September 15, 2018

    Today was the second of two sea days from Bar Harbor to Quebec City. At breakfast the ship was cruising the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the Gaspé Passage with Anticosti Island on the starboard side and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec on the port side. 
     The outside temperature was about 18°C, under a blue sky, but windy.  After breakfast we walked on the track on Deck 11. On the way back downstairs, we looked out and saw several dolphins in the water.
    After our morning walk, we attended Dominique Lavigueur’s Beyond the Podium presentation about Saguenay, Quebec, which is three towns combined into one large community.  At 11, we went to a Captain’s Club Wine Tasting in the dining room. The chief sommelier presented four different wines with wit, to the 150 assembled people. He started by saying that we had probably been bored with legs and  such and would showing us some wines of interest. Champagne is a sparkling wine only produced officially in the French region of Champagne.  The wines featured a Loire Valley sparkling wine made from the Chenin Blanc grape (the smaller the bubbles the higher quality of the sparkling wine); an Argentinian dry white wine from the Tortonis grape; a red Syrah and a Bordeaux Cabaret Sauvignon from the left bank. It was an interesting 30 minutes.
      We contacted Shane, the Destination Concierge, hoping for the list of shore excursions for the Australian East Coast and South Pacific & New Zealand cruises, but there were no brochures prepared yet for the voyages, which are 18 months away.  If you book the shore excursions before the cruise is over, you receive a 10% discount.
      We had lunch in the Dining Room with American couples Tony & Barbara and Debbie & Scott.  There was nothing on the afternoon program of much interest so we decided to walk on Deck 11 after lunch.  We only got to the pool deck 10 and 30 meters toward the pool and realized that the temperature had dropped to 14°C and it was very windy even on the protected pool deck. We opted to walk inside on decks 4 and 5 weaving our way through the passengers through the bars, casino. shops and photo gallery. Then we read for the rest of the afternoon.
   The news channels available via satellite on the ship are broadcasting scenes from the hurricane Florence effects on North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. A state of emergency has been declared in North Carolina.
   The dress code for the dining room this evening was Evening Chic. There are fewer people every cruise dressing semi-formal.  Although men are expected to wear long sleeve shirts on these nights, it is not enforced. Only the evening dress code of no shorts for men is enforced.  We arrived later at the dining room and sat with a table of 10 including the presenter, Dominique Lavigueur.  The other seven guests were Americans from Virginia, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.  We chose Veal Schnitzel or Seared Cod as our entrées, but Newfoundland cod is much better. After dinner the ship was in the St. Lawrence River passing the town of Baie-Comeau on the northern shore.  After midnight the ship will pass the Saguenay river as the river narrows closer to Québec City.
    The show this evening featured singer and impersonator, Sean O’Shea.   
The dance band, Dancing Town was playing in the Rendez-vous Lounge after the show, where we danced before going to the casi
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