Denise T

Freedom of the Seas is moving next.

Long toots!

Growly toots.

Here she comes.

Marine Traffic and Cruise Mapper show Rotterdam moving.

Love to see the Canadians. Just back from my Canada/New England cruise and I want to go back.

Toots!

Just switched out laundry in time to see the Beyond leaving.

Checking in. It has been a while.

I will be sailing on her in May!

Happy Saturday. Thanks for the Daily and Fleet reports. I am at a conference and will be presenting today. Thinking of all on the care list. Celebrating with all who are celebrating. Have a safe and healthy day.

Random pictures from last sea day and disembarkation.

Boston. Time here was short. We rode the hop on, hop off bus for a narrated tour.

Bar Habor. Loved everything about it!

Happy Friday. Thanks for the Daily and Fleet reports. Busy day. Chiropractic appointment this morning. Then running errands. Hopefully a call with my dissertation methodologist, then pack my bag, Then a 2 and half hour drive to the conference hotel. I feel a cold coming on. I need a break from traveling at the moment. Happy Anniversary to @seagarsmoker! Thinking of all on the care list. Celebrating with all who are celebrating. Have a safe and healthy day.

Happy Thursday. Thank you for the Daily and Fleet reports. Finishing up grading today. Need to finish up as much as I can as I have a two-hour drive tomorrow to a conference where I will be presenting. After that, I am home for the rest of the year. Then in January I travel to Florida for my travel business. Cooler today than the last few days. Hard to know how to dress. It gets warm during the days and in the 30s at night. Happy birthday to @Overhead Fred! Happy Anniversary to @Seasick Sailor! Thinking of all on the care list. Celebrating with all who are celebrating. Have a safe and healthy day.

Not once was I able to get a seat in the Atrium. My sister and I called those who were always in the Atrium, Atrium hogs similar to the chair hogs on the pool deck. But the behaviors of fellow guests are truly amazing at times.

I agree. That was how I experienced Cagney's on embarkation day October 9, 2024. My petit filet mignon was cooked perfectly. I was disappointed in the creme brulee. There was no sugary crust to break which to me is the fun part.

Happy Wednesday. Thanks for the Daily and Fleet reports. @1ANGELCAT glad you are safe. Lots of class work to do. Also have to refresh some slides that I am using for a presentation in Harrisburg this weekend. Taking a little longer to get back in the swing of things. It has been very summer like here with highs yesterday of 84. It does get very cool when the sun goes down though. Thinking of all on the care list. Celebrating with all who are celebrating. Have a safe and healthy day.

Happy Tuesday. Thanks for the Daily and Fleet reports. Back to a structured routine. Not a fan. I keep waiting for someone to walk around my living room to take my drink order. There is no buffet here either. Oh well. Fancy and her cat siblings are now safe at home. Fancy really liked the girls at the vet hospital who took care of her. I think it was the treats she got. I must admit, I slept soundly on the cruise without a cat licking my face as I tried to sleep. Today's agenda will be back to grading assignments and other class work. I have some therapy clients as well. After a slight holding pattern with me being away, I have a meeting Thursday with my methodologist as we see if any edits are needed for my dissertation. I need to see my chiropractor as I injured my back with the luggage coming home. Always something, Thinking of all on the care list. Celebrating with all who are celebrating. Have a safe and healthy day.

Portland. We had a nice time despite the crowds and the delayed getting off the ship due to immigration. We wanted to eat at our favorite restaurant, The Port Hole, but it was closed so we tried another DiMillio's. Pricy but good food.

Happy Monday. Thank you for the Daily and Fleet reports. Well, I am back from my wonderful cruise. I feel I need another one. If finances and time allowed, I would be cruising all of the time. Next cruise is next May, Eurodam to Alaska. Who knows after that. We are thinking of a driving vacation up the New England coast. Might do an RV so we can take Fancy with us. Such a wonderful and enjoyable cruise despite a few mishaps. For instance, as we disembarked in Baltimore, the cab driver took us to the wrong hotel even after giving the name and address. We didn't realize until we were checking in. Both hotels were Holiday Inn but the one we went to was the Holiday Inn express. Oh well. Flying out on Sunday, our plane was delayed for deicing. Now I miss having a room attendant and having food readily available. Back to the old grind of work. Blah! Happy birthday to @Lady Hudson! Thinking of all on the care list. Celebrating with all who are celebrating. Have a safe and healthy day.

Don't worry. I have more pictures to post now that I am home. I was up at 2:30 am this morning and got home about 12:30 after flying from Baltimore. For a moment when we got to Philadelphia, we thought we lost a bag because the tracker kept saying it was still on the plane. My sister, who works in logistics, said, it could have been a missed scan so let's wait and see. Lo and behold, all of our bags came. Here is my wrap up of the trip. 1. Itinerary: loved it. Any time I get to Canada, I am happy. We sailed out of Quebec. We missed one port, Charlottetown because we could not dock due to high winds. Disappointed, yes, but out of my control. For Boston, we were there for a short time. I would have liked longer because you need a longer day, especially during the week. It is packed and traffic is a nightmare. You have to have extra time just to get through the traffic. This was a nice time to go if you love to see the leaves turn. Lots of brilliant color. 2. Embarkation: Went smoothly. Follow the directions that you are given, and you will get through quickly. Also, be aware that there may be extra people brought in what are new at checking people in. We had a nice young lady checking us in who panicked when her tablet shut down. A more experienced person next to her finished checking us in. We got an Uber from our hotel to the port, took maybe five minutes and we probably could have walked if we did not have all the luggage. Dropped luggage off immediately and then went through security and check in. Out time was 11 to 11:30 and I think were on board a little after 12. 3. Quebec hotel: Auberge St. Pierre. A nice little boutique hotel. Small, doesn't have all the thrills but is cozy and they served continental breakfast. Close to the port and you can walk to other areas. We walked both the Old Port and the upper part where the Hotel Frontenac is. It is hilly. You can either walk or take the funicular. The line was long when we were there, so we opted to go up the Breakneck stairs. Got our steps in. Lots of shopping and we ate at a couple of little places. It can get crowed as it is an International City. I recommend coming in several days before your cruise or stay a few days after to see this city. 4. The ship: Yes, it is much older and smaller than what many are used to. I thought it was well maintained and clean. She looked good for her age. The crew was constantly working and cleaning. This ship is small. So, you will have smaller venues. The buffet is smaller so there is not a lot of variety because they cannot put out a lot. For me, we figured out the best times to go when it was not so crowded. There were hits and misses with the food. I loved that they have soft serve ice cream. They also had no sugar added desserts as well. I like the theater. It was large and had tables for drinks. Bliss Longe and the Sugar Cane Mojito bar was where games and trivia were done. We could get a seat if we planned and went early. The atrium is scattered over three decks mid ship with panoramic elevators. Always crowded. My sister and I came to the conclusion that instead of the chair hogs at the pool, there were atrium and buffet hogs. People grabbed the best seats and stayed there all day. Now granted, the weather was called and sometimes rainy, so people had to stay indoors. There are areas of the ship where the layout is a little weird. I do really like this ship though even with a quirky layout. 5. Cabins: Small! We had an aft facing balcony room. There is little drawer space for storage. The closet can hang a lot but there are four narrow drawers in the closet. Use packing cubes or pack light. Laundry service is available. The bathroom is small bit workable. Two adults fit okay in the room. You may just have to move out of the way to get through. The room was comfortable, and we could adjust the temperature. My sister and I like it on the cool side to sleep and this worked out for us. Not a big fan of the combination shampoo and conditioner or the body soap they provide so you may want to bring your own. 6. Crew: What can I say? Fantastic! Always smiling and saying hi. Our room attendant took great care of us. Our room was always clean. We saw him every day and chatted. We would walk down the hall, and all of the room attendants greeted us and chatted with us. In the buffet, crew were constantly bussing tables and helping to locate empty tables. I constantly saw several of the officers walking around. On the last sea day before disembarkation when the pool deck was packed because the weather was so nice, they came and chatted. Here is the time for all who have complaints to let them know. 7. Entertainment: We found lots to do. We attended several different trivia in the Bliss and Sugarcane bar. Music was all over. The house band, Aura, was fantastic. The lead singer can really sing. There was another band, a piano player, and a vocalist. They rotated throughout the various venues. All of the parties (embarkation, Glow party, themed parties) were in the Bliss. In the Stardust theater they had comedians, mentalists, several branded game shows (Wheel of Fortune, Deal or No Deal) and a Rock show. There was always something to do. Many times, my sister and I would go to Spinnakers and spend the morning reading, or I had some work that I needed to do. With this Spinnakers, you could go outside at the very front of the ship. We were never bored. 8. Food: I thought the food throughout the ship was descent. As I stated earlier, some hits or misses, but overall good. We ate at Cagney's and La Cucina. We cancelled Le Bistro as nothing on the menu appealed to us. Dining room food was also good. We never received cold food. Service was good as well. A little slow sometimes but our server from La Cucina told us that they pulled him from another restaurant, so he was getting used to where everything was. Important note: The Local is only open for dinner after 6 pm. It is not 24 hours. They used it for overflow seating for the buffet. The same with La Cucina. They would have a small buffet set up for breakfast and pizza, wraps, and salads were served for lunch. I can't speak about special diets as I wasn't on one even being a diabetic. 9. Disembarkation in Baltimore: Okay. We were the next to last groups off the ship. Disembarked. They had people guiding you to the luggage and then we went to the taxi stand and got a taxi. I may have missed stuff but if you have questions just ask. Hope to get pictures up later. I thoroughly enjoyed my cruise on the Sky. She's tiny but I like that. I hope to see her sailing out of Philadelphia in the near future when that port opens. That port would be perfect for us and wouldn't need to fly. Stay tuned for more pictures.

Halifax. We did the Duck boat tour.

I am at the hotel. Our flight is early tomorrow morning. I will post all my pictures when I get home because I will be using my own internet. We disembarked and were able to find our luggage. We were next to last group called. Then went to get a taxi. Here is how our day has gone so far. Immediately got a cab, and after confirming the name of the hotel and the address got us to the hotel after driving crazily through the highways of Baltimore. Got out of the cab and went inside. Welllllll. Turns out it was the wrong hotel which we didn't realize until we we checking in and the front desk person got confused when I said it was for one night and she was saying two. Well she had checked us in under a very similar name and it turned out we were at the wrong location. So we ended up Ubering to the correct location after everything was fixed. Now relaxing in the hotel. We also found out this morning that my sister's birthdate was entered into American Airlines incorrectly and her TSA precheck wasn't showing. Had to pay for the change. I dislike American. Oh well. Up at the crack of dawn tomorrow and finally home. Stay tuned for the wrap up and pictures tomorrow.