Canada/New England 2004 Cruisers-Your Impressions, Please!

[Joanandjoe]

We're booked for the 9/16/05 cruise from Montreal cruise from Montreal to New York on the Seven Seas Navigator. Now that RSSC's 2004 Canada-New England cruise period is over, we'd like to hear from this year's cruisers.

 

How was the ship? The service? The itinerary? Were the infamous vibrations a problem? What was good (or bad, or indifferent)? We, and our fellow 2005 cruisers, would appreciate your input and your impressions of the cruises. :confused:

[mike35]

We were on the 9/22 - 10/1 New York to Montreal 7Seas Navigator. The ship was great - especially our huge suite with veranda, walk-in closet, tub, shower, etc. The internet room was outstanding - good connection speed, reasonably priced.

 

The itinerary was equally outstanding, although we saw very little "fall foliage" - if we were to do this cruise again, we would wait a month. Tours were well planned.

 

Now for the Navigator experience. The food, while good, wasn't, in our opinion, up to 6-star standards. Although the presentation was beautiful, the quality and variety left a bit to be desired. We couldn't understand why, in the heart of lobster, clam, and mussel country, they only served lobster once, and didn't offer Prince Edward Island mussels, clams, etc. Also, no caviar, foie gras - items we've come to expect on other 6-star lines (Silversea and Crystal).

 

Service was good - no complaints, except in several instances dining and wine service was slow, with no maitre 'd in sight. We didn't meet the maitre 'd until day 6!

 

Entertainment was marginal. The singers/dancers were fair, the featured male singer (Steve Washington) was outstanding, and the comedian, a Welchman named Kenny Smiles, was funny the first time, less so the 2nd, and rather boring the 3rd. Again, we're probably spoiled by Crystal's magnificent entertainment.

 

Room service was spotty the two times we used it; the first time was a simple order of smoked salmon, bagels, cream cheese, and coffee - somehow they forgot the smoked salmon. The second time was a bit worse - we filled out the room service order form the evening before, ordering full breakfasts between 7:30 and 8:00. We were awakened at 7:10 by a waiter with a small pot of coffee. Somehow the kitchen thought we had ordered the coffee and forgot about our full breakfast order. Oh well.... again - something we might expect on Carnival, but not Raddison.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Mike & Carol

[mike35]

Forgot to mention - the vibration didn't bother us a bit - no worse than many other ships we've sailed on.

 

 

Mike

[Chat Kat]

We were on the same sailing as Mike. We had a really great time. We have been on a number of RSSC Cruises and are addicted. We were in suite 603 and we had no vibration. We were also on the Navigator in June and we were in 733 with no vibration. Our traveling companions were in rooms 801 and 915 and no vibration to report there either. We did feel some in the theater and Stars Lounge adjacent, but, you must expect some movement on a ship when you are not docked or anchored!

 

Perhaps, what was not common knowledge on the ship was that one of the lead singers got really sick and the production shows could not be performed for our sailing. She was actually taken off the ship and sent home for medical care. In spite of that, the other entertainers did their best and did a great job of keeping us entertained on the cruise. They used the talent on board and very few passengers were aware. Maybe they should have made an annoucement. The production shows in general are quite excellent as a rule.

 

Being we are RSSC veterans, we thought the food was good, but, we will say it was better in June and on the sailings we've been on in Alaska and Panama were even better there. The presentation was wonderful. Most of the cruises I have been on have been wine and food themed with RSSC except this one. The Executive Chef was different on this cruise than on Bermuda.

 

We also found out that the fall colors were late this year. We saw a little in Montreal and we were told by several tour guides that the color change always occurs between the last week of Sept and 10th of Oct. The intensity will change from year to year because it's based on the weather - rain and cold.

Our Cruise included Bar Harbor, Sidney and Halifax, Prince Edward Island (our favorite of the Maritimes), Quebec (not enough time - no overnight our itinerary) and Montreal. I would highly recommend that if your cruise includes the Saguenay River you will not be disappointed. It was a beautiful day and we did see whales from the ship. The local guide that was on board did an adequate job of explaining the scenery. Not a Terry Breen, but, adequate.

 

For us this was port intensive and we did most of the all day tours in the ports. We were suprised and the cruise exceeded our expectations.

[ridolphi]

We were the couple in 915 with ChatKat on the 9/22 sailing. There was also a third couple in 819, as well as the couple in 801. I agree with everything ChatKat said, we had a great time, loved the ship, loved the staff, food, everything. We did notice some vibrations in Gallileos and Portofino, hardly noticed it anywhere else. Definitly not in our cabin. This was our 2nd RSSC cruise and we booked another for next year while onboard on the Voyager. We've also done the Mariner. As to food, I was a little disappointed as well that there was not more fresh seafood available, I waited the whole 9 days for Dover sole which never showed up. But overall, the food was good, well presented and the dining staff terrific - we never had a problem with the wine steward not being there, our glasses stayed full every meal.We did get lucky, as the 8 of us ended up eating together every night, the first night we went together we were seated at the "hotel manager" table (he wasn't there) and every night after that they gave us that table, so we enjoyed the same waiters each night and they got to know us very well and provided outstanding service. We met plenty of other people onboard, in the casino, upstairs in Gallileo's (my husband and I ended every night up there dancing until the music stopped, around 12:30) there was a whole group of us who went up to Gallileos every night, we met others on shore excursions, at the bars, all over the ship.

 

As I said, I basically agree with ChatKat - and overall it was a great cruise

JoAnn:D :D