Thursday, May 21, 2015
We were both up very early this morning. It is very
disappointing that Oceania is completely ignoring that magnificent fjord.
People travel to Alaska, Chile, Norway and other far-flung places to cruise
fjords and here we have one and O have scheduled to sneak in and out of
Saguenay mostly under cover of darkness. Not to disrespect Saguenay as they
have cruise tourism down to a fine art, but the fjord is the draw in my mind. There
could and should have been enrichment lectures about it and it should have been
a cruising feature. We arrived 2 hours later today so there were a lot more
people in Horizons Lounge trying to see and enjoy it than on our first pass. We
were up at 4:30am and it was already light and we were already well into the
fjord. There is supposed to be a line where the waters from the fjord and the St.
Lawrence mix where that is visible and which attracts a large population of
beluga whales. Tonight, we’ll have sailed through there 4 times and all of them
will have basically been in the dead of night. I mean as far as I know, in
Canada anyway, here and Churchill are the places to come to see beluga whales
and we totally ignore it. I am mystified and stunned and quite disappointed.
All we can figure out is it is the Always Be Closing mentality/experience
onboard Oceania. They have seriously overpriced excursions to sell in Saguenay
and there is no new profit to be made by sailing the fjord as a tourist experience.
Very badly done Oceania.
So, rant paused for now. We were up very early because even
though we don’t dock until 10am, we wanted to see more of the fjord and this
was our last best chance. We did finally see the Madonna statue that the locals
keep telling us about. It is quite beautiful and very remote. It is
Notre-Dame-du-Saguenay and has been there since 1881. I can’t imagine how they
got it up there. We passed the Madonna statue between 6:30 and 7am. Maybe 30-50
people on this ship saw it quite by accident. The rest heard about it in town
today from guides and locals and tourism people. They will have heard to look
for it tonight, but we never saw it sailing out at night last time, so clearly
it is not illuminated and invisible in full dark.
We had breakfast in Terrace about 7:45am. We went back up to
Horizons after and stayed until after we arrived and were cleared in Saguenay.
We arrived a full hour before we were docked and cleared and there were no
people on the dock this time during that period like there were last time. I
guess they learned their lesson. One of the bus guides today said we were the 3rd
ship of the season and then corrected that we were the 1st and the 3rd.
He did not hear or did not answer who was the 2nd ship. Anyway, they
had stopped dancing by the time we got off but all the costumed characters were
there. Clay had me get a slice of blueberry pie for me this time, because it
was that good. He also had me get him a chocolate blueberry cordial candy as we
left for the same reason. By the way, the pie, juice and maple taffy people are
gone when you return to the port to leave, so get what you want and extras
before you leave ‘cause that’s it!
Today, we planned to do the HOHO buses. We had heard good
things, but after the nightmare experience at Trois-Rivieres and the less than
optimal experience in Quebec City we were dubious. Saguenay is doing it right!
For $20 pp you have access to 2 routes and 8 attractions. The downtown circuit
takes 75 minutes if you don’t get off. The Fjord Museum circuit takes 60
minutes. They run a bus by each stop every 20 minutes or so. Some of the stops
are within walking distance of one another. We never ran into a situation where
you couldn’t get on a bus. You could always hear the guides. There were also
guides at every stop to answer questions. I don’t know how they could have done
a better job. Kudos Saguenay! We took the Downtown circuit first. Clay wanted
to duplicate the photo on the front of the Currents of Saguenay. We had not
seen anything like it here. We asked and were told it was the 4th
stop of that circuit. Well, it was and it wasn’t. There was water in the waterway
when that photo was taken and there was no water today. I warned him that in
Saint John Currents had photos of Flowerpot Rocks and I believe they were over
80 miles away and O did not even run the previously advertised tour out there that
day. Here at least you could get there easily for a nominal cost to be
disappointed. So, we are in Saguenay but it is consolidated out of 5 or 6
earlier, smaller town and is very spread out. We are docked in La Baie. The
HOHO bus today drove as I recollect from the posted sign 28 km to get to the main
part of Saguenay called Chicoutimi. We got off and visited the Cathedral and walked
down Racine Street to the next stop at the tourism office where I got an apron
because it had tourtiere on it. We got off again at Sacre Coeur Church and the little
white house that survived the flood for Clay’s photo. We decided not to get off
at La Pulperie even though it was very scenic because we had done the paper
mill museum in Trois-Riviere already. We came on back to the ship after sharing
a protein bar for lunch. We immediately got on the other bus loop to the Fjord
Museum. First it drove, as I recall again from the signs, 15 km to get out to
the Bagotville Air Defense Museum. It is an active Canadian Air Force base and
we saw fighter jets flying around on both visits to Saguenay. We had 8 minutes
to get off and just see their collection of outdoor displayed aircraft and then
the bus left for the 15 km or so ride back. We had decided that if we did a
museum today, it would be the Fjord Museum. It was interesting but weird. It
was $23 for the 2 of us. It has a small section of the history of the area
settlers. It has a small aquarium with a small selection of marine animals from
the fjord. It has a small section of insects from the region. The main
attraction is a very strange multi-media experience of being on a space and
time traveling vehicle to visit the fjord through time, from space and from
above and from under water. It seemed like a huge waste of money for what could
have been a very well done and informative 20 minute film. Oh well, maybe some
people love it, but I don’t see how. I was worried it would make me motion sick
but it didn’t. It was sophisticated enough to actually be a simulation. That
was it for us. We could see Marina as it sat docked a 3 mile walk away. There
is a nice level paved 2-way bike path along the water all the way and bike
rentals or Segway tours seem to be the only tourism opportunity really missed
in Saguenay.
It was awful out when we left this morning. The coldest it has
been with quite literally gale force winds. I saw the TV channel displaying
conditions change from wind speed to the word gale. We layered up but it took
your breath away out on the dock. Inland though it was better and through the day
the wind calmed down, the sun came out and I am sure it got warmer than the
predicted 58F.
When we got to the ship, it was around 3:30 to 4pm. I guess
it was the last run of that bus because they told a woman who wanted to stay on
that she couldn’t because they were finished. So, they ran the HOHO buses from
10am to 4pm. It was a good value that they delivered. I would recommend anyone
coming to Saguenay use the HOHO buses. Bring a protein bar or something because
to see the most possible, you can’t sit for an hour eating lunch somewhere.
We walked back down to Boivin Fromagerie to get some more
cheese curds for our refrigerator. On the way, Clay spotted a big Airedale
Terrier with a man sitting on a bench in front of the chocolate & gelato
place. I had to walk over. He was a cutie and very friendly. He bit Bob. Not
hard, you know, just a friendly getting to know you mouthing. I got one too.
The man told him, in French, to behave and you will never guess the Airedale’s
name! Bobby! A French Canadian Airedale Terrier named Bobby!
Tonight at 6pm we have the formal Cruise Critic meet and greet
that we got an invitation for. There are 2 couples we need to look for because
we are sharing private excursions with them and need to be able to recognize
them. I may be back later to add more before posting.
Back. It was very loud and crowded in Horizons tonight. Go
Next was having a cocktail party too. We met both parties that we need to
recognize and spent some time talking with some other Cruise Critic people from
our online Roll Call.
We went up to dinner in Terrace again. It was a mixed bag.
We skipped dessert so you know it wasn’t great. We don’t need to eat 3 course
every night anyway. Tonight the clocks move ahead one hour and we have already
had a long day. Tomorrow is a cruising day down the St. Lawrence River. Since
we cruised up earlier, I don’t think there is anything for us to be on the
lookout for. We didn’t notice anything going up anyway. Maybe I will finally
get a nap! A girl can hope.
