LIVE! Dragon OfTheSeas and the Snowbird Migration from Quebec to FLL Oct 7-20, 2019

[DragonOfTheSeas]

One final PEI posting. One of the people on our tour asked if they ever get snow on PEI.  So our guide said they get about 10' per year on average.  But in 2015 they had 20".  [yep, not a typo]  I took pictures of his pictures.  So, ignore the quality of the photo please. 

 

 

Now that will get your attention.  😮

Edited October 11, 2019 by DragonOfTheSeas

[DragonOfTheSeas]

We are in Sydney Nova Scotia today.  This is the only port I have not really planned what we are going to do.  [We have some ports where we are going to DIY]  That may be a problem.  Everything I have read says your really need to have an excursion here because there is not much available near the dock. 

 

My go to excursion would be to Fort Louisburg.  However, we are here during the off season.  While the fort is still open most of the activities and costumed interpreters that make it such an attraction are off.  We arrived at 7am and leave at 3:30pm.  With a port day this short I would book a ship tour.  Several of those were sold out.  So wish us luck!  . . .  talk to you soon.

[Another_Critic]

26 minutes ago, DragonOfTheSeas said:

One final PEI posting. One of the people on our tour asked if they ever get snow on PEI.  So our guide said they get about 10' per year on average.  But in 2015 they had 20".  [yep, not a typo] 

 

It's definitely a typo.  😄

 

s/b 20' (feet), not 20" (inches)

[Another_Critic]

28 minutes ago, DragonOfTheSeas said:

We are in Sydney Nova Scotia today.  This is the only port I have not really planned what we are going to do.  [We have some ports where we are going to DIY]  That may be a problem.  Everything I have read says your really need to have an excursion here because there is not much available near the dock. 

 

My go to excursion would be to Fort Louisburg.  However, we are here during the off season.  While the fort is still open most of the activities and costumed interpreters that make it such an attraction are off.  We arrived at 7am and leave at 3:30pm.  With a port day this short I would book a ship tour.  Several of those were sold out.  So wish us luck!  . . .  talk to you soon.

 

When we were there last month (10 am to 6 pm), we rented a car and drove north to Ingonish, then continued along the coast to Neil's Harbour.  It was a lot of driving but very beautiful scenery.

[Hoopster95]

41 minutes ago, Another_Critic said:

 

When we were there last month (10 am to 6 pm), we rented a car and drove north to Ingonish, then continued along the coast to Neil's Harbour.  It was a lot of driving but very beautiful scenery.

 

This. I recommend as well. Pre-planning essential with the short port time 7-3:30 and it was a lot of driving (thus not enough time stopping at places) however amazing scenery and iconic photo stops. 

Edited October 11, 2019 by Hoopster95

[Another_Critic]

18 minutes ago, Hoopster95 said:

 

This. I recommend as well. Pre-planning essential with the short port time 7-3:30 and it was a lot of driving (thus not enough time stopping at places) however amazing scenery and iconic photo stops. 

 

The drive reminded me of a mini version of the Wild Atlantic Way (west coast of Ireland). 

[TimeToGetNauti]

Sounds like you are having a wonderful time so far.  I will be on Adventure in December.  Can't wait. Thanks for sharing.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

3 hours ago, Another_Critic said:

 

It's definitely a typo.  😄

 

s/b 20' (feet), not 20" (inches)

You are so right!  Sorry about that.  I was trying to show how much snow there was and should have proofread my post.  Thanks for pointing that out. 😊

[DragonOfTheSeas]

3 hours ago, Another_Critic said:

 

When we were there last month (10 am to 6 pm), we rented a car and drove north to Ingonish, then continued along the coast to Neil's Harbour.  It was a lot of driving but very beautiful scenery.

 

3 hours ago, Hoopster95 said:

 

This. I recommend as well. Pre-planning essential with the short port time 7-3:30 and it was a lot of driving (thus not enough time stopping at places) however amazing scenery and iconic photo stops. 

 

2 hours ago, Another_Critic said:

 

The drive reminded me of a mini version of the Wild Atlantic Way (west coast of Ireland). 

 

 

This tour would have been one thing we would enjoy doing.  However, there short port time made me nervous doing it myself and one of the ship tours was sold out early and one other was canceled. I imagine the vendor felt there was too little time. 

 

That just gives us a reason to return. 🙂

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Here are my usual sunrise and sail in pictures. 

 

 

 

The most unusual think at this port is the big fiddle at the cruise terminal.  It is to remind visitors about the role music plays in their culture. 

 

 

About 7:15 this am I got this picture of a lifeguard at the pool.  It was freezing at that point.  I felt sorry for him. 

 

There were taxi tours available for walk up visitors.  However, they sold out quickly.  I thought some of you might like to know the prices so you can compare these to the ship's tours. 

 

 

 

 

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

So we decided to take a walking tour of the city.  It turned out to be very nice.  Our first stop was a small church across the street from the pier. 

 

 

 

 

Then I visited the Jost House.  It is a small private museum.  Jost was a ship Captain and a merchant. 

 

 

I was very pleased to see the Queen Victoria Shawl.

 

 

 

I won't do the whole museum--but, you get the idea.

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

We enjoyed the St George's Anglican Church. 

 

 

 

 

 

The Queen Mother Elizabeth visited this church.

 

 

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

There is lots to do today so this will be the last post.  We have the Top Tier Party and an entertainer. 

 

These pictures are of Wentworth Park at the far end of Charlotte Street.  It is just one block from the board walk.

 

 

 

This tunnel leads to the boardwalk.  One thing we noticed was a large yellow metal container that said deposit your used needles here. Ugh!

[DragonOfTheSeas]

We are not able to stop in Halifax today.  The seas are high and they have closed the port. The Cruise Director, Drew Devine, told us we will need all of the time we have today to make it to Bar Harbor tomorrow on time. 

 

The Internet is very glitchy.  I am not sure if that is the storm or too many users.  I could not get it to work in my cabin.  Luckily the Library is just around the corner from my cabin. 

 

There are no sunrise pictures today.  It is very foggy.  Here are a couple pictures of the ocean. I hope this is a high as the waves get. 

 

 

 

The Crown and Anchor Loyalty Ambassador is located in the Library.  He is very popular this morning.  It seems everyone has a question about their points. 

Edited October 12, 2019 by DragonOfTheSeas

[DragonOfTheSeas]

This is the main street in Sydney, Charlotte Street.

 

 

DH and I feel this city is having some financial issues.  We noticed a number of store fronts that were empty.  There was some interesting street art. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They have these Adirondack chairs and benches all over town.  They are right outside of the retail shops.  I am sure they get more sales this way.   DH spent some time on these.

[Sea Viewer]

The good news is that the drink card is available for 70$ today. 🥂It seems that activity team were somewhat prepared as lots of trivia etc were quickly added.

[cruise wizard]

1 hour ago, DragonOfTheSeas said:

We are not able to stop in Halifax today.  The seas are high and they have closed the port. The Cruise Director, Drew Devine, told us we will need all of the time we have today to make it to Bar Harbor tomorrow on time. 

 

The Internet is very glitchy.  I am not sure if that is the storm or too many users.  I could not get it to work in my cabin.  Luckily the Library is just around the corner from my cabin. 

 

There are no sunrise pictures today.  It is very foggy.  Here are a couple pictures of the ocean. I hope this is a high as the waves get. 

 

 

 

The Crown and Anchor Loyalty Ambassador is located in the Library.  He is very popular this morning.  It seems everyone has a question about their points. 

 

We have been having rough seas down here in Florida too. Sorry that Melissa is causing problems.

 

https://www.wptv.com/weather/hurricane/subtropical-storm-melissa-forms-off-northeastern-u-s-coast

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Last night was the top tier party.  It was held in Studio B [the ice arena] 

 

 

 

It was very full.

 

 

 

There are 2566 Crown and Anchor members on the ship. . . and most of those are top tier.  You can see all of the seats reserved for the presentations. 

 

Gold 596

Platinum 341

Emerald 290

Diamond 719

Diamond Plus 569

Pinnacle 122

 

The top cruisers were impressive:

3rd top 2228 points, 2nd top 2465 points and the top cruise couple had 4884 points. 😮

 

 

We had some entertainment by the professional dance couple. 

 

 

 

And the officers introduced themselves. 

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

8 minutes ago, Sea Viewer said:

The good news is that the drink card is available for 70$ today. 🥂It seems that activity team were somewhat prepared as lots of trivia etc were quickly added.

 

I agree.  You could tell the ship was beginning to move last night and the weather report for Halifax was no good.  I was not surprised.  It would not have been a very good day to be in port. 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

8 minutes ago, cruise wizard said:

 

We have been having rough seas down here in Florida too. Sorry that Melissa is causing problems.

 

https://www.wptv.com/weather/hurricane/subtropical-storm-melissa-forms-off-northeastern-u-s-coast

Thank you for the link. 

 

The weather forecast for Bar Harbor for tomorrow is sunny and 61. Woo Hoo!  I would be thrilled.  The only issue will be the seas.  Today they have a rough surf advisory.  The ocean will need to calm down for us to tender.

 

It is amazing the storm is causing problems from Florida to Canada.

[reallyhooked]

2 hours ago, DragonOfTheSeas said:

Thank you for the link. 

 

The weather forecast for Bar Harbor for tomorrow is sunny and 61. Woo Hoo!  I would be thrilled.  The only issue will be the seas.  Today they have a rough surf advisory.  The ocean will need to calm down for us to tender.

 

It is amazing the storm is causing problems from Florida to Canada.

2 years ago we were on Anthem. Problem tendering in Bar Harbour. 

Enjoying your pictures & review. 

Edited October 12, 2019 by reallyhooked

[DragonOfTheSeas]

2 minutes ago, reallyhooked said:

2 years ago we were on Anthem. Problem tendering in Bar Harbour. 

Enjoying your pictures & review. 

 

The Captain has already mentioned that the tendering process is tricky.  I thought he was trying to prepare us to possible bad news.  . . . but who knows. 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

They have sent out a time sheet for the immigration check at Bar Harbor.  The immigration agents will come onboard.  The picture below shows the times we are to report if you no not have a RCL excursion.  

 

I knew that this would be a long process.  [I had read a review of last year's trip.]  Last year they began the process at 8am.  But, we do not start until 9am. 

 

The handout indicates you need to leave 45 for tendering to shore.  

 

I booked an 11am tour with Ollies's Trolley.  That is 5 hours after were arrive. I thought I was being uber cautious with the schedule.  However, with the schedule below I would not make it. 

 

I checked at Guest Services and they told me to go down earlier.  I wrote down the name of the person that told me to do that.  

 

 

The itinerary for this cruise was changed earlier. [before I booked]  It was the 4 Canadian ports and then the US ports.  However, the current itinerary has us going to Bar Harbor [tomorrow] and Portland, ME on Sunday. Then we go back to Saint John in Canada and then back to the US [Boston]. 

 

So we may have 2 more immigration checks. At least they are not tender ports.

 

I do not know about Saint John, but I know Boston has a large Customs/immigration area.  We landed there on a TA. . . and we have a Royal Caribbean excursion in Boston. They will make sure we have a good debarkation time. 

 

I will let you know how it all works out. 

Edited October 12, 2019 by DragonOfTheSeas

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Just as an FYI--I wanted to repeat something Ken31VA posted on our roll call.   "Just like to mention that we got off AOS on Monday at 8:15 and it took 2 hours to get a taxi. "  This is a caution to those that take this cruise from Bayonne to Quebec City.  You will need to keep this in mind if you plan to fly out the same day. 

 

 

Edited October 12, 2019 by DragonOfTheSeas

[Biker19]

7 hours ago, DragonOfTheSeas said:

the top cruise couple had 4884 points

I think they have been on since last month - they hung out for breakfast at the far corner of Cafe Promenade.