twangster

The walk back to the ship was very pleasant.  The rental drop off is within the old city which is elevated above the riverfront, part of what makes the old city a natural fort.  



 
I didn't need to walk uphill to reach the ship but it looked inviting so I did.



Cannons everywhere!



With my detour complete I started down towards the river using a cobblestone street.


Along the way I came across this interesting water feature laid into the sidewalk. 

It is excavated slightly so it slopes from the front and water ripples over the pavers with an embedded channel or mini-stream through the middle left to right.  Not exactly a waterfall but very nicely done.

Not long before I was at the cruise terminal.




Typical security check upstairs followed by check in area.

The terminal is aft of the ship so it's a bit of a walk through a covered walkway that runs nearly the length of the ship.

This leads to the gangway ramp and eventually to a briefly uncovered section connecting to the ship.  

 With that I was on board at 11:15am.  

IT'S CRUISE DAY!!!
I awoke... because I left the drapes open and it was beginning to become daylight.  In the daylight I could really see the old city walls that were hidden last night.

 
I immediately spotted a familiar shape in the distance.  It's Adventure of the Seas!!!

Soon after I spotted a small ship coming up the river.  It came closer, then a tug provided a water cannon salute to the pier.  That's the Silversea Silver Wind.  I wonder if this is her inaugural call at this port?  


Silversea is now part of the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line family.  

Today she would berth behind Adventure while she stopped here in Quebec City on her way to Montreal tomorrow.

I consumed more Montreal bagels for breakfast and gathered my things to pack and get ready.  Tick tock, tick tock.  Did the clock just slow down?  
I had a rental car in valet so I figured that would take some time to deal with so I headed down early.  I needed to fill up my rental car with gas so shortly after 9am I headed down.   In the hotel elevator on the way down I met folks who saw my RC tags and commented that they had just got off the ship, nothing but good things to say.   The hotel lobby was packed with guests just arriving from ships. 
My GPS took me to a gas station on the way to the terminal so away I went.  That complete, my plan was to drop off my checked bag and head to Hertz to drop off the car and walk to the ship.  
Typical cruise ship drop off experience although the local taxi drivers didn't seem to understand the concept. Since I was just dropping bags and not parking I was directed to follow the taxis.  I guess with fewer ships compared to Florida these were rookie cab drivers and they had no idea what to do.  
I dropped off my luggage and started towards Hertz just 1/2 mile away.  How did we do these things before GPS? 
The rental car agency represents three companies and they were packed.  
That complete I followed my GPS back to the cruise terminal but this time on foot.

From my commanding hotel view of the area (which the picture don't do justice) I had observed a fountain lit up at night and several gates to the old city.  I din't have a specific route in mind, I just headed in the direction of the fountain.

They are placed directly in front of the Parliament buildings.

One of many gates to the fort and old Quebec City. 










That street I saw looked really inviting so I headed that way.  They have heaters setup along the sidewalk to warm folks as they walk along.

Time to contribute to the local economy.  I always like to try to a local beer.

St Ambroise IPA.  Perfect.

It was getting late to time to find my way back to my hotel.

Day turned to dark but I did enjoy much of the drive in daylight, enough to see the trees beginning to turn into their fall colors.  Not nearly at peak, but it must be getting close.  
My GPS safely guided me to the Hilton in downtown Quebec City.   Like many hotels in major cities you have to pay for parking and valet tends to be the way to go.  I was ready to get out of the car after a day of flying and a 3 hour drive.  I had used a corporate rate to get a pretty good deal because like many downtown hotels rates can get up there.  Not only that it was the Thanksgiving weekend for Canada so rates were already up.  I had thought about staying in a hotel out of the city and driving in the next day but I'm glad I stayed downtown.  

I was upgraded to a corner room with 270° views.
My room on the 16th floor:




The Brice building on the left has an apartment for the Premier of Quebec on the highest floor.  The Chateaux Frontenac is also a dominant structure on the right.  They both tower over the rest of the old city below them.  


Quebec City is the seat of the Provincial Capitol and I had a great view of Parliament buildings.

Great history in Quebec City which was established in 1608 by the French.  Britain would later win the area in a famous battle in the 1700s.   In 1867 the Country of Canada was born and Quebec City has remained Canadian since.
 Time to hit the streets and walk around a bit.

Day 0 - Pre-cruise travel to embarkation port
Landing in Montreal (YUL airport) after connecting in New York (JFK airport) and I was on the ground at 4pm.  YUL airport is a major international gateway airport for Canada and we arrived on our little regional jet from JFK in the shadow of some much bigger planes from around the world.  That meant Canadian customs would be busy, and it was.  However they have rows and rows of kiosks where you enter you details, swipe your passport and it went pretty quickly.  By 4:30pm I had my luggage and was walking through the parking.
I have a confession to make.  My decision to fly into Montreal was somewhat influenced by a desire to get my hands on a favorite of mine - Montreal wood fired sesame seed bagels.  After getting my rental car I punched the address into the GPS and within 20 minutes I was spilling sesame seeds all over my rental car.  Three down and I hadn't even left the bagel store parking yet.

Day 0 dinner complete and enough left over for breakfast in the morning, I began the nearly 3 hour drive to Quebec City.  Word of warning - in the province of Quebec turning right on a red light was illegal for a long time.  They have relaxed that but on the island of Montreal it remains illegal to turn right on a red light. 

I came across this cruise by accident and saw a decent fare for 13 nights on a recently refreshed ship so I had a YOLO moment and booked it.
This is a repositioning cruise, part of Adventure's migration from Bayonne, NJ (her summer home port) to Ft. Lauderdale (her winter home port).
Day 1 - Quebec City
Day 2 - Quebec City
Day 3 - Sea
Day 4 - Charlottetown, PEI
Day 5 - Sydney, Nova Scotia
Day 6 - Halifax, Nova Scotia
Day 7 - Saint John,  New Brunswick
Day 8 - Bar Harbor, Maine
Day 9 - Portland, Maine
Day 10 - Boston, MA
Day 11 - Sea
Day 12 - Sea
Day 13 - Canaveral, FL
Day 14 - Ft. Lauderdale, FL
I had a hard time finding decently price flights with decent times directly into Quebec City so I looked at Montreal and found a much cheaper flight.  Adding a car rental and it was still cheaper plus I could fly first class less than coach to Quebec City so I jumped at it.  
No excursions booked, just going to wing it and work some days.  
This cruise starts with an overnight in place at Quebec City.  That is actually a really great way to start because Quebec City is a wonderful old city with great history.  While you could fly in days earlier you would have hotel and meals to cover so this way the ship is my hotel and meals are included.  
Cruising solo the fact I'll get 26 points in the C&A loyalty program wasn't lost on me.  For some folks that takes 3 or 4 cruises to achieve.  That also propels me to the point I'll get a glass block on Symphony on my next cruise.  YOLO!

Day 3 - Dinner
MDR Menu

I ate in the Windjammer - Italian Night.
We've entered a dead satellite coverage zone.

Some channels continued to work such as BBC News and The Weather Channel that is temporarily available while Hurricane Michael is in play.  Royal worked out a deal with it's TV provider Global Eagle and The Weather Channel to allow this channel, not normally part of the TV channel lineup, to be available on some ships (according to James Van Fleet, Royal's in-house Chief Meteorologist).   
Our progress and location where satellite coverage is absent.

I checked out the Las Vegas Tenors in the main theater, pub singer, Schooner Bar piano player and the silent disco in the Viking Crown Lounge which was surprisingly well attended.   
After that it was time for bed.

If I keep this up much longer I won't be allowed on the water slide.

Day 3 - Midday
Here from near the center of the Gulf of St. Lawrence I wandered around and grabbed some more photos.

Following seas from the 20 knot tail wind makes for very smooth sailing with little wind on the helipad.

There was a request for some Sports Deck photos so here they are.  Starting with mini-golf at Adventure Dunes.




 
This is a two level mini-golf that starts on deck 13 and ends on deck 12.

I talked to the sports deck crew and they don't operate the flowrider or slides below approximately 10°C or 50°F.  Since we are right on that bubble they are currently closed.  They call to the bridge who advises them on weather and they make a call go/no-go.





Main pool deck.



Time for lunch at Cafe Promenade.  Noted a pulled pork BBQ special.

Updated pizza selections.


A couple of turkey sandwiches, a slice of BBQ chicken pizza and a pulled pork BBQ sandwich.  All were quite tasty.  I'm ready for a nap.

Meanwhile, back in my cabin...

Captain's noon announcement - temps of 49° F with a high of 52° F today.  Ocean temp. is 48° F.  Winds are near 30 mph but from our port aft side so a following wind.  Currently 5' swells which I can't feel at all in my cabin.  
He did address our future rendezvous with tropical storm Michael (what it will be when we come closest).  Based on predictions we will be 150 nm from the storm and that will occur after our day in Halifax.  Keep in mind that Michael will lose a lot of it's strength as it crosses land.  It won't be a hurricane when it approaches nearest to Adventure.  It will be a very different storm compared to what it is right now.
Based on predictions and the wind-field that the NHC is forecasting, winds will be 5-10 miles per hour, possibly 10-20 miles per hour.  That's not a concern, right now we have 30 mile per hour winds.  
I expect we will have some swell to deal with.  I'm not overly concerned with that based on current predictions.  
The only question is forecast prediction.  This far out and after a collision with land, the storm could track differently than predicted.  Only time will tell but I trust in that they will keep us safe even if we have a bumpy ride for a short spell.  

Elevator upgrades are underway.  They are manufactured by Kone, a big name in the elevator industry.  They have Kone employees on board doing the upgrades.  I saw this on Mariner a few weeks ago as well.
Old elevator signs are being replaced.

New indicators are bigger and easier to read.  My guess is that there is more to this upgrade than just signage.  I'm betting old control systems are being modernized and newer controls will allow intelligent adaptations to respond to peak times and other such things. 

Spotted a ship in the distance.  It's the Oceania Insignia out of New York.  

There is also some work being done on the ping pong tables.

Slides and flowrider are closed despite the cruise compass times listing them as open.  It is pretty cold out there.


Despite the cool temperature it's a beautiful day.

 

The issue is that the ship might not cross the line of the time zone boundary at 2am exactly.  In this case the Province of Quebec which extends East above parts of Newfoundland is in the Eastern time zone while Nova Scotia (somewhat South and partly West of our position) is in the Atlantic time zone.  Time zones do not follow absolute North-South lines.   
If I let technology figure this out my phone would think Eastern time is appropriate based on cell signal from Quebec.  Yet the ship is on Atlantic time.  For this reason I manually put my phone onto the ship time.

Day 3 - Sea Day 
Our progress so far has us entering the Gulf of St Lawrence and beginning to make the turn South-East.  



At 22.5 knots we have to be pretty near full speed ahead.  The ship is very smooth though.

I noticed on the card left with the D+ Champagne the voyage number is 888.  I wonder if this is the 888th sailing of Adventure?

We changed times last night, we are now on Atlantic time.

The Northern shore of the Gaspe Bay Peninsula.

Voom is non-existent.  I've ventured up to the Viking Crown Lounge to eek out a small 3G signal from the tip of Quebec to write this.

Day 3 - Dinner
MDR Menu

I ate in the Windjammer - Italian Night.
We've entered a dead satellite coverage zone.

Some channels continued to work such as BBC News and The Weather Channel that is temporarily available while Hurricane Michael is in play.  Royal worked out a deal with it's TV provider Global Eagle and The Weather Channel to allow this channel, not normally part of the TV channel lineup, to be available on some ships (according to James Van Fleet, Royal's in-house Chief Meteorologist).   
Our progress and location where satellite coverage is absent.

I checked out the Las Vegas Tenors in the main theater, pub singer, Schooner Bar piano player and the silent disco in the Viking Crown Lounge which was surprisingly well attended.   
After that it was time for bed.

If I keep this up much longer I won't be allowed on the water slide.

Day 3 - Dinner
MDR Menu

I ate in the Windjammer - Italian Night.
We've entered a dead satellite coverage zone.

Some channels continued to work such as BBC News and The Weather Channel that is temporarily available while Hurricane Michael is in play.  Royal worked out a deal with it's TV provider Global Eagle and The Weather Channel to allow this channel, not normally part of the TV channel lineup, to be available on some ships (according to James Van Fleet, Royal's in-house Chief Meteorologist).   
Our progress and location where satellite coverage is absent.

I checked out the Las Vegas Tenors in the main theater, pub singer, Schooner Bar piano player and the silent disco in the Viking Crown Lounge which was surprisingly well attended.   
After that it was time for bed.

Day 3 - Dinner
MDR Menu

I ate in the Windjammer - Italian Night.
We've entered a dead satellite coverage zone.

Some channels continued to work such as BBC News and The Weather Channel that is temporarily available while Hurricane Michael is in play.  Royal worked out a deal with it's TV provider Global Eagle and The Weather Channel to allow this channel, not normally part of the TV channel lineup, to be available on some ships (according to James Van Fleet, Royal's in-house Chief Meteorologist).   
Our progress and location where satellite coverage is absent.

I checked out the Las Vegas Tenors in the main theater, pub singer, Schooner Bar piano player and the silent disco in the Viking Crown Lounge which was surprisingly well attended.   
After that it was time for bed.

Day 3 - Dinner
MDR Menu

I ate in the Windjammer - Italian Night.
We've entered a dead satellite coverage zone.

Some channels continued to work such as BBC News and The Weather Channel that is temporarily available while Hurricane Michael is in play.  Royal worked out a deal with it's TV provider Global Eagle and The Weather Channel to allow this channel, not normally part of the TV channel lineup, to be available on some ships (according to James Van Fleet, Royal's in-house Chief Meteorologist).   
Our progress and location where satellite coverage is absent.

I checked out the Las Vegas Tenors in the main theater, pub singer, Schooner Bar piano player and the silent disco in the Viking Crown Lounge which was surprisingly well attended.   
After that it was time for bed.

Day 3 - Dinner
MDR Menu

I ate in the Windjammer - Italian Night.
We've entered a dead satellite coverage zone.

Some channels continued to work such as BBC News and The Weather Channel that is temporarily available while Hurricane Michael is in play.  Royal worked out a deal with it's TV provider Global Eagle and The Weather Channel to allow this channel, not normally part of the TV channel lineup, to be available on some ships (according to James Van Fleet, Royal's in-house Chief Meteorologist).   
Our progress and location where satellite coverage is absent.

I checked out the Las Vegas Tenors in the main theater, pub singer, Schooner Bar piano player and the silent disco in the Viking Crown Lounge which was surprisingly well attended.   
After that it was time for bed.

If I keep this up much longer I won't be allowed on the water slide.

Here are the pool, baby pool and splashaway slide rules
General pool rules for all:

Baby Splash Zone:

Splashaway Bay Waterslide Rules

I recall the pre-revitalization naysayers all claiming doom and gloom before she went in for her dry dock.  With those seeds planted, glass-half-empty minded folks will find everything they were determined to find before they boarded.
In reality, it represents somewhere around a 5% difference.  All ships seem crowded during the muster drill, yet the naysayers will claim it was never like that before.  All ships have crowded elevators when the main theater lets out, yet the naysayers will claim it's only that way now.  All ships have lines at times, all bars (even on land) have a small wait at times, yet the naysayers...
In a recent 'Captain's Corner' where guests can ask questions one cruiser voiced his dismay they shrunk the cabins to fit more in.  He was convinced they moved all the walls and made existing cabins smaller.  You could not convince him otherwise.  They never did that.  In a few places that used to be open space they have added some new cabins and in so doing they raised the total cabin count.  Yet this man was convinced all cabins had shrunk.  They have welded metal walls, it would be impossible to do what he claimed, moving all the walls, electrical and plumbing would require gutting the whole ship.  It would be cheaper to build a new ship.
Years ago ships didn't sail full.  Years ago airplanes didn't fly full either.  That's all changed in this day and age.  There are a lot of unhappy cruisers who are convinced their negative review will cause the cruise lines to re-think everything they don't like, right or wrong.  Not long ago the internet and cruise ship reviews didn't exist.  Like watching the evening news it's easy to find the bad in things while there is plenty of good as well, but we have to look harder to find it despite it being right in front of us.
I have sailed all the Freedom class ships including including Indy just before her upgrades and very soon after Libery after she received new cabins (I stayed in one).  I didn't notice any difference despite "all those extra people on board"  (including me).
Seek and you will find, but that works both ways.  

If I keep this up much longer I won't be allowed on the water slide.

I recall the pre-revitalization naysayers all claiming doom and gloom before she went in for her dry dock.  With those seeds planted, glass-half-empty minded folks will find everything they were determined to find before they boarded.
In reality, it represents somewhere around a 5% difference.  All ships seem crowded during the muster drill, yet the naysayers will claim it was never like that before.  All ships have crowded elevators when the main theater lets out, yet the naysayers will claim it's only that way now.  All ships have lines at times, all bars (even on land) have a small wait at times, yet the naysayers...
In a recent 'Captain's Corner' where guests can ask questions one cruiser voiced his dismay they shrunk the cabins to fit more in.  He was convinced they moved all the walls and made existing cabins smaller.  You could not convince him otherwise.  They never did that.  In a few places that used to be open space they have added some new cabins and in so doing they raised the total cabin count.  Yet this man was convinced all cabins had shrunk.  They have welded metal walls, it would be impossible to do what he claimed, moving all the walls, electrical and plumbing would require gutting the whole ship.  It would be cheaper to build a new ship.
Years ago ships didn't sail full.  Years ago airplanes didn't fly full either.  That's all changed in this day and age.  There are a lot of unhappy cruisers who are convinced their negative review will cause the cruise lines to re-think everything they don't like, right or wrong.  Not long ago the internet and cruise ship reviews didn't exist.  Like watching the evening news it's easy to find the bad in things while there is plenty of good as well, but we have to look harder to find it despite it being right in front of us.
I have sailed all the Freedom class ships including including Indy just before her upgrades and very soon after Libery after she received new cabins (I stayed in one).  I didn't notice any difference despite "all those extra people on board"  (including me).
Seek and you will find, but that works both ways.  

If I keep this up much longer I won't be allowed on the water slide.