Saturday, August 1, 2015
Though you will see linking words at the top and bottom of
each entry for photo slideshows, Clay informs me that he will not be attempting
to upload photos until we get home. So, if you find the links live, great.
Otherwise, you’ll have to come back in a few weeks to see his pics. Sorry. We
get 2 hours of Internet complimentary per person and evidently we can’t get any
more than that, so Clay doesn’t want to mess with it. That covered, let me get
on to our grueling day.
We were up very early to get started. Clay wanted to leave
home at 6am for the drive to the airport and we were on schedule. Our first
flight was delayed about 10 to 15 minutes, enough to cause Clay alarm because
we only had about a 35 minute layover in LaGuardia. It turned out that didn’t
matter. Our landing at LGA was terrifying. Our flight leaving LGA was over 3
hours late departing. The cargo door on our first plane had a broken screw and they
couldn’t find a replacement part. Just as we were despairing that our risky day
of sailing flights were going to cause us to miss the cruise, AA decided to
replace the plane. That saved our bacon. Our takeoff from LGA was just as terrifying
a roller coaster ride as our landing, but it lasted a lot longer. Then we still
barely made it aboard before the 5pm deadline because the cab got lost or
something and drove back and forth and then got stuck in a summer Saturday in
Old Port and gridlocked people. We eventually found our way to the MS Saint
Laurent at Alexandra Quay up front just off the sidewalk of Promenade du Vieux-Port.
We needn’t have worried. We walked up the gangway to board on deck 4 only to go
down the stairs to deck 2 and stand in line to check in at the front of the lounge.
According to the angry people in the lounge, this was the shortest the line had
been all day. There were about 30 people in line and it was very slow moving. I
think it took us about an hour to get our photos taken, our passports collected
and our credit card scanned and to collect our keycards. (Inexplicably, while I was typing this the stewardess delivered new keycards and told us to ditch the ones we got earlier this evening!) This was followed by
an incomprehensible exercise in life boat drill. The point of which should be
to teach you what happens in an emergency. I can only hope we don’t have one
because, wth! They didn’t assign lifeboats or groups or tell you what to do,
just kind of herded cats. It may have had something to do with the majority of
people having been in the lounge most of the day availing themselves of free
booze since they couldn’t get checked in. We were just tired and hungry and
ready to get on with it. Eventually we met someone’s standard and were dismissed
to the lounge again for an intro from the cruise director, Ken Davis. We’ve
gotten a couple of somewhat different itineraries by now and he tells us that
we have to be flexible because of locks. There will be 7 locks, all tonight if
I understood correctly. We started through the first one at dinner. We hastened
through and went outside to see. Our cabin is on deck one aft of the stairs.
Almost in midship. There are no passenger cabins lower than one. We are in 122
and the doctor’s office is across the hall. The main dining room is aft. There
are small outdoor decks on 2 and 3 from the stairs. On deck 4 you can get to an
outdoor promenade deck and to the front and aft of the ship. There are outdoor
stairs to deck 5 and more outdoor space. You have to go back down to 4 to go from
midship to aft outdoors on 5 and the bridge is forward on 5. Dinner was good.
We had a nice, friendly and efficient Filippino waiter. For those who may
remember my last summer’s rant about the “training” staff on ACL, let me tell
you especially after the leaderless fiasco of the life boat drill that I was
worried about the waitstaff. But, no worries because these were experienced
professionals. There wasn’t a huge selection but it was adequate. There were a
lot of appetizer courses to choose from. I had onion soup and Clay had salad.
Clay had the lamb chop special and I had the always available chicken breast
with very good refried fries and some vegetables. Clay had cheese, nuts and fruit
for dessert and I had White Forest Cake. I had Pinot Grigio and Clay had a
Corona and red wine. We stayed out to see us through the first lock. They say
we have to go up about 580-some feet to get from Montreal at about 20 feet
above sea level to Chicago at about 600 above. We had another scare as we
untied and tried to sail out of the lock. We understand the ship had a big gash
in the front end a month or so ago from ramming into the wall of a lock. We
barely missed doing it again! I don’t know who was Captain then or now, but
lessons learned and all. C’mon! As I type this the cabin is vibrating from the side
thrusters. I think it may not be the restful night we need if we really do go
through the other 6 locks overnight. Tomorrow is our cruising day though. I am
thinking naps! Otherwise the itinerary sounds pretty busy. There is a second restaurant
outside on the aft of deck 4. It is cooking your own food on hot lava rocks. It
requires reservations and Clay is upset because I refuse to go. I hate that
kind of ridiculousness. BTW, the dining is open seating. Oh. last thing of interest. This, Alexandra Quay, is the furthest point upriver that we came on Marina in May. So, today we started at the same point on Saint Laurent and headed upriver for the Great Lakes. Cool!
