I was probably still on central time because, like clockwork, I woke up at 6 am and tried to go back to sleep for the next hour finally getting out of bed at 7. I showered and packed up my things, got on the internet for a little while to do my Mafia Wars “chores”, and then went out to walk around.
My first stop was the railing by the funicular because I wanted to get a picture of the Veendam.
I picked up a coffee at Starbucks (which was the one and only time I saw a business give a 1% “discount” for the exchange rate with USD) and then walked around the block in the other direction. The closest restaurant to the hotel was a crepe place and I was shocked to see some crepes priced as much as $24. I walked for about half an hour and then headed back to the hotel. The weather was pretty nice – not hot at all. I think by later in the afternoon it probably reached the mid-80's.
I went back to our hotel but stopped by the front desk to ask about our aquarium passes that we were supposed to get as a part of our “package”. We hadn't received them with the stuffed animal and it wasn't in our room so the hotel staff guy gave me a voucher for the 2 of us to get into the aquarium. I asked about transportation and found out our options at the concierge desk – the green line shuttle that would pick up near the hotel at 10:30 am and return from the aquarium at 2:25 pm for $5 round trip per person. I went back to the room and uploaded a bunch of pictures to our photo site, kidoctr.smugmug.com. I had gotten a little behind in uploading pictures so I got caught up again.
At around 11:30, I woke Amina up so we could get packed up, checked out and make our way to the cruise terminal. My original plan was to just walk to the terminal because it was so close but because the hotel was in the upper part of town with steep streets, stairs or the funicular (like a tram on tracks where we had seen them squeeze people in like sardines), I thought it was just easier to take a taxi with our luggage. We checked out via the television in the room and then made arrangements to visit the aquarium on Sunday through concierge but I was a little worried about how late the shuttle picked us up from the aquarium. The Veendam was to leave at 4 pm so I was thinking all aboard was probably going to be 3 or 3:30. Being picked up at the aquarium at 2:25, returning to the Fairmont, and then making our way back to the terminal was going to be tight.
We took a taxi to the cruise terminal and spent more on the wait to get into the terminal in the taxi than we did the actual ride from the hotel – total was $15. Our taxi driver was pretty grumpy too.
I had attached baggage tags to our suitcases that morning – it was very interesting the way HAL was doing it now. We never received our “docs” in the mail as we had for every other cruise we've ever been on. I pre-registered us online and printed out our embarkation information as well as the luggage tags. The tags were just folded up and wrapped around the suitcase handle and was to be either taped or stapled. Since we didn't have a stapler, I had borrowed some tape from Dee and Jason's house putting a couple strips of tape inside my file folder and then a couple of shorter pieces over those strips so I could peel them off to use. I filled out the tags with our cabin number and taped them on – it was very low tech, but it worked just fine. The bell men whisked our suitcases away and we entered the terminal.
Up the escalator to the 2nd floor where we made a right turn and went around a couple of corners to the table where we filled out the typical health questionnaire: are you sick; have you been vomiting or having diarrhea; etc etc. We went through security check and didn't wait long at all before we were in front of an agent who checked our passports, my credit card, and issued us our key cards. It was a very quick process.
We walked past the rows of chairs where there were a bunch of people sitting and using their various electronic gadgets taking advantage of the free wifi in the terminal. After the obligatory embarkation photos, we walked the long passageways leading to the ship.
Our cabin was #588, large oceanview – we had been “upgraded” so our cabin was on the same deck as embarkation – Main deck, 5. Unfortunately, we had to go all the way to the back of the ship and make a U-turn to reach our cabin because the doorway was blocked during embarkation. I was so happy that our cabin was ready but when we entered, I saw right away that they hadn't arranged our room correctly even though I had called them a few days before we left.
I had noticed on our embarkation papers that we had “requested” a single queen bed. When I called to have this changed, the gentleman informed me that when we were upgraded, the default choice was for the single queen and that he would change it to 2 separate beds. Amina's a kicker while she sleeps so I definitely didn't want to share a bed with her. Our stateroom attendant was nowhere to be found so we went up to the dining room for some lunch.
One of the luggage porters gave us directions to the Lido deck for the buffet but I knew that the Mariners had an embarkation lunch in the main dining room (MDR) so we headed there instead and were seated right away. We met Donna from Florida who was doing the back-to-back trip with her husband who was out in the city taking pictures (one-way from Boston to QC and then stay aboard for the return trip). She was a former English teacher and we had a wonderful conversation with her over lunch. I had made the decision to really try and avoid gaining the usual 5-8 pounds on this cruise so I just had water and a fruit plate (and a bit of Amina's hamburger and cole slaw). Later, I had a special K protein bar too. We had reservations at a really nice restaurant for dinner and I definitely didn't want to spoil my appetite. I was very excited to have gotten this reservation and it was going to be Amina's first time at a AAA 5 diamond restaurant.
By the time that we got back to our cabin, our luggage had arrived – placed inside the cabin instead of outside the door which was very nice. We spent some time unpacking and our room steward dropped by so I asked him to change our sleeping arrangements. I called 88 on our phone to make dinner reservations.
We were open dining but I had heard that on HAL, this really didn't mean “come by anytime to eat” dining as it was on our other cruises. I had read that if you showed up without a reservation, it wasn't unusual to have to wait for a bit. I was told that we could only make dinner reservations up to 3 days in advance so I only made reservations for 7 pm on Sunday night and then 6:45 pm on Monday evening (our day at sea – the first formal night). On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, we had reservations at the 3 specialty restaurants. I would have to call back on Tuesday to make dinner reservations for Friday night. I was a little disappointed to find out that the 2nd formal night was on Thursday instead of Friday – the night that we had reservations at the Pinnacle Grill. Oh well. I didn't try to change our reservations. What a weird and sort of messed up open dining system.
We gathered our things and decided to do a quick tour of the ship so we went up to the top and made our way down. Our first stop was the Loft (teen club) which was deserted. There were activities that evening until very late in the Loft but we had 8 pm dinner reservations so Amina wasn't going to be able to make it. She wasn't really worried about trying to meet up with the other teens on board. We took a spa tour and signed up for the drawings, walked through the lido buffet, found the hamburger station as well as the pizza station, walked by the ample number of bars, and made it back to our cabin to pick up a few things before we headed out to the city. We found out that it was all aboard on Sunday at 3:30 so I thought we would have time to make it out to the aquarium and back.
I had planned for us to take the walking tour described in the Tom's Port Guides that I had downloaded but it proved to be too much of a hassle with my ipad and trying to figure out directions so we just wandered for the next couple of hours, found the touristy streets, the entrance to the funicular, the wall paintings, and wandered into a few interesting looking stores.
We sampled maple water which was really good – low calorie with just a hint of maple taste and bought some. We had also walked into a store selling nougat and sampled the maple one and bought a bar. We picked up some chocolates from a chocolate shop that reminded me a great deal of the chocolate shop we were taken to during a tour of Paris. We also followed the sign to a small shop where we decided to try the “beaver tail” which was essentially like funnel cake, deep fried into the shape of a beaver's tail and you could choose from one of 9 toppings. We chose maple and it was quite good but the little shop was terribly hot even though we were able to pick up wifi in there.
We also wandered into a bakery and picked up a few macaroons.
A note on wifi and connectivity. Prior to leaving, I had purchased 50 international text messages on AT&T for each of our iphones as a precautionary measure ($10 per phone). International calling minutes weren't going to be worthwhile unless we planned to talk for more than 30 minutes. I also added data to my phone to use while in the Canadian ports ($120). Interestingly, in Quebec City, we were picking up free wifi right and left EXCEPT in the hotel.
It was getting really hot and we had been out for a couple of hours so we headed back to the terminal at around 4:30 pm and hung out there to get our internet fix. I even went back to our cabin to get my laptop and was pleasantly surprised at how fast the wifi was (after all, I had more Mafia Wars chores
to do). The terminal was freezing too and by the time we left, I was a popsicle. I was kinda kicking myself for not noticing that we had an extra day in port at QC – we could have saved the $399 that I spent to stay at the Fairmont and arrived on the day of embarkation but I'm glad we didn't because we would have been arriving very late that night missing a day in the city and I noticed later that afternoon, the luggage porters were gone and people were embarking with all of their suitcases in tow. We snacked on our macaroons and drank our maple water while surfing the net. It was funny that after walking around in Quebec City, the only thing that we bought was food.
I headed back to our cabin at around 7 to get ready for dinner – rinsed off in the shower and changed clothes. Amina was already wearing a skirt that she planned on wearing to dinner. I went back to the terminal to get her and we walked the 1.5 blocks to Restaurant L'Initiale which we had passed a couple of times on our way to and from the terminal.
After just a bit of a language issue (my reservation was written as “Stewart” instead of “Switzer”) we were taken to our table in the corner. The restaurant was nice enough – nothing really fancy and it wasn't terribly crowded. We both ordered the Grand Menu ($129 pp) and I also got the wine pairing ($79).
I've been to a good number of AAA five diamond restaurants – it's on my bucket list to visit every single one in the world (there's around 50 of them in the US, Canada, Mexico, and a few other international destinations) – we've knocked about half a dozen off the list so far in Las Vegas (3), Florida (1), and Oahu (1). Our most favorite AAA five diamond restaurant so far is at Disneyworld in Florida (Victoria and Alberts) but the one in Oahu is a very close second (La Mer) in my opinion. This one in Quebec City was good but there were a few things about the restaurant that I was a little surprised at given the five diamond rating.
After an “okay” amuse bouche of tomatoes and cucumber with an arugula sauce that was really strong, the flounder was delicious but after I had taken a few bites, I realized that I hadn't been served the wine pairing. Come to find out that they did not do a pairing with this appetizer. Odd.
The roasted Cepes mushrooms with Jerusalem artichoke, nougatine, and chicken broth was very good although the nougat pieces were just a little too sweet in my opinion and the dish would have stood well just on its own without the candy. The wine pairing was good.
The red tuna with eggplant and pepper was actually a 2-in-1 with some gently seared pieces of tuna as well as a tuna tartare. It was also very good and paired well with the white wine but I was surprised that they poured the same wine with the next course, the lobster with fennel. It did not pair as well with the lobster.
At this point I had to use the bathroom and went downstairs briefly and returned to find that our next course, the seared foie gras, had already been served. Also odd. The foie gras was absolutely wonderful and, of course, my favorite paired with a sweet wine that went well.
Amina commented that she was getting pretty full by now and I had to agree. The next course was the “main” course: veal loin with sweetbreads. We joked a lot about the sweetbreads and the fact that Amina had recently dissected a sheep's brain in her University of Georgia brain, intelligence, and creativity summer studies class. The veal was ok – definitely not my favorite and neither were the sweetbreads. I had to take a 2nd picture of the sweetbreads because it was easy to see the sulci and gyri at this angle. I can't remember the wine pairing – it was probably also just “ok”.
The cheese course was next and the hard cheese (I forgot what kind it was) was very good but the soft cheese sitting on top of the rhubarb wasn't as good. The rhubarb was just too tart. For dessert, we have chocolate flan with a cocoa bread, cherries topped with raw almonds and a side of caramel ice cream. I'm not a fan of chocolate nor of mousse – this dessert more closely resembled a mousse than a flan. I also can't remember the wine except that I liked it because it was sweet.
Our last course were strawberries with parfait cormier – it was good but there was no pairing with this last course. The final odd thing of the night.
We finished at just short of 11 pm and were given some Madelines to take home with us. Overall, I like this restaurant, the service was attentive, the food good – not a ton of creativity points. Maybe just a smidge disappointed given the price because 2 courses were not paired with wine, 2 were paired with the same wine, and being served a course while I wasn't at the table is a bit of a faux pas. (Yes, I'm that picky). We walked back to the ship and went immediately to bed.
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