LIVE: Emerald Princess, Boston to Quebec, August 28, 2024-September 7, 2024. Geoherb

[geoherb]

1 hour ago, paddingtonbear said:

Did you get the salads from the IC? Someone on another thread said the IC doesn’t serve salads anymore. 

 

They don't have the salads anymore. I ordered them through the app and had them delivered to our seats next to the International Cafe.

[geoherb]

It rained during the night in Quebec City. Our hotel is in a great location, just a block away from the Chateau Frontenac. We ate dinner in Mur-Mur, the restaurant downstairs. It was very good: wagyu hamburger, salad, and fries. But it added up to around $50 in USD. I'll find out when we get home how much everything was. We did not spend any money on excursions. We had entrance fees for a few places, ate a few meals, and had a few Uber fares.

 

The weather has turned cool. I needed my jacket for the first time since the rainy morning we had in Sydney. We could not have asked for better weather on this trip. We were very fortunate.

 

We ate breakfast at a little coffee shop around the corner. The Hotel Sainte Anne doesn't offer breakfast. They did give us a 15% off coupon for a cafe around the block. It did not open until 8. We passed the coffee shop along the way. They had a wonderful selection of croissants, sandwiches, and pastries. I had the croque monsieur. DH had a chocolate croissant. It was about three times larger than the ones at the International Cafe. 

 

I found out the cost to ride the funicular is $5 in cash. They accept both Canadian and U.S. currency. They don't take cards. So far, we have not had any problems in any place not having exchanged any money. Everywhere we wanted to purchase something took credit cards. A few places had signs saying they did not take American Express.

 

Here are photos of pastries available this morning at the coffee shop, some big pink balloons (an art project called Monsieur Rose by Philippe Katerine), inside the basilica, the Chateau Frontenac, and our hotel.

 

 

Edited September 8 by geoherb

[susancruzs]

Last time I was in Quebec mid-Oct., we had snow, everyone was buying hats, gloves!  My mom was a Juneau, French Canadian, Quebec appeals to me.  

 

I'm staying in lower area this time, just for kicks but usually up top, Hotel du Vieux.  

 

Thanks again for the review and pics.  Can't wait for my Quebec stay pre-cruise.  I love Quebec.  I'll check out that coffee shop, eyes on the pastries! 

 

 

 

[latebuyer]

I didn’t realize people with independent excursions had to wait to get off the ship. How long was it before people could get off?

[prairiesailor]

geoherb: The Babich Black Label Pinot Noir was available in the early part of the cruise. I had some on August 31- took picture of the label. The 2 guys in Vines Chris & Akbar are very good. They ask what you like & then try to match you up with a wine.They gave me a small sample of Spellbound Petite Sirah from California to try after the Babich Black Label ran out. I enjoyed it & that is pretty well all I drank after that. Alfred

 

[geoherb]

10 hours ago, latebuyer said:

I didn’t realize people with independent excursions had to wait to get off the ship. How long was it before people could get off?

 

Just until they make the announcement. I noticed that people on excursions were leaving before they announced that regular passengers could on our first day in Quebec City, maybe 10 or 15 minutes ahead of the announcement. At least we did not have to tender in any ports. On my cruise to Greenland two years ago, some people waited more than 3 hours for a tender in Nanortalik. 

[geoherb]

We are home after uneventful flights. We found out American Airlines doesn't open its counter in the Quebec airport until 11:15. We got there around 10:30 and had to wait in line. There was a huge line by the time the agents showed up. I'm glad we were early because it gave us time to eat lunch before our flight. I would have been sweating it if we were at the back of the line by the time they opened.

 

After landing in Philadelphia, we went through Customs. We then had to claim our checked bags and recheck them. The process was easy. We had extra time in Philadelphia--four hours between our flights. It's a very busy airport. We were so early that our gate wasn't listed yet. I asked an American Airlines employee. She did not want to help me at first, but acquiesced. We ate and Chickie's & Pete's. I had had a cheesesteak there in June while waiting for my flight home from my solo cruise. This time I tried the roast pork sandwich. It was great. We split an order of the crabby fries. DH decided he liked them better with ketchup. More cheese sauce for me.

 

I've finished doing my laundry and unpacking. I did a spreadsheet of our expenses. We spent a total of $110 for admission tickets: Victoria Mansion, Portland Museum of Art, and Museum of Civilization. We spent around $150 for food and drinks while in the ports (not counting our extra day in Quebec City). The total for the two of us is a lot less than what a lot of people spent on shore excursions through Princess. And I enjoyed our experiences a lot more than some of the people I talked to enjoyed theirs. 

 

[MsSoCalCruiser]

On 9/8/2024 at 8:02 AM, geoherb said:

 

They don't have the salads anymore. I ordered them through the app and had them delivered to our seats next to the International Cafe.

Isn’t it nice to be able to have food delivered? This is what I hope to do if they ever add the “No Cheese” option as promised. 

[geoherb]

10 minutes ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

Isn’t it nice to be able to have food delivered? This is what I hope to do if they ever add the “No Cheese” option as promised. 

 

I mentioned that on my survey for you.

[6986]

On 9/8/2024 at 8:00 AM, paddingtonbear said:

Did you get the salads from the IC? Someone on another thread said the IC doesn’t serve salads anymore. 

Sounds like maybe they got sandwiches from the IC and ordered salads to be delivered from the delivery menu. We did that most days for lunch on our last cruise, had salads delivered to us by the terrace pool for lunch.  It was great. 

[6986]

Thank you so much for taking the time to write about your experience. We board on Sept 17th and it was very fun to get a preview with you of our upcoming trip. Thanks again!

[Jetswdo]

 We will be disembarking off the Emerald at Quebec City on Sept. 27--- It says we will be at wharf 22----  Like you we will be staying in Quebec a couple of nights after cruise.  For the first time, we plan on using uber  after disembarking a cruise.  I am trying to understand the procedure---

Do we wait until we have our baggage and call for an uber at the baggage area?  Then where exactly do we wait for the uber driver?  This is making me a little bit nervous, as we have always had a private driver pick us up after a cruise, which was arranged in advance. Anita

[geoherb]

On 9/13/2024 at 4:55 PM, Jetswdo said:

 We will be disembarking off the Emerald at Quebec City on Sept. 27--- It says we will be at wharf 22----  Like you we will be staying in Quebec a couple of nights after cruise.  For the first time, we plan on using uber  after disembarking a cruise.  I am trying to understand the procedure---

Do we wait until we have our baggage and call for an uber at the baggage area?  Then where exactly do we wait for the uber driver?  This is making me a little bit nervous, as we have always had a private driver pick us up after a cruise, which was arranged in advance. Anita

 

We were at Quai 30. We waited until collecting our luggage before using the Uber app. At that terminal, they had a section of seats inside for people to wait for their Ubers. They had signs telling people not to clog the outside waiting area. Many people did not pay attention. We waited until our driver was 2 minutes away before starting to head for the exit. That was plenty of time.