Montreal Embarkation

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We walked to the Underground Mall near where we’d eaten the day before. It was Saturday morning and early and only a few vendors were open in the massive underground labyrinth. Dennis said that there were three such mall around Montreal, and the convenience of such shopping protected from the weather certainly made sense to us. We snaked through a couple twisting aisles and made it to the Dunkin Donuts which appeared ominously closed, or “Ferme” as one might see in Montreal. We’d spotted a deli near our entrance that had been open and found our way back to it. Sharon, Erin and Dennis each had a chocolate croissant, which appeared to have much more chocolate that they would likely get up on the Lido for breakfast. I tried a “Mokka Cookie” and I think it can definitely get someone’s day started for them.

We returned to the hotel, where I did a better job of recording the elavator’s speed, and while it may have seemed short as ten seconds, it actually was much closer to twenty seconds start to stop. Admittedly, there was nearly ten seconds of acceleration/braking in the first couple and last couple floors!

We caught a taxi on the side of the hotel as we had the day before. There were three of them just waiting there for someone to need them. The driver didn’t instill in us the greatest confidence that he knew where to take us, after examining our embarkation papers with the pier/dock info, he sped off. And he got a bit impatient when we wound up behind another taxi that was only too happy to be going half the posted speed limit. A couple honks, and we zipped by him. We had a bit of a delay at the final gate to approach the ship as I needed to retrieve my passport from my handbag. The passport checker made some snide comment about “How can you forget to have your passport with you?” It’s especially biting under her breath with that haughty French intonation. We got our bags checked in, and found our way easily through the illness form, and boarding document check, and got our cabin keys, when we were seated for about ten minutes of so in the expedited boarding area for 4-star and 5-star and Neptune Suite travelers.

We left about forty-five minutes before Erin and Dennis were scheduled to take their HAL bus transfer to the port. Sharon’s plan had been to “beat the crowd” and we boarded quite easily and well ahead of most people. The ship had been one hour late getting in this morning and so the crew had needed some extra time to turn it around. Still, everything went smoothly until we put our keys in the door, and they didn’t work. Our cabin steward had just greeted us in the hall, greeting us by name when we stopped in front of our room, and offered to open our cabin for us so we dropped off our bags. We went directly to the main desk to get new keys. There was no line for us and we went to the first person at the front desk, a crew member named Marvin. He quickly made two keys for us. Back at our cabin, Sharon’s key didn’t work; but, mine did the first time that I tried it. After that, neither of our keys worked. We went back to the front desk and got new keys from another front desk person. We were aware this time that two others also had key problems. Back at our cabin, these keys didn’t work either. Very annoying seeing that little red light blink on and off when you so want it to be green. We took our keys to the front desk a third time… maybe three time’s a charm. This time the crew member and her supervisor were at the far end of the counter, and they helped us when it was our turn. We had to wait for a couple of couples ahead of us this time, who also had keys that didn’t work. I think this time we got someone who was being trained because it took them almost ten minutes to get us new keys, where it had taken just five minutes the first couple of times. With great confidence that these keys would surely work, returned to our cabin, only to see that red blinking light again, and again. I suggested that we take a break and go get lunch before trying again… Sharon wanted to get it fixed now. Guess what we did. Yep… back to the front desk. This time there were six couples in front of us, and one of them was back for the third time trying to get keys that work. That was when Marvin spotted us as he was returning to the front desk, and offered to take our keys and fix them for us. He disappeared into the rear offices and emerged five minutes later with two new keys, and escorted us to our cabin, where we got green lights for both cards. Sharon suspects a couple of batches of bad cards.

We went to the Dive-In for Sharon’s burger and I went out onto the chilly aft deck to get my NY Pizza. I wasn’t sure that they were open, but there were a couple of crew all bundled up by the pizza oven. I ordered my pizza with white sauce, mushrooms, olives, arugula and olive oil. It seems the menu has changed some; because, I thought that this had been one of their featured pizzas. It was delicious.

Back in the cabin Erin called to check my phone answering skills. Neither of our luggage had arrived yet; although my bag did come just after Erin called, and Sharon’s came shortly after that. We were mostly unpacked with luggage stowed under the bed when it was time for the lifeboat drill. Our cabin is near the front of the ship on the lower promenade deck, and we’re assigned to the number one lifeboat. It holds just 40 people and three crew members, unlike the ones that they use for tenders that can hold 150 people and 6 crew members. They scanned everyone’s room key; although, a couple people were missing from our group. I gathered later that there was a HAL bus that was delayed for some reason. We saw people from the lower promenade still boarding during the drill.

Sharon and Erin went to the 5pm vigil mass with Father John. Dennis called me and we were to meet them outside the Wajang Theatre and head from there to dinner. There was a considerable line for those without reservation; but, we finally wound up at a table for four. I had the antipasti, seafood chowder in a sourdough bowl and braised short ribs. Sharon had the roast chicken with baked potato. Erin chose the vegetarian pasta dish and Dennis also had the short ribs. I took HAL up on the beverage stewards special offer of sparkling water for $2.95 with unlimited refills. He made sure I understood that both the price and refills was only for this offer. The covered canter contained about a liter, and the water was chilled. I finished the first liter after eating some bread, the appetizer and the soup. Service is always slow the first night. They took the canter away and I was worried the refill might not arrive before the entrée; but it did. The entrée was wonderful, and Dennis thought so too. And I was happy to see that they were sticking to their practice of serving the banana crisp on the first night of a cruise! I can’t recall if they’ve always served it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream; because, I think I used to ask for that special. Sort of like those “Special Meals” that Erin tells me that Sharon used to get a child!

It took a full two hours to finish dinner and we barely had time to make it up to Pub Trivia in the MIX bar by the casino. I had written down the first question because I thought that Erin would probably know that one from her service in the Air Force. “If your doctor treats you for Tinnia pedias, what common skin condition do you have?” Sharon had suggested psoriasis; but, Erin finally came up with Athlete’s Foot (as I knew she would). “What animated character did Coca-Cola adopt in its advertising in the 1990’s?” That would be the polar bear. The two point bonus was what decade (for one point) and year (for the second point) did the Korean Peninusula split into two countries. We were leaning for the fifties, as most people in the room were; but, Dennis was sure it was the forties so we went with that. We chose 1945, missing that second point by 3 years. We came in second.

Sharon tried her luck in the casino; but, found it too smoky. It’ll be nice next year when they start making the balconies and casinos non-smoking on some of HAL’s ships



The show tonight featured one performance at 9:00 PM by Ritch Shydner. He did a consistently and increasingly funny routine, mostly on the relationships between men and women and particularly husbands and wives. Some of his bits, especially on communication between men and women, hit pretty close to home. Such as when the wife says, “Honey, we’re out of toilet paper.” And the guy takes that as an informational observation but what the wife is trying to say is, “Honey, Go get some toilet paper for the bathroom, NOW!” He then asked the audience for some issues that have caused discord in people’s marriages, one gentleman offered up the subject of “Hillary Clinton.” Ritch backed away saying, “Oh no, I’m not going there. Uh-uh!”

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