3) Very quick stop at Canada/NY border.  Showed passports; no pictures required.  😄

 

Enjoy your cruise!

The cab driver said the fall colors had just started in the last week.  I am sorry you missed it. 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

You can see from the itinerary that this is a very port heavy cruise.  . . . but first we are going to stay for 2 nights in beautiful Quebec City, Quebec.  We decided to stay at the Hilton.  It has an excellent location just outside of the old city gates and across the street from the Quebec provincial parliament building  . . . and the views are something else. It did not hurt that we were able to use Hilton Honor points.

 

 

A great view of the river and the city wall

 

 

 

 

The Parliament building

 

However, the night views are the best

 

 

You can see there is a ship at one of the piers in the distance.  We can not tell which ship it is.  There was a NCL ship there this afternoon. 

Edited October 5, 2019 by DragonOfTheSeas

[DragonOfTheSeas]

We headed for the walled city.  First we passed the Fountain de Tourney.  This fountain is between the Parliament building and the city wall. It is beautiful at night.  I will get a picture of it tomorrow night.

 

We checked out the outside of the wall and went through the Saint Louis Gate.  This is the closest to the river of the  3 gates near our hotel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was a festival going on just inside the gate.  Many of the people were dressed up like wizards or witches.  I guess it was a Halloween event.

 

The TV crew was interviewing some of the festival participants. 

Edited October 6, 2019 by DragonOfTheSeas

[DragonOfTheSeas]

We headed to the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac.  This Beautiful old-world hotel dominates the city skyline.  You can see it from most places in the old town. 

 

 

 

 

The Terrasse Dufferrin is an elevated wooden boardwalk that offers panoramic views of Old Quebec and the St. Lawrence River. It runs along in front of the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac. There is a funicular that runs between there and lower town.  We are going to ride this on Monday or Tuesday.

 

There were lots of street performers out today.  This gentleman was excellent.  We heard another man singing "City of New Orleans" in French. Many people were singing along.

 

The Terrasse Dufferrin was pretty crowded today. 

 

 

 

I looked toward the river from the Terrasse Dufferrin to get this picture of 2 of the ships in port today.  The one on the right is the Caribbean Princess.  I think that is where our ship will be docked on Monday and Tuesday. 

Edited October 6, 2019 by DragonOfTheSeas

[DragonOfTheSeas]

On our way back we passed a nice Halloween display. 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a few more pictures to share.  But I will save those until later. 

Edited October 6, 2019 by DragonOfTheSeas

[Hoopster95]

Great start Dragon! I was on the 9/16 southbound two weeks ago. Looks like you have great weather to start your sailing in Quebec. We had sun throughout except for one day... although the leaves hadn’t changed

yet, we ended up with several days of 70’s temps. Hope you get the same.

 

I opted not to do a live or post cruise review this time so I’ll  be living vicariously through this thread.😃

[LuCruise]

Wow, exciting cruise! We'll be on Adventure in December.  Look forward to following along.

[Bailey & Sophie]

1 hour ago, DragonOfTheSeas said:

 

 I think that is where our ship will be docked on Monday and Tuesday. 

Sorry I couldn't figure out how to delete pics.

We did this cruise 2 years ago. Stayed at The Fleur de Lis, a small boutique hotel. It had a small private balcony. Very French feeling!

JUST IN CASE...we got up early the day we were to board, ran down to the dock area and OUR SHIP WASN'T THERE! My husband looked at me and said "I didn't plan this." I knew I was in the right town on the right day!

There was a park ranger and we asked her if there was another place where a ship might be. Yup...waaaaay over there. By the industrial shipyard. So instead of walking to the pier, we had to take a cab and the driver was kind enough to share his cold with me.

JUST so you know if the ship doesn't dock in town.

[Bleueyes44]

I did this cruise last year, absolutely one of my favorites.  Looks like you will enjoy better weather than we did , it was cloudy and raining most of the 3 days we were there.  I agree the color of the leaves on the trees are amazing and photos somehow don't do them justice. Quebec City  really is such a lovely town.   Also love the Adventure one of the friendliest crews I've had the pleasure of sailing with, will be boarding her again in May. 

[OACAggie]

Following.

Thanks for letting us tag along!

[Another_Critic]

3 hours ago, DragonOfTheSeas said:

I looked toward the river from the Terrasse Dufferrin to get this picture of 2 of the ships in port today.  The one on the right is the Caribbean Princess.  I think that is where our ship will be docked on Monday and Tuesday. 

 

Adventure will be at dock 22.

 

https://www.google.ca/maps/place/46%C2%B048'54.1%22N+71%C2%B011'59.2%22W/@46.815016,-71.2019737,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d46.815016!4d-71.199785

[twangster]

I did this migration last year but sadly had to cancel this year's booking so I shall see it all from your eyes this time around.

 

Have a great cruise, it sounds like you are off to a great start.

[h20skibum]

Will be following along.   Great pictures.  

 

Hope you continue to have great weather

[MalteseMama2]

Looking forward to following you on this cruise!

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Good morning!  The forecast for today on Accuweather calls for 70% rain.  So we are delighted to see a little weak sunshine.  [In our house we call this weather service semi-accurate] LOL

 

We are headed out on an excursion with a roll call group.  I will post more pictures when we get back.  Thanks to all that are following.

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

Thank you so much for posting! Looks like it will be an amazing trip! We had to cancel a few months ago and I am so happy to live it through your report and terrific pictures! (We had a new grandbaby due around the same time and didn't want to risk being out of the country... Baby is here now and we have no regrets!) Best wishes for a great cruise!

[Blizzard54]

We are onboard the Adventure having been on the previous sailing. We arrived in Quebec this morning for our overnight before turnaround tomorrow. Heading out soon to tour some of the city.  Looking forward to the southbound journey. 

[cruise wizard]

We will be following along...............we are on next years Snowbird Migration but it will be on the Vision - leaving a bit later on 10/19. Thank you for taking the time to do the LIVE thread.

 

Bon Voyage!!!!

[Arzeena]

I always look forward to Dragon's reviews!😊

Have thought about doing this itinerary in the future.

[wishuponasea]

We intend to book the Snowbird cruise for next year (when we are on Grandeur in 11 days). So we are Very interested in your reviews!  On Vision -- see you next year cruise wizard!  🙂  !

[bigeck]

I had to cancel this as well. Have a great cruise everyone

I'm following along and dreaming I was onboard

 

[Bette And Bill]

Love this cruise. We did it last year on the Adventure and are booked on  the Vision next year. Looking forward to your review. Love your pictures, they bring back many pleasant memories. We really enjoyed our time in Quebec City.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

I tried to put too many pics into one post and I just messed it up.  So, I will separate them.  

 

On out way back to the hotel we passed some nice residential areas. 

 

 

We decided we better climb the wall today when the weather was nice..

 

The views were very nice.

 

 

 

Edited October 6, 2019 by DragonOfTheSeas