Sorry, my cute horse photos did not sync. Transferring photos to here on the forum is slow.
We had 90 minute relaxing massages each yesterday. Pricing is in euros, the conversation rate was approximately $207 each, charged to your room. You have to pay tips in cash, of course dollars are fine.
British, excellent photos of the Grand Hotel, inside and outside. :-) I also enjoyed your commentary of your tour so far; quite inteteresting, especially for folks whom might be planning for it in the future.
I think I’ve missed a day out, oh well, I can’t remember, had two cocktails last night and too much going on.
Yesterday, we arrived in Detroit, what a surprise, the city has had a renaissance and it looked fantastic.
We chose to go on the tour of the Henry Ford museum. We had a good local guide who took us on a tour of the city first, including a stopover to view the outside of Motown Hitsville that you could go into for one of the other options offered for the day.
The Henry Ford museums is set in acres of grounds and the inside is huge. It’s a really impressive museum and we really enjoyed it. We were given a very comprehensive highlights tour and then we all walked over to Greenville village which continued on the grounds nearby. We had not done our research properly and did not realize this was outside, we did not take hats with us and it became a very hot sunny day. We were given tickets for three different modes of transport, so when we left the guide, we headed for the ride on a Ford model T before the line got too long. We had a narrated tour on the car, it was fun.
We walked around and ate lunch in an authentic period tavern with costumed servers, and typical foods of the time using the $20 each ‘fun’ money we were given to use anywhere on the campus. There were choices of two bus times to go back to the ship, 1pm and 2-30pm. We chose the latter.
When we returned ot the ship, I indulged in an expensive pedicure as I had tripped on the stairs on my first day and done a number on my toe nail. My husband went to the lounge and was persuaded to join a group of ladies for a quiz on monuments that was just about to start. He ended up winning and was given a good phone charging cord with alternate end choices.
We both hurried back to change for dinner. At 5pm, a local Motown group came abroad and played music for the two hours before dinner. Many people got up to dance, including us. We all had a great time and two cocktails were consumed in a flash. After dinner, the resident group duo presented a history of Fleetwood Mac which was really interesting. My husband is a big fan and obviously many others were. This singing duo are really really good….and they are British😀
This morning, we all looked forward to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, just a couple of minutes in the bus from the ship. Tauck could enter a full hour before opening time. I had a go on the drums and guitar in the Garage Band area which was a lot of fun. I’ve decided I could make a good drummer! My favorite area was of course the Beatles.
This afternoon was not so good, we chose the classic tour of four choices, the Gilded Golden Age. The local docents at both the theatre and concert hall locations had never used whispers. They did not seem to understand that the whole point of whispers is that you can have more than one group at a time in a location without distracting another group because normal voice level is all that is required
Consequently, each docent would not go into a space, including large theatre spaces,if another docent led tour was there. There was a lot of waiting around and change of planned walking around. So we were short changed on the last venue. And now the rain is here. However, Cleveland is another jewel of a city. They have the most luxury theater venues we have ever seen in the US.
The Ford Museum is amazing. The photo of the bus must be the bus that Rosa Parks was on. We haven't been in about 10 years but at that time they also had the original Oscar Meyer Weinermobile, and the limo in which JFK was shot, still with blood stains. Greenfield Village is indeed enormous. One of the times we were there, they were hosting a Civil War Historical group. They were all in period costumes and had set up various camps depicting life during the war. Henry Ford was a controversial figure but he collected hundreds of structures here, including the original Heinz 57 shop, the Wright Brothers bicycle workshop, a courthouse where Abraham Lincoln had worked, and many others.
The Motown Museum though small is also excellent. It would be tough to choose between the two activities.
Many venues limit the number of people in any given space to be in compliance with safety regulations. That could be why touring groups had to wait. Merely my opinion.
Unfortunately Kfnknfzk, that was not the case, the docents were not familiar with whispers, they had never used them and I think maybe they were a docent short. We were in theaters and a concert hall, so no restrictions.
Sadly, we spoke to people who had been on two more of the four tour choices for the afternoon and all were unhappy. The only weak part of all the tours from the ship.
Tonight was the ship’s farewell dinner as tomorrow we transit the Weller canal and the crew will be too busy. The evening entertainment was based on the music from movies, another excellent show, the singing duo The Upbeats are exceptional and versatile.
Thanks, British, as always, for letting us travel with you. If time permits, Toronto's Bata Shoe Museum is fun; looks like Gardiner Museum, known for contemporary ceramics, is closed at the moment. Toronto is a great multicultural city. Enjoy!
Our last day on the ship was spent traveling the eight locks of the Welland Canal. We had two lectures from a Canadian expert, one about the canal and one about invasive species. Both very good. There was a documentary film on Canada and a game of Dingbats, we missed that. My husband went to a quiz and won, just like he did the other day. I was not with him as I watched the documentary instead. In the evening there was the last show by the dancers and resident singer and then live music from the fantastic singing duo. We danced until the end.
This morning, we arrived in Toronto where we all disembarked the ship. Our bags had to be out of the room by 6-30am and we left the boat in different buses between 8-40 and 9am…..things went downhill from there…..
I read that the Toronto International Film Festival was in full swing just a few days. I mentioned it to one of our TD’s. I’m not sure whether they knew. We picked up our local guides who had not been aware of street closures, so we went around in circles trying to get to the sites that were supposed to be part of our city tour. Our poor bus driver had to make some tricky turnarounds.
Our bus arrived at our chosen museum, the Royal Ontario museum. The museum guides were waiting, we were late. We were to have a one hour guided tour plus one hour to roam around on our own, we were given a little extra time. The museum was excellent, we would have liked more time there. We got on the bus and were taken to the St. Lawrence Market for a scatter lunch….this place was exactly like our own Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia. We finally had chance to indulge ourselves on Poutine, very authentic and artery clogging. The ship had offered poutine, it was no good and did not even have gravy on it.
We returned on to the bus at 2-15pm, we had a ride by the old parliament building and the CN tower. We then stopped off at International square where it was busy with a Trinidad and Tobago tourist festival. By this time people were getting fed up, we were given time to walk around, it was cold and windy by then. One woman arrived back about fifteen minutes late, no apologies, but we then had to kill more time waiting for 4pm because the Fairmont does not do check in until 4pm. By then, people were getting more impatient and one lady said she had had enough and was wanting to go home a day early. Why we did not get more time at the museum, I’ve no idea, or we could have been taken to the museum that the other half of the group had chosen too.
The TD called the hotel, and I guess begged if we could check in a little early. The front entrance was closed off, I think for arriving celebrities. So we had to park around the corner, the promised bellman did not arrive to help with carry on bags, so we all stepped up and down steps to the entrance. Quite a few people on this tour could not walk far, so it was not taken well.
Check in was ok for us, but l believed not all rooms were ready. We expected to find our bags in the room, but then I remembered we had been warned the day before that it could take a couple of hours to come. I had packed accordingly with my dress up clothes ready for a booked reservation for a romantic dinner. Mr. B…no. He went down to reception, the TD, said it could be hours. I hope he wasn’t rude to her, kinda him not listening yesterday, but not good on the hotel’s part. ….who keeps saying what wonderful hotels the Fairmonts are? Now if I see a few movie stars, it might get more fun later 😀 our bags arrived one hour twenty minutes after we got to our room.
On our way down from our room tonight to go out to dinner, famous movie director Mike Leigh was in our elevator. We’ve been a fan of his since 1977 when he directed a famous play on the BBC called Abigail’s party. We also sang at the Philadelphia premiere of his movie Topsy-Turvy. The elevator was full, no opportunities to say hello. When we got to the hotel lobby, crowds were waiting for Angelina Jolie to arrive. We lingered but had to leave for our dinner reservation. 😔 we had dinner at Abrielle, awesome.
Yesterday was our Niagara Falls tour, about a two hour bus ride from Toronto. We left at 7-45am. We had never been there. Of course, it was very crowded. We enjoyed its magnificence. We went on the Hornblower boat and got very wet and I just laughed as the water and mist hit me. We wore waterproof pants, and used the provided ponchos over our rain jackets. The ponchos blew up in the wind despite extra tying in a knot at the hem.
Lunch was at the Victoria Palace restaurant overlooking the falls. We were given soup, a choice of three entrees and a strawberry shortcake dessert. We had four sample glasses of wine to try. This was all done pretty well for such a large group.
A note of caution, there is a lot of walking at Victoria Falls, especially to the boat ride, probably a mile down winding sloping pathways. You could avoid this by missing that experience whilst still enjoying the Falls. This day had always been the day before after leaving the ship, so even the tour directors were getting mixed up about the change. All the killing time for checking into the hotel could have been avoided doing it that way round. It wasn’t explaining why the change.
The walk to the restaurant involved a trek and stairs. We arrived back in Toronto about 4pm so there wasn’t time to do any other things like the suggested Bata shoe museum. Mr B did not exactly want to do that on his birthday 😂 anyway.
The farewell dinner at Casa Loma was fine and most people appeared to enjoy it. Pre dinner cocktails and appetizers then dinner of salad, Cornish hen with accompanying vegetables. A peach dessert, wines and tea or coffee. It was served efficiently by plenty of waiters who all arrived at once by each of us putting down the food in front of us all together.
My final thoughts on this tour. We enjoyed it, but the best part was the ship. There seemed to be more wrinkles and mistakes at both Chicago and Toronto. I’ve stayed at Fairmont properties in Canada before, but not for ages. People here on the forum seem to love the Fairmonts, we were disappointed. Our Toronto room had a very small bathroom. If you stood at the sink and the door was closed, if your partner came in, they would likely hit you in the back with the door. The sink was surrounded by virtually no top to put any of your toiletries on, it reminded me of most of the NY hotels we have stayed in. The water pressure was poor.
The advantage of both the Fairmonts hotels was their locations. To upgrade to the Four Seasons choices is hundreds of dollars more. I never heard anyone discussing those hotels but we have stayed in the one in Chicago in the past and it is in a less convenient location. I’m always saying hotels are the least important components for us, but some people will not be happy with the Fairmonts.
This is a very expensive tour, even when choosing the cheapest cabin and it’s just North America. The average age was probably over 80. There were a significant number with mobility issues.
Thanks again, British; great pics. I love that your heart is still in Africa and Victoria Falls lol. Wasn't sched change b/c some museums are closed Mondays? Safe trip home.
Comments
Sorry, my cute horse photos did not sync. Transferring photos to here on the forum is slow.
We had 90 minute relaxing massages each yesterday. Pricing is in euros, the conversation rate was approximately $207 each, charged to your room. You have to pay tips in cash, of course dollars are fine.
British, excellent photos of the Grand Hotel, inside and outside. :-) I also enjoyed your commentary of your tour so far; quite inteteresting, especially for folks whom might be planning for it in the future.
I think I’ve missed a day out, oh well, I can’t remember, had two cocktails last night and too much going on.
Yesterday, we arrived in Detroit, what a surprise, the city has had a renaissance and it looked fantastic.
We chose to go on the tour of the Henry Ford museum. We had a good local guide who took us on a tour of the city first, including a stopover to view the outside of Motown Hitsville that you could go into for one of the other options offered for the day.
The Henry Ford museums is set in acres of grounds and the inside is huge. It’s a really impressive museum and we really enjoyed it. We were given a very comprehensive highlights tour and then we all walked over to Greenville village which continued on the grounds nearby. We had not done our research properly and did not realize this was outside, we did not take hats with us and it became a very hot sunny day. We were given tickets for three different modes of transport, so when we left the guide, we headed for the ride on a Ford model T before the line got too long. We had a narrated tour on the car, it was fun.
We walked around and ate lunch in an authentic period tavern with costumed servers, and typical foods of the time using the $20 each ‘fun’ money we were given to use anywhere on the campus. There were choices of two bus times to go back to the ship, 1pm and 2-30pm. We chose the latter.
When we returned ot the ship, I indulged in an expensive pedicure as I had tripped on the stairs on my first day and done a number on my toe nail. My husband went to the lounge and was persuaded to join a group of ladies for a quiz on monuments that was just about to start. He ended up winning and was given a good phone charging cord with alternate end choices.
We both hurried back to change for dinner. At 5pm, a local Motown group came abroad and played music for the two hours before dinner. Many people got up to dance, including us. We all had a great time and two cocktails were consumed in a flash. After dinner, the resident group duo presented a history of Fleetwood Mac which was really interesting. My husband is a big fan and obviously many others were. This singing duo are really really good….and they are British😀
This morning, we all looked forward to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, just a couple of minutes in the bus from the ship. Tauck could enter a full hour before opening time. I had a go on the drums and guitar in the Garage Band area which was a lot of fun. I’ve decided I could make a good drummer! My favorite area was of course the Beatles.
British great reports and pictures, I'm so glad you and Mr. B. are having a great time.
This afternoon was not so good, we chose the classic tour of four choices, the Gilded Golden Age. The local docents at both the theatre and concert hall locations had never used whispers. They did not seem to understand that the whole point of whispers is that you can have more than one group at a time in a location without distracting another group because normal voice level is all that is required
Consequently, each docent would not go into a space, including large theatre spaces,if another docent led tour was there. There was a lot of waiting around and change of planned walking around. So we were short changed on the last venue. And now the rain is here. However, Cleveland is another jewel of a city. They have the most luxury theater venues we have ever seen in the US.
The Ford Museum is amazing. The photo of the bus must be the bus that Rosa Parks was on. We haven't been in about 10 years but at that time they also had the original Oscar Meyer Weinermobile, and the limo in which JFK was shot, still with blood stains. Greenfield Village is indeed enormous. One of the times we were there, they were hosting a Civil War Historical group. They were all in period costumes and had set up various camps depicting life during the war. Henry Ford was a controversial figure but he collected hundreds of structures here, including the original Heinz 57 shop, the Wright Brothers bicycle workshop, a courthouse where Abraham Lincoln had worked, and many others.
The Motown Museum though small is also excellent. It would be tough to choose between the two activities.
Many venues limit the number of people in any given space to be in compliance with safety regulations. That could be why touring groups had to wait. Merely my opinion.
Unfortunately Kfnknfzk, that was not the case, the docents were not familiar with whispers, they had never used them and I think maybe they were a docent short. We were in theaters and a concert hall, so no restrictions.
Sadly, we spoke to people who had been on two more of the four tour choices for the afternoon and all were unhappy. The only weak part of all the tours from the ship.
Tonight was the ship’s farewell dinner as tomorrow we transit the Weller canal and the crew will be too busy. The evening entertainment was based on the music from movies, another excellent show, the singing duo The Upbeats are exceptional and versatile.
Thanks, British, as always, for letting us travel with you. If time permits, Toronto's Bata Shoe Museum is fun; looks like Gardiner Museum, known for contemporary ceramics, is closed at the moment. Toronto is a great multicultural city. Enjoy!
Thanks for the tip MarketArt! Shame about the ceramics, one of my favorites.
It's being "transformed," reopening next month. I was in Chicago in March for the amazing Radical Clay show and a discussion with the artists. When you get back, check it out:
https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/10025/radical-clay-contemporary-women-artists-from-japan
I agree that the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto is worth a visit as is the Royal Ontario Museum, but that would require several hours to do it justice.
British: Great review and pics. Sounds like a great tour. Thanks for sharing.
Our last day on the ship was spent traveling the eight locks of the Welland Canal. We had two lectures from a Canadian expert, one about the canal and one about invasive species. Both very good. There was a documentary film on Canada and a game of Dingbats, we missed that. My husband went to a quiz and won, just like he did the other day. I was not with him as I watched the documentary instead. In the evening there was the last show by the dancers and resident singer and then live music from the fantastic singing duo. We danced until the end.
This morning, we arrived in Toronto where we all disembarked the ship. Our bags had to be out of the room by 6-30am and we left the boat in different buses between 8-40 and 9am…..things went downhill from there…..
I read that the Toronto International Film Festival was in full swing just a few days. I mentioned it to one of our TD’s. I’m not sure whether they knew. We picked up our local guides who had not been aware of street closures, so we went around in circles trying to get to the sites that were supposed to be part of our city tour. Our poor bus driver had to make some tricky turnarounds.
Our bus arrived at our chosen museum, the Royal Ontario museum. The museum guides were waiting, we were late. We were to have a one hour guided tour plus one hour to roam around on our own, we were given a little extra time. The museum was excellent, we would have liked more time there. We got on the bus and were taken to the St. Lawrence Market for a scatter lunch….this place was exactly like our own Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia. We finally had chance to indulge ourselves on Poutine, very authentic and artery clogging. The ship had offered poutine, it was no good and did not even have gravy on it.
We returned on to the bus at 2-15pm, we had a ride by the old parliament building and the CN tower. We then stopped off at International square where it was busy with a Trinidad and Tobago tourist festival. By this time people were getting fed up, we were given time to walk around, it was cold and windy by then. One woman arrived back about fifteen minutes late, no apologies, but we then had to kill more time waiting for 4pm because the Fairmont does not do check in until 4pm. By then, people were getting more impatient and one lady said she had had enough and was wanting to go home a day early. Why we did not get more time at the museum, I’ve no idea, or we could have been taken to the museum that the other half of the group had chosen too.
The TD called the hotel, and I guess begged if we could check in a little early. The front entrance was closed off, I think for arriving celebrities. So we had to park around the corner, the promised bellman did not arrive to help with carry on bags, so we all stepped up and down steps to the entrance. Quite a few people on this tour could not walk far, so it was not taken well.
Check in was ok for us, but l believed not all rooms were ready. We expected to find our bags in the room, but then I remembered we had been warned the day before that it could take a couple of hours to come. I had packed accordingly with my dress up clothes ready for a booked reservation for a romantic dinner. Mr. B…no. He went down to reception, the TD, said it could be hours. I hope he wasn’t rude to her, kinda him not listening yesterday, but not good on the hotel’s part. ….who keeps saying what wonderful hotels the Fairmonts are? Now if I see a few movie stars, it might get more fun later 😀 our bags arrived one hour twenty minutes after we got to our room.
On our way down from our room tonight to go out to dinner, famous movie director Mike Leigh was in our elevator. We’ve been a fan of his since 1977 when he directed a famous play on the BBC called Abigail’s party. We also sang at the Philadelphia premiere of his movie Topsy-Turvy. The elevator was full, no opportunities to say hello. When we got to the hotel lobby, crowds were waiting for Angelina Jolie to arrive. We lingered but had to leave for our dinner reservation. 😔 we had dinner at Abrielle, awesome.
British what a wonderful trip, hope your romantic dinner with Mr. B was a success, happy travels home.
Yesterday was our Niagara Falls tour, about a two hour bus ride from Toronto. We left at 7-45am. We had never been there. Of course, it was very crowded. We enjoyed its magnificence. We went on the Hornblower boat and got very wet and I just laughed as the water and mist hit me. We wore waterproof pants, and used the provided ponchos over our rain jackets. The ponchos blew up in the wind despite extra tying in a knot at the hem.
Lunch was at the Victoria Palace restaurant overlooking the falls. We were given soup, a choice of three entrees and a strawberry shortcake dessert. We had four sample glasses of wine to try. This was all done pretty well for such a large group.
A note of caution, there is a lot of walking at Victoria Falls, especially to the boat ride, probably a mile down winding sloping pathways. You could avoid this by missing that experience whilst still enjoying the Falls. This day had always been the day before after leaving the ship, so even the tour directors were getting mixed up about the change. All the killing time for checking into the hotel could have been avoided doing it that way round. It wasn’t explaining why the change.
The walk to the restaurant involved a trek and stairs. We arrived back in Toronto about 4pm so there wasn’t time to do any other things like the suggested Bata shoe museum. Mr B did not exactly want to do that on his birthday 😂 anyway.
The farewell dinner at Casa Loma was fine and most people appeared to enjoy it. Pre dinner cocktails and appetizers then dinner of salad, Cornish hen with accompanying vegetables. A peach dessert, wines and tea or coffee. It was served efficiently by plenty of waiters who all arrived at once by each of us putting down the food in front of us all together.
My final thoughts on this tour. We enjoyed it, but the best part was the ship. There seemed to be more wrinkles and mistakes at both Chicago and Toronto. I’ve stayed at Fairmont properties in Canada before, but not for ages. People here on the forum seem to love the Fairmonts, we were disappointed. Our Toronto room had a very small bathroom. If you stood at the sink and the door was closed, if your partner came in, they would likely hit you in the back with the door. The sink was surrounded by virtually no top to put any of your toiletries on, it reminded me of most of the NY hotels we have stayed in. The water pressure was poor.
The advantage of both the Fairmonts hotels was their locations. To upgrade to the Four Seasons choices is hundreds of dollars more. I never heard anyone discussing those hotels but we have stayed in the one in Chicago in the past and it is in a less convenient location. I’m always saying hotels are the least important components for us, but some people will not be happy with the Fairmonts.
This is a very expensive tour, even when choosing the cheapest cabin and it’s just North America. The average age was probably over 80. There were a significant number with mobility issues.
The Upbeats were fantastic
The Gilded Golden Age theatre tours
Welland Canal
Thanks again, British; great pics. I love that your heart is still in Africa and Victoria Falls lol. Wasn't sched change b/c some museums are closed Mondays? Safe trip home.