LIVE! Dragon OfTheSeas and the Snowbird Migration from Quebec to FLL Oct 7-20, 2019

[retiredgram]

Enjoy your cruise.  Your photos and information was outstanding. I'll have to make a list of all your excursions while waiting to board. Very informative. Thank you.

[MrFunInTheSun]

Thanks for bringing us along! 

[vacationlover_mn]

What a fantastic itinerary!  I so hope to do this someday.  Just curious, but does anyone really use this as transportation to their winter homes in FL, and ship their other belongings down?

[ILCTCRUISER]

38 minutes ago, vacationlover_mn said:

What a fantastic itinerary!  I so hope to do this someday.  Just curious, but does anyone really use this as transportation to their winter homes in FL, and ship their other belongings down?

I can't say for sure but I can see it happening.  Brits who winter in Florida will come over on a TA and then return to England in the spring on another TA.  I've met some.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

19 hours ago, suesnake2002 said:

Can not wait to hear what cabin you got!!

We got 7608.  I feel it is a pretty good location.  We are very near the aft elevator and the library on deck 7.  We were assigned the cabin 30 days before we sailed. 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

14 hours ago, ILCTCRUISER said:

I can't say for sure but I can see it happening.  Brits who winter in Florida will come over on a TA and then return to England in the spring on another TA.  I've met some.

 

I will see if I run into anyone that says they are doing this and ;et you know.  

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Getting to the ship yesterday was a train wreck.  We left the hotel at noon.  It didn’t take us more than 10 minutes to get near the port.  But there was a loooooong line of cars.  Our driver redirected several times, but it was bumper to bumper each way.  There is one short loop turn into the port area. [If I can get a picture of that spot later I will.]  The security let in 3 taxi/cars at a time to let off passengers and luggage.  You know it takes a few minutes for each group of 3 or so.  imagine how long that takes for a ship the size of the Adventure.

 

We told our driver if he found a place to let us off, we would walk.  He turned into the public bus turn off.  A policeman came up and we thought we were in trouble. HaHa   He told us it was an hour wait from here and we should just get out and walk.  So, we did. 

 

 

It was just 4-5 blocks.  The line of cars was barely moving.  My advice would be arrive very early or much later.  By 3:00pm there was no line. The people behind us in the security line said their cab driver pulled into the service station and let them out, too.  There were several buses in the various lines.  I am not sure how long it would take to unload them and their luggage. 

I was talking to someone in the lounge this morning over coffee.  He arrived around 10:45.  The lines were very long then, too.  He said when the taxi dropped him off there were about 100 people in line waiting to get a taxi after leaving the ship.

 

 

I just wanted to give everyone a heads up embarkation and debark in Quebec.

 

 

After all that it was time for lunch it was nap time.  

 

 

Edited October 8, 2019 by DragonOfTheSeas

[AF-1]

DragonOfTheSeas,  thanks for the heads up with getting to cruise port.  Good to know info.  Now you are on the ship.  Look forward to your great pics.  Have fun on your cruise.  

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Here are a few pictures of the Adventure of the Seas we took yesterday and this morning.

 

This is the view from our balcony.  We face Levis.

 

This is the Royal Promenade

 

 

 

The casino was closed since we are in port.

 

This is the library near our cabin

Edited October 8, 2019 by DragonOfTheSeas

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Today looks like it will be a beautiful day.  I will post more later. 

[Hoopster95]

1 hour ago, DragonOfTheSeas said:

But there was a loooooong line of cars.... He told us it was an hour wait from here and we should just get out and walk.  So, we did.... I just wanted to give everyone a heads up embarkation and debark in Quebec.

 

Great job so far Dragon! Thank you for this. Excellent description of embarkation morning.

I wish to mention the traffic issue was very busy on my embarkation day as well, so this wasn't a one-off thing I suspect for Quebec City. RCL's used embarkation port Pier 22. It is only... not exaggerating... a 2 block direct straight line walk from the middle of old town with 4-5 very great hotel choices. I stayed at the Hotel 71 (you can google the location and other choices around there). It's the same taxi flat rate from the airport here as anywhere else in old town. It's also two walking blocks from the funicular and everything else any tourist wishes to have around them. Unlike some other embarkation port cities (ie. San Juan), if you are not mobility challenged and able to roll your luggage, I fully recommend staying close to the port. We walked over to the ship in 10 minutes on our embarkation, rolling our luggage easily down the sidewalk and into the cruise terminal.... and that was a a prime hour 12pm'ish. I think from hotel to WJ was easily less than 1 hour total.

 

p.s. deck 7 balcony by rear elevators is primo location in my humble opinion for Voyager Class. Well done 😀

p.p.s. If you're Diamond and heading up for happy hour (with the other 2000 C&A members!!! ) say hello to DL Rafael for me if you have a moment from Claudio & Penelope. Let him know that Penelope did in fact ruptur her achillies tendon on the sports court after all! 2 inch gap in the muscle, walking boot for 3 months, 4-6 months total estimated rehab.😭

 

Edited October 8, 2019 by Hoopster95

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Here are a couple of pictures of the pool deck this morning.  Not a chair hog in sight.  

 

 

 

 

 

This is the Diamond Lounge

 

 

 

And this is the Viking Crown Lounge. For this cruise it is the overflow from the Suite Lounge.

Edited October 8, 2019 by DragonOfTheSeas

[DragonOfTheSeas]

2 hours ago, Hoopster95 said:

 

p.s. deck 7 balcony by rear elevators is primo location in my humble opinion for Voyager Class. Well done 😀

p.p.s. If you're Diamond and heading up for happy hour (with the other 2000 C&A members!!! ) say hello to DL Rafael for me if you have a moment from Claudio & Penelope. Let him know that Penelope did in fact ruptur her achillies tendon on the sports court after all! 2 inch gap in the muscle, walking boot for 3 months, 4-6 months total estimated rehab.😭

 

So sorry to hear about Penelope's injury.  That is a long rehab.  I will likely not even meet the Diamond Concierges.  Our "happy hour" is in the Imperial lounge at the back of the ship.  I was packed last night.  There was not a single seat.  We went for a little while and then hit the Schooner bar. 

 

They had staff at the door to check sea pass cards.  But, I do not see how there will be any interaction with the concierge.

 

Yes, we are very happy with our cabin.  The location is good.  

 

Thanks for adding your experience regarding embarkation.  We would have planned to arrive at 2-3pm if we had known.

[tcmagnum]

4 hours ago, DragonOfTheSeas said:

Today looks like it will be a beautiful day.  I will post more later. 

Nice picture...Enjoy the trip...

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Quebec does a very nice job of decorating for the fall/Halloween. These street scenes were on the way to Place Royal.  It is the more famous area of the old city. [the main square]

 

This was a cute outdoor café. . . but we were too early for it to be open.

 

I loved this Halloween "snow globe" in the square. I am not sure if you can see the "snow" flying around. There were 3 fans inside.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 8, 2019 by DragonOfTheSeas

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Another stop was the Funicular. 

 

There was a line to ride. . . and we were there around 10am. There is only one car in each direction.

 

If you have the energy you can climb the bluff. 

 

The view gets better as you go up.

 

 

 

The cars pass.  You can see that there were no people in the car going down.  Everyone wanted to go up at that time in the AM.

Edited October 8, 2019 by DragonOfTheSeas

[DragonOfTheSeas]

This was my favorite view from the top.

[bilyclub]

3 hours ago, DragonOfTheSeas said:

So sorry to hear about Penelope's injury.  That is a long rehab.  I will likely not even meet the Diamond Concierges.  Our "happy hour" is in the Imperial lounge at the back of the ship.  I was packed last night.  There was not a single seat.  We went for a little while and then hit the Schooner bar. 

 

They had staff at the door to check sea pass cards.  But, I do not see how there will be any interaction with the concierge.

 

Yes, we are very happy with our cabin.  The location is good.  

 

Thanks for adding your experience regarding embarkation.  We would have planned to arrive at 2-3pm if we had known.

 

 

You must have had a good time last night. The Imperial Lounge is forward, not aft.

[Hoopster95]

5 hours ago, DragonOfTheSeas said:

Our "happy hour" is in the Imperial lounge at the back of the ship. 

 

Ugh... I was afraid with the numbers of D / D+ they'd open up this venue for the masses, a windowless enclosed space.

At least you can easily go out to the helipad from the starboard door just past the audio booth (looks like a crew only door but it isn't), unless of course they've locked it in order to limit entry into the D/D+ event. I sincerely hope you don't feel the absolute need to be inside this venue during gorgeous sailaways, especially Portland. What's happening in the Viking Crown?

[cruiselover04]

Following along with everyone else on your wonderful review of the cruise. We were on the same itinerary last year. You’ve had better weather than we had but can’t control the weather so we made the best of it. 

Thanks for taking us with you in your journey. 

 

Jenni

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

15 hours ago, bilyclub said:

 

 

You must have had a good time last night. The Imperial Lounge is forward, not aft.

HaHa!  🤣  Yes, I realize that now.  I was a little turned around the first few hours I was on the ship.  Since we were in port we did not do the whole ***** walk-around I usually do.  I figured we have 13 days on the ship so there is plenty of time. 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

13 hours ago, Hoopster95 said:

 

Ugh... I was afraid with the numbers of D / D+ they'd open up this venue for the masses, a windowless enclosed space.

At least you can easily go out to the helipad from the starboard door just past the audio booth (looks like a crew only door but it isn't), unless of course they've locked it in order to limit entry into the D/D+ event. I sincerely hope you don't feel the absolute need to be inside this venue during gorgeous sailaways, especially Portland. What's happening in the Viking Crown?

I am not a huge fan of the Imperial lounge either.  It Is a large dark room.  I don't plan to miss out on the sail-aways.  Thanks for the heads up about the helipad door.  I will have to check that out. 

 

The Meet and Mingle was held at 9am in the Imperial lounge this morning.  That is not the best time to hold an event on the first sea day.  Most are still asleep--especially since we had to move clocks ahead an hour last night. UGH.

 

We had over 300 people signed up.  Almost all of the seats were full, so I think most people attended.  

 

The Viking Crown lounge was used as the overflow for the suites and Pinnacles.  However, We had a fair number of Pinnacles in the Imperial lounge [had name badges]. I overheard that they were only using the "sunken" portion of the lounge for overflow and that areas was just too small to hold every one.  

 

I will try to get numbers of each level at the top tier event.

Edited October 9, 2019 by DragonOfTheSeas

[DragonOfTheSeas]

1 hour ago, DragonOfTheSeas said:

HaHa!  🤣  Yes, I realize that now.  I was a little turned around the first few hours I was on the ship.  Since we were in port we did not do the whole ***** walk-around I usually do.  I figured we have 13 days on the ship so there is plenty of time. 

I am not sure why the mods bleeped out my comment above.  I must have had an unfortunate  typo.  HaHa.  

[DragonOfTheSeas]

I am still finishing yesterday's pictures.  The funicular takes you to the Dufferin Terrace in front of the Hotel Frontenac.  We spent some time on one of the benches people watching.  It was a nice day and there were lots of people out enjoying the weather. 

 

 

 

 

Then I went into the Hotel Frontenac just to see what it looked like.   There is a series of displays--like a small museum giving the history of the area and the hotel.  It was very interesting.  

 

 

 

 

There is a restaurant [not open yet] that over looks the terrace.

 

I got as far as this stairwell before I decided to turn back.  I had left DH outside on a bench and I knew he was wondering where I was.  

 

I tried to insert a picture of the upstairs from the internet.  I could not get it to load.  [It gave me a link to share, so I was not violating its copyright] 

Edited October 9, 2019 by DragonOfTheSeas

[DragonOfTheSeas]

We decided we had better head back to the ship.  We were both tired and hungry and all of the little sidewalk cafes we passed [really only a few around] were very busy with the lunch crowd.  

 

I know I mentioned what a beautiful day it was.  However, look at the way everyone is dressed.  It was still quite cool.  I know one of the most frequent questions is what to pack.  For us a jacket or heavy sweater is a must.  We also brought along our packable [folds into its own pocket] rain jackets. At night we needed to layer.  One night it got down to 32 degrees and there was a frost advisory.  Most days were in the 50s. 

 

 

This is the Notre Dame church. [There is a larger one with the same name in upper town]  We tried to find a door to enter on the way to the funicular and back.  We never found one open.

 

 

This is the Museum of Civilization.  It is a well known museum that gives the French  history of the area.  It is open 10-5 from September to June. The fee is $17 CAD for over 30.  Young adults [18-30] are $11 CAD.  I did not notice a senior rate listed.  The museum is just one block from the ship on the road by the dock.

 

 

If you want to "feel the burn" you can climb the stairs next to the museum and head to Upper Town.

 

 

I was feeling the burn just walking the city.  Touring Quebec City requires a certain amount of stamina.  There are lots of hills.  Some are gradual and others very steep.  In lower town there are cobblestones.  

 

I wear a Fitbit to encourage we to walk.  No need for that in Quebec City.  I averaged 10,000 to 12,000 steps each day.  I plan to do as little as possible today. 😊

Edited October 9, 2019 by DragonOfTheSeas