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Live from Navigator—Montreal to NYC—September 20 to October 1,2022

RachelG

By RachelG,
in Regent Seven Seas Cruises

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RachelG

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September 18,2022-Tulsa to Montreal 

 

And we are off again, this time cruising from Montreal to NYC aboard Navigator.  We have done this cruise before, but in reverse, several years ago.   I had FCC’s from all the cancelled due to the pandemic cruises, which had to be used by the end of 2022.  Back then, it seemed so far away that I thought “no problem “.  But now we are here.  Time went by very quickly.  So it is time to set the table, as my friend Rich would say.

 

We had uneventful flights, going from TUL to DFW then DFW to Montreal.  I say uneventful as they were fine and on time, but there was one bit of stress. At the urging of many, I invested in Apple AirTags for our luggage.  And when we arrived in DFW, I looked to see where our bags were.  One, of three, was in DFW with us.  The two others were still registering that they were in Tulsa at the airport.  This was concerning as our checkin at the AA desk in Tulsa had not been particularly positive.  The agent seemed very distracted and not friendly.  She asked to see my ArriveCAN receipt, and when I showed it to her, she told me that wasn’t the right thing, that she needed to see the QR code, which was right there, just down further on the screen.  It was weird.  At any rate, we saw her put one bag on the conveyor but not the other two.

 

At any rate, we went to the Admirals Club.  The agent there was very sympathetic, but just told us that hopefully, our bags were on the next flight.  Apparently they were, because when I checked while we were boarding the flight to Montreal, they registered being at DFW.  When we were on the plane getting ready to take off, they showed as near us.  And when we arrived at baggage claim, they were first off!

 

I have only been to Montreal disembarking from a ship, and had heard horror stories about the traffic, so was prepared for the worse.  It was pouring rain, but traffic was light and our Uber driver had us downtown at the Vogue Hotel in less than 30 minutes.

The hotel is undergoing major renovations, and there is currently no restaurant open,  but our room is very nice and obviously just redone.  

 

We took an Uber to the old town to have dinner at Brasserie 701.  The original plan was to go early, walk around a bit then go to dinner, but it was pouring rain and cold (for us from Oklahoma who have been in 90F+ heat for the past 4months).  So we just went to the restaurant.

 

It reminded of somewhere in Paris with an elegant interior with closely spaced tables, chandeliers, and long bar on one side.  It was bustling and a bit noisy, but good.  The waiter brought us the wrong bottle of wine right off, but corrected it quickly.  I had a wonderful salad of arugula, tomatoes and artichokes, while George had oysters Rockefeller then we both had mushroom ravioli.  We should have probably only ordered 1 as it was way more Than I could eat.  George couldn’t resist ordering chocolate panna Cotta, and I admit to sneaking a bite which was excellent.

 

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forgap "Live from...." Rare

forgap

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I always like your commentary about a cruise and I hope this one lives up to your expectations.  When we were first married, we took a trip to Montreal .  We stayed in a beautiful hotel  - in the early days we either camped or stayed in dumps - with an atrium bar.  We went down for a glass of wine before dinner and the pianist played the theme song to the movie “A Man and a Woman”.  It was romantic to an extreme and I always associate Montreal with those memories.   I wish you love and romance!  

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Gpilon Great Review Rare

Gpilon

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11 hours ago, RachelG said:

September 18,2022-Tulsa to Montreal 

 

And we are off again, this time cruising from Montreal to NYC aboard Navigator.  We have done this cruise before, but in reverse, several years ago.   I had FCC’s from all the cancelled due to the pandemic cruises, which had to be used by the end of 2022.  Back then, it seemed so far away that I thought “no problem “.  But now we are here.  Time went by very quickly.  So it is time to set the table, as my friend Rich would say.

 

We had uneventful flights, going from TUL to DFW then DFW to Montreal.  I say uneventful as they were fine and on time, but there was one bit of stress. At the urging of many, I invested in Apple AirTags for our luggage.  And when we arrived in DFW, I looked to see where our bags were.  One, of three, was in DFW with us.  The two others were still registering that they were in Tulsa at the airport.  This was concerning as our checkin at the AA desk in Tulsa had not been particularly positive.  The agent seemed very distracted and not friendly.  She asked to see my ArriveCAN receipt, and when I showed it to her, she told me that wasn’t the right thing, that she needed to see the QR code, which was right there, just down further on the screen.  It was weird.  At any rate, we saw her put one bag on the conveyor but not the other two.

 

At any rate, we went to the Admirals Club.  The agent there was very sympathetic, but just told us that hopefully, our bags were on the next flight.  Apparently they were, because when I checked while we were boarding the flight to Montreal, they registered being at DFW.  When we were on the plane getting ready to take off, they showed as near us.  And when we arrived at baggage claim, they were first off!

 

I have only been to Montreal disembarking from a ship, and had heard horror stories about the traffic, so was prepared for the worse.  It was pouring rain, but traffic was light and our Uber driver had us downtown at the Vogue Hotel in less than 30 minutes.

The hotel is undergoing major renovations, and there is currently no restaurant open,  but our room is very nice and obviously just redone.  

 

We took an Uber to the old town to have dinner at Brasserie 701.  The original plan was to go early, walk around a bit then go to dinner, but it was pouring rain and cold (for us from Oklahoma who have been in 90F+ heat for the past 4months).  So we just went to the restaurant.

 

It reminded of somewhere in Paris with an elegant interior with closely spaced tables, chandeliers, and long bar on one side.  It was bustling and a bit noisy, but good.  The waiter brought us the wrong bottle of wine right off, but corrected it quickly.  I had a wonderful salad of arugula, tomatoes and artichokes, while George had oysters Rockefeller then we both had mushroom ravioli.  We should have probably only ordered 1 as it was way more Than I could eat.  George couldn’t resist ordering chocolate panna Cotta, and I admit to sneaking a bite which was excellent.

 

Rachel.....it was good that you flew in on a Sunday, thereby missing the traffic and construction from airport to hotel. Enjoy your time in Montreal and hopefully you will get a break in the weather.

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RachelG "Live from...." Rare

RachelG

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September 19, 2022–Montreal, Quebec

 

We had a great sleep in our very quiet and comfortable room.  It would have been a great morning to sleep in as it was very overcast and raining outside, but we had business to attend.  Canada still requires covid testing within 72 hours of boarding a cruise ship, and this presented somewhat of a problem for us, as that meant we had to do the testing Saturday afternoon or later.  All the testing places in Tulsa closed at noon on Saturday, so our tests would be too old.  I figured this out on Tuesday, so I ordered the Inspire proctored tests to be sent to us by priority mail.

 

I received the test kit on Thursday.  Appointment for test was 8:15 Monday.  It went off like a charm, really very easy, and we had our negative results immediately.

 

The forecast for today was temperatures in the 50s and heavy rain pretty much all day.  Our original plan was to go hiking, but that was out.  Unfortunately almost all the museums are closed on Monday.  The only ones I could find open that we had remote interest in were the Notre Dame Basilica and Chateau Ramezay which is a historic site.  I got tickets for the Basilica online.

 

Breakfast was pretty disappointing.  As I stated before, the Vogue Hotel is undergoing major renovations, and the restaurant and kitchen is closed.  So you call the front desk, and they send up a box breakfast.  A warmed English muffin, egg and cheese sandwich, a cup of yogurt (sweetened), an apple, a muffin, and some cheese, plus a hot carafe of coffee or tea.  The highlight was the tea, which was good.  I mostly avoid carbs, and this was very carb centric, so I ate my cheese and George’s as well as the egg off both our English muffins, while he ate the yogurt.  If it had been unsweetened, I would have been great with just the yogurt.

 

We ubered down to the Basilica in heavy rain.  Fortunately, the hotel provided big umbrellas.  It is a beautiful church, made me think I was in Europe, except that the stained glass windows show scenes from the history of Montreal.  The stained glass is beautiful, and there are a few really special paintings as well.

 

Then we walked in heavy rain and wind down to the Chateau Remezay.  George was grouching the whole way.  “I can’t believe you dragged me to Canada to walk around in the rain.”  The museum is small, but well done.  It follows the history of the founding of Montreal to the present, but the best part, IMO, was an exhibition at the end about Roald  Admundsen.  Really interesting.

 

By this time, it was noon, and George was hungry, given his meager breakfast.  We walked around the old town a little as the rain had temporarily slacked, and we found a pizza place which was basically to go, but had a small eating area upstairs.  Pizza was pretty good, and the guy who runs it was nice.

 

Since the rain was just a drizzle, we took another Uber to the botanical gardens which are great.  We walked all over, to the Japanese gardens, Chinese gardens, alpine gardens, gardens of useful plants, shrub gardens, and rose gardens.  All very nice though the rose gardens do need serious attention.  Then to the greenhouses which were warmer and had nice plants.  

 

It started pouring again by the time we were done.  I was able to find an Uber, but we had to walk out to the street in heavy water, and my feet got soaked as I was wearing tennis shoes.

 

Back to the hotel to relax a little.  We were really old and wet to the bone.  It took quite a while to warm up and dry off.

 

We had dinner reservations at Bis, an Italian restaurant down the street in walking distance, to meet up with our friends whore joining us for this cruise.  They got in very  late night for major flight issues.  

 

Bis is a very nice Italian restaurant, sort of like a wine cave.  The menu has so many options it is hard to decide.  Tough decisions, but I settled on arugula salad and pasta with spicy sausage and burrato.  George had a caprese salad and pasta bolognese.  Both were excellent and topped it off with tiramisu.  So good.  I could eat there every night.

 

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ronrick1943 "Live from...." Rare

ronrick1943

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What a great report, seeing your post is nice.  I’ve missed them during the Covid thing.  Hope all goes well and you enjoy your cruise.  Looking forward to reading your post-can’t wait till are cruise is ready to go.  Thanks so much for taking the time.

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sassyw

sassyw

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We are taking the navigator on Oct. 12 as it will be repositioning to Miami (we are doing the back to back) We are flying from Ft. Lauderdale to Montreal.

So interested in your opinions of the Navigator, etc. We have only been on her once on a 59 day trip from Miami to the Amazon and back to Miami. Remember that the water always shook in our glasses!

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RachelG "Live from...." Rare

RachelG

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2 hours ago, sassyw said:

We are taking the navigator on Oct. 12 as it will be repositioning to Miami (we are doing the back to back) We are flying from Ft. Lauderdale to Montreal.

So interested in your opinions of the Navigator, etc. We have only been on her once on a 59 day trip from Miami to the Amazon and back to Miami. Remember that the water always shook in our glasses!

We have been on Navigator several times previously—so we know what we are getting into more or less.  Will be sure to report on how things are currently.

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Gpilon Great Review Rare

Gpilon

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4 minutes ago, RachelG said:

We have been on Navigator several times previously—so we know what we are getting into more or less.  Will be sure to report on how things are currently.

Sorry the weather has not cooperated for you....enjoy regardless.

 

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Steve Q

Steve Q

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On 9/19/2022 at 9:53 AM, GeorgiaPeach51 said:

Yay!  Something fun to read to start the day!  Looking forward to your thoughts on the Navigator.  We will board her next year in May, Miami to Montreal.  Hope you have a great trip ahead of you.

 

Joanie

We also will be aboard your cruise next May. It will be our 2nd Regent cruise. See you aboard!

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Sunprince

Sunprince

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Enjoying your reports Rachel. Have a safe and enjoyable cruise.  
 

I see that the track of Hurricane Fiona has been changed and now shows a Cat 2 landing over eastern Nova Scotia on Saturday and then continuing into the gulf up over NFLD.  This might cause a significant change to your itinerary.  Let’s hope the storm changes track before the weekend.  I’m sure the captain will adjust course as necessary.

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RachelG "Live from...." Rare

RachelG

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1 hour ago, Sunprince said:

Enjoying your reports Rachel. Have a safe and enjoyable cruise.  
 

I see that the track of Hurricane Fiona has been changed and now shows a Cat 2 landing over eastern Nova Scotia on Saturday and then continuing into the gulf up over NFLD.  This might cause a significant change to your itinerary.  Let’s hope the storm changes track before the weekend.  I’m sure the captain will adjust course as necessary.

Oh, well, that is just great! (Not)

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gabelle

gabelle

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21 hours ago, RachelG said:

received the test kit on Thursday.  Appointment for test was 8:15 Monday.  It went off like a charm, really very easy, and we had our negative results immediately.

Did you use your phone for the test or did you bring a computer?  We have the same scenario in a couple of weeks and I don't plan to even bring my i-pad!  I have researched several testing sites around Montreal. That's another option.

 

Thanks for all of your info.

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