Quebec City one last time

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Today was a beautiful sunny day in Quebec City. The plan was to simply load our luggage into the car in preparation for tomorrow’s start homeward. It was a simple plan but the rest of the story comes under the heading “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up”

Our departure 19 days ago was from berth 22 and we parked the car nearby the port with only minor difficulties described earlier. We returned to the port but to berth 30. When I looked at the map as I planned the trip, it looked like it was a simple walk along the dock westward to rue Dalhousie followed by a 10 minute walk to the parking structure. The Port of Quebec had a different version.

The first issue was getting off the ship. In most of our ports there were 2 gangways for disembarkation but not today. Today about 2000 travellers had to exit single file through a single gangway. We managed to leave the ship about an hour after the gangway opened. We then traversed a serpentine walkway to the terminal exit. Walking to the west was not permitted. We had two choices. A shuttle to somewhere undetermined or a walking tour to the east to exit the terminal following a GPS track back to the west resulting in a 30 minute 6,000 plus step trip across the Quebec waterfront.

On our way out of the port at berth 30 we managed to find a king security person who confirmed that there was a parking lot immediately outside the terminal. It was not, however, clear how to access it. We could see only busses and taxis in the area and no private vehicles. When we found our car we were pleased that it started immediately but some settings such as temperature units needed to be reset. I set the GPS to the published address of the Terminal for berth 30 and we crossed our fingers. The route retraced our walking path right back to the terminal. Our cruise ID medallions were our ticket past port security and we parked within 50 metres of the ship.

We boarded the ship easily enough returned to our rooms and disembarked again with our two largest suitcases, happy again for wheels on suitcases. As I opened the trunk of the car we noticed that a spider had taken up residence and seemed displeased that we had destroyed his home. He skittered off while we packed our luggage away. The morning experience over, we rebounded the ship just in time for lunch. Hopefully our final disembarkation tomorrow morning will be uneventful.

Melody Lee, Moon Gypsy

I may be lost, but I’m traveling the right way.

Saguenay again

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It is a cold, rainy day in La Baie today but we are back on Eastern Time. This is the final port before Quebec City and the start of our return home. I had expected to see more colour after 16 days but not much has changed. Here are a few photos for comparison.

This will probably be the final post of this trip. We expect to be home by Friday and back to a regular routine again by Monday. Thanks to all who followed along and to those who contributed comments. We have often told fellow travellers that we were members of the SKI club, meaning Spending Kids Inheritance.Yesterday we found people who were members of the KING club, meaning Kids Inheritance Nearly Gone.

Pat Conroy

Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.

Charlottetown cancelled – that makes two sea days

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The itinerary says that we are in Charlottetown today but the weather said no. It was a rough ride from Sydney into the Northumberland Strait. Gail is not pleased with me because I slept like a kitten full of cream while she, apparently, felt every wave and heard every groan the ship made. About an hour before we were scheduled to make port our Captain announced in his Ital-english that we would not be making our call to Charlottetown. For the first 4 hours we made a staggering 4 to 5 knots in the general direction of the Confederation Bridge and just after noon we turned and started for the eastern end of the island, the plan being to sail into the Gulf of the St. Lawrence. I guess the Captain was unwilling to try to stuff our 195 foot high ship under the 200 foot high bridge during a gale. We were within 30 km (20 mi) of the Confederation Bridge before we reversed course. With a little luck, the storm will head east as we sail west and we will be able to make our call up the Saguenay Fjiord. This did, however, make a great day for people watching.

Passengers are as worthy of watching as are crew. I’m guessing the average age of passengers on this ship is in the 60 region. It is rare to see anyone not carrying or using a hand held electronic device, mostly smart phones with tablets in second place. Lap top computers are not as visible today as in days past. Today’s ships offer such good connectivity that internet services are ubiquitous. I find it amusing to walk through lounge areas of the ship watching people with their heads down, focused on smart phones. Many of these same people might very well be critical of kids over using smart phones, however, to be fair, many passengers are reading books on their devices rather than scanning social media or playing games, although that is also quite common. Books in print are still common and there is a library on board. It’s my guess that the library is in demand more for its daily distribution of crossword and sudoku puzzles than for books.

Gail and I and a few passengers regularly spend part of our mornings high up on deck 18 in a large glass lounge at the aft of the ship. They call it Skywalkers lounge and except for a late night DJ there is rarely any event scheduled for this venue. Today it became many passengers favourite place to hang out with books, computers, tablets, smartphones, card games, knitting and other pastimes.

I suppose shipboard activity preferences have changed much more quickly over time than has ship design. The theatre seems to be the area remaining most consistent. Singers or guest musicians, magicians, and Vegas style shows seem to remain popular. Other than that, the entertainment hub is focused on the Piazza, the central architectural feature of the ship. Princess has been trying to make a large lounge, Club Fusion, into a comedy club, with some success. A midships lounge, Explorers Lounge, is now game show and trivia central and it gets good attendance. Some passengers are quite serious about their trivia while others Arrive just in time to hear the answers. Most of the games are designed to embarrass someone. The Wheelhouse lounge is the only place with a wooden dance floor that is actually used, occasionally, for dancing. The only other location regularly featuring danceable music is the ceramic floor of the Piazza. Surprisingly, we did have a good dance set in Club Fusion last evening and it was well attended.

By the end of day tomorrow we will have completed two consecutive sea days with fingers crossed for a final port before our Quebec City arrival.

Barnaby Allen, Pacific Viking

A port arrival makes you feel so free …To realize what it is to be a free man, with a world before him.

Halifax sun, Sydney rain

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Of all the places we have been, off shore, south of Halifax is the least likely place I would have expected to see our first aurora, and barely at that. I have added two photos of the aurora. Mine is the one you will need to view in a very dark room to see the colour, the second is simply proof that someone saw colour. It was interesting how few people saw colour without the aid of a camera.

A cruise ship is a people watcher’s paradise. Passengers and crew present in different ways. The hotel maintenance crew consists of stewards who are visible and others like laundry who are invisible that perform a repetitive daily dance. Stewards arm their carts with fresh towels, linens and cleaning supplies early and await passengers departing staterooms. As rooms are cleaned, towels and linens are collected eventually to disappear behind doorways leading to service elevators and to the ship’s laundry for the cycle to begin again. By noon most of the stewards are gone and the corridors become quiet for a few hours. Early in the evening the stewards return to do a minor clean up and turndown service which is now an option not universal.

In parallel, there is another part of the hotel that deals with food. This ship has three main dining rooms, all of which are available for dinner, one of which is always available for breakfast and another available for lunch on sea days only. Additionally, there are three buffet service areas. Their availability cycles with time of day. Two service areas are open at breakfast. As morning passes and demand decreases one area closes for breakfast and prepares a lunch service. When the first lunch service opens the other service area closes breakfast service and prepares its lunch service. As noon approaches a third service area starts a slightly different lunch menu. There is a pizza service, hot dog or hamburger service and ice cream service available from mid morning to late at night. Two of the buffet areas rotate to a dinner service as an alternative to the three main dining rooms. A steak house and Italian restaurant open for evening service but at extra cost. The third buffet morphs into a specialty dining area alternating roles as the Crab Shack or BBQ restaurant, again for a fee. As you might predict, the food service areas are accompanied by bar services on virtually every deck not committed totally to staterooms. Some specialize in wine, others in martinis and others in anything liquid. Only one venue is open 24 hours a day, the International Cafe. It offers a variety of coffees, along with sandwiches and pastries that change emphasis over the day. Behind the scenes there is a food and beverage team that manages menus and prepares menu items. On the front line are a host of visible staff; bartenders, waiters and assistants attending to passengers preferences. The same faces may appear as your breakfast waiter, beverage distributer in the buffet and dinner time assistant waiter.

Passengers and other stuff on the next post.

Today in Sydney remains unsettled between rain and cool breezes and occasional sunshine, not enough to convince us to go ashore. Perhaps the hot tub will call us later.

Edith Wharton

One of the great things about travel is that you find out how many good, kind people there are.