May Maasdam Ft Lauderdale to Montreal Cruise review Part 4C

[wwinfl91]

The next morning we woke up and checked out our window only to find it was raining. Not pouring but definitely raining. We had planned on visiting more museums today including two on the island in the St Lawrence. There was a fort there I wanted to visit and the Biosphere from the 1967 World's Fair has been turned into a museum. We went down to breakfast and had another excellent meal to start our day. After that we prepared ourselves as best we could for our walk to the subway which would take us to the island all the way hoping the rain would let up. We had breakfast with John and Peggy and made plans to have dinner with them for our last evening in Montreal. The walk to the subway seemed much longer in the rain and wind but we finally got there. Once there we needed to take one line to a junction point where we would catch another line that would allow us access to the island of St Helene and Stewart Fort and Museum. When we arrived at the correct subway stop it was still raining so we decided to go to the Biosphere first since it was closer to the subway stop and hope the rain would let up. The biosphere was originally built for the 1967 Montreal World's fair but now contains a museum of Water. It had some interesting exhibits and we visited many of them. Unfortunately the rain was still coming down but we put on some ponchos we had with us and started out across the island to go to the fort. After a walk in the rain we finally got to the fort. Not too many people were around but our museum passes got us in and we went up to check out the museum and hoped the rain would quit so we could check out the outside of the fort. We found the exhibits of the museumto be interesting and there was a special exhibit of Chinese pottery that occupied the second floor of the museum. After we had been there about a 1/2 hour they announced a special tour for "Patriots day" and I decided to go. Trisha decided to wait it out in the area of the museum where they had some comfortable chairs. Patriots day is a province of Quebec only holiday that celebrates the fact the people, both French and English who rebelled against England in the 1830's. The tour included information on them and a tour of some of the exterior of the fort. Unfortunately it was still raining when it finished so Trisha and I trekked off in the rain to go across the island and get back to the subway. After another 20 minute or so walk across the island we were back on the subway and heading towards old Montreal. Once we got off the subway it was well into the afternoon and both of us were hungary so we started looking for someplace to eat. It turned out because this was a holiday many places were closed but we finally found a deli where we got a bowl of soup and a sandwich to tide us over. We then went to our last major destination of our visit to Montreal which was the Place de Arms, the Old Seminary and Bascilica of Notre Dame of Montreal. The Bascilica was finished in the mid 18th century and is a beautiful example of church architecture. They were working on the lighting for a special show that they were having during the evening while we were there so the pictures we took have some interesting lighting effects. There is also a second chapel, the Sacred Heart Chapel, that is much more modern at the rear of the main chapel. The Seminary next store to the Bascilica is the oldest standing building in Montreal having been originally built in the mid 16th century. We spent most of the rest of the afternoon here and finally wandered back to the hotel to pack and get ready for our last evening in Montreal.

 

After talking with John we decided to have dinner at a restaurant named Bonaparte's which is owned by the same people who owed the B&B we were staying in. It was a French restaurant that was relatively close and with the rain continuing we figured that would be a good choice. We had the hotel make dinner reservations for 8. The restaurant was very nice and again the food and service were excellent. We ordered an Australian Reisling which went well with our dinners. We again did the meal with a soup, followed by an entree and a desert. The meal ended a little after 10 and we walked back to our hotel. We had gotten a desert wine on our tour in Halifax at the winery we visited and we had the hotel chill it and provide us with glasses so we could share it with Peggy and John before we all went to bed for the night. It was a nice way to finish off a great evening with new friends.

 

Unfortunately everything has to come to an end and on Tuesday morning we woke up early so we could have breakfast with Peggy and John who were leaving on the Amtrack train around 10 in the morning. After another excellent breakfast we said good bye for now to both of our new friends and went back to our room to finish our packing for our 2 PM flight back home. We asked the hotel to call a cab to pick us up around 11:30 so we would be getting to the airport a couple of hours before our flight.

 

The cab drive out to the airport made us realize how big a city Montreal actually is and how little we really saw by concentrating on Old Montreal. Oh well maybe someday we can go back. The Montreal airport has very complete security especially for flights to the USA. We were going Air Canada to Dulles and then were catching a TED flight to Orlando. The Air Canada flight was ontime and got us to Dulles in plenty of time. Once on board the TED flight to Orlando we learned from the pilot that bad weather and other factors were going to delay our takeoff. It ended up delaying it by over an hour and a half. We finally got into Orlando around 9:30. There we found out 2 pieces of our luggage would be delivered to our house the next morning. Evidently they didn't make the flight in Dulles. We got a rental car to get home and after a stop at a supermarket for some essentials, eggs, etc. we got home around 10:30. We were glad to see everything looked normal at home and our waterbed looked good even though we had good beds on our trip.

 

All in all it was a very good trip. The cruise and the stay in Montreal both were great. I would recommend this cruise to anyone who has an interest in history and wants to see parts of the country he or she hasn't seen before.

 

I will close this part now with the offer that if anyone has any questions let me know and I will try to answer them.

[lizzielady]

wwinfl91,

 

Thanks for a great review. I have visited all of these ports except Montreal. It was wonderful to remember the good times we had at each of them. I agree, downtown Jacksonville isn't the greatest! We are a new port and I think it the future there will be many opportunities for shore excursions. We have beautiful beaches, a small but very nice zoo, great golf courses, and historic St. Augustine about an hour away. Thanks again.

[wwinfl91]

Sorry if I made it sound like Jacksonville was a total loss. We had been there in Dec to leave on Celebrity's Zenith and knew how far the port was from anything else which was why we made our decision to use that day as a sea day. The fact we live in Florida means that we have been to St Augustine before and it wasn't being offered by HAL on this cruise anyway.

 

Had we known that there was going to be free transportation to downtown Jacksonville we would have taken it just to see what was going on downtown. One of the couples who ate each evening with did that and was looking forward to visiting a new art galley but when they got there they found it was closed on Monday's. People who visited the Busch brewery on both cruises said they had a great time there.

 

More seriously I'm sure as the port matures that cruise lines and local authorities can work together to provide a lot of good opportunities for people visiting the port. But providing free or low cost transportation from the port to the attractions is going to be a real key especially in an east coast market where at most of the ports you can get off the ship and walk to some great attractions (i.e. Charleston, New York, Boston, etc.).

 

Glad you enjoyed the rest of the review and again I apologize if I made Jacksonville sound unattractive. I did not mean to do that.

 

Have a GREAT next cruise.