Cruising to New England and the Maritimes

 

RQS and I were looking at this itinerary, and we decided to take a Summer/Autumn cruise. We normally would follow the advice of Gary Bembridge and use a travel agent to book our cruise.  However, we encountered a situation where the travel agent we selected couldn't provide us the option we could get by booking directly with the cruise line.  

But first....

Last night, we planned to book this cruise when I got home from dinner with DPV .  However, Vacations to Go (VTG) closes its lines at 10 pm, so we figured we'd book the cruise tonight. Well, things didn't work out as planned.

RQS was visiting her cousin in Philadelphia, and brought her new Chromebook along for the ride.  Around 9 pm, RQS called me and tried to connect me in for a 3 way call with VTG. We couldn't get that working.  Unfortunately, VTG couldn't give us the booking we wanted - they could only do an all or nothing regarding the "Free at Sea" offering.  We wanted everything but the "Free" booze package (we don't drink enough to make the $200/pp gratuity charge worth the price), and VTG couldn't or wouldn't do what was needed to uncheck this option.  So RQS and I decided to contact the cruise line directly and see what we could do.  And we had more success here, as the cruise line's agent had no problem making this happen.  Sadly, we couldn't get the room I found online, but we got a good room for the same price.  (The agent made a mistake at first, not realizing what we would accept a cabin in the aft part of the ship, and thinking we wanted an aft balcony.  He corrected this quickly, when I told RQS what I think happened.)  

Would I do the booking this way again?  Maybe/Maybe Not.  I have found a local travel agent specializing in cruises that I may try out for our next cruise together.  Hopefully, I can get better results from someone local than from an organization which may be experiencing Covid-19 related personnel churn.

So, now we are committed - we will be spending time with each other where we have to see each other for 10 straight days.  This will tell us a lot about how we get along together.  Keep your fingers crossed.

 

PS: This is a cruise I'll be doing as Mario.  It won't be as much fun, but.....

Seeing a friend from the "North Country"

 

I haven't seen DPV in ages.  We dated once, but found that each other's baggage was too much to carry, so we decided to be friends. With Covid-19, work, and what's been going on in our lives, neither of us has had enough free time to get together.  So I jumped at the opportunity to have a French dinner with her when the opportunity presented itself.

Cafe Les Baux is an intimate restaurant in Millbrook, NY. It's about a 1 hour drive from both where I work and from my home with free flowing traffic. I decided to stop home after work, so that I could check my mail before going to meet DPV.  As expected, the drive took 60 minutes, even with me ignoring Google's directions.  (They recommended taking the Taconic State Parkway through Putnam county - one of the roads I hate driving on due to the characteristics of the road.)  Once I reached Dutchess county, it was smooth sailing to the restaurant.

We agreed to meet at 7:15.  I arrived 15 minutes before DPV, and we had to wait a few minutes until a table freed up.  Both of us ordered the Roast 1/2 duck special, and it was better than anything I could have cooked when I was regularly roasting ducks.  From the appetizers to dessert, everything was top notch, and I highly recommend this restaurant when you have a few extra dollars to spend.  (Both of us went over budget dining here, but it was worth every cent.  I plan to take RQS here when it's time for a special dinner.)

Exiting the restaurant at 10 pm, I realized that I was doing to drive more carefully than usual.  The roads were slick from rain when I got on the road, and I drove much slower than usual on the short section of the Taconic I used before driving through Putnam County on Route 9.  

Although I called RQS when I got home, it was a relatively short chat - we agreed that we'd book our Autumn cruise the following day....