Frugalapolis

The ship stayed in port in Quebec City overnight so we had a full day to spend on land til All aboard at 3:45 pm. Muster call would be shortly after all aboard and sail away was 5 pm. The weather was 18C (64F) and cloudy with scattered showers. Not the nicest day, but nothing you can do about it. We wanted to get the ship staff familiar with us and our bikes so we took them off the ship even though we only rode a few miles along the St Lawrence river. The bikes on the ship worked fine, we just scouted out the hall and elevator before we would roll our bikes out. We tried to avoid busy times by leaving a little later, and coming back on board before the end of port call.

A couple notes for those interested in the logistics so far. My Sprint Samsung S6 phone worked fine in Canada. I have the unlimited SERO plan and got free data, phone calls were $2.50 and texts $0.20 each. I used WhatsApp to text for free. I had also downloaded the Bixi bike app in Montreal before leaving the US. There is Wi-Fi everywhere in the bars and resto's. Scott's Samsung S4 phone didn't work at all, it was a brick. His service is Tello, a discount plan that runs off Sprint network, they do not support service outside the U.S. Our friends have Apple Iphones and they worked with a discount plan but the cost was high to call, and use data. They relied on Wi-Fi.

It was interesting to note that Uber was used in Montreal and they have a station at the airport set up for it, but it seemed to be blocked in the near vicinity. We had to get a cab. But as soon as we were driving away in the cab, I checked Uber and was able to connect to their network. Uber was not available in any other Canadian towns we visited, there were no drivers. Uber is illegal in Prince Edward Island. Nova Scotia had no drivers.

Quebec City is beautiful, and I'm told seems to be just like quaint old Europe. Most of the town looks normal and business like, its just a tourist district down by the port that has the Europe feel. The hills were extremely steep and there is a funicular to ride up to the top of the hill where the Frontenac Hotel is. There is great history about this town between the French and English battles. Lots of cannons around, and we even saw a cannon ball wedged under a tree that had grown around it.

The ship had great entertainment almost every evening. We again enjoyed the free drinks in the Diamond Lounge. It turns out we never spent a dollar on drinks our entire cruise. We usually used to spend about $100 a day on drinks, but since we're diamond status now we saved over a thousand dollars on this trip with the free drinks. There were over 1000 diamond members on this cruise, and the ship reported during one of the last diamond parties that they had served over 22,000 free drinks over the cruise, over 1600 drinks each evening.

The evening show before dinner was Chad Chesmark who performed a magic show. Later that evening after dinner, there was a comedian, Michele Balan. Tomorrow would be a day at sea, and then we arrive at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island (PEI) for our next port.