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@kazu we have never been PG fans and not for lack of trying. 3 ships, 3 dinners and 1 lunch and all sub-standard from what I would expect. Even after our vow renewal it was embarrassing service and running out of food. On Westerdam DH and I arrived for our reservation only to bypass open tables to be seated in a side room with a group of at least 12-18 people at a large table. We couldn’t speak as we couldn’t hear each other. We couldn’t even hear the waiter but they wouldn’t move us until I said we would forgo dessert as it was such an unpleasant environment.

Almost to Toronto @kazu! That blackness is Lake Erie.

I see the flight is scheduled to leave at 5:20. That’s a long delay but better than yesterday when the flight was cancelled. I wonder what’s going on as the weather is perfect at YYZ. Maybe it’s the pilots making a statement? Sorry you are caught in whatever it is.

Hope the motion of the ocean isn’t so bad that you are all sea sick!

These are the tiny crackers we floated in our soup as a child. But they stopped selling them in Canada decades ago…or at least in Quebec and Ontario. I bought a box in Buffalo, NY years ago when my two were little. As someone said, they are not crackers for eating with cheese as they are pillow shaped and hollow in the middle. I see you have replied twice. Sorry I hadn’t seen the prior post regarding oyster crackers.

I hope so, but the official ETIAS website still says 2024. It’s best everyone with trips planned to keep checking. https://travel-europe.europa.eu/etias/faqs-etias_en

Yes, beginning January 1, 2024 US, Canada, Australia plus many other non European citizens will require an Electronic Travel Authorization (ETIAS) to enter most European countries.

I thought these pictures taken of the cathedral in Rouen from our river cruise in 2019 may help since you had a misty day. We spent 2 days there before moving to Honfleur and spending another 2 days. The second tower is called the butter tower and was completed centuries after the first…by taxing butter. The inside is amazing and some windows did survive.

Thanks for including us in your adventure. Great upgrade that I would have jumped on too!

Happy Thanksgiving to all Canadians onboard! I caved and turned on the furnace this morning as our high is only 7 and no sun in sight for 3-4 days. It has been snowing not too far away so the furnace may just stay on for the next 7 months. Hopefully it isn’t chilly in Normandy and you are enjoying a beautiful day in a beautiful region of France.

My goodness, thank you for telling me people like the tote bag. Paris isn’t far off as the floral border is a French velvet ribbon. Glad the hotel has cleared up the missing tub! Now what happened to the luggage elevator? Bon Voyage tomorrow and enjoy!

Your room looks very nice and comfortable. Next time (being optimistic) you will know to request a room with a tub. Love your tote bag too 😉 and glad you find it useful. That community for women over 60 is a marvellous idea and wish it was widely adopted.

That’s a brutal layover and I truly hope it is uneventful. Settle in to a comfortable spot in the lounge and rest.

I appreciate that and wish I could still drive on highways as I would come and visit you at Pearson.

Our first river cruise was on the Seine with Scenic for 11 days. We loved it! We were told by someone before we booked that since the Seine isn’t land locked as it connects to the English Channel, low water is not an issue. We chose Scenic because it was a longer itinerary, it went to the WWI Somme battlefields and we spent overnight in Honfleur.

I’ll be following along Kazu as our weather takes a dive. Thanks for the name of the chocolate shop in Bruges as I will try to find it in April when we go on the river cruise. Bon Voyage!

We cruised Scenic pre-pandemic so not sure what, if anything has changed. There was a minibar filled with our choice and when we used something it was replaced. That included chocolate, chips, some other edibles that I can’t remember as well as beverages (alcoholic and non-alcoholic).

Thank you for posting about your cruise. It is bringing back such marvellous memories as this itinerary and boat was our first experience with river cruising in 2019. I am very interested in what, if anything has changed post Covid so I thank you for your observations. We are on scenic again in April 2024 for Tulip trip.

Yes. Chef Lynn Crawford and chef Lora Kirk.

I never thought of that! Lynn Crawford has worked in the US too. The other chef is Lora Kirk. It will add a nice dynamic to the week.

I thought it may be helpful to others to follow up on this topic. It took over 3 months but we finally discovered what happened to our booked (and paid in full) Scenic Tulip Time and Belgium Delights river cruise next April which was removed from the itinerary within 2 days after paying. It has been turned into a culinary experience cruise with two Canadian chefs on board. My travel agent forwarded a letter from Scenic yesterday that informed us of the shift; said the itinerary would remain the same but a few specific food related activities have been added that we would be welcome to join. They also offered to move us without penalty and with all promotions if we wanted to shift to another 2024 date. For the record, we are thrilled. If we hadn’t paid in full we may have cancelled as our only experience was group bookings on cruise ships which is what I assumed this was. Patience paid off!

It will be an interesting comparison and I’m sure you will just love it, especially docking in Hornfleur for 2 nights. I think as a first river cruise it was a wonderful itinerary. We fell in love with Normandy. Sorry to hear about your heart challenges and I truly wish you the best

I just read your review too and really enjoyed it. We took our first river cruise on Scenic for 11 nights on the Seine in 2019 and got hooked. We are doing a tulip time in April. I hope you enjoyed the HAL cruise that followed.

This topic is very interesting to me. Being based in Canada, the big US based agencies offer wonderful incentives but the exchange rate is a killer. I used to book ocean cruises with one person who came highly recommended by other cruisers and she would book in US or Canadian dollars but her follow up service was astonishing (read that as blistering emails to us because it was a Sunday and she deserved her day off but we were on a cruise and other fellow cruisers told me to reach out as we were getting off in less than 48 hours). As a result I booked our first river cruise. But then booked our second with a national bricks and mortar agency…then covid. Now our booking has been transferred to an online agent, the bricks and mortar agency is now a wings restaurant, and my original agent is nowhere to be found. The virtual agent only responds to booking requests, no questions. I have to reach out to her to do anything, like booking flights or hotels. I’m not happy and would go back to doing it myself as convincing someone that I have a real question that needs attention is causing me too much stress.