Options
Revised review - part 1
This was not among my favorite Tauck trips, though that does not mean that I did not enjoy it. We had 27 guests on our tour, including a family of 5 that had twin daughters who just graduated from college (and on their way to medical school) and a son who just graduated from high school. Our Tour Director, Telma Marques, was very good and enthusiastic. She provided treats during our coach rides…ice wine, ketchup potato chips, apples, sweets, small jars of maple butter. She even booked restaurant reservations for us for meals that were not included as part of the tour. I’ve never had a TD offer to do that.
The Fairmont Hotels, while lovely, need to develop a better system for checking people into restaurants. There were always long lines at the restaurant reception areas, while it appeared that the hostess typed in the guests’ names on a tablet and constantly looked from the tablet to a computer monitor. I have no idea why it was so slow, but it was definitely annoying. Except for the Chateau Frontenac, none of the hotels offered a buffet breakfast — everything was a la carte, which also slowed down the breakfast service. One of my fellow travelers told me that Fairmont was trying to cut down on food waste from the buffets. I arrived in Toronto on a Saturday afternoon for the tour that began the following Monday evening. During my free time, I wandered around Union Station, took a walking tour of the city (booked through Viator) and went to two Blue Jays-Yankees baseball games, one with the roof of Rogers Center open, the other, with it closed because of rain. Toronto was hosting the World Cup, although no matches were played there during our stay in that city. However, one of the teams that was scheduled to play the day after we left was Ghana, and the President of Ghana was staying at our hotel. One evening, a whole group of Ghanaians in their colorful native dress gathered in the lobby prior to departing for an event. I found it exciting to see them and enjoyed their enthusiasm. After a morning trip to Niagara Falls, including a boat ride (not just Tauck passengers) to Horseshoe Falls, we had a stop for lunch on our own in Niagara on the Lake. Telma gave us $30 CAD per person to spend toward lunch— which I understand is just returning to us some of the money that we had paid to Tauck for the tour. Niagara on the Lake is a cute town. Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time to walk around it after lunch. On our way to Ottawa, we had a lovely cruise of the Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence River. I enjoyed that cruise very much. We experienced a malfunction with the coach’s audio system the morning that we were supposed to have a tour of Ottawa. (The audio system emitted an ear-piercing shriek that none of the local guides, Telma or the coach driver could turn off, even with a video conference to the coach supplier’s headquarters.) However, in true Tauck fashion, Telma arranged for us to spend about 1.5 hours at the Canadian War Museum, instead of the tour. Talk about turning lemons into lemonade! That museum was wonderful! I wish that we could have spent much longer there, but we had to move on to our scheduled time at the Canadian History Museum. (By that time, the audio system had been fixed, but we had to forego the tour of Ottawa itself.). I could have spent longer at that museum, also. The in-house guide that my half of the group had was not very good. She kept us standing in one area of the museum that showcased totem poles instead of moving through the museum while she talked. Both museums gave us hand stamps that enabled us to return to them later in the day, but after lunch on our own, I was too tired to do so. I rested for a while, then took a nice walk in the park behind our hotel.
0
Comments
OK. This isn't working either! I'll try again later.
This is MCD's text.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Fairmont Hotels, while lovely, need to develop a better system for checking people into restaurants. There were always long lines at the restaurant reception areas, while it appeared that the hostess typed in the guests’ names on a tablet and constantly looked from the tablet to a computer monitor. I have no idea why it was so slow, but it was definitely annoying. Except for the Chateau Frontenac, none of the hotels offered a buffet breakfast — everything was a la carte, which also slowed down the breakfast service. One of my fellow travelers told me that Fairmont was trying to cut down on food waste from the buffets.
I arrived in Toronto on a Saturday afternoon for the tour that began the following Monday evening. During my free time, I wandered around Union Station, took a walking tour of the city (booked through Viator) and went to two Blue Jays-Yankees baseball games, one with the roof of Rogers Center open, the other, with it closed because of rain. Toronto was hosting the World Cup, although no matches were played there during our stay in that city. However, one of the teams that was scheduled to play the day after we left was Ghana, and the President of Ghana was staying at our hotel. One evening, a whole group of Ghanaians in their colorful native dress gathered in the lobby prior to departing for an event. I found it exciting to see them and enjoyed their enthusiasm.
After a morning trip to Niagara Falls, including a boat ride (not just Tauck passengers) to Horseshoe Falls, we had a stop for lunch on our own in Niagara on the Lake. Telma gave us $30 CAD per person to spend toward lunch— which I understand is just returning to us some of the money that we had paid to Tauck for the tour. Niagara on the Lake is a cute town. Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time to walk around it after lunch.
On our way to Ottawa, we had a lovely cruise of the Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence River. I enjoyed that cruise very much.
We experienced a malfunction with the coach’s audio system the morning that we were supposed to have a tour of Ottawa. (The audio system emitted an ear-piercing shriek that none of the local guides, Telma or the coach driver could turn off, even with a video conference to the coach supplier’s headquarters.) However, in true Tauck fashion, Telma arranged for us to spend about 1.5 hours at the Canadian War Museum, instead of the tour. Talk about turning lemons into lemonade! That museum was wonderful! I wish that we could have spent much longer there, but we had to move on to our scheduled time at the Canadian History Museum. (By that time, the audio system had been fixed, but we had to forego the tour of Ottawa itself.). I could have spent longer at that museum, also. The in-house guide that my half of the group had was not very good. She kept us standing in one area of the museum that showcased totem poles instead of moving through the museum while she talked. Both museums gave us hand stamps that enabled us to return to them later in the day, but after lunch on our own, I was too tired to do so. I rested for a while, then took a nice walk in the park behind our hotel.