Friday, August 9, 2019

Friday, August 9, 2019

Tonight's picture was taken in August of 2008. It was during Mattie's first hospital admission for chemotherapy. During our first hospital stay we did not know if we were coming or going. Mattie wore a hospital gown, which he hated. As we got more familiar with our space, we learned what we needed to bring with us while in the hospital, and Mattie chose to wear flannel type pjs always! Pictured here were Mattie's art therapists (Jessie and Jenny). They were incredible women who got it right away.... Mattie loved to be busy and create. 


Quote of the day: Quebec City is the most European of any city in North America; they speak French all the time. There is a part of town called Old Quebec which is really like being in France. The architecture is just gorgeous, food, shopping. I'd say Quebec City is the most beautiful city in North America I've seen. ~ Sebastian Bach

I got up at 5am today, in order to get myself dressed and on the road at 6:30am. We wanted to be on the cruise ship early, and to accomplish this we had to get moving given that it takes three hours to drive from Montreal to Quebec.

This was the beautiful view of Montreal from my hotel room. The green roofed cathedral is the one we visited yesterday, Marie-Reine-du-Monde Cathedral. 

We had a wonderful fellow, Nacar, who drove us for three hours. He was absolutely delightful and gave us a great tour of Montreal, provided us with some history on Canada, and his home country of Morocco. When I tell you we were talking up a storm for three hours with him, I am not kidding, and I am not even a morning person. 

Nacar pointed out this famous street in Montreal to us, St. Catherine's Street. There was literally a beaded canopy that traversed the entire street!

Montreal's Gay Village extends along Sainte-Catherine Street in the east end of downtown, between Saint-Hubert and Papineau. The Village sports a permanent rainbow decoration on its façade. For most of the summer, from mid-May till mid-September, Sainte-Catherine Street is completely closed to vehicular traffic through the Gay Village, making it one large pedestrian area, allowing all the stores to sell outside and all the restaurants and bars to serve on large, open-air terraces.

So what did our drive look like? Just like this!!! This is a very green country! We learned from Nacar, that Canada is the second largest land mass country, after Russia. 

Certainly Canada has large cities, but between the cities, are farms and it is a very agrarian culture. 

After three hours of greenery, all of a sudden in the distance Quebec appeared. 

We crossed over the Ambassador Bridge which parallels the Quebec Bridge. The Quebec Bridge (Pont de Québec in French) is a road, rail and pedestrian bridge across the lower Saint Lawrence River. The project failed twice, at the cost of 88 lives, and took over 30 years to complete. The Quebec Bridge is a riveted steel truss structure and is 3,238 ft long, 95 ft wide, and 341 ft high. Cantilever arms 581 ft long support a 640 ft central structure, for a total span of 1,801 ft, still the longest cantilever bridge span in the world.

Ambassador Bridge (see it stands right next to the older bridge) was completed in 1929. It is the easternmost complete crossing of the Saint Lawrence.

The beauty of the port of Quebec, where our ship is docked. Thank goodness for Nacar, because he truly helped us! We arrived at the dock while the ship was still disembarking the previous cruise. Therefore, they would not take our luggage or even let us into the terminal to sit. Not such a problem for me, but a big issue for my dad. There literally was no bench or even a chair for people with disabilities to sit. Needless to say, I am not shy or quiet. I got a hold of a supervisor who brought a chair out of the terminal for my dad to sit on until I figured out what to do with the luggage and our next steps. Typically we get a wheelchair to bring my dad onto the ship, but we couldn't  even figure out how to secure this, and even worse every Princess representative we asked was equally confused. Each person gave me a different story. There was NO coordination of staff and it seemed like there was a lack of training and familiarity with the process. Why?

Well we learned that this was the FIRST cruise Princess has ever done out of Quebec! So now it makes sense why there was chaos, no signage, disorganization, and confusion. I finally snapped at a representative after waiting over an hour and basically told her I did not know how on earth they can get away with having a check in terminal that has no benches or chairs for people with disabilities. I went as far to say that in the USA this would be illegal. Apparently that struck a chord, and we got to the front of the line and inside. 

Once on board, we settled my dad in the atrium of the ship and then literally ran up to the 15th floor to secure seats in the Sanctuary. The Sanctuary is a more secluded part of the ship, dedicated to adults. It has special service, deck chairs, perks like afternoon tea, without the chaos of loud music and the hustle and bustle of people. However, the ship has 3,500 people on it, and there are about 30 chairs in the sanctuary. You can't pre-book this space. It is a first come first serve sign up basis. Therefore over the years we learned the only way to get these seats is to get on the ship early and process directly to the sanctuary to sign up. Without the Sanctuary, you basically can't get a deck chair as there aren't enough in the regular common areas for the majority of passengers. Fortunately we were successful today.

Next thing to learn about was the new access system on board the ship. It involves using this medallion that hangs off of a lanyard, that goes around your neck. In all the cruises we have been on, this is the first time we were not given a cruise card, but instead this medallion. The medallion serves as your room key, your on board credit card, and it has a gps chip inside so that family members and ship staff can track you down anywhere on the ship.

Though we are living in the technology age, I truly liked less technology on board the ship in the past. But now this is all changing.  I see kiosks on every floor. Screens for people to interact with and even play games while waiting by the elevators or restaurants! Honestly? Do we really need this constant level of stimulation in our lives??? To me this isn't progress! We just can't disengage with the world even on the high seas. It is a real social commentary to me, and not a good one. Especially for young and developing minds.