whitsmom

I am one to always want a balcony regardless of the temperature (it's one of my favorite places on all ships).  If it's cold, I dress accordingly and still go out there; however, I might not stay as long as I would if it weren't cold.  We did an Alaska cruise and it was chilly but that didn't stop me from enjoying the balcony.  The views will be unbelievable I am sure.
For the price difference, it is worth it for me but I'm sure there are those who wouldn't think it was.

Welcome to the boards!
Give Royal a call and they can apply the gift cards to your half of the fare. They are used to the split billing thing so you won't have any issues. The gift cards themselves can be a bit tricky to use which I why I recommend calling. Enjoy your cruise!

We use something similar; however, I do take a picture of my hubby's prescription bottles just in case.  I have never been asked but there is always that first time.

I have no problem with once a day service.  I agree with clean, dry towels and empty the trash cans.  It will still be more than what you get with some hotels. 

We use something similar; however, I do take a picture of my hubby's prescription bottles just in case.  I have never been asked but there is always that first time.

Once a day is fine for me as long as I have clean towels before I want to shower and the trash emptied.  I make my bed as soon as we get up anyway; however, I do want ice in the morning plus some for my wine bucket.  I will request (if I can) that I get my single daily service in the morning sometime.  Hopefully on day one they will introduce themself and I can get my request in or find out where I can ice myself.  We aren't high maintenance so if I can get it myself, then I have no issues with that.

We use something similar; however, I do take a picture of my hubby's prescription bottles just in case.  I have never been asked but there is always that first time.

Our cruise ends at Quebec City on October 30th; however, we cannot stay longer due to work (not retiring for a couple more years) and we are flying to Germany on December 3rd for 11 days of Europe Christmas Markets and etc with friends.  I have a car rental reservation and our flight out of Montreal is 6:30 pm so we can take our time getting to the airport and enjoy lunch somewhere along the way. 

I reserved a car with Hertz (thru Delta) so we will just walk off early with our luggage.  I got a flight out of Montreal after 6 pm so we can take our time getting to the airport and have a little time to enjoy the day and have lunch somewhere.
Now that we have finally got all this part settled and booked our excursions on sale last night - I can now relax.
This trip was a replacement for the one that COVID cancelled and they changed it to be a one-way.  Originally, the one we had booked was a loop and on a different ship. 

If your going to drive, one question I'd ask is Parlez-vous Francais? If not I'd take Via or stick to the Trans Canada Highway and familiarize yourself with the traffic laws.When I lived up in Ottawa, in Hull (across the river) at the time there was no turning right on red, there was no actual sign saying you couldn't turn, you just had to know.
https://www.quebec.ca/en/transports/circulation-securite-routiere/regles-conseils-vehicules/traffic-rules-intersections/turning-right-red-light

I took the ViaRail train from Toronto to Vancouver.  I LOVED IT!  I think you will enjoy taking the ViaRail.  They run 4 trains a day.  The cost will run about $84 to $300 per person (interesting fact that right now Business is cheaper than Economy Plus).  Warning - all fares has a limit on the amount of luggage. 
I would recommend that you give ViaRail a try.  Good luck!

I can tell you that there is a train station right at the airport in Montreal. I've attached a link for the train service for your convenience.
https://www.viarail.ca/en?gclid=Cj0KCQiAxbefBhDfARIsAL4XLRrqxAjGa2lx7137RLCSfiE3OI3TV2X5cOwE0hEf3GTk00c31LHaiO8aArgLEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
 

I am not sure it would be worth travelling hours to another airport to use a particular airline?!
 
It defn would cost more to do that, so there would be no savings. Plus the extra time required.  In all likelihood there would be an overnight  stay probably required as well.

Transportation is going to be more expensive than in the US, more limited and defn not as convenient as you maybe used to when travelling in and out of the USA. 

Driving is about three hours. You can google "Montreal car service" and there are plenty of options to take you even as far as Quebec (or, in this case, a pickup in Quebec), but since it is a three hour drive, expect it to me...expensive. No idea what exactly, but I imagine several hundred dollars each way. 
There is a bus that can get you from Quebec city center to Montreal airport with a change of bus in Montreal city center. Much cheaper, but of course it's a bus so...not as comfortable. I have no experience with it personally. Also no personal experience with the train between those two cities. 
I think this is a case where you need to analyze which is more important - loyalty to Delta, or ease of flying out of Quebec. No right or wrong answer, but only you can determine. I have a massive loyalty to American Airlines/OneWorld, but there are some times where I just need to suck it up and fly someone else once in a while for ease. 
 

I like to tip  a little bit extra just to put a smile on someone's face. 

I always prepay the gratuities and then give cash directly to those we feel helped make our vacation even better.  I would never remove the gratuities that we prepaid; however, the extra will depend on the service we receive.   

I'll start off by saying I always auto pay my gratuities, I just consider it part of the cruise fare.  I would never have them removed.  Then I will tip extra cash to the wait staff, room attendant, bartenders as I go, blah blah.  I've never really had bad service on a cruise.  However, tipping culture and expectations have gotten way out of hand in the US.  I get waiters and waitresses, they have to be tipped.  With inflation driving up the cost of your average restaurant tab though, along with 20% being the new minimum tip, most servers are doing just fine. They are making no where near the minimum wage.  So we need to dispel the myth that anyone working as a waiter or waitress is barely making ends meet because of their job.  That said, we need to go back to tipping being for a service provided that exceeds expectations.  The Dunkin Donuts worker handing me coffee at the drive thru window doesn't need to be tipped.  They really can't exceed the expected service level.  Same goes for the majority of other positions that now have tip jars and gratuity options on payment screens.  Another cruise related one is luggage porters, I throw them a few bucks mostly because I feel like I am supposed to, and so they don't "accidentally" leave my bag off the cart because I didn't tip them. But in reality, them taking my bags from me and putting them on a cart to take to the ship is their only job. There is nothing they can really do to exceed that expected service level.  So I kind of feel like I shouldn't have to tip for that, even though I do.  At the end of the day though, I won't let an extra $50 or $100 in tips negatively affect my $10,000 vacation.         

I always prepay the gratuities and then give cash directly to those we feel helped make our vacation even better.  I would never remove the gratuities that we prepaid; however, the extra will depend on the service we receive.   

I always prepay the gratuities and then give cash directly to those we feel helped make our vacation even better.  I would never remove the gratuities that we prepaid; however, the extra will depend on the service we receive.   

I always prepay the gratuities and then give cash directly to those we feel helped make our vacation even better.  I would never remove the gratuities that we prepaid; however, the extra will depend on the service we receive.   

It depends.  You can stand in line and wait, and we observed (when we had My Time Dining reservations), that the stand-by line moved quickly.  Practices vary from ship to ship.  Frankly, I'd recommend you commit to an early dining time (traditional) because once you've located your table, you simply proceed to it each evening without waiting (unless the doors are closed because you are too early).  Your back-up plan would be to eat at the WJ or other venue should you miss the traditional seating.

The I.T. Intern strikes again
 
 

 

You put your left foot in, you take your left foot out, you put....No wait that's the hokey pokey. LOL

1pm on a sea day

This was exactly why I like to cruise - same room/unpack once.  No complaints with the excursions as those were all excellent.  It was just not having clean towels before 4:00-5:00 pm daily!  We were on excursions every day so we were out of our cabin for most all day so there was no excuse.  I always make my bed anyway so all I require is clean towels and empty the trash.