If the Democrats had won the election last year, I would have been in Marian Mode with RQS on this cruise. (We had booked it with this intention.) Sadly, I had to travel as Mario, given the fascist assault on our individual liberties by the current administration in DC. This pisses me off to no end, as he is trying to take away any dignity we have in public. With that being said, we had a great cruise, save for not visiting one port due to weather conditions.
The cabin we stayed in was relatively quiet. Although we were under the Lido deck, just under the hallway leading to the buffet, we weren't disturbed by noise coming from the above floor. We had one unfortunate issue with this cabin - it was way too close to the buffet, and we found ourselves walking out our door, up the steps, and into the buffet in less than 2 minutes. It was way too convenient for us to go up for an unplanned cup of coffee or a quick nibble. 😁
My current cruise goal is to visit a couple more ports in North America's northeastern areas, specifically St. John's, NL and Eastport, ME. Many cruisers have heard of St. John's and its beauty. But how many of us know that Eastport has one special attraction that requires people to leave the United States to visit? If you haven't guessed, it's Campobello Island, the summer home of FDR. We considered taking one cruise line out of Boston, just to see this place. But we chose this 10-day cruise instead.
The next time we visit Boston on a cruise, we will likely already have "Charlie Cards" preloaded with money enough to get us around town and visit a few sites outside of excursions sold by the cruise line. As it was, we enjoyed having a ship to ourselves, as the weather was perfect for us to sit outside and enjoy the view from the ship (or, what little of it there was in this port).
Hopefully, we will finally get to visit Charlottetown, PE on a future cruise. High winds prevented us from making port here - the second time we had a cruise scheduled to make port here. However, we did get to see the Giant Fiddle in Sydney, but were unable to take our shore excursion at this port. Instead, we walked around the cruise terminal and picked up some items from local vendors.
Next year, Brooklyn will likely be mostly closed for cruising during the summer. Supposedly, NYCEDC will be fixing up the Brooklyn Marine Terminal area (of which the cruise terminal is a part) in 2026, and cruising should restart after the summer is over. Do I believe that? I'm not sure. But I know that Brooklyn is the only NYC area cruise terminal large enough to handle the Queen Mary 2 (a ship I'll be on soon). So, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for now. One thing I know: MSC will no longer be making Brooklyn a year-round home port after Spring, 2026.
And one last thing: RQS enjoys the coziness of a smaller ship, now that she's been on one. I'm glad of that, as I'm tried of these elephantine ships carrying 3500+ passengers and all of the large ship hassles. Give me a ship I can get on and off quickly, without fuss, and I'll be happy.
