Seniors on the road, the ocean, off the beaten path—and wherever: And we’re off! Well, more like we’re on...

September 25, 2024

What's stressful is that Montreal is not well served by some of its taxi drivers. One at the hotel, who quoted us $10 to go to a store and when we got there said $15. And wouldn’t budge. And the taxi driver who, after we started out to the pier said it’s a flat fee of $25 from the hotel to the pier—about 10 blocks. Oh, well, cheaper than a rental car and parking.

Well, boarding was not stressful! Our experience with Seabourn Quest was seamless and stressless. I even got a wheelchair because, the man said, “It’s a really long walk!” (It wasn’t that long.) No waiting at any of the checkpoints. The suite (all the cabins on Seabourn are “suites”) is very nice but poorly laid out. For example, the closet is long and very narrow so Randy and I cannot be in there at the same time. The only drawers are in that closet, however. The electric outlets are also poorly laid out. One I couldn’t even find until somebody told me EXACTLY where to look. They do have several USB outlets, so that’s good.

Day 2 is rainy and cold so, since we’ve already done the HOHO—well, most of the normal HOHO run—we’re staying on board.

Speaking of on board, Seabourn has an app (who doesn’t, these days?) that is not the most intuitive I’ve seen. For instance, you must put your phone in Airplane mode for it to work. I eventually had to go down to Seabourn Square to get live help. We can only have two devices online at the same time, that’s the bad news. The good news is that the internet is free. Well, it’s “free” if you don’t count the money we’ve spent on the cruise itself!

Had a wonderful dinner in The Restaurant. Yes, the name of the restaurant IS The Restaurant. Seabourn does Hosted tables. Meaning that one of the shipboard crew (might be officers or might be entertainment staff) “hosts” the table. Last night we were at the table that Cice (pronounced See-See) was hosting. She is the Assistant Cruise Director to the CD, Aimee. We got a ton of information at dinner! And Randy found a bridge partner.

Don’t know if we’ll go back tonight or try the Colonnade which is Seabourn’s cafeteria style restaurant, but it looks nicer than the normal cafeteria style.

Then there is the Observation Bar where it seems like everybody meets before dinner. And The Club where various functions happen. Lots of places to meet people!