Catlover54

SB SWAG, little gifts: When we returned to our suite, we found these odd 'swag' gifts -- eyeglass cloths with a SB logo: Other swag that we have received during the cruise is a zippered tote bag with the SB logo (the same that has been given out for several years, it is very practical for beach towels or as a day pack if you have not already brought one, and the zipper always works): Also, in The Restaurant a few days ago, when I tried to hang my purse over the edge of a rounded chair edge and it would not hold, I put it on the floor. A female supervisorial staff person then kindly came to me and gifted me this very practical purse hook: you put the metal hook part on your purse strap to hold it up, and then the round part that says SB gets put on the table. This helps keep the purse off the floor (and of course out of the servers' way). (It looks a little like handcuffs but trust me they are not, SB is not that kinky) Plus, every night after turndown service, we get these tasty Swiss chocolates bites left on the pillow (pre-Covid there were bigger ones, but I suspect management realized guests were just piling them up and taking them home to their grandkids)

On the UP side today (other than the port/nature tour which we both loved): 1. Singer/piano player/ artist Jo Rochel did her 2nd show and it was very strong and creative, with an interesting potpourri of songs. She has a VERY strong voice with a wide range, and I am so glad she is singing again and no longer having to drive a delivery truck due to Covid, like she did for 18 months.. 2. The laundry had lost two of my pairs of favorite unique trousers early in the cruise -- but when I pursued trying to locate them, they found them!!! Yay, service follow-up success. The assistant Helene in SB Square is cool, calm, and collected and sincerely tried to resolve some accounting issues that needed clarifying -- with success. She has to redirect many things to different departments. On my pre-Covid cruises, I liked the SB Square personnel a lot because they seemed to be able to do almost everything, including dealing with excursions, but that has changed, things are more centralized. 3. We secured a nature excursion through SB for tomorrow in beautiful unscheduled Gaspe (though I'd been getting spoiled sleeping in late, this excursion is very early, so it will be a special challenge -- however, that means ordering room service again 😳 🙂 !!! 4. We are sailing at a good clip, trying to make up time we lost avoiding some whales, where we had to slow down. I love the feel of swaying while sleeping at sea.

(Havre St. Pierre, excursion): a delightful boreal forest and assorted flora highlighted the gorgeous walk after tendering and another boat ride

The assigned beverage waiter first offered us the same pinot noir from yesterday DH had tried and sent back as a "beautiful wine" selected for the day, and we told him we were actually interested in the pairing wines. He then said he would send a sommelier. He sent a woman who is apparently in training, (hair poorly combed and in her face, mask way under her nose, looking very unhappy, and clearly unsure what to do). She looked at the pairing menu in confusion, stated the obvious, (e.g., namely, that the pairing wines listed were premium and not complimentary), and then asked us *which* of the wines we would like with our meal. DH tried to explained that we were interested in the *pairing sequence*, and not just a whole bottle of one of the premium wines (which were not even priced individually on the pairing menu, there was just one price of $195) , to go with the multicourse meal. I asked how large the wine pours would be , e.g., if they would be 2 ounzes (common with complex pairings) , 3 ounzes, or what (or what they would be in cc)? She said she'd have to "get the sommelier" (which we thought she was supposed to be). And send him she did! You could actually smell him coming from 30 feet away! He was a pleasant enthusiastic young man, but wearing an overwhelming amount of very fragrant sickly sweet aftershave that frankly did not pair well at all with the wines or the foods that were eventually brought. So every time he came over for a new pour, or to see if we were enjoying our pairings, DH and I had to restrain ourselves from gagging and for the first time on any cruise since we restarted cruising summer 2021, we missed not wearing an N95 mask (though that probably would not have done the trick -- given the intensity of the aftershave we would have needed something closer to a hazmat suit). We both hoped the somm would just stop talking in detail about the wines he brought each time, and leave as soon as possible. This was especially true since he was giving us very primitive information anyway and really not catching on to repeated statements and attempts at conversation by DH that would have, at least to a better trained somm who was paying attention, indicated he was dealing with a guest who is not a novice to wine, so wine baby talk should have been avoided. He just had his simple bit to say and was going to recite it no matter what. He also dropped an empty glass on the floor , spilled a half full glass, and struggled with the Coravin style volume allocator he was using, and landed up spraying wine droplets all over the inside of the glass all the way to the top, thus disrupting the aesthetics of what could have been a beautiful glass with a couple ounzes of beautifully colored wines towards the bottom. There did not appear to be very many people who ordered the pairing -- in our section of the room, looking around at about 40 guests, there were none. This morning, a busy-appearing staff man came in with the room service tray, plopped it on the side table, said "enjoy your breakfast", and quickly left -- no set-up, no checking for completeness. Tonight dinner service was worse as it also affected the food (I will skip the absurd details, they are too ridiculous). We then had a talk with the maitre'D. At first he acted as if it was news to him that there are service or staffing problems . Then (while wearing his mask well below his nose, as do many staff ) he finally admitted that 12 chefs are out with Covid and there are many new staff in training (including the faux assistant lady somm from last night -- this is actually her first cruise). We told him that though we appreciate the challenges of Covid, we have done multiple luxury cruises on other ships (all but one luxury) *since Covid*, and at least in our experience, the dining room and other service has somehow managed to be better. He apologized and stated he appreciates the feedback (including about the aftershave!). I felt a bit sorry for him, as there is so much he can do with the money and staff he is given, especially when pax won't say anything (perhaps because they're happy just to be going anywhere right now).

Day 10, Friday, September 30, Havre Saint Pierre We had a beautiful day, sunny, windy and crisp, for pax to explore the nearby islands, after tendering into port. We thoroughly enjoyed the day. More on that later. Update on dining service challenges: After DH's ongoing unhappiness in the Restaurant with service (NOT with the food), he had gone to TK to try and find any slot, any remaining day of the cruise, so we could dine there again. He was told all was filled up, and he is not interested in continuing to chase them as there are many pax doing the same and doing this just increases stress. So, last night we went to the multicourse "Chef's Dinner" in The Restaurant, (the menu was presented on a scroll (hard to photograph, would need a total of six hands). The venue was open as of 6:30, (not 7) which was good, as this allowed a jump start for a hungry DH to make up for his unhappy night before. We knew many people would be flooding in after the 6:30 SB frequent cruisers, and/or comped cruisers from Crystal equivalents, get-together. We skipped that because it seemed over half the ship was lined up to get into the Salon auditorium for the event (so if everyone is special. . .). On the table was a list of five special courses being offered. The waiter explained the portions would be small, and that there was an option for a high end wine pairing for another $195 pp, designed to go with the courses:

Not to us

Day 8, (Thursday, 9/29), Sept-Iles ("Seven Islands"), another substitute port, (which does not get very many cruise tourists), on another beautiful day: View for walking from the ship was not too promising: Nothing was posted about excursions here on SB Source by the time we went to dinner the night before ( we had checked it several times in the day once the internet was back up) . We had also tried earlier to call SB Square via guest services, while on the go, for information to plan our day, but no one answered (recording told us how busy and sorry they are , and we were unable to leave a message for call back ). We had rushed to ready ourselves for the pool party and dinner, and when we stopped by SB Square after dinner, no one was there and the SB Source still had nothing posted. Then we later found out there were two excursions, offered very late, one of which was already booked up within less than two hours of posting. It also turned out, per DH who inquired today when he saw "mystery bus" pulling away at an unscheduled time , that two other tours had been offered but were "instantly full" so were never shown on SB Source (e.g., DH found out a local farm tour could "only hold 10 people" -- and 10 people had already somehow been booked -- unclear how they were able to know about it and do so, when it was never made electronically available to the general Quest SB Source public.) Communication to the general guest public could be much better from Destination Services, especially on a cruise with many rescheduled ports where extra effort is required. Reliance on haphazard and unreliable electronic communications via SB Source, especially with spotty internet (or on word of mouth) is not ideal on a luxury cruise, even post hurricane avoidance. Destinations desk in SB Square also has had no hours sign posted. They are supposedly open 7am, before things get going, then close when morning tours start. Then the main opening time is supposedly 4-6 PM, when you can come find out about excursions when you see nothing offered on SB Source (which is typical). No maps of the area were posted, and no one was available to give DH any information. We had already researched online attempting excursions on our own (there is a nature park with hiking trails 6 miles away). But local transportation is an issue in this town with limited tourist infrastructure. So, after a Colonnade "Greek" lunch of unadorned meat on a stick with a side of salad and rice, this became a good day for DH to finally get his first long-postponed massage, and he will not likely have a photo fix today! 🙂 Entertainment offered later: Trivia is offered at 4 with CDs JP and Aimee (we don't usually do that, especially with Covid, but I know many like it). British tea is at 4 No enrichment lecture but you can do yoga and learn about pearls. The main show will be DETROIT CITY SOUNDS, Motown. Tomorrow we will be in Havre-Sainte-Pierre, and the excursion we had originally scheduled will be done then, just on a different schedule. We have another substitute port in 2 days, Gaspe, October 1, and still no excursions are posted on SB Source, so we will have to be more aggressive in figuring out something out to do there in advance.

After sailing out of Baei-Comeau last night, and the sailaway party, we once again ate in The Restaurant (the Colonnade offered a Thai night, which has not at all inspired us or some recent reviewers), but it was early and post-pool party, so we expected service not to be the best due to the strain on staff (we were right). But as before, we found the food to be very good. Though food is to a great degree subjective, we liked the chicken cassoulet appetizer, the chef's salmon special (I don't think I've had a bad salmon entree on SB), and the truffle risotto with (or without) poached egg. The service, though confused (e.g., refilling the wrong glasses with the wrong fluids, right hand not knowing what the left was doing etc., and perhaps also problems due to some language and/or masks muffling and blocking sounds in the noisy venue), was *always* friendly. I have yet to deal with a rude SB staff member, which I have unfortunately periodically encountered on other luxury lines, including Crystal and ultraluxury Hapag Lloyd. There were several people involved in our dining experience but the main problem is that no one was really paying attention to coordinate things. On top of that DH made the mistake of trying an included pinot that tasted as if it likely had been sitting out all day (if not more) and was simply undrinkable, which soured his experience, and I was poured flat Pelligrino. After some discussion and delays, DH managed to get a decent substitute included red so he could finish what was left of his meal, and I managed to get an unopened bottle of sparkling water, to make sure it was not flat. All in, dinner overall was good enough for me (I was not very hungry, and didn't feel like wine, after the pool champagne party) though DH was not a happy camper. So we will look into going back to TK Grill on a day when we are very hungry and can do justice to the high food load.

DH thanks you for the complements 🙂

SB then followed through on the scheduled activities including the evening sailaway pool party with caviar and the house champagne ( or house vodka, if you preferred): The performers did mostly popular Broadway style standard songs, with a couple of opera arias tossed in.

We then spent some of the afternoon, which had turned gloriously sunny with a light breeze ( i.e., perfect walking weather), at a beautiful, rustic nature preserve, Point-aux -Outardes (40 minutes away by very tight school bus). But first, on the way, we were alerted to the presence of moose, and passed this one, fresh and delectably quartered, in a pickup:

Old factory: Children who visit the park had been asked to draw what they liked best about the park, and we were particularly impressed with this exuberant child's concept of the size, and of course importance, of ice cream cones:

. We also took a little side loop into the nearby woods to get additional views. DH was busy with his camera. I like to keep an eye out for birch trees

Day 7, Baie-Comeau This little "replacement" port, a former mid-20th century planned "company" industrial town (with hierarchical housing arrangements), turned out to be a pleasant surprise. We spent part of the morning walking around the old downtown after taking the school bus shuttle SB had arranged to get there. There was not too much superficially touristy stuff to see in the town itself this off time of year, though the history of the town is interesting in understanding how and why it became the way it is. The walk to/from port to the town is quite scenic, along an easy trail with a park that follows the sea, lined by quirky public art How many heads? Inside view from a tunnel of wooden art:

Thank you for correcting my Saguenay spelling Wendy! Sincere apologies for this and also in advance for other typos, grammar problems, butchered French phrases, and accidental duplicate picture postings. But I am happy that so far I have been lucky that no pictures have posted upside down, which has also happened to me in the past) 🙂 We are now docked in Baei-Comeau, next to Holland America's Zaandam. Pax and crew from both ships have been streaming off the ship to walk into the village 1.2 miles away (more about that later with some photos), or to take the school bus shuttle (much more comfortable than the prior school buses we have been on). There are also a couple excursions scheduled in the afternoon. We sail at 6. On the paper Herald I see the following scheduled for the evening: 5:45 Classical Caviar Sailaway (singers, caviar and champagne), poolside, weather permitting 6:30 A Conversation with Special Guest Speaker Colonel Gerald McCormack; Newfoundland and Labrador (I'm game to hear this, even though we are not in those areas) 6:30 cocktails and "guitar grooves with Carlos" in Observation Bar (this is a regular event) 8:45 jam session with The Trio (Club) 9:30 Jewelry (Hubert) viewing in Boutique 9:30 ** Citizen West* is the main Grand Salon entertainment, described as "Hot Hot Hot", Latin hits

This could have been a perfect time for the Louis XIII Sidecar for only $219: But DH and I were tired, so we settled on room service, despite its usual anticipated problems (e.g., bringing two instead of one of an entree we ordered, and forgetting two items etc.), accompanied by our own wine, which was definitely a bit cheaper 🙂

Then it was back to the school bus shuttle to return to the ship: I think Saguenoy would be a great place to visit on one's own, in summer, and in a car.

(More from Saguenoy yesterday): One of the stops was a small air defense museum: And of course there were churches, in various presentations: Old train fans could see and climb into this:

Viking Star continued to shadow us: People from Quest tendered and then headed off on school buses to the nature park, as the only official excursion, or they could DIY. The weather got a lot drizzlier. For those you did not take the school bus to the nature park in the afternoon after we arrived, and decided on DIY, businesses in the area the tender went to were almost all closed. Ueber had no cars available (off season). The only real alternative was to take a hop on and hop tour that spent a couple hours going around the area -- on a one-way school bus that would run every half hour. These were the potential stops: However, the bus full loop is 2 hours one way, so you dared not spend too much time at any of the potentially interesting stops or you would not be able to go all the way around in time to catch the tender back to the ship (we did not get in until 1 and having to tender let to about a 2PM start time on shore) The glass blowing stop was not blowing anything, but one could see the before and the after of how it works: There was also other local art: A teepee made of yield signs (!):

Then we had the slow, gradual, erie appearance of what turned out to be the Madonna, presumably looking out for our safety on the Quest:

Apologies for delayed updates about Saguenoy. We are now sailing to Baei-Comeau will be there soon Internet had been very poor all day yesterday in Saguenoy area (both our upgraded wifi and LTE) and unusable for posting, and died completely in our suite when we started sailing again in the evening 11PM, when it went out completely and stayed out. An announcement said it is due to hurricane in Miami. It pretty much stayed dead with error messages until now, though my phone continued to update emails coming in, slowly (even SB Souce would give assorted complex error messages or advice for me to "check back when you are on board" -- I'm glad I had my paper version). The day in Saguenoy (yesterday) started out grey, but fall colors were increasingly common. Courtesy DH:

Viking Star shadowed us ( she was near us in QC too) but got the dock. We got tenders. The weather changed quickly from blue patches to a grey weather for reading and eating soup ( or on DH’s case slogging in the area looking for photo ops)

IMG_0298.MOV Direction Saguenoy earlier:

Other posts on CC indicated Quest was in a dry dock in Genoe until July 2021. I don't know how often they do dry docks, but the ship does look clean and fresh, as opposed to like an old hotel with carpet spots etc. Crew were also painting parts of the outside the other day.