Little Lolly's Small Adventures

Montreal, Canada. Turn-around day

It was lovely and sunny when we docked in Montreal. Rain was expected but never materialised. I can’t believe when we were here 2 weeks ago it was very chilly – and today it was lovely and warm.

Staff, as usual, was hectically busy preparing cabins as each guest left. They are often under a lot of pressure to get things done ‘just right’ and on time.

As usual, I didn’t really want to get off the ship to wander around Montreal on my own so I spent much of the day trying to figure things out with my blog on BlogSpot and improving its layout and look. Mmmmm….. Unfortunately the site uses HTML encoding so I cannot get things to work the way I want it to, such as picture placements, margins and its final published look. It all goes awry which is quite infuriating for me – not being a computer geek. I also started putting on some of my blogs that go back to when Paul and I joined the Maasdam in Peru at the start of his new contract. I’ve been doing my blogs on facebook and will keep doing so for the time being, and run it in parallel with BlogSpot for the time being. Hopefully I will catch up almost 3 months’ worth of blogs on BlogSpot. Unfortunately I’ve got quite a few photographs so instead of loading them onto BlogSpot I’ve put a link to my photographs that are already on facebook. Hopefully I will figure how putting pictures on BlogSpot works – currently those I have put on look a bit ‘all over the show’. L

A bit later on Paul had a little bit of time to spare so we went to the cruise terminal to get free Wi-Fi and to try to download any programme updates on our Ipads. The terminal has been newly built but is not complete so it was a bit of an empty shell inside and building works still going on outside. Whilst waiting for the updates to take place we noticed that there was a film crew. We wondered if it was the opening ceremony for the unfinished terminal!

Some bright spark managed to throw up 😖 in the lido swimming pool soon after we left Montreal, spoiling the swim for fellow guests. The guests have been left high and dry; possibly not very happy either. The pool will be out of action until it can be emptied and sanitised, likely the day after tomorrow. Guests can use the aft outside pool if they wish – bearing in mind it may be a bit on the chilly side.

On reading the above paragraph after I typed it Paul commented drily, but with a twinkle in his eye, that “staff have been wondering what the guest had eaten - the water now looks like bullion with tiny meatballs!” Eish!!!!! 😳

My black sense of humour has really got the better of me over the last few days, possibly much to Paul’s dismay and that of the staff. For example, yesterday (late evening) I went to get my hair trimmed at the on-board salon. I saw some of the spa therapists sitting on the floor sorting out lotions, potions and various body scrubs and salt crystals, many of the containers having their lids off. I leaned over one of the girls and said to her in a loud stage whisper that she needs to be careful not to sniff the scrubs or salts – people may think the girls are snorting wacky baccy. In another crazy moment this afternoon I saw a hairdresser handing out small plastic bags with spa vouchers in them. I went over to her, when there was no guest around, and said ‘aaahhhh, handing out the vomit bags eh?’!!! 😉 Needless to say she paused to digest what she had just heard and her face was a picture when the penny dropped. Yep, she said, they might very well need them later when we start sailing! It’s good to laugh but I must also rein in my tongue in case I offend anyone. I can assure you that, although I may be a bit wacky, I’m not on any wacky baccy! (I’ve just looked up its definition on urbandictionary.com and it says: “wacky baccy An informal name for the godsent cannabis. Also Wacky. From Latin "Waccius Baccius" meaning 'to get high and chill, man'.” Methinks that just about sums it up nicely!)

Nite nite.

Route to our next destination: Quebec City

PICTURES

Cruise terminal is partly completed

Quebec City

With my having cancelled going on a tour for today Paul asked me to come with him to an appointment – at least where he was going nobody would mind if I was coughing….

So we got to see the inside of a hospital whilst Paul had some check-ups done. We thought it would only take a few hours and would be out by lunch time – enough time to wander around Quebec City afterwards. Ha! We were at the hospital for the whole day. At one point we waited 3 hours in the waiting room before he was called for the last 2 tests to be done. We got very bored waiting even though we had brought our IPads along to play some games. There was no free WiFi otherwise we could have checked our emails, etc. It was nice and sunny outside - too nice to be indoors. With the waiting game time ticked on and we were anxious about getting back to the ship on time for departure. The tests were completed at long last, clean bill of health, and we could go.

The taxi was requested and we waited outside the front entrance of the hospital where we had been dropped off. Half an hour later the taxi still hadn’t come…. It finally arrived. The driver had been sitting at the other hospital entrance – ‘Urgencies’ entrance! The guy was obviously not a happy chappy and more so because he had to beat the afternoon traffic to get us to the ship on time, putting pedal to the metal as and when he could. As we got closer to port Paul rang the ship’s agent to let the gangway know where we were and to hold things up for a few minutes. We got out of the taxi, ran into the terminal and along to the walkway and gangway. In the end we were only 7 minutes late – how’s that for timing?!

I’m very tired and don’t think I will be able to keep my eyelids open for much longer. Time for an early night! For Paul –it is going to be a late night, letting the pilot off the ship later on.

Now on our way from Quebec to Montreal

Sea day, heading towards Quebec City

Ahhhh… the motion of the ocean and bright sunny skies.

I’ve not much to say other than I’m back in the land of the living after having spent a few days in bed with a nasty cold. Germs keep doing the rounds and my immune system had coped pretty well up until now.

Although I’ve had to cancel going on a few tours, it was probably for the best. When going to the Lido restaurant today I’ve been getting long looks whenever I’ve coughed (discreetly into my elbow) as if I shouldn’t be there at all! It’s a pity because people forget that they themselves have had colds on whilst on this cruise – sniffing, coughing and spluttering; spreading their germs. I’ve been feeling well enough today to get up, feeling great apart from the bunged up hooter and cough , otherwise I wouldn’t be out of the cabin. Needless to say I’ve cancelled going on a tour tomorrow so that I don’t get long looks. Anyway, moany session over.

This afternoon I went to help with folding the tour brochures. Nobody was there apart from 3 boxes of separate brochure pages and someone had started collate some brochure pages together but they hadn’t been stapled. I ended getting on with stapling. Once that was finished I started collating the brochure pages, building up a nice tidy pile then going over to the stapling machine and stapling them. Paul popped down stairs and helped me, just for a few minutes in order untangle his brain from computer work and give his eyeballs a rest. I was very nearly at the end of collating the brochure pages when one of the ladies from shore excursions arrived. She was very apologetic that she had been so late. The team had been extremely busy with guests so nobody came down earlier to help. I didn’t mind – at least the job was almost done and it had been of help to the shore excursions team. The last of the pages were done and then it was time for dinner.

Bar Harbour, Maine. At Anchor.

I'm feeling out of sorts and may be offline for a bit while I get some rest. 😩

I hate colds.

Boston. Turn Around Day.

Yesterday we had to see officers from the department of immigration but today I got a call to say that all in-transit guests and non-revenue passengers had to see customs officials. Crumbs! There seems to be no set standard at all. You would have thought it was all done yesterday but no…. It was a pointless exercise because I wasn’t getting off anyway. The departments and officials really need to get their act together to decide what exactly the process is at all ports.

It’s been a quiet day for me, trying to catch up on my blogs and trying to get my blogspot templates going. Unfortunately I seemed to have made a hash of things but I can partly blame the programme as things look different when I ‘publish’ it to when it was in draft format. I’ve even changed the blog template but it doesn't make much difference with the photos being all over the show...

Paul has been busy due to it being the ship’s turn around day; guests disembarking, others coming on board. There are a lot more youngsters this time – school holiday. I stayed in the cabin, out of the chaos, and emerged when Paul, the Captain and I went for a quick lunch; and again emerging when it was time for the lifeboat drill.

It’s just about time for dinner. Tomorrow is another day.

Anchored, Bar Harbour. Excursion: A Walk in the Park, Ocean Trail Hike

I had attempted to go to bed early last night but couldn’t sleep. I was absolutely freezing. On went the blanket but I was still cold, shaking and teeth chattering. Eventually I got up and went to join Paul on the sofa and watch a film. 2 blankets, a dressing gown and onesie: 1 ½ hours later I was warm again. I didn’t know what had got into me.

What a day! Paul was up during the wee hours of the morning having been called to the bridge because of the fog and finally got to bed around 4am. My alarm clock went off at 6am waking me and Paul up, only to discover that the clocks had gone an hour back. At around 5:30 we were woken up again. This time it was the bridge ringing - Paul’s arrival wake-up call. ½ an hour later he got another call to say that he didn’t need to come after all because they had forgotten he’d already been up on duty for most of the night. Needless to say, it was pointless because he was already awake and dressed. So Paul was a bit bleary eyed when he rocked up on the bridge for duty. From then on the day became hectic for him.

The ship arrived and anchored a bit earlier Bar Harbour but the Immigration Officials didn’t come aboard until after 8am because they didn’t start work until then. All guests had to see immigration before going ashore. The policy also included any crew’s family on board/non-revenue passengers. Fortunately guests going on excursions were allowed to go through immigration first before anyone else. I was due to go on an early excursion (‘A Walk in the Park, Ocean Trail Hike”) so made sure I was one of the first people in the immigration line arriving 45 minutes before the Immigration officials boarded.

There seems to be no set standard with the forms or process. I have an ESTA visa which allows me to visit the USA for up to a year. On arriving in San Diego after being in Peru and Mexico I was given a green form to fill in which is a visa waiver because I already have a visa. This was originally stamped with date of arrival and an expiry date - giving me nearly 4 month’s stay in the US. Next time I entered the USA again in San Diego after the Pacific cruise I had to fill in another green waiver form – not a problem even though the last one had an expiry date. The immigration looked at the stub of my first form and said I didn’t need to have come because the visa waiver was still within date. When I entered the USA again I filled in the green form as usual and the immigration guy took my old visa waiver stub even though it was in date, and stamped the new one. Today I went through the whole process again only to be told that I didn’t need to see immigration because of the valid in-date waiver. Each immigration official seems to have his/her own rules. Oh well – 2 more weeks and then it will be time to fly home.

As soon as I seen the immigration officials I dashed down to the show lounge to help Eilina, from Shore Excursions, with stickering guests for their respective tours. It got very busy as guests lined up, anxious to get ashore for their tours.

Tendering soon got underway and the group I was with found itself on dry land, ready to hit the trail. It was a crispy cold day but nice – good for a nice walk. Our minivan arrived and we headed off into Acadia National Park to our walking destination on the Ocean Trail.

By the time we got to our destination it was warm enough to dispense with our heavy coats, opting for lightweight clothing instead. Our walk was for only about 2 miles/1.6km, following a track along the rocky coastline at a very leisurely pace. It was an informative walk with our guide stopping now and then to talk about the fishing and lobster industry, point out birdlife and plants as well as explaining a bit about the island and the ecological changes that the park is slowly going through. It was a nice walk and the drive in and out of the Park itself was lovely.

Back at the harbour I headed back to the ship and went in search for Paul. He was busy with the lifeboats so I left him to it. He was soon in the cabin though, looking forward to going ashore for a bit, with the Captain’s permission. So, after a change of clothes, Paul was quickly ready and we headed ashore in the tender.

My favourite sign!

We had a nice wander around the town of Bar Harbour and ended up having a light lunch before heading back to the ship.

Paul had to get back to work so I ended up having a nap, only to be woken up by an alarm and an announcement over the PA system – ‘MAN OVERBOARD’. I first wondered what was going on, and then thought it was probably a drill so went back to sleep. I was in a nice dream when the telephone rang. It was Eilina from Shore Excursions asking me if I wanted to help with brochure folding. I was soon downstairs and had a nice therapeutic session of putting Shore Excursion travel brochures together. Time went fast even though there was only me, Eilina and someone from the ship’s show cast.

I learnt that the whale watching tour hadn’t gone well. Guests were kept waiting on the pier for over an hour to board their observation catamaran even though it was docked at the pier. So guests got very cold, hungry and thirsty. Once on board, things went downhill, not to mention no toilet paper and other things. Also no whales were spotted by the end of the tour. Usually that side of such a tour is not a problem because people are made aware that sightings are not always possible, however it was the build-up of a messy tour that left guests disgruntled and they wanted the tour company to give them their money back. They were told to go back to Shore Excursions on the ship and get their money back, which they did. There was a long queue waiting at the desk…. A proper investigation will be done in order to establish what happened but it is unlikely that the tour company will get their money from the Maasdam.

By the time I got back to the cabin Paul was ready for dinner and looking forward to relaxing. The poor chap just sat down for dinner when his telephone rang, and again. We finally finished dinner in peace but Paul has had to go back to the bridge for an hour or so. No doubt he will want to hit the pillow as soon as he gets in – if he’s not called out again.

Oh yes, and someone did go overboard. Guests getting off a chartered tender onto the ship were warned to ‘mind the gap’ and ‘watch your step’ but one guest didn’t look where she was going and down she went. Plop. Into the ‘drink’. She was quickly fished out by a quick-thinking crew member. She wasn’t hurt, just a rather cold after her unexpected swim. Fortunately the whole scenario was captured on CCTV.

Time for bed in a minute. It’s been quite a day!

MORE PICTURES

Acadia National Park Walk