Uhm, Montreal Still

Thursday

The best laid plans of mice and men . . .
A day late and a (Canadian) dollar short.
Better late than never.
Patience is a virtue.

Know the derivation of those phrases? Click on each to learn more. Which apply to what comes next here on the blog? Maybe all?

So, today we’re supposed be transversing the canals of the St Lawrence Seaway System to go from the lower St Lawrence River near Montreal into Lake Ontario and then chugging across the lake into Toronto, arriving very early Friday morning. Well, not happening. (It also seems transverse is not a verb, so transversing is not a word. Tough. It says what I mean.)

At 3 PM on Thursday we are still sitting docked in Montreal. We could have got off the ship this morning and walked around. We didn’t. We are delayed because the section of the Welland Canal that we need to use is heavily used and we lost our slot. The current plan is to leave Montreal at 7 PM. That means we are delayed almost 24 hours and now will arrive in Toronto at 6 AM Saturday morning, a full day late.

We have adjusted our plans accordingly. I cancelled our two-night (Fri/Sat) stay at the Marriott on the Falls in Niagara Falls and our one-night (Sun) stay at the Sheraton at Toronto Airport. I have cancelled our Alamo rental car that we would have picked up Friday morning. Now we are booked at the Marriott Delta Hotel in downtown Toronto for Saturday and Sunday night and we have a Welcome Pickups car scheduled to take us to the airport at 5:30 AM on Monday. The flight home remains the same, and we’ll be home before noon on Monday.

I feel bad for John and Donna as their oldest daughter was meeting them in Toronto for two days. Now they’ll only have one day together. Cruisers who had their air arrangements made by Viking to fly home on Friday are awaiting new reservation information from Viking. People who did their own arrangements are on their own. We have seen at least ten couples disembarking here in Montreal with their luggage. Most, I think, are planning to take the train to Toronto and will arrive there later today.

These things happen on cruises. It’s not a big deal to us. I do all our own flights and hotels, and I had no problem making the necessary adjustments. The people who are really going to be upset are the people who were scheduled to board the Polaris on Friday after we disembarked. They will all lose a day of their cruise. And Viking will have to put them all up at hotels. (For this ship that only involves 370 odd people – imagine when this happens with one of those 5,000+ passenger behemoths.)

So, anyway we booked another cruise. It will again be on this ship – Viking Polaris – in June 2026. We will tour all five Great Lakes for 15 days/14 nights. Here’s the map of the cruise:

Lunch was in the World C afe.

So, while we sit here in Montreal, look out our cabin window. See that big crane over there? Well, you can bungee jump off of it. Should we have given it a go? We didn’t. And wouldn’t.

We finally sailed at about 7:00 pm. Some pictures as we left Montreal, sailing under the Jacques Cartier Bridge.

We went through the locks to get to Lake Ontario at 9:30. No pictures, sorry. And we had fun in the Hide, a specialty bar in the bowels of the ship. You saw pictures early in the trip when the bar itself wasn’t open – it only opens from 9:00 pm to 11:30 pm. Late for us, but we finally made it down. And our favorite server, Belle, was in charge along with our favorite bartender, John. Belle, by the way, who looks about 20 is 35 years old and has a two-year old daughter.

And we went to bed. A night shot along the locks as we headed back to the room.