Also just off the Summit Canada/NE

Didn't want to tag onto Antsnanny's post.

Just stating my own observations.

Wonderful cruise, but nothing in life is (or can be perfect).

Our first time in AQ. Loved it. Food was mostly good (mostly very good), no complaints. Service terrific. I just loved the "musical chairs" concept - we sat next to so many nice people. Only twice was there someone who had no desire to talk at all - which was fine, we respected that. For 14 days there were so many things to choose from I just can't process in my head what we all had, but it was mostly good. I would do AQ and Blu again in a minute. Simply loved it.

We ate lunch at the buffet several times. I would say it evolved over the two weeks. There were some of the baskets, started out with the "one type of dessert a day", both things I didn't really care for (food cold in baskets, all of a similar thing boring). I think the trays were BECAUSE it was such an elderly heavy cruise. I mean REALLY skewed in that direction, and the trays made it easier for them.

I ate mostly the hot, steam table stuff. At first I thought "Indian food AGAIN" but I started to take a little each time and found it all delicious and different, I looked forward to what would be new the next time (the exec chef was from India), but they had plenty of other choices.

The place that surprised me the most was Bistro on Five. Loved it. First time we had a savory crepe and a dessert crepe, but don't overlook the daily specials! The Bouilliabaise was surprisingly good - started with a caprese salad, ended with the French (orange) crepe with some vanilla ice cream and almonds added - fantastic lunch. I thought we'd try to avoid the "cover charge" places but we ended up here twice and thought we got a delicious bargain.

Normandie one night - we didn't pay (gift), but it was just not way, way up there. It wasn't the 3 hour marathon we disliked the first time, it was good, glad we went. Just not a peak experience.

We did ship shore excursions, and some were great, some not so much. Remember, this was a very, very senior cruise so anything you did took longer to accommodate the mostly (I'd say almost all) very nice people who needed extra help/time.

We did talk to several people who were part of the angry mob who didn't get first seating, and I do have an opinion about it.

The ones we talked to had confirmed, in writing, first seating reservations, and were changed on boarding to late. This I feel was just not right. If you are TOLD, at booking, "we are so sorry, but early is gone, you must do late" that is one thing - you can make a decision. But don't say "yes, you'll be able to change on board to early" and then have it not be true.

That was the advantage of Blu - we could go as early as we wanted (and the times got earlier and earlier throughout the cruise - from 6? to 5:30 to 5:15 - and what we found, was that going early, we were able to be in time for the 7 pm show (technically the late seating show) which had plenty of seats, and not the overly crowded, SRO 9 pm (early seating) show. So it worked out GREAT for us.

We didn't go to every show - skipped the ones we knew we wouldn't like (not Cirque/acrobat fans, and I had to walk out on the panflute guy because he was hurting my ears) - but the ones we did go to were fine (especially liked the Billy Joel guy and the Jersey comedian).

This is just a brief overview - I'll be happy to flesh out more details if anyone has questions.

And oh...the weather was unbelievably fabulous! ONE port had rain, but it was intermittent (Corner Brook, Newfoundland).

Just a fantastic cruise.

No questions?

That's ok, I'll just add a few more things.

I was really concerned about the loud music problem from threads past. Absolutely not an issue. Again, I think they were very, very sensitive and responsive to the fact that there were so many older people on board. It wasn't all big band music or anything, don't get me wrong, the musicians were great - Jordan Peterson, the Lost boys, the Spanish guy, even the house band and the jazz band mixed it up but it was never too loud or intrusive.

I attended some (not all) of the Beyond the Podium lectures - guy did a series on Broadway musicals and other things which were very good (at least the ones I attended).

For once, we did not really participate a lot in the trivia, games, etc. We just got into a really nice rhythm of swimming indoors every morning (empty except for a few of us), did a lot of reading, just sat on the balcony and reveled in the mild, sunny weather.

Burgers were great by the pool. Aqua Spa café was not as good as times past (never saw the grilled marinated vegetables we like). I wanted to go to lunch in the MDR once, but made the mistake of waiting until the last day - at 11:55 the line was almost back to Bacio! Oh, speaking of Bacio, great cakes and gelato as usual.

As I think of more things I'll add them. And again, if you can jog my memory with any questions I'll be happy to answer.

Thank you for your good review.

There is a current thread about Aqua Spa Cafe. Did you just go there once and when you found they didn't have the grilled veggies, did you ask for anything else, like the Salmon or Arctic Char?

We are sailing next September. We leave Sept 20 and are wondering about the fall colors. Did you see much towards the end of your cruise?

Our ports are Boston, Portland, Bar Harbor, Quebec, Charlottetown PEI, Sydney & Halifax Nova Scotia which are different from this years cruises. Did you do any excursions in these ports? Which ones and how did you like them?

Thanks.

Mary Lou

Glad you had a good cruise:)...thanks for the review:D...I love

Summit!

Didn't want to tag onto Antsnanny's post.

 

Just stating my own observations.

 

Wonderful cruise, but nothing in life is (or can be perfect).

 

Our first time in AQ. Loved it. Food was mostly good (mostly very good), no complaints. Service terrific. I just loved the "musical chairs" concept - we sat next to so many nice people. Only twice was there someone who had no desire to talk at all - which was fine, we respected that. For 14 days there were so many things to choose from I just can't process in my head what we all had, but it was mostly good. I would do AQ and Blu again in a minute. Simply loved it.

 

We ate lunch at the buffet several times. I would say it evolved over the two weeks. There were some of the baskets, started out with the "one type of dessert a day", both things I didn't really care for (food cold in baskets, all of a similar thing boring). I think the trays were BECAUSE it was such an elderly heavy cruise. I mean REALLY skewed in that direction, and the trays made it easier for them.

 

I ate mostly the hot, steam table stuff. At first I thought "Indian food AGAIN" but I started to take a little each time and found it all delicious and different, I looked forward to what would be new the next time (the exec chef was from India), but they had plenty of other choices.

 

The place that surprised me the most was Bistro on Five. Loved it. First time we had a savory crepe and a dessert crepe, but don't overlook the daily specials! The Bouilliabaise was surprisingly good - started with a caprese salad, ended with the French (orange) crepe with some vanilla ice cream and almonds added - fantastic lunch. I thought we'd try to avoid the "cover charge" places but we ended up here twice and thought we got a delicious bargain.

 

Normandie one night - we didn't pay (gift), but it was just not way, way up there. It wasn't the 3 hour marathon we disliked the first time, it was good, glad we went. Just not a peak experience.

 

We did ship shore excursions, and some were great, some not so much. Remember, this was a very, very senior cruise so anything you did took longer to accommodate the mostly (I'd say almost all) very nice people who needed extra help/time.

 

We did talk to several people who were part of the angry mob who didn't get first seating, and I do have an opinion about it.

 

The ones we talked to had confirmed, in writing, first seating reservations, and were changed on boarding to late. This I feel was just not right. If you are TOLD, at booking, "we are so sorry, but early is gone, you must do late" that is one thing - you can make a decision. But don't say "yes, you'll be able to change on board to early" and then have it not be true.

 

That was the advantage of Blu - we could go as early as we wanted (and the times got earlier and earlier throughout the cruise - from 6? to 5:30 to 5:15 - and what we found, was that going early, we were able to be in time for the 7 pm show (technically the late seating show) which had plenty of seats, and not the overly crowded, SRO 9 pm (early seating) show. So it worked out GREAT for us.

 

We didn't go to every show - skipped the ones we knew we wouldn't like (not Cirque/acrobat fans, and I had to walk out on the panflute guy because he was hurting my ears) - but the ones we did go to were fine (especially liked the Billy Joel guy and the Jersey comedian).

 

This is just a brief overview - I'll be happy to flesh out more details if anyone has questions.

 

And oh...the weather was unbelievably fabulous! ONE port had rain, but it was intermittent (Corner Brook, Newfoundland).

 

Just a fantastic cruise.

We really, really enjoyed ourselves too.. We ate most nights in the MDR with our exceptional waiter Billy and his assistant Patrick. What a pair, we had a blast. Great table mates too.

I agree the shows were fabulous and the comedian was awesome. Loved Jack Walker!!

As you mentioned it was an elderly group on this cruise so the 6PM seating for dinner was probably what most people chose and I can all understand that not everyone could be accommodated. BUT. To receive written conformation and then be told onboard that your dining time was changed was not fair at all to them. I would be upset too. Im assuming they accommodated them in Select dining because the late seating was never full.

You got a good sampling of the pre plated meals and the regular buffet! I though the regular buffet food was great and didn't like the pre plated at all.

Overall, I give the cruise high marks like you did.

I guess were in the same boat today, back to work, we have to feed ourselves, make our beds and last but not least unpack and do laundry. Glad to be home but I sure do miss the Summit.

Almost zero fall color - too early. But we live in an area with gorgeous foliage so we instead hoped for nice weather, and got it.

We only went to the Aqua Spa café once or twice for lunch/snack, and no we did not ask for anything that was not there. Had a couple of salads which were good (I like the grain/legume ones). Had some peaches with honey once that were not very good.

The shore excursions we took:

Bar Harbor, the Frenchman's Bay boat cruise. This was great. Went past many mansions, saw seals, several bald eagles. The naturalist/narrator was a young guy named Glauco, very smart, nice, knowledgeable, and oh yeah, yummy, lol.

Before the afternoon tour had lunch at the West Street Café - husband had very good lobster roll, I had whole belly fried clams - excellent, very casual.

Halifax - no tour - just walked down to the Maritime Museum on our own, then lunch at McKievels (or something like that - surprisingly upscale restaurant with great lobster).

Sydney NS - tour to Baddeck and AG Bell Museum, very interesting. Had no idea of the scope of his work. The snack bar at the museum really just has sweets (cookies, we had a delicious date bar). I had asked about what to eat on this day since it covered lunch time and there was really nothing to eat (not that we starved to death but it might have been an issue for anyone with a medical condition where they did need something.

PEI - had been there before on a driving trip when daughter was young, did all the Anne stuff, this time took a tour around the city. Disappointing. Guide was VERY young and new, read from notes, and I felt the tour really did not deliver what was promised - history of how Canada got its start. After tour we had lunch at Water & Prince (or Prince & Water?) - disappointing lobster, not nearly as good as the one in Halifax (smaller (even though supposedly the same size), softer shell so not filled out (I'm from New England so know and love my lobster), but the huge bowl of mussels were great. Husband had a lobster roll which he said the worst he has every had, anywhere.

Quebec - paid $5 for the shuttle which dropped you not very far away, and you still had to climb a gigantic hill to get to the lower town. We had been to Quebec before so had done most of the sightseeing in the upper town. Just walked around the lower town shops, which were cute.

Sugar Shack dinner - absolutely horrible. Food was ok, but it was so very crowded, we were crammed in a corner and could not even see the "show" (dancing, etc) which was fine. We actually sat at the table with a couple of ship employees (the shore excursion director, Jessica, and also another girl plus the ship's accountant, so that part was ok, and we also met another nice couple on their first cruise, but it was a lame, hokey night and I am sorry we wasted our time and money. Don't ask me what possessed me to book it.

Next day we took an excursion to St. Anne canyon and the winery which was great - we passed Montmorency falls along the way and ours were MUCH better - not next to the highway, but in a secluded, wooded setting with suspension bridges. Then a stop at a lovely, bucolic, very small winery with great wine. Highly recommend this trip.

Portland - stops around town and out to a lighthouse. It was fine.

We are doing this cruise next September 6th and can not wait. What reason where the passengers given for not being able to do early seating. Would you give some feedback on the excursions you did. It sounds like you had a great time and thank you for the review.

Must have been typing at the same time!

They all could not have early seating because it is simply not physically possible to have most of the people in the MDR (or anywhere) all at the same time.

Every ship is set up to have half go early, half go late. I'm sure in Europe, Latin countries, the Caribbean, most want late, and have the same/opposite problem, not everyone can go at the same time.

But they should have told them this at booking so they could have decided whether to book or not, knowing the situation. And maybe a lot "thought" they would be able to change. But if it's true what some told us was their experience, that they were promised/guaranteed/confirmed early, and then were forced to take late, that is just wrong.

Winds,

Thanks for posting. :)

We are sailing next September. We leave Sept 20 and are wondering about the fall colors. Did you see much towards the end of your cruise?

 

Our ports are Boston, Portland, Bar Harbor, Quebec, Charlottetown PEI, Sydney & Halifax Nova Scotia which are different from this years cruises. Did you do any excursions in these ports? Which ones and how did you like them?

 

Thanks.

 

Mary Lou

Leaf Colour depends on Latitude, Altitude & Weather (combo of all 3)... Most of September is too early for most of Canada & New England for any substantial colour.

Mountains (Altitude) in Vermont, New Hampshire, New York State & Maine as well as places around Quebec City (Latitude) come on first... Usually last half of September.

Every year is going to be a bit different in regards to weather. So far this year we are having a very warm and relatively dry September (no big Hurricanes coming in off the Atlantic & making landfall this year). And no frost at night yet. These things all play a role.

So Colour is coming on very gradually / slowly.

Cheers!

Our prior (land) trip to Quebec in July of whatever-year-it-was we Froze to Death (I had to buy a hooded sweatshirt to survive). To have a dry, balmy autumn at those northern ports was a wonderful gift.

Thanks for the information on the fall color and excursions. We do get good fall color in PA so that was not a deciding factor when picking a date for this cruise. We met some people from Montreal on several cruises and are hoping to get together with them in Quebec. If not, we'll just look for an interesting bistro for lunch.

Mary Lou

We were also on this cruise and did have early seating (booked 15 months ago). I agree that their communications was very poor, both off the ship and on the ship. The Dining Manager did the best he could. They took 175 seats from Select dining to accomodate more people for early dining. Also, some were told to come at 6:30 and they filled in empty seats in the lower dining room.

We had an excellent experience. They used coupons for Elite cocktail time. That worked very well for us since we could stock up on diet coke and take a glass of wine to dinner.

We had an excellent tour of Halifax with Andy Smith (tattletours dot com). We also took a private tour arranged through our roll call in Charlottetown. We did Celebrity tours in Quebec (partly because we were docked away from town and the second one was an afternoon tour, returning just before all aboard time.

Thank you for your review.

Keith

Warmwinds,

Thanks for a timely review. I will be on the next one. Your info. on tours is much appreciated. Sounds like you had a great cruise.

Thanks warmwinds for the helpful review. During the summer when Summit was doing the Bermuda cruises, Aqua Class guests were offered embarkation day lunch in Blu. Was that offered to you?

Can you tell me about the 'Frenchman's Bay Cruise'. Where is the dock in relation to the tender drop off? Was the boat crowded? Could we take a chance and purchase the day of our visit (in case it's rainy & cold)? Thanks for the info.

We were disappointed lunch was NOT offered in Blu on Embarcation day.

The Frenchman's Bay cruise dock is the very same one that the tenders use. As a matter of fact, the company that ran the excursion (something Whale Watch) helped out X all day long with tendering, and it was one of their boats that tendered us back to the ship (that was one of the negatives, X was in a hurry so removed their gangplank from one side of the ship that that boat had been using all day, so after an aborted effort to tie up there anyway and put it back, they sent them around to the other side. This was also the very last tender of the day, and of course X waited for everyone. We literally got off one boat and walked to the next line/pier (all part of the same big dock) and onto the other boat for tendering.

One of the reasons the trip got off late/back late is that they were waiting while a few people bought their tickets to join our trip (it was a larger boat, and had a mix of ship and not ship people). We sat up top because it was a nice day and we had the best views of the eagles and everything else (besides the wildlife and mansions, forgot to mention you get a clear view of the geological topography of Mt. Desert Island - very nice). So while I can't guarantee it won't be sold out on the day you want to go, many people did buy their tickets on the day. And sit on the starboard side upstairs, right at the rail if possible. We had perfect seats.

We were disappointed lunch was NOT offered in Blu on Embarcation day.

:(At least I have time to get over my disappointment before we board.:(

Thanks

Well, maybe they will offer it on your cruise, who knows? I think it was a tricky transition for them (for whatever reason) from the one-week Bermudas to the two week Canadas.

Oh, and one very important thing about the Frenchman's Bay cruise...it was a beautiful, take your jacket off day in Bar Harbor, but the cruise was FREEZING - especially when the boat was moving. I had on a shirt, long pants, hooded fleece, hooded jacket and I even had gloves that were (luckily) stuck in my pocket and I was comfortable but still cold. Many people who only had a thin jacket or fleece or (horrors) shorts either looked so uncomfortable or moved down below.

Well, maybe they will offer it on your cruise, who knows? I think it was a tricky transition for them (for whatever reason) from the one-week Bermudas to the two week Canadas.

 

Oh, and one very important thing about the Frenchman's Bay cruise...it was a beautiful, take your jacket off day in Bar Harbor, but the cruise was FREEZING - especially when the boat was moving. I had on a shirt, long pants, hooded fleece, hooded jacket and I even had gloves that were (luckily) stuck in my pocket and I was comfortable but still cold. Many people who only had a thin jacket or fleece or (horrors) shorts either looked so uncomfortable or moved down below.

Re - Clothing

This is a good example of people not doing basic research prior to cruising.

Canada and September is most definitely Autumn and not Summer. Average temps are usually in the 60s F, with a few days perhaps higher 70s or lower 50s. And out on the water things are going to be considerably windier & cooler.

Mid to Late September there is a good chance of frost, which means temps of at least standing objects have dropped below freezing 32 F overnight (in which case it is also going to take a lot longer the next day for temps to warm up again even if it is a bright sunny day)

Layers are key... As they are here almost year round. And for folks coming from warmer climes, I strongly suggest also packing along gloves, scarf and a toque (knitted hat that covers the ears).

Cheers!

Well, maybe they will offer it on your cruise, who knows? I think it was a tricky transition for them (for whatever reason) from the one-week Bermudas to the two week Canadas.

 

Oh, and one very important thing about the Frenchman's Bay cruise...it was a beautiful, take your jacket off day in Bar Harbor, but the cruise was FREEZING - especially when the boat was moving. I had on a shirt, long pants, hooded fleece, hooded jacket and I even had gloves that were (luckily) stuck in my pocket and I was comfortable but still cold. Many people who only had a thin jacket or fleece or (horrors) shorts either looked so uncomfortable or moved down below.

Would this tour company be called Baa Haaba WW; "Nature Cruise"? 2hours? I saw another company offering something similar but it was 1 1/2 miles from tender dock.

I just checked Google maps and it is called Bar Harbor Whale Watch, the tour the ship offered was called "Frenchman's Bay something", not sure if they call it something different if you buy a ticket independently, and it was not 1 1/2 miles from anything - it was right where the ship tenders dock, at the corner of West and Main streets.

Thanks, warm.