Hi everyone.
We arrived home yesterday evening at 6 pm. A&A [with T], J&A met us at the airport and we went out to dinner....actually got home around nine. Tired after the long flights and the time change.
Saturday, September 24.......flight from SJC to DFW and then to Boston...stayed at hotel in Revere.
Sunday, 25...shuttle to Black Falcon Pier and priority boarding of Enchantment of the Seas..departed at 5 after muster drill, with the news that we would bypass Martha's Vineyard due to weather.....St John, New Brunswick instead ...fine with us.
Monday...woke up in St John...overcast and some showers....we just walked around and enjoyed the fall weather.
Tuesday....nice relaxing day at sea Nova Scotia. Formal night..which is a pain.
Wednesday...bagpipers playing as we came alongside Pier 21 in Nova Scotia [equivalent of US's Ellis Island]...beautiful blue sky day and mid sixties. Dub and I went to get the rental car at the VIA Rail Station and back to ship to pick up N & A. Headed out of Halifax...southward along the lighthouse trail towards Peggy's Cove....many little fishing villages on the way, just breathtaking scenery....didn't even think of GW once. Peggy's Cove is just beautiful..granite rocks, tide pools, pretty lighthouse, nice little homes around it . On to the Swiss Air Flight 111 memorial...even more pretty than Peggy's Cove, which you could see just about half a mile away.....back to Halifax for a stop at the cemetary where many of the victims of the Titanic sinking are buried....200 and something gravestones...many with just a number assigned to bodies as they were pulled from the Atlantic...some with names, but not many. Back to pier 21 where Nancy and I went through the immigration museum.
Thursday......Sydney, Nova Scotia.....giant fiddle on the pier...beautiful day. Rental car from downtown, then drove out through the unspoiled forest land of Nova Scotia on our way to Baddeck...small little town on Cape Breton Island on one of the sounds where Alexander Graham Bell lived....yep, the phone was invented in Cananda...very scenic trip. That evening after we left we hit a storm....high winds and big seas...barf bags postitioned around the ship....pretty bad during the night....I loved it, but it got a little staticky from the other half.
Friday.....woke up to very rough seas well into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence with the news that we would miss the Saguenay River....we weren't due to reach the mouth until 6 pm and it was sunset at 6:45...so it was an ill timed destination to start with...can't figure out what they were thinking. The captain was either late for or missed every stop on this cruise.....no big deal, just a little unprofessional and I got tired of "there's nothing I can do about it".....I'm on it for the ship and sea, but there were quite a few grumbles that I heard. Quite a number of upbound lakers pounding towards the great lakes this afternoon. Weather finally cleared as we got to the Saint Lawrence River.
Saturday......woke up along side the beautiful Quebec City waterfront...threw open the balcony door to be met by shoreside counterparts on their balconies fifty feet away....think I'll get my bathrobe......many people walking the pathways and bike trails beside the ship. J and I walked through the quaint little streets just like Paris to get the rental car....east bound on 405 to Mont Morency Falls..higher than Niagra, but not as wide...misty form the spray on the walkways...many tourists...the tram to the top was not working, so we drove up later....prety place. Continued East alongside the Saint Lawrence to the little town of Saint Anne de Beaupre with it's spectacular Cathedral....struggled through ordering lunch at the local McDonalds...but we did fine....we can read some French, but not speak it too well. Up to a ski resort, then back westbound for a side trip over to Ile de Orleans...spectacular little Island with farmland, apple orchards and beautiful older homes....just like the French Countryside the other side of the Atlantic. Back to Quebec City...passed some great artwork on bridge abutments entering the downtown area...it was done by real artists....LOT of Traffic down to the water front on a Saturday evening. Dinner on the ship....then flung open the drapes in the cabin to a beautiful City...the Hotel Frontenac, Citadel and another large church all on the hill overlooking the waterfront...they were all lit up at night. The walkways and bike trails beside the ship were crowded with Saturday evening strollers enjoying the mild evening down by the river. The Oriana, Seven Seas Navigator and Queen Mary II had all left before dark, so they all missed the best part....sucks to be them.
Sunday....departure for Dub and Angelia and the ordeal of checking in for the next leg for N&I...we stayed aboard after our cabin change and just enjoyed the ship....departure late at 6:30....Captain ''not on time" again
. .....down the river in the evening...slow going as it isn't far to Saguenay River tomorrow.
Monday...suprise, suprise, we are ontime in the river early this morning....went to Concierge and brought back continental breakfast to enjoy on the balcony. Huge power lines crossing the river in three places sending power from the huge hydro electric plants to to the north down to Lower Quebec and the North Eastern US.
Beautiful forested hills overlooking the river and a number of small communities...reminded me of Norway. Huge Statue of the Virgin Mary on the side of a mountain...some guy erected it decades ago because she saved his @$$ twice in ten years. Back down the river after Captain Late woke up the natives by blasting the shps whistle for ten minutes just to hear the echo...what a moron....it was pristine up there and quite unspoiled. At the entrance to the St Lawrence we saw quite a few Beluga Whales....pure white...never seen them before. Out through the Saint Lawrence to the gulf...exceptionally smooth today....bound for........
Tuesday...woke up at the mouth of the Humber Arm Fjord for the two hour sail up to Corner Brook.....just like Norway....but lost on many of the boors that expected it to look and feel more like the Caribbean. I swear, every cruise, I run into people who have no idea where they are really going and they get very voiciferous if it ain't sunny, hot and have all the amenities of a big city. Corner Brook is a relatively small town in Newfoundland...23,000 inhabitants...pulp/paper mill, fishing and some tourism. Very pretty place, we enjoyed it a lot.....Captain Cook Overlook.....Old Man of the Mountain and one of the most spectacular parks I have ever seen....Maples, Birches all changing colour....high mountains....clear streams...very friendly people. Met an eleven month old Newfoundland Retriever named Hunter who weighed 75 lbs already and would grow to 175....... long black coat....they drop them out of helicopters to rescue people in the sea....just hang on and they'll tow you back to safety. Local Zellars for Coffee Crisp to take home...along with a couple of other Canadian necessities....$100 worth!!!!!! As Trousers would say "Holy Crap, we're in a shopping centre"!
Wednesday....smooth day at sea...more chocolate Strawberries delivered to the cabin.
Thursday...arrived in Boston earlier than planned to get get through US immigration...we had priority, but it took well over three hours....once you cleared though, you could get off the ship. Got ready to meet Bill at Legal Seafoods....Nancy and I had a good time with him...got caught up on the latest....nice time. Rita was hob knobbing with the rich and famous on the Queen Mary II docked behind us....hope Bill didn't feel bad about not going....didn't think fo it until later.
Friday/Saturday...remnants of Tammy...high winds and rough seas until well into Saturday....the ship pitches, creaks and corkscrews quite a bit more than I feel in Radiance Class in beam seas. We hit a couple of big waves on the bow that sent shudders through the whole ship.....we have the intense humidity of Florida out on the balcony by now, so we left the door closed...missed the fresh air.
Sunday....awoke outside Fort Lauderdale...hot and humid [for us]......Sun Princess along with us...cleared the ship at 9:15....cab to airport ($14)...and checked in with American for our noon flight to DFW.....quite a number of immature drunks from a Carnival Bahamas cruise on the flight......left the runway on time from FLL as only a Boeing 757 can do...laid me back in my seat....love it...we're heading westbound...... DFW for a 2 hour layover...then a MD80 which was fully laden with fuel and pax and took just about all the runway to struggle off the ground....westbound again...so that's OK....iPod with Eric Clapton, John Denver, Jimmy Buffet, Van Morrisen helped pass the miles......Rockies and turbulence for about an hour...great American Desert below...clearer skies, tiny roads cutting across the desert in a dead straight line for miles and miles which is why cruise control was invented. Over part of rugged Lake Powell and crossed the Sierra Nevada just south of Yosemite National Park...patches of last winter's snow on the eastern peaks...San Jaoquin Valley...Coastal Range and a nice smooth approach into SJC ten minutes early. All our flights this trip were on time, while Dub's on United were all late. Low humidity of California felt good.
Enchantment is not apprecaibly changed since her stretch, other than the new plug where Boleros, extended pool deck and new cabins are....the rest is pretty much the same as before. Dining room is a little larger, but the theatre and Windjammer are not, so there is a lot of crowding for lunch and shows. Concierge is bigger...with basically a a partision seperating it from the Centrum...the riff raff can nosely peak over the top and on Big Band Night, it gets very loud. Concierge Giuseppe, is excellent. The crew is probably the friendliest of any ship...extremely accomodating and cheerful.
