Michigan's Lakes and Mackinac Island
Looking for tips, etc. for this trip in July 2019. Clothing, weather, amount of walking, ease of traveling, etc. Also looking for comments from others who have done/are doing this trip.
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Looking for tips, etc. for this trip in July 2019. Clothing, weather, amount of walking, ease of traveling, etc. Also looking for comments from others who have done/are doing this trip.
Comments
Our tour of the Great Lakes on Ponant’s Le Bellot, Chicago to Toronto began last night. We arrived at Chicago mid afternoon and the Tauck rep was ready and waiting to direct us to our driver. The drive into the city was an hour to the Fairmont hotel. Tauck had emailed us a couple of weeks before, warning us the check in was not until 4pm. It was 3-15pm but our room was ready. We just had time to quickly read our documents, fill in the paperwork required and head downstairs to meet the tour guides at their desk as they were due to finish up at 4pm.
The Welcome reception began at 6pm in the Fairmont. Those staying at the Four Seasons had been bused here. We have stayed at the Four Seasons before, so we knew it is further out and a large additional expense of several hundred dollars to stay there, the other choice for this tour.
We entered the reception room and tables were set out with the names of the five tour directors who will be on the tour. We had to choose one of the tables with the name of the TD’s we had met and been assigned earlier. There was more than one table for each of them. It looks as if the tour is full judging by the number of tables!
There was a jazz band playing as we all sat down, so it was extra difficult to even hear the person sitting next to you, but the band was excellent. A young ‘flapper’ sang All that Jazz’ and a male singer sang something, I can’t recall what. Later, a Motown singing group came on. Three men, one woman, they were excellent and at one point invited men to join them on stage to sing. My husband was up there in a flash! The women were encouraged to come up and dance, so I don’t have pictures of him. many people danced during the evening. We really enjoyed it.
The paperwork for the evening we received earlier, had said this was the time to dress up, there was a huge variety, jackets, plaid shirts, flowered shirts, collared T shirts and literally a sport jacket for the men. I saw one or two cocktail dresses on the women. Most wore pants with a whole variety of top types, floaty, shirts, colorful T shirts. I made note because so many people ask about attire.
We chose the sea bass entree, it was disgusting! A thin very over fried up piece of fish, two very burnt long thin carrots and a dollop of what was supposed to be risotto. The salad, dessert and wine were good.
The five tour directors talked a little about the tour, Two different times buses came for the Four Seasons people and the rest of us drifted out.
Our room is on the 21st floor, it’s large and comfortable.
Our first breakfast at the hotel was in a special Tauck room, pretty basic, bacon, fried potatoes, scrambled egg, yoghurt parfait, a few tiny croissant, pain au chocolat, tiny muffins, bread for toast. No fruit, no omelettes, no cereals—-and this is a Fairmont hotel. I wish I knew if the Four Seasons people were also in a different room with limited choices. I had to wait ages for more hot water for my tea, after a while, I asked another server, they were just standing around, I had to go up to them to ask. Then, the first sever arrived, the second one never came back. I just mention this because we have already met several people who this is their first Tauck tour, and it’s a very expensive tour. I’d like to think they will be impressed.
British, a very good review and comments on your first night. I grew up in Chicago and the only time I was back there was a few years ago when a Tauck Event was held there and quite good back then.
We have just returned from our day 2 excursion choice. We chose the Chicago Art Institute. We left the hotel around 10-30am for a very short ride to the Institute. It did not open until 11am but by the time everybody had sorted their listening devices, it was time to go in. Note, you will think your device doesn’t work if you don’t put the earpiece in your ear!
Our group had a very nice young man called Robert who was a Shakespearean actor, so his voice was really clear and his tour of the highlights were very informative. Note, the tour was only about 90 mins, so if you have not been before and you like Art, you might want to plan to be there for hours longer. The museum is beautifully laid out with plenty of room between exhibits, so you don’t feel overwhelmed like in some museums these days. We thoroughly enjoyed it, especially to see classic paintings like American Gothic and A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, some Van Gogh and Monet classics. We had a good lunch in the Cafe in the basement to break up our stroll, our choice being cucumber gazpacho and grilled cheese and fig and po boy perch sandwich. Very good.
British: I am scheduled for this cruise / tour in October so I really appreciate your feedback on this. I am doing the tour in reverse (Toronto to Chicago) so won't have the same welcome reception/dinner experience you had the first night. Not sure if they will do the same meal / program for our final dinner.
I am leaving in two weeks for a Rhine cruise and the Octoberfest. I will come home for a week, then head to Toronto. I will be watching for your updates.
Thanks much and give my best to Mr. B.
Last night, for dinner on our own, we ate at Brindille, a high end French restaurant. It’s an Iber ride away. Every at the hotel entrance was using the service and the doorman is fun to talk to.
A note on the elevators, there are six, or is it eight of them. Most of us were waiting up to twenty minutes for them yesterday morning. Someone reckoned only two were working so bear that in mind incase it’s still the same of you stay here.
Also, the beds are very high, I was having to do a running jump to get in as every time I tried to climb in, my knees would slide off. It took me until almost the morning to figure out that the best way was to do a Fosbury flop, getting in backwards 😀
I believe that all Fairmont hotels are partners with Tauck. Unfortunately, IMHO, my experiences of staying at least in some of those Fairmont hotels on various travels was mixed. Sigh. Even though it may cost more, Four Seasons hotels everywhere use to have a great reputation to live up to. Just saying. :-)
tomh - Tauck does have contracts with Fairmont hotels, like they do with many others. I have never been disappointed with the brand, especially here in North America. The most luxurious Four Seasons I ever stayed in was the one in Lisbon—The Ritz (not to be confused with Ritz Carlton). Everything was glamorous.
Kfnknfzk. My negative experiences were with Fairmont in both Canada and Europe. Sigh. As I indicated above, my experiences were mixed and some were just OK.. And yes, I have enjoyed Ritz Carlton both in the US and in Europe (not with Tauck tours). BTW, I have never been on this Michigan boat tour with Tauck, but earlier I was on the Michigan land tour with Tauck and it was wonderful, especially our stop at the Michigan Music House in Traverse; unique and an experience that I have never had anywhere else in the world. I highly recommend it. :-)
Our breakfast was better this morning so people must have complained yesterday. There was fruit, sausage but no bacon, waffles, scrambled eggs. One couple did not realize that we had to have breakfast in this location yesterday and went to the regular place and the bill was $100. The TD reimbursed them.
kinfnfzk. Here is a short info video of that Micigan House Museum tour for a taste of it. :-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6QWVYPvQZQ&t=4s
Kfnknfzk. I just remembered that during Tauck's Christmas Market tours in Germany, we also stopped at a similar music instrument museum there in Rudesheim called "Siegfried's Mechanisches Musikkabinett" (not as big as the one in Michigan).
tomh - Yes, I have been to the music museums in both Michigan and Germany.
We are finishing up our tour on the lakes only in reverse. We started in Toronto. Our ship was delayed a day getting there because a cargo ship had run aground in the St Lawrence blocking passage. We just stayed another nite at the Four Seasons. Our welcome dinner was at Casa Loma Nothing special. The castle was interesting. We enjoyed the itinerary but were very unhappy with Ponant. The food was basic cafeteria cuisine. The dining staff were unskilled. Many of us felt that for the cost of this trip we should have had better meals. Our Tauck directors were great and very organized. We had 141 Tauckers. We have traveled 14 times with Tauck, but we won’t travel on Ponant again. They had little or no internet or tv service. We are in the Four Seasons here in Chicago now. We have had great weather
Choc - I agree with your perception of Ponant. I thought the dining room looked like a cafeteria and the bar had no ambiance at all, just a cavernous room with all the tables and chairs pushed back into corners. My first Ponant cruise was my last Ponant cruise. I'm glad your itinerary worked well for you, however.
@tomh. _I was on the Michigan land tour with Tauck and it was wonderful, especially our stop at the Michigan Music House in Traverse; unique and an experience that I have never had anywhere else in the world. _
We were on this tour last September. I fully agree with tomh about the Michigan Music House. The tour far exceeded our expectations. The presentation was exceptional.
We have had one night in the ship. This will be our fourth Ponant tour, just 127 people. The food is French style and we generally like it. The serving staff are very nice. Our one ‘complaint’ so far is being near a group of people who were moaning about having to do a safety drill with life jackets, they thought it was unnecessary. Yet having been told not to use the elevator, people were lining up for it! I hope there is no real disaster. Then while out today, we had to wait for one woman late back to the bus making our lunch time a rush .
Internet… ok we miss it but we are on a ship! Get over it! We are at the captain’s table for dinner tonight!
So yesterday, we chose the ‘Visit Holland’ for the day. We saw an original windmill donated from the Netherlands over 100 years ago that we could go into and climb to the fifth floor to see the mechanism that milled the grain and the views from the outside. There was a working barrel organ nearby and costumed guides walking around in authentic attire including clogs. There was a small amount of time to shop, foods and Delftwear.
Lunch was at a new venue for Tauck, a Blueberry Farm.We ate a small chicken salad in a plastic container or an Italian roll. We chose chicken, personally it was way too salty. Dessert was blueberry pie or Cherry and blueberry crumble. It would have been better for me if ice cream was offered with it. We could go into the attached shop to buy, pie, blueberry wine, ice cream, and other blueberry products, ok, I bought blueberry peanut butter 😀
We then went on a drive through to the town. It was beautifully set out, neat lawns and flowers everywhere within the suburbs and then into the shopping area where many stores were closed for Labor Day. Otherwise it was T shirt places and a famous fudge shop. We were there an hour, it was too long for us, we mostly sat in a nice coffee shop.
There were three other excursion choices, two were new this year. We heard the sand dunes ride was disappointing but they also visited Holland, if I had know, I would have taken that choice. The same lady who was late to the bus was not there again, we waited and waited until our TD said we were leaving without her. We knew there were two other buses she could join and the TD checked she was on one. We have never had a problem with late comers before on our tours.
It was Gala night for dinner and we were invited to the Captain’s table. There were six guests and he made conversation fun and easy. Having sat at the Captain’s table on all our Ponant tours, this was easily the best. The five course dinner was excellent, the filet melted in your mouth. I understood our meal was no different from others except the wine choices were that of the captain and very good.
This morning, we set out in the tenders to dock at Mackinac Island. The lake was beautiful and calm and the weather perfect. We got onto horse drawn carriages with two carriage horses, through the shopping street and upwards to a halfway point where we could choose to stay on and go up to the Grand Hotel or change carriages and take a guided ride through the forest, stopping off at Mackinac Fort which was really interesting and had wonderful views of the lighthouse and lake. This carriage had three horses pulling it. We then had to walk three quarters of a mile down to the Grand Hotel where we were all meeting for lunch.
Everywhere on the island are gorgeous flowers and shrubs. The gardens at the hotel are wonderful and the hotel spectacular inside and out. The only disappointment was lunch. The dining room had hundreds of people in it, all lining up for I guess, what we thought would be an elegant lunch experience. Instead it was a buffet off paper plates!
We walked around the hotel inside afterwards and then meandered down to the shopping area, seeing all of the 17 fudge shops and T shirt stores. It was busy. We caught the 3pm tender back to our ship.
I stayed at the Grand Hotel on a Tauck tour for several days a few years ago. It is beautiful inside, but IMHO the food there was not very good, even though everyone needed to dress up for dinner every night. Their kitchen folks definitely need to upgrade the cuisine in my opinion considering the hotel's reputation, etc.
The food we had was served on dishes, not paper, but it wasn’t very good.
tomh - How were the rooms when you stayed at the hotel? We only had lunch there as part of a Ponant tour. We don't care for buffets but the cold shrimp, mussels and oysters were quite good. I'd like to return there independently. I'm thinking that either before or after the tourist season would be a good time...maybe right before they close for the winter. Aren't there several dining choices besides the enormous dining room? I'll have to revisit their website.
Choc - We had china serving dishes as well.
There was a temporary power cut on the island but the hotel had its own generator, maybe that is why paper plates. Nothing like oysters, shrimp etc. Bits of salad, chicken, pork roll or swordfish with mash and green beans or burnt broccoli. No chicken and just bits of fish left when I went up to the huge line. People were stuffing themselves with huge plates of cakes and pastries which I love but they did not look inviting
Unlike your experience Kfnnkfzk on the ship, food and service has been excellent and no sign of the poor afternoon foods you described but really apertizing ones. Only tried a few as there is too much food on this tour .
We had a super lecture on Motown music and a good documentary on Henry Ford this morning . Yesterday , I took part in a painting class, the captain and two officers joined my table and it was fun watching them attempt to paint. Then there was an iPhone tutorial mainly what you could do with photos.
In the evening before dinner, the singer and dancers did a show which was well attended. After dinner, there was Beatles themed live music from resident duo, man and woman. Both from my area of England. Lots of dancing and even the captain sang a song and danced along with all of us. I slept well last night!
We are a day on the ship today as we head towards Detroit.
We had a questionnaire mid cruise to fill out. Many of us complained about the food so you reaped the benefits British
For clarity, I never said the service was poor; to the contrary, I reported that the wait staff and room attendants were attentive, friendly and professional.
British: Thanks again for the commentary. I stayed at the Grand Hotel on another Tauck tour about ten years ago - the dining room was a madhouse but I know we had china and crystal. Hope the "paper plates" are due to the power cut. I am looking forward to the Motown museum visit and the live music on board - my favorite dance music. Can't wait to hear about Toronto. Your picture of the windmill is beautiful.
For hockey fans, a visit to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto is excellent.
Thank you all for your comments on this tour as we will be on this tour in October. British, your real time commentary is especially appreciated as always. Hope we have good music too.
Most of my photos are not transferring from my phone to my iPad here. I assume it is because each person is only able to connect one device at a time to the internet. Apart from that, any time I want internet service on the ship, I’ve connected, no problem. Here are a few photos of the Grand Hotel which have appeared