Norwaylady goes b2b Alaska+Hawaii on Eclipse

[Norwaylady]

We took the train to Union. 

This stay we are at Hilton Toronto city centre. 

We received room on arrival👍🏻 Was very happy for that🥰 We needed to take a power nap. Bed is comfortable and has good bed linens. 

They are renovating floor by floor. This is done Monday-Friday from 08.00-17.00.

We have a old room. Bathroom has been done but the rest of the room is due to a upgrade. But okey for our stay and needs. 

 

After a little rest, it was time to go for a walk😎 Beautiful weather and good temperature 16c😎 

Mr had a tiny request….. a 🍺 at Steam Whistle brewery😝 (what to do🤗😝 as the good wife, it was accepted;) 

We had some food🍴 we can’t go to Canada 🇨🇦 and don’t have the “poutine” at some point😅 It’s really not my cup of tea😅 Mr is more into this type of food😆 Kale salad was good😊 

 

After the beer garden we walked further by the water. Watch some airplanes, the sunshine and colourful trees 🌳🍁🍂

We stopped by farm boy to find a dessert for tonight😋 Pastel de nata was screaming for me😋 (it’s my guiltily pleasure in 🇵🇹 Portugal) 

So now it’s time for coffee and dessert on the hotel☕️

 

Tomorrow we will take the train to Niagara Falls😊

[dlh015]

I just can't convey how wonderful it is that you have shared your journey with all of us and how amazing your photography and commentary has been. 

 

Thank you 🤩

 

and, of course, Happy Anniversary to you and the Mr.!!🎉 

Edited October 12, 2022 by dlh015

[calicakes]

How long are you in Toronto?  If you like mustard, visit the Mustard Man at St. Lawrence Market.  He makes numerous flavors, I love them.  

[TeaBag]

Niagara Falls is beautiful.  I hope you have a great day there.  What a great idea to break up your very long trip back to Norway.  BTW, we have never tried Poutine!

We are leaving for Gatwick on Monday (Silhouette cruise, Southampton to Miami) and I just can't get to the packing.  Do you hate packing as much as I do?

[vickykay]

We loved Pastel de Nata when we had them in Lisbon!  Enjoy the Falls and I hope you’re doing the small boat that goes along the falls. Wonderful fun.

[Norwaylady]

17 hours ago, TeaBag said:

 Do you hate packing as much as I do?

Sorry to say, I have a black belt in packing😂😂 2.mins and it’s ready😎 

I’m so used to pack for travel, so it’s very easy. 

[Jim_Iain]

12 hours ago, vickykay said:

We loved Pastel de Nata when we had them in Lisbon!  Enjoy the Falls and I hope you’re doing the small boat that goes along the falls. Wonderful fun.

I will definitely second your opinion of the Pastel de Nata -  Everytime I now see them it brings back memories of Lisbon.

[Norwaylady]

Rise & Shine🇨🇦 

Today’s tour is Niagara Falls🍁🍂🌳

 

We travel individual, no tour package. 

We booked tickets online at ViaRail, 133 CAN$ round trip. It’s one train in the morning and a return in the afternoon. 

The summer program has ended and you must use the NY train or bus/go transit train. Go transit only do trains in the weekends now. (Low season🍁)

 

For us, the ViaRail/Amtrak was okay. 

The train leaves Union at 08.20 and arrive in Niagara Falls 10.14. 

Return from Niagara Falls is 17.45 and arrival at Union is 19.35. 

That would be plenty of time to do a cruise and explore the area. 

 

Our day started a bit off track….

I hate hate hate paper cups and plastic glass. Hotels really stretch covid protection, it’s better to have paper/plastic cups and glasses….😕 

Give me back real glasses and porcelain cups🤨

Paper cups of cheapest quality and coffee maker was not a good combo today😰🥵😩🥺 I magically managed to empty one in my right hand inside🫣😵‍💫😑🔥 ouch….

So it got burned🫠 Iced it as good as possible and now Mr really could see the need and reason I always has the top room in our touring backpack filled up off first aid things AND the smart wall in my suite case🤓 So we are well prepared for minor incidents and problems. 

Burn gel in travel size is not underestimated🙂 

So burn gel on, some pain killers and off to the train we walked. 

 

We had a separate cabin for those going just to Niagara Falls, Canada. 

Train ride went well, continued to cool down the hand. Nice to have a look of the area and see all the fruit and wine/grapes underway. 

On arrival in Niagara Falls we arrived in a empty place. No one, nothing. Felt like a horror movie. 

 

We discovered that the move bus has changed to winter schedule. So the bus had just left for Niagara Falls. So it was 30.mins to next. 

 

We decided to walk into the waterfall😌 It’s a nice walk on a pedestrian way. And it’s not that far away. We enjoyed all the 🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿 and the colourful trees. It took us the waiting time to next bus to arrive at the cruise terminal. 

Tickets to the cruise was 32.75can$ pr person. 

We jumped on the first boat and enjoyed the waterfall, splashing and wind💦🌬😅

Fun and really fascinating to see the falls so close up. 

 

It was a complete ghost town on arrival, everything was closed and no people on the way down to pier. 

When we returned from the cruise it started to arrive more people by bus. 

 

After the cruise we walked further to see more of the falls. We turned at the power station. 

Mr was hungry, so we walked to “town” casino/hotel area. 

We went into the food court/casino/hotel/theatre to seek options…

Well…. Guess… Niagara Falls brewing has a bar/tasting room😝😅😂 So Mr had a tasting paddle and we shared a Caesar salad.

I will take it as a sign, he’s paddle was supposed to be 8🍻🍻🍻🍻 but unfortunately they were out of some beers🤣🤣🤣  But Mr was happy anyway😁 

 

After some food and beer, it was time to move further on in this “Las Vegas ,Reno, Disney park” for adults😜 

(We walked in direction of the train station) 

We took the round to see what else we could try out. The dinosaur mini golf looked tempting, but my hand said, not today😝  Plenty of options for fun, games and food. 

You could see that it’s low season/weekend primarily. Lots of places was closed. 

 

We continued onward to the Niagara city centre, GHOST 👻 town deluxe. Everything closed except for the cannabis stores😝 Really not our thing😅

Luckily we had timed it for our train departure back to Toronto😉

 

Train left on schedule 17.45. It was a uneventful return and good to be seated until 19.56😌

Then it was time to head back to the hotel🙂 The hand is functional, it’s burned. But luckily it was taken care of asap. So it’s a good 1grade burning. (If it hadn’t been taken care of properly it would been a 1/2 grade burn😞) 

 

I can understand that it’s crowded in the summer season and that it’s popular to go for a weekend getaway🥳🥳🥳 

The falls are beautiful🤩 I’m satisfied😊

But the rest of the party party events is not my cup of tea😂🙃 ( now you see why we fit perfectly on X😝) 

[WNCtourist]

So sorry about your hand and hoping you continue to feel better!

[Norwaylady]

Last day in Toronto🇨🇦

What to do???

 

Breakfast at St Lawrence market🤩

Mr wanted a last trip to the food market. So then it was the royal breakfast at St Lawrence🍴🍴🍴 

Oysters, coffee, pan chocolate and Korean tempura 😋😋😋

 

So we dropped the bags at the hotel and went for breakfast and a walk. The weather was gray and ☔️. But it’s the first day of bad weather we had in Canada since we left Norway 🇳🇴 🇨🇦 (so we can’t complain😎) 

 

Breakfast was good, Mr happy🥰

Mr had to visit the beer store… he did shop a cat beer to bring home😂🐈‍⬛🐈🐈‍⬛. 

 

We took a walk and went back to the hotel to pick up the bags and walked down to Union. The train to Pearson was leaving in 5.minutes when we arrived, so good timing🙃

Check in and security was over in 10.minutes😁

So now we are safely seated in Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge international🇨🇦. 

The international lounge is more private set-up then the domestic maple leaf lounge on Pearson. 

It has a nice view over the airport area and you can follow the “operation” of the airport live. 

[Ferry_Watcher]

On 10/12/2022 at 11:12 AM, Norwaylady said:

Sorry to say, I have a black belt in packing😂😂 2.mins and it’s ready😎 

I’m so used to pack for travel, so it’s very easy. 

What size of luggage do you use?  The regular 25 inch suitcase, or a smaller 'carry-on'?

[Norwaylady]

6 hours ago, Ferry_Watcher said:

What size of luggage do you use?  The regular 25 inch suitcase, or a smaller 'carry-on'?

It depends on the trip😉 

For this trip, we had one large suitcase and a rucksack each. 

My rucksack is a samsonite securipac L. So it can fit 2pc, iPad, camera and GoPro. Charging cables, medical things, liquid bag, face masks and other items. It can expand and it’s hard to rob. 
The other rucksack is a touring edition. It’s 35L. It has pockets on side and string straps outside for towels or other things when needed. 
So it fits inside  2 beach towels from the ship on port days, swimwear, bottles of water and top wallet has first aid kit and room to store cruise cards etc. 
 

The large suitcases  are 77/80cm tall. Around 100-110L space. It fits everything we need for this trip. Both are hardcase/semi hard. 
 

If we travel for weekend we only have a cabin stroller. Size S, 35-40L deepening on suitcases picked. 
 

All our suitcases are from Samsonite, Epic or American Tourister by Samsonite. 
 

They have good service if you need spare parts and the warranty is good. 
But the most important… they survive. They can handle the hard treatment they get on airports and walking around😉

[Norwaylady]

Service in the lounge was good. Decent selection in the bar, multiple choices of wine. Good food, multiple choices of salads and greens😊 

Functional WiFi. 

 

We fly SAS to Stockholm and then onward to Oslo. 

Our flight is operated on a A321- long range. 

Seating is 1/2 Biz, 2+2 premium eco and 3+3 economy. 

We have 2 “throne” seats. 6A/F. So lots of space😄 On narrow body long range aircraft, this is the ultimate seating for space. 

 

Boarding went on time, flight not fully booked. 

But we had some loading issues, so we pushed 20.mins after scheduled time. Flight time 7.55h

Menu is exactly the same as to Toronto according to paperwork😝🤭🤔

 

Fluffy pillow, duvet and mattress cover in seat. A bottle of water. Amenities kit contains socks, eye mask, toothbrush, lip balm, ear plugs and facial mist. 

 

So, service started. Warm nuts and aperitif. 

 

When dinner service started the crew informed that unfortunately they had the wrong menu card onboard. Wines and drinks are correct😅

Starters was duck or salmon. 

Main: short rib, chicken or ravioli mushroom. 

Dessert: cheese, fruit, ice cream and cake. 

 

We had the salmon for starter. Good taste

I had the ravioli for main course. Mr choose the short rib. Both tasted excellent 

I had ice cream and fruit for dessert😋 Mr said: bring it on😂😂😂 So all options was served🤣🤣

All tasted excellent😊

 

Menu for second meal said shrimp sandwich😅 But this was breakfast. 

Yoghurt, granola, bread, ham, cheese and greens☺️ Coffee & juices. 

 

All-in-all a good flight. Crew very service minded and attention to detail was good. 

We had a decent sleep of 3h. 

The throne seats are definitely the best pic on this type of aircraft. Plenty of space and storage😉

 

Arrival in Stockholm was heavy fog. So digital landing. That means all phones/iPad/electronic must be completely switched off. Flight mode is not allowed. 

We parked at gate 15.mins before scheduled time. 

 

We walked to the lounge for our waiting time. Had 1h to kill before next flight. 

 

Next flight is a A320. Seated 3+3. SAS plus/go service class. 

Boarding on time, not fully booked. So seat in the middle was empty😉

Flight time 45.minutes. 

 

Service onboard was cold and warm beverage and snacks. Choices of muffins, crisps, chocolate and warm wraps. 

Good typical SAS service. 

Landing on time at Oslo airport. 

Bags arrived on the belt before we arrived😉 So it went very smooth🇳🇴

 

The welcome comity was waiting and purring on arrival 🐈‍⬛🐈

[sunviking90]

Glad to see you had a safe and pleasant journey home! Your cat is adorable. The other one must be camera shy ☺️ 
I’ll be looking forward to your next trip.

[Spikedr]

Thank you for the review. I really enjoyed it. The welcoming committee is adorable.

[Norwaylady]

The other…. She needed to put on happy but a bit grumpy style😝🤣🤣 You have been away for a long time😤

 

(but they came as blanket asap when I laidback on the sofa❤️) 

[silkismom]

Kitties are darling, what breed? Look a little  like the Norwegian Marius and Molly family on fb, she is also from Norway I believe  and she has 3 English  short hairs that are gorgeous. 

[Norwaylady]

1 hour ago, silkismom said:

Kitties are darling, what breed? Look a little  like the Norwegian Marius and Molly family on fb, she is also from Norway I believe  and she has 3 English  short hairs that are gorgeous. 

Yes🇳🇴 They are British shorthair. 
Miss Marple is colour point and Hannah Hortensia is  silver turtle tabby. 
 

Kingdom of Molly & Marius is 🇳🇴 And they are perfect🥰 

[cinderellen]

Glad you arrived safe and sound and were missed by your fur babies! Thank you for the great read!

 

[luvcruzing]

Thank you for this review.  I enjoyed following you on your trip.  And, quite a trip it was!  Very well done. 

[BSinPNS]

Great review. Loking forward to your next adventure. Thanks. 

[theopup]

Glad you arrived home. It has been quite an adventure for you both, with lots of memories 

[Tee & Chilli]

Thanks for taking us along on your adventures.

[chemmo]

Sincere thanks for a wonderful extended review.
 

A pity it is over, I have been enjoying reading your adventures with my morning coffee!

[asnaleah]

Me too @chemmo! Many thanks to @Norwaylady and the lucky Mr.