From Quebec airport on the way home

10.22.2014

We are in the Quebec airport with fast wi-fi.  Our first fast wifi in a long time.  This is a very small airport.  Looking across the runway, the hills look very much like the hills surrounding Yakima, WA where John grew up.  The planes seem to be mostly twin propeller planes, very few jets.  The flight time is around an hour and 45 minutes to Toronto where we change planes  .  We have a long wait here, about four hours.  We used to the time to catch up on email and news.

Monday was a sea day, but was also our 24th wedding anniversary.  The ship sent congrats and put balloons on our door.  Very low key.  Which we liked.  We could have had the dining staff sing to us, but we didn't tell them about it.

Yesterday, we spent the whole day in Quebec City.  Quebec City has the most "curb appeal" of any port that we have visited.  Just a stunning view from the ship, if you are on the correct side of the ship!  We were.

It was cold and windy, but it didn't rain and we were happy for that.  The lower town is a small maze of cobbled streets with lots of quaint shops with high quality items.  Not as much "Made in China" as many ports.  The upper town, which we reached by taking a funicular, is also nice and has many shops as well as all of the city and government buildings.  This is a walled city, once a fortress as far back as the French-Indian wars.

We are amused by many of the complaints that we hear on the ships and would like to share some of them. 

"The elevator farthest away is always the one that comes for me".  Poor passenger..even the elevators pick on her.

"I am at ELITE level and I know that the ship will be docked at 8:15, but my family is picking me up at 8am and I need you get me there on time".  Really,  move a 130,000 ton ship a bit faster for just one person?

"The ship has too much carpet".

"Do we really have to wait in a line for a taxi?"

The shows are usually standing room only.  One passenger with over 15 cruises came late and abused the bar staff so much about not getting as seat, that a supervisor brought in a chair from another lounge for him.  40 to 50 others were still standing.

This was one of our best cruises.  We sailed with John's cousin Jeanine and her husband, Leroy.  We had a table for four and between dinner and daytime activities we were able to catch up on the years we have been apart.  It was delightful.

John and Colleen