Traveling with the Jones

We visited Quebec City, Canada during a late-June 7-Day Canada and New England cruise on Holland America Line. After departing from Montreal onboard the ms Maasdam, we sailed up the Saint Lawrence River to reach Quebec City. Despite overcast weather, this route offered terrific views.

During a long-ago prior visit to Quebec City, we had taken a shore excursion to Montmorency Falls and Isle d’Orleans, where we toured a maple sugar shack (during a fall foliage cruise.) For this visit, we wanted to explore more of the historic areas of Quebec City.

Out of the cruise port, we walked to the Basse-Ville (Lower Town) historic district located at the foot of Cap Diamant. Our first stop was to admire the mural that depicts the history of the Quebec City. In 1608, Samuel de Champlain built Place Royale in this area.

Construction of the Notre-Dame-des-Victoires Church started in 1687 at this location and was completed in 1723. NOTE: It is ideal to visit the Lower Town early in the day; later it is filled with tourists and cruise ship guests.

Lower Town is filled with unique local shops. Quebec City’s Haute-Ville (Upper Town) is reached from the Lower Town by your choice of the Escalier (“neck-breaking” steps) or the Old Quebec Funicular, a 210 ft. funicular railway that first opened on November 17, 1879.

After walking around the Lower Town, Mr. Jones decided he needed a coffee and a little “nosh.” We noticed that the Cochon Dingle was packed with people inside and out (always a good sign), so we decided to try it out. GREAT CHOICE. The cappuccinos were killer and yes, I did have to try a bite of Mr. Jones’ crepe. “Plaisir” on the plate means “pleasure.”

Fueled and caffeinated, we were ready to tour the Upper Town. We bought our tickets and took the funicular up to the top of Cap Diamant.

The massive Chateau Frontenac Hotel dominates Quebec City’s skyline from the top of Cap-Diamant. The hotel was designed by architect Bruce Price as one of a series of “chateau” style hotels built for the Canadian Pacific Railway company. The railway company sought to encourage luxury tourism and bring wealthy travelers to its trains.

The Chateau Frontenac is said to be the world’s most photographed hotel, so of course we had to snap some shots.

In front of the Chateau Frontenac Hotel is the Terrasse Dufferin (Dufferin Terrace) walkway along the edge of the cliff, offering picturesque views of the Saint Lawrence River and our cruise ship.

We also explored the ramparts surrounding Old Quebec, which are the only fortified city walls remaining in the Americas north of Mexico. The area inside the 2.85 miles of city walls was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985.

Just past the massive Chateau Frontenac hotel you will see the Musée du Fort, a museum on the military history of the area. Across the street is the Quebec City Tourism office, which has tons of helpful information and free Wi-Fi.  It is also the meeting place for a number of tours, such as The Grand Tour that we had previously booked online. We picked up our tickets from a booth inside the tourism office; you can also buy tickets here but tours are limited to 15 people and might be sold out if you do not purchase in advance.

We picked up our tour stickers and met our guide for the 2-hour walking tour.  The Grand Tour covers the architecture, the marking events and the Quebec people’s history. It covers a number of Quebec historical sites such as the Citadel, Chateau Frontenac, Quebec fortifications, and the Place Royale.  The cost was $22.95 Canadian per adult.

When we entered the interior courtyard of the Seminary, we learned interesting facts about Basilica Notre-Dame de Québec (the first Roman Catholic Cathedral erected north of Mexico). We also discovered “fun facts” of Quebec City’s history, such as how the style of roofing (as on the building in the photo above) came to be. HINT: There’s lots of snow in Quebec City in the winter.

Our tour ended back in Lower Town near the base of the funicular.

One more highlight of note: the Quebec Port is a very nice facility with free Wi-Fi for cruise ship passengers and crew.

My Fitbit showed that we walked a total of 17,023 steps which equaled 8.1 miles, so we got plenty of exercise in Quebec City.

Have you visited Quebec City via a cruise ship? How did you spend your time in port?

Check out these other posts related to our Canada and New England cruise:

• 15 Fun Facts About Halifax, Nova Scotia
• A Look Around Holland America’s Maasdam Cruise Ship
• 17 Fun Facts About Bar Harbor, Maine
• A Look Inside Ocean-View Stateroom 700 on Holland America’s Maasdam Cruise Ship
• 33 Fun Facts About Prince Edward Island, Canada
• 14 Fun Facts About Quebec City, Canada
• A Walk Around Halifax, Nova Scotia During Our Visit By Cruise Ship

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Princess Cruises is bringing the excitement of TV’s popular international singing competition The Voice onboard some of it ships with “The Voice of the Ocean” as a live, in-person entertainment event starting this fall.

Passengers on each cruise can compete. The show begins early in each cruise with karaoke tryouts where passengers and crew will select contestants to vie for the coveted The Voice of the Ocean Trophy.  The competition continues with auditions, mentor rehearsal sessions, the iconic “I Want You” chairs, three charismatic team coaches and ultimately a live finale performance where guests choose the winner.

The Voice of the Ocean Live Show will be hosted by the Cruise Director on the last night of the cruise for an audience that includes three high-profile team coaches such as guest entertainers, ship’s Hotel General Manager or even the Captain. Just like the hit TV show, the trio of coaches will listen, but not see the performer, as they decide to turn their “I Want You” chair to choose the singer to be on their team. Once teams are chosen, coaches will then each pick one finalist.

Audience members make the call as to who is the best using special voting remotes. When the votes are tallied, the answer everyone is waiting for is revealed.

While you will not find me or Mr. Jones signing up as contestants, The Voice of the Ocean sounds like a fun event and another reason to consider a cruise on Princess.

This is my favorite bracelet. You could argue that it’s not that stylish but I never leave home without it on my arm.

I’ve been using a Fitbit Flex for nearly three years. It’s traveled with me to India and to San Marino and to Myanmar. It’s sailed with my on the world’s two largest cruise ships, and on some really small ones.

The Fitbit Flex is my coach, cheerleader and fan. It keeps track of the steps I take every day.

My goal is to walk at least 5 miles a day which is between 10,000 and 11,000 steps. When I reach 10,000 steps it day, it lights up with a buzz on my wrist.

It’s amazing how addictive it can become to “get the buzz.”

Travel can be tough on exercise routines, as can working in a home office. The Fitbit made me realize how inactive I was on some days when I spent too much time at my desk or on a plane.

It’s easy to keep track of my steps throughout the day on an iPhone. The data is also accessible through a desktop application.

The data is tracked in steps, miles and active minutes. You can also see the calories you burn. I find it fun to look back at the steps made during travels. The screenshot (above) was from a very active day while in Quebec City during a port day on a Canada and New England cruise that we took in late June/early July.

If I outside of the U.S. or onboard a cruise ship, I update the Fitbit app whenever I have Wi-Fi access for my iPhone rather than using cellular data.

I find that I need to charge my Fitbit about every 4-5 days, which is easy to do with a computer or a wall plug with the charging device that comes with the Fitbit. I’m on my third device.  I wore out the first one after two years, and I lost one, along with my collection of bands in many colors. For now, I stick to a lime green band or the basic black one. 

The Fitbit seems to be made for travel lovers. Many of the badges that you get track geographical places, such as the “India” badge when you walk more than 1.997 miles, which is the length of the country.

The desktop tracking system keeps track of all of your steps over time, which you can download if you choose to do so. It was fun to look back and see my “best” day for most steps, which was on January 18, 2014, when we happened to be in Hawaii, walking all over Honolulu in search of a dim sum place that we’d read about. (We found it, and it was worth the miles and miles of walking.)

Are you a Fitbit fan? How do you use your device when you travel? 

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