Saturday, May 23, 2015
Last night after dinner, I checked my email and had one from
Susan, our travel agent at Keene Luxury Travel, offering us a complimentary
upgrade to one of 2 A3 Concierge level cabins on our July 7 cruise. We looked around
and decided to accept. Both were on the other side of the ship just as 7090,
our originally assigned cabin was, so there wasn’t much of a downside. The one
we got, 9040, is on the other side, up 2 decks and about as many cabins forward
of the front elevators as we are behind them now. So, while this is higher and
further away from center than we would usually select, we haven’t had any
problems anywhere on the ship so far and we thought it was a larger cabin, so
we are taking the chance. So, we’ll see if we think there is any justification
for the usual large price difference! It turns out the concierge cabin and the one
we are in now are exactly the same size. It just comes with a list of amenities
that we don’t have (and don’t need at the extra price, if I may say so!).
·
Priority
Noon ship embarkation with priority luggage delivery
·
Exclusive
card-only access to private Concierge Lounge staffed by a dedicated
Concierge, featuring complimentary soft drinks, coffees and snacks
throughout the day
·
Complimentary
welcome bottle of Champagne
·
Priority
online specialty restaurant reservations
·
Unlimited
access to Canyon Ranch SpaClub® private Spa Terrace
·
Laptop
computer with wireless Internet access
·
iPad® upon request+
·
Exclusive
discounts on Internet usage plans
·
Variety
of Bulgari amenities
·
Complimentary
Oceania Cruises logo tote bag
·
Cashmere
lap blankets, perfect for relaxing on your veranda
·
Complimentary
shoe shine service
·
Complimentary
pressing of garments upon embarkation++
+Limited availability
++Certain limitations apply
++Certain limitations apply
So, we actually have Bulgari toiletries
in out cheap cabin now. Today was the first day that our cabin category as
originally booked could make specialty dining reservations, so we’ve already
done that. We’ve walked by that Concierge Lounge and it is an interior room. We
would never want to sit in a room without windows. We would like to have a lap
blanket in the room, in fact, we’d like to have one each. But, the kind on the pool
deck would be fine with us. I doubt we’d use the private Spa Terrace, but I
guess we’ll find out since it is hard to find a good forward view. It looks
like it would be the same problem as all the public decks though blocked by
tall tinted glass. So, you can’t take photos. We’ll see. It is not supposed to
cost us anything. I’ve just checked the O website and today the price
difference between the B3 cabin we booked and the A3 concierge cabin we’ve been
complimentarily upgraded to is $300pp or $600 total. We would never pay
hundreds extra for the extra amenities listed. Not to mention that we prefer in
general to be lower and more mid-ship! I
just asked Clay if he would pay $600 more for the cruise if the Concierge Lounge
had an ice machine in it. He got excited and asked if I thought there was one.
I said probably not, but assume there is, would that make you pay extra and he
frowned and answered no, absolutely not plus it is higher and who wants more
movement. Exactly. I will say that we’ll have to use the laundry room on that
last O cruise as it is not included on that one, nor our independent travels in
Norway. The one real upside is that all the laundry rooms are on the port side
and forward, so we’ll be closer to the laundry room. Bonus!
It was a stunning sail in Corner Brook. We were entering, I
don’t know if it is a fjord, as we woke up around 5 to 5:30am. If it isn’t a
fjord, it felt like one. There were snow-capped mountains behind the closer
green ones. Corner Brook appeared at the end of the navigable waterway with a
big steaming pulp plant looming. We arrived on time, docked and were cleared
within 20 minutes of the announced time. Marina had 2 gangways open so we did
not see any backups. The info sheet Marina handed out said they would have
local tourism people onboard. We saw them walk down the dock and enter the
ship. We saw them wander the atrium and get in line at reception to find out
where their table was. It showed up about 20 minutes after they did and then
there was a wait for the chairs and the tablecloth. WTH? They put out
literature the night before about this so why wasn’t the table already set up.
We just wanted to get some local advice. I had looked online and the big thing
to do here was walk their trails. But, the consensus was that it was difficult
to find the trail to get started. It was, it is. The part of the trail between
the dock and the pulp mill is practically nonexistent. You just have to be
willing to walk across a muddy gravel lot to a gravel road to dirt path. There
is a complicated set of highway interchanges between here and downtown that are
avoided by the path, but in front of the pulp mill it is literally just a mud
beaten track. The trails in town and up on the hill are well signed and
maintained but you still need a map to get from one to the other. So, we
confirmed that my printed online map was good. There was a free shuttle to
downtown that we actually walked right on and got on and there were at least 2
buses running continuously. The only problem was the weather. It was cold and
windy and threatening rain or raining most of the day. It was probably in 40Fs
and we got rained on between 1 and 3pm. So, we dressed to keep warm and dry and
we set off. Took the bus downtown. Took off walking on the Glynmill Inn Pond
Trail. We saw a salmon ladder and 2 mute swans. We saw a sign at the marsh
about 3 birds to look for here (Yellow Warbler, Northern Waterthrush and American
Bittern) and we eventually saw 2 of them, but not the American Bittern. That
was a 2 km walk. From there we passed a Tim Horton’s and tried to take a break
but they did not have any maple doughnuts and they were out of dark hot
chocolate. OK, I used their restroom and we left. There were no empty seats in
there anyway. We walked on to the Three Bear Mountain Trail. The hardest part
was getting up the hill to the trail. It was a 1km loop trail. There were some
spectacular vistas up there looking out over the pulp mill and the town. We
just beat the weather. We walked down through town and stopped in 2 stores
looking for a watch band for Clay. I don’t know when it happened but the $15
Mickey Mouse watch he is wearing on this trip has cracked its leather (?) band
and he’s afraid it will break entirely. We couldn’t find a band but found a $10
watch and he bought that. The other thing we had picked up from the tourism
ladies (who btw were also at a hut on the dock with the same literature and
giveaway pins and candies) was a Newfoundland Cuisine in Corner Brook pamphlet.
You might expect it was mostly fish and you’d be right. However, under a place
called Aromas Plus they had listed for Saturday only baked beans and toutons. I
asked and toutons are fried bread dough usually served with something sweet
like molasses. I wanted to have that. So, it was in Valley Mall which we could
see from the bus on the way in and from the viewpoint on the hilltop trail. The
women in the first store we stopped and asked about watch bands told us how to
get there confirming what we had on the maps. We walked down through town and
turned left on Main Street which was a steep downhill for us. We passed lots of
people hauling back up the hill to the shuttle bus stop. Clay said he would
rather just walk back to the ship than go back up that hill. On the way down
the hill, we found $5.99 T-shirts with puffins on them and so had to get them.
Eventually, we found Aromas Plus after 12pm. They did not have baked beans and
toutons on the menu. She did not list them as being on the buffet line. I
showed her the brochure and told her I had come for that. She thought they had
sold out! What is it a hangover cure locally? Why would it be sold out by noon
on the one day it is offered? I don’t know. She came back and said the kitchen
informed her they could prepare exactly 2 servings then they were out. Clay
backed out and got fish and chips. He said it was very good. He asked for a
local beer and got a Black Horse which he liked. We could have gotten one order
of baked beans and toutons and shared it and been full. I am literally full of
beans. The toutons were not beignets! They were heavy and hefty and yeasty.
They were good with the beans and molasses but the beans alone were not that
good. They just tasted like hot canned pork and beans. They weren’t delicious
like the Durgin-Park Boston baked beans. I told Clay that they tasted like I
imagined the B&M canned baked beans from Portland, ME would have tasted and
we both agreed that B&M is an unfortunate name for canned baked beans. We
asked where Clay could buy some of the Black Horse beer and it was at the
Alberts gas station between the Valley Mall and the ship. That decided that we
would follow the path. We checked the trail map posted at the shelter at the
Rotary trail head and still it was almost impossible to find though we followed
the route from the map and found the markers so we were on the path. It was a
good day. We were comfortable even in the bad weather.
One of the women that we joined a tour with in Holyhead,
Wales is having to leave the ship in Sydney tomorrow morning due to her
husband’s health. Better now than during 3 days in the Atlantic, but it still
must be very upsetting. We wish them well. But, luckily I was here to answer
the phone when she called to arrange to get paid by us to reimburse her what
she already paid the tour operator.
Tomorrow we are back in Sydney and still plan to take a taxi
to the Cape Breton Coal Miners Museum. So, we won’t worry about the weather.
Tonight we have 6:30pm dinner reservations in Toscana. Clay
has been talking about but avoiding eating pasta for the past 2 days in
anticipation. I really hope he eats some pasta tonight. The show tonight is
Edward Garth “Anecdotes from my time on boats”. I have no idea who he is or why
we’d listen to his anecdotes in a theater. I suspect Clay has no plans to do
so. We turn the clocks back a half hour tonight. Since the day after tomorrow
we are back in Newfoundland, I bet we’ll turn them ahead again tomorrow night.
That will mess with you!
We are sailing away from Corner Brook. We left at least 20
minutes early. I guess everyone was aboard already!
We enjoyed Toscana again. We had different things this time.
It was a different experience as well but still good. We sat at the very back
of the ship and it was very rough up there, but no problems. Clay has decided
to watch This is War on TV tonight. I love this film, but I’m sure this is the 3rd
or 4th time we’ve seen it. He doesn’t remember it at all. There was
a form on the bed tonight for 3 days where you could have 20 pieces of laundry
for $24.95. We sent in a small bag twice with nowhere near 20 pieces each time and
our bill was over $50. They haven’t sent us anymore laundry bills after that so
we hope that got that whole free laundry deal worked out. We moved the clock back
30 minutes tonight on our way to Sydney, NS.
