Spirit Review 10/9-10/23 (Long)

[ictcruiser]

My husband and I would like to do at least one week of this cruise but it will probably have to wait until 2011 as we are already planning two cruises for next year.

 

I'm very interested in reading your continued experiences.

[mrclean1]

Part 4

 

Saturday, October 17, Cruising the Saguenay Fjord

 

 

We slept late and were greeted by brilliant sunshine as we entered the Saguenay Fjord where we will be cruising for the day. There has been a pretty dramatic shift in the demographics for this second leg of our trip, the average age has probably dropped 20 years or more and there is much more activity on deck today, with many younger couples and even some small children. This afternoon, the Shanghai Bar was crowded with people watching the football games, but Raffles Terrace was the place to be today, the scenic vistas are absolutely spectacular as we sail the Fjord and most of the tables were occupied. In fact, some ship’s officers came out and had lunch there too ....The ship’s Chief Engineer sat at the table next to us and had lunch there. No one could have picked a restaurant with a better view, it was amazing slowly cruising through the 60 mile long fjord. Later someone asked me if I had seen the white whales, but sadly we did not, I guess you just have to be in the right place at the right time.

During lunch the ship stopped at the Notre-Dame-du Saguenay Statue (Our Lady of the Fjord) at Cap Trinite a 1350 high foot cliff, where perched more than 1000 feet above the water is a 35 foot high statue, sculpted of white pine and sheathed in Lead. It has been watching over sailors for more than 128 years. The ship rotated in place at the foot of the cliff so all would have a great view of the shrine. Visitors on ships from around the world stop and gather at the foot of the statue to listen to and sing “Ave Maria” in praise of the patroness of the Fjord.

This evening we made our first visit to Windows for dinner, and while it was OK I would rate it just average or less. Service was somewhat slow, food was not impressive, the company was good as we met friends aboard and had dinner with them. Casino gods are frowning today....

Another great day rates an A

 

Sunday, October 18

 

This morning finds us anchored off the coast of Sept-Iles, it is partly cloudy and generally pleasant weather. We are fortunate that we have experienced no rain so far this trip. We tendered to shore, boarded a bus to the train station, where we boarded a train for our tour of the traditional Innu hunting and fishing grounds. The history, heritage and culture of these people is a truly fascinating story. Some of the Innu people while now centered for the most part in a reservation in Sept-Iles still make annual pilgrimages to their ancestral lands to hunt and fish. The train is run by Innu’s and many use it to travel North and be dropped in the bush, though some still use the traditional method of canoe and portage through some areas that may be as long as 7 miles from lake to lake to follow the path their elders laid out many thousands of years ago. They do this carrying their canoes and all their gear, taking little food and living off the land. In fact, our guide, a 30 something year old Innu, who is now a lawyer and fluent in three languages, just took the trip in June and was very proud of himself for the effort (I think he said he spent 18 days making the trip). Fantastic trip, superb guide and great views on our ride along the Moise River (one of Canada’s premier salmon fishing rivers, possibly one of the best in the world) made this a great day.

I asked how far north of Quebec City we were and was told 600-700, not sure if that was Kilometers or Miles, but we are way up there. I’m told we are about 250 miles from the beginning of the tundra. Apparently, we are only the second ship to visit here, Holland was here in June and now us for a second time in October.

Before boarding the train, the Innu children performed native dances for us. On our way back on the train, we were served traditional Innu foods and tried, smoked salmon, ptarmigan (I called it arctic chicken), goose, caribou pie and a wild berry jam. Amazing factoid, our guide tells us that 50% of the Innu population here is now under the age 19 and that many of them are carrying on the traditions of there elders

We took the second to the last tender back to the ship at 2:20 for an all aboard call at 2:30. Just before we left the dock, the Captain, along with his small group of three others boarded and sat with us. He was very personable and chatty. He had just returned from a helicopter tour he took with a port official who I believe owned the chopper or the company that ran it, and he was their pilot. When I mentioned that we had seen a helicopter flying along the river while on the train, he pulled out his camera to show me photos he had taken of the train and other areas he saw while in the air. Jokingly, he also showed me a photo of him holding a moose rack, telling me he shot that on the trip, I suggested he was dressed pretty formally for a hunting trip as he was in his dress uniform, we all had a chuckle. Mama says they all looked pretty sexy in their dress uniforms, when I gave her the look, she responded that I would not get it, it’s a “girl thing”. We all agreed it was a very beautiful area and one we would like to come back to. He told me that they would probably be back here next season. Being in the corner, we were the last to leave the tender and he apologized for holding us up, I responded that as long as he was with me, I was pretty sure we were not going to get left behind.....He had a great sense of humor and with that pulled out his cell phone and called the bridge, telling whoever he talked to that he was not going to be able to take over his job yet, as he had managed to make it back in one piece.

We stopped at Blue Lagoon for a Burger and Cheesecake, went back to the cabin for a nap and later finished the evening in the casino, where I held my own, and won a free $20.00 play on any table game in the raffle. We also were rewarded with another free dinner with wine and will probably use it again in Cagney’s tomorrow night.

Today rates AAA+

 

 

Monday, October 19

 

We arrived in Charlottetown, PEI this morning, greeted by strong winds, fog, drizzle and snow flurries. It is a little warmer, but the winds make it not very comfortable. Late last night I got a note slipped under the door

saying that my photo tour for today was canceled due to a lack of participation. Not happy about that, I was really looking forward to it. With no backup plan, we left the ship and walked around town, visited another Catholic Cathedral and we eventually ended up on Victoria Row. While there DW purchased a hand made, British wool sweater at Northern Watters Knitwear, unfortunately they did not have her size in the color she wanted, so when it is made to order sometime next week (they make them there) it will be shipped home. With nothing else to do I found 2 sweaters for myself on the clearance table (my 2 still cost less than hers, so whose the shopper now?) My 2 will be shipped home along with hers, saving us the Canadian taxes. NCL owes me big time, it cost me hundreds of dollars to skip that photo tour...:D

The sun peeked out a couple of times, but could not hold on, so we walked back to the ship in a wind blown drizzle. On the way back we stopped at Mckinnon’s on Peake’s Wharf for a great lunch, where she had crab cakes and a bowl of Seafood chowder and I had the chowder also, along with a scallop burger. Oh yeah, almost forgot, the Island Red Ale was pretty good too. After that it was back to the ship at 4:00 for a power nap, before evening playtime begins..........

We canceled our reservation at Cagney’s because we were still full from lunch and instead took in the show. The comedian was Jiim Labriola, who was a regular on the show “Home Improvement”, his style of humor, while not for everyone was absolutely hilarious and had us in stitches, time well spent.....After the show, we opted for a quick bite in Raffles and doesn’t Jim come in and sit at the table next to us, with a friend who is also the entertainer scheduled for tomorrow night. We had a pleasant chat and he introduced us to Ken Groves another comedian and ventriloquist who would be on stage Tuesday. We finished the evening in the casino, where we broke even.

Today rates another A

 

to be continued....

[Kathyh1313]

mrclean- thanks very much for your extensive review. I appreciate your insights into the Spirit and the itinerary.

 

DH and I are sailing on the Spirit from NOLA to the western Caribbean in January. Reading about the ship helps build our excitement.

 

Keep it up- I am enjoying reading every word.

 

Kathy

[amistad]

Keep it up, I am really enjoying your detailed review.

[RaMar]

Thanks for the review. I am really enjoying it. :)

[mrclean1]

Part 5

 

Tuesday, October 20

Today we are at sea for a relaxing trip back down to Halifax, we have no real plan for the day, so opt to join both the slots tournament (her) and blackjack tournament (me). I went down to the casino early as DW was getting ready and sat at a 2 cent bonus slot machine, well it took wifey another 90 minutes to arrive and that was actually a good thing, because this thing went wild for the hour and a half I waited. My original stake of $20.00 was up to $1,108 by the time she arrived. It was paying bonus on top of bonus on top of bonus. I am a gambler, and have never seen anything like that before, needless to say I was attracting a crowd! If that had been a dollar machine I would have made 20 grand...... After giving about 200.00 back, we cashed out with a 900.00 profit and moved on. DW made the finals in the slot tournament, but did not do well in the finals, I on the other hand did not even get by the 4th hand in the BJ tournament.

The day flew by and before we knew it we were off to Cagney’s for dinner, it was kind of crowded and we had a great table in the back room near a window. Dinner was again terrific, food was great, wait staff was superb, all in all a great day. After dinner we caught the 9:30 show and Ken Groves was good, really not my style, DW enjoyed it much more than I. During the show he made mention that he was working on an NBC special to air in late March.

Once again, finished the evening in the casino where I gave them some of their money back, before calling it a day. Met some people today who boarded in Quebec City and are actually continuing all the down to New Orleans arriving there on November 8th.

Today rates another A

Wednesday, October 21

Halifax greeted us this morning with a bright sunny day that is much warmer than we have been experiencing, it is nice enough to just be out with just a sweatshirt. We had a plan for the day that included a trip to Peggy’s Cove and then touring the city later. We figured we would leave a little later to avoid the crowds and when we exited the terminal were greeted with about 50 people waiting in the bus line for FRED. That by itself was not a real problem, but the people had formed 2 lines about ½ a block apart, noone seemed to know exactly where the bus would stop. Well, by the time the bus arrived about 10 minutes later, there had to be about 100 of us there. Amongst the group were about 9 small school children at the head of one line, and when the bus by-passed their line and stopped at the other, it was a cavalry charge as both groups converged on the bus. It was a giant mess like I’ve not seen in a while, the poor kids about got trampled before they were led back to the front of the line to board. They were trying to get some poor women with a walker through the crowd to board and the crush of people totaly ignored their pleas to let her through, I’m not sure whether she actually got on or not. With the bus full, the rest of us were told we were going to have to wait 40 minutes for the next one, not a pretty sight and a bad start to the day. Seems like poor planning to run a bus route with a forty passenger bus, and only one of them at that, and then stop at a cruise ship with 2000 passengers. To make matters worse, many people were using it as a free tour and just riding the loop, never getting off, so when the bus did stop, rarely could more than 25 people get back on. Last week when here, they had at least 2 buses running and maybe more, we didn’t have any problems at all, what a difference a week makes.

Now we figured we could spend our day waiting in the parking lot for another bus we might not be able to get on, or make a new plan, so we opted to find a taxi. Problem number two arose when the taxis at the port were not available because they were all waiting to sell a private tour, they were available for tours, but not short hops.

So we decided to just skip Peggy’s Cove and go off on foot. We made our way up-town to the public gardens, a very beautiful place that must really be spectacular in the summer, from there we went over to the citadel and toured there, with some shopping stops along the way. It was a very long walk, up a very steep hill, but really cool once there, it is the highest point in the city.

By now it was 2:15 and with the ship sailing at 3:30 figured we better head back, would have liked to see more, but there was no time. We proceeded back down the hill to the boardwalk and worked our way back to the ship, boarding at around 3:00.

A quick snack in Raffles and we were off to see Jim Labriola again up in Galaxy at 3:30. That guy is really hilarious, he is putting together a touring show, based in Vegas that is named “Night of a Thousand Guido’s”, if you Google him, or go to HaHaJim dot com he has a demo on his website. Then we attended the free cruise raffle, where we lost, but a lucky winner got a free cruise. Before long it was off to the Variety show, with the show band, a capella group, What Four and another show by Ken Groves, who did a hilarious bit about being stopped for speeding by the Halifax Police. All in all, the quality of the entertainment on this trip has been higher than we have experienced in the past on most other trips.

It was late so we had a bite in Raffles, where we again saw Jim Labriola table hopping and chatting with the guests, he was very approachable and wasn’t bothered at all by the many questions from the guests, and seemed to be enjoying himself.

Finished the evening getting beat up at the Crap’s table, Blackjack table and the slots too! I should have known the bus incident was a bad omen from the start.....

Today rates a C

Thursday, October 22

We are in Portland today, actually only about 3 hours from home, so no big events planned, after clearing customs we are heading up to L.L. Bean to do some Christmas shopping early. We walked around the wharf area for an hour before meeting our tour to Freeport. On our stroll we found a Dunkin Donuts, DW was having the DT’s after 14 days without it and it made her day, even if nothing else happened....

We only had 3 hours in Freeport, we started out in the L.L. Bean Outlet Store where we scored a Fleece lined winter coat, sweater and a pair of shoes, all at more than ½ off. Then to the main store where we added another 3 shirts, sweater and a pair of chinos, all of which we shipped home. Spent about 2 hours here and with little time left, we stopped at “Linda Bean’s Perfect Maine Lobster Roll Shop”, right next to the store for a couple of them

and they were terrific, we ate them outside on a park bench. Thirty minutes left and Mama says she is shopped out (huh?), so back to the bus we go for the short ride back to the pier.

Once back, we dash back to Dunkin’s for another coffee she can take back to the ship. When we get to port security, they won’t let her through with the coffee and boy was she PO’d. If looks could kill, that poor kid at

security would have gone down in heartbeat. We weren’t the only ones standing outside finishing our coffee, I understand the need for security, but this seemed more than a little extreme. Honestly, security has for the most part been a joke, just about anyone could get through except for Quebec City, where it rivaled that found at an airport. So now in the thriving metropolis of Portland, Maine a city with a population of 65,000 they are apparently worried about a white, fiftyish, female terrorist carrying a coffee bomb... Mama’s not happy, says the day went from an A to a C because of the nitwit with the dime store badge.....lol She’ll get over it, but she is more protective of her DD coffee (she makes at least 3 stops a day there when we are home) than a mother bear is with her cubs.

We went up to Raffles for a quick bite and then packed and put out the suitcases. Then took in the new show which was very good. DW called it a night, but I on the other hand went back to the casino to make a final donation, I did however get a very nice credit towards our on-board account. Then I called it a day early.

Friday, October 23, Boston, MA

It was up early for us and off the boat quickly at around 9:15, great organization getting off, we found our luggage immediately, hailed a cab and were off to our park n’ cruise hotel in Quincy to get the car. I really did not want to hang around as the President was scheduled to be in town and I sure did not want to get stuck in any traffic trying to get out. We were on the turnpike by 10:15 and home by Noon. We had to chuckle, the best foliage color we saw was in the Worcester hills on our way back home to Western MA.

Well, that’s another one under our belt, great itinerary, nice ship and overall a very nice time. I’d rate it a B+…..

[amistad]

Mrclean, I wanted to thank you one more time for your taking the time to post your review, very informative and entertaining.

[RalphWiggum]

Thanks mrclean1. I am thinking about a cruise from Quebec to Boston next year and I really enjoyed your review. I especially appreciate all the specifics about what you did in each port. Sounds like you had a great time.

[paiagirl]

Thank you mrclean1 for your review. I am very glad that you wrote about your excursion on the train to see the Innus because I wondered about it when looking at the excursions before reading your review.