Live from the Seabourn Quest, Montreal-Montreal, 9/22/22-10/4/22

[Catlover54]

Well, it will be live tomorrow.  We have to use up the SB points we acquired after being unceremeniously booted off the Encore when Covid hit March 2020, and this part of Canada had been on our bucket list for a while, so here we are.

 

The cruise (assuming Hurricane Fiona does not sidetrack us), will be 12 days, including ports Montreal, Havre-St. Pierre,L'Anse aux Meadows, St. Johns, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Cap-aux-Miquelons, Quebec City, Trois-Rivieres, back to Montreal.

 

Meanwhile we have enjoyed three nights of pre-cruise Montreal, a lovely, relatively  safe pre-cruise city with mostly friendly shop and restaurant personnel, excellent dining options, and easy places to walk.  It is a lot like France, sans the attitude.

 

I would like to encourage anyone else on this cruise to not be shy and please also chime in with thoughts and comments as the cruise goes along.

[Catlover54]

We are too early for exploring fall colors, so after settling into our complementary upgraded hotel suite on the 19th floor of a chain hotel in downtown, with stellar views, we started our reexploration of the town (not my first time here) with lunch at a traditional French bistro, Modavie.  There  I had escragots and my coveted boudin noir with apples, bacon,  and mashed potatoes, accompanied by a French pinot noir. 

 

Then came a private  guided walking tour of the old town, with our guide showing us a lot of the old Art Deco buildings inside and out. View spots revealed a Regent ship simultaneously in port and near where we will embark soon.  In the background, the dark outlines of the Habitat 67 condos revealed themselves (I had first sailed by them in 1975 when they were all the modern rage, on the Stephan Battory, a Polish basic transport ship from Montreal to Europe). The guide said some of her tour guests have asked what those "ruins in the distance " are (million dollar ruins).

 

Then it was time to buy dinner supplies at the farmer's market in Little Italy (Marche Jean Talon).  We secured fine wines at the wine shop SAQ, where a very knowledgable assistant voluntarily helped us select exactly what we wanted (if only he would be a somm on the Quest).  Our haul included a baguette, berliners/beigners (plum and apricot), a chocolate eclair with real cream for DH, a cream cake for me, misc. decadent cheeses, kolbasa, caramel cake, and finally some old-fashioned chocolate chip cookies for DH.

[Catlover54]

Though our drive to the market was less than 4 miles, due to traffic and construction, it took our Uber over a half hour to get there. Our elderly Uber driver from Viet Nam was bored so he started chatting, as the neighborhoods we traversed got seedier and increasingly decorated with grafitti of varying quality.  He sadly asserted   "100% of the Natives on the street are alcoholics and drug users" (as we passed one sitting on the sidewalk with hand extended, with oddly manicured fingers and blue nail polish).  He claimed he has been here 30 years, and his income, local and sales taxes are too high, and his social security monthly payment is too low ($1700 Canadian), so he still has to work to make ends meet, though he is over 70.  

 

We nibbled on all of the goodies while sequentially working on our less than ideal  monitored Emed covid screening. It only took an hour and a half  (the first proctor was apparently dyslexic and transposed my month and year of birth and refused to let us go forward ; when we called back, having confirmed we were right and she was wrong, all was well until we tried to get the pdf for our covid results and got error messages; turned out we had to transpose my birthdate day and month, i.e., create a falsehood,  to make it readable).  And so the senseless comedy continued.

 

The next day we went to the Basilica to hear a 50-minute organ concert, which started with the theme from 2001 Space Odyssey and ended with Bach's Tocatta and Fugue in D minor.  A vigorous and scenic walk on Mt. Royal, followed by dinner at Brasserie 701 (the best mushroom ravioli I have ever had, though the service was spotty and we could not hear each other), completed the day. 

 

Meanwhile we had two more Uber drivers, an African immigrant playing cello concertos on his car stereo, and an Armenian Lebanese refugee here for the last 20 years because he was tired of listening to explosions in Beirut.

 

We feel fortunate to be boarding the Quest, regardless of what problems we may encounter.

[Catlover54]

Montreal has abundant outdoor public art:

 

 

[Catlover54]

 

Typical Montreal neighborhood boulevards

 

 

Bank of Montreal, opulent Art Deco with panels commemorating WWI and WWII casualties on walls

 

 

Francophone (looking with contempt at Scottish bank)

 

Anglophone (looking with contempt at French Catholic church)

 

their dogs just look at each other

 

elaborate piggy bank from the 1800's

[Catlover54]

Bank, energy, and insurance buildings with art deco construction .  

And yet somehow a chunk of the Berlin wall managed to get inserted into an upscale shopping mall.

 

The black tumorous like attachment to the grey skyscraper is the bank's vault.

 

 

 

Mohlson building (origina)

 

 

 

 

 

The birds sit on electric wires in the energy building

 

Edited September 22, 2022 by Catlover54
N

[Catlover54]

 

 

A former bank, now Crew Cafe

 

Regent in Harbor with Habitat 67 on top

 

 

 

Great Farmers Market (closes at 6)

 

 

 

Overview of port area.

 

[Catlover54]

Mount Royal, the highest point in twon (buildings are not allowed to be built higher)

 

 

[Catlover54]

The basilica is beautiful and well-maintained

[Catlover54]

[nancygp]

Great photos.

 

will be in Montreal next months, also a seabourn cruise.  Can you share the name of the company you used for your private walking tour?
 

bon voyage,

 

nancy 

[Catlover54]

1 hour ago, nancygp said:

Great photos.

 

will be in Montreal next months, also a seabourn cruise.  Can you share the name of the company you used for your private walking tour?
 

bon voyage,

 

nancy 

 

We booked a tour offered on Viatar via Tri* Adviso*. Ours was called "Private walking tour of Old Port", (guide was Elise but they might not send her). You can book private, group, half-day or full day tours to your interest (walking, driving, just in town or also going out of town, food or architecture focused, even a Jewish food  and history tour). 

 

I had come close to booking with Tours by Locals, but their "Local" first claimed she could not promise a car three months in advance, then raised the price, and was generally acting unreliable, so we bailed without cost.

[DaveA]

We too have spent the past three nights in Montreal, and have visited many of the same sights. We plan to go to Jean Talon market this morning before a hopefully smooth boarding process at lunchtime.

[kjbacon]

We were in Montreal for the first time in July and also enjoyed it very much. I must say we are great minds because we ate at the same restaurants as you and agree that they were quite good. If you like Montreal, wait till you get to Quebec City, fabulous!

 

Your review and pictures are great so far and I’ll be following along. We are on the same cruise in 2023 with the same ports. 

 

Bon voyage!

[Catlover54]

1 hour ago, DaveA said:

We too have spent the past three nights in Montreal, and have visited many of the same sights. We plan to go to Jean Talon market this morning before a hopefully smooth boarding process at lunchtime.

 

Right next to the market is SAQ, a wine and spirits store where you can get good quality wines to bring on board (allowed on SB), in anticipation of the included wine not always being the greatest.  

 

 

 

 

[Catlover54]

Last night we heard thunder.  But this morning, all is well, at least for now, and though I cannot see the port from our hotel window, online I found the Quest is indeed in the harbor.

 

Early morning view from our suite over part of the town:

 

 

Edited September 22, 2022 by Catlover54
Typo

[highplanesdrifters]

Thanks for taking us on your tour!

[CalmSea]

Just saw in on my Source App. We are spending 2 nights at Trois Rivieres (24,25 Sept) and 2 nights at Quebec City, and then directly to St John's on 27 and 28 Sept.

[Viking1966]

Good luck with the weather, I hope Fiona heads out east. We will be boarding the Quest on Oct 4th so I will be following your thread with interest. Would you recommend Modavie for dinner? Unfortunately many restaurants I want to visit are closed on Monday's. 

[Viking1966]

Let me know how boarding goes. We are scheduled to board at 3pm but have to leave apartment by 11am. Was planning on arriving early😇

[Catlover54]

18 minutes ago, CalmSea said:

Just saw in on my Source App. We are spending 2 nights at Trois Rivieres (24,25 Sept) and 2 nights at Quebec City, and then directly to St John's on 27 and 28 Sept.

 

Thank you for posting. It is unclear what will happen after 9/28 in St. Johns (assuming we actually get there), per the app, e.g., if we will be duplicating QC and Trois-Rivieres originally scheduled 10/2 and 10/3, or if they will try and add something else for us (hard, short notice). 

My guess is that SB Square will be crowded with people trying to rebook excursions once they know where we are going and when.

[Catlover54]

20 minutes ago, Viking1966 said:

Good luck with the weather, I hope Fiona heads out east. We will be boarding the Quest on Oct 4th so I will be following your thread with interest. Would you recommend Modavie for dinner? Unfortunately many restaurants I want to visit are closed on Monday's. 

 

Modavie service at lunch (90% full) was excellent, as was the food.  We did not have dinner there.  The dinner menu online is similar (though no boudin noir at dinner :)).  I don't know if service would be worse due to crowding.

I could spend the entire week eating my way through the choices there.  You can book on Open Table.

[kjbacon]

1 hour ago, Viking1966 said:

Good luck with the weather, I hope Fiona heads out east. We will be boarding the Quest on Oct 4th so I will be following your thread with interest. Would you recommend Modavie for dinner? Unfortunately many restaurants I want to visit are closed on Monday's. 

Another yes vote on Mondavie. Great service, delicious French bistro food, and a very nice Bordeaux.

 

 

 

 

Call me a nerd but yeah, I still have the pictures!

 

[fdnycruiser]

Thank you for posting catlover. Looks like you’re having a great time. We’ll be up there in 5 weeks! 

[DaveA]

We had a great check-in experience. In less than 20 mins from leaving our hotel we were in our suite on the ship! They had no interest in Verifly so I had wasted some time preparing that, but the inspection of our vaccination and COVID test documents was cursory.

 

Lovely lunch outdoors at Colonnade. All good so far apart from the very different itinerary that is emerging.