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Cruising the Great Lakes with Victory I
Part 2 – The Ship
In this episode we share details about the ship itself. How does it work for those with disabilities? What is a typical daily schedule? Which features keep guests returning?
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Transcript
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Robert: Welcome to Living the Could Life. I’m Robert and we recently returned from a Great Lakes cruise leaving out of Toronto and ending up in Chicago. Theresa: And I’m Theresa. We sailed on Victory One. It’s the first cruise of the Great Lakes for the season, so that’s very exciting and we’re happy to be on board. Robert: We’re going to talk about the airport, the hotel, the ship, and we’ve discussed the itinerary already and we’re going to concentrate mostly on accessibility and what it was like to move around on the ship and the rooms, the restaurants. Theresa: And that’s correct. If you go and look at a previous, actually one we talked about the Great Lakes in general and there is a part one of this podcast where we mostly talked about the ports on the cruise. So we are going to start from the beginning and that includes, We left home for a short drive of about an hour to the Manistee airport and we took a flight. Robert: I believe it was 21 minutes over to Chicago and then in Chicago we picked up a flight going to Toronto. Theresa: And we arrived in Toronto and going through immigration was fairly quick and easy, but getting, well, getting an Uber was also easy. Getting to our hotel, the Westin Harbor Castle in downtown right near the islands right in the center of town, took a bit of time because a lot of the roads had been closed. The main quick arteries. Robert: The Gardner expressway. Theresa: Like the Gardner. So we had to take just, I guess I’ll say not such quick streets. So it took us maybe over an hour. Robert: In what should have been probably a 20 minute drive, I think. Theresa: And then our Uber driver was not so sure of where the hotel was and you can’t blame him because we got there and the entrance isn’t really that easy to see. He stopped down the street, but you actually have to turn down the next block and there’s a parking garage which you go through and up two levels to get to the main entrance of the hotel. Robert: So you can drive the winding driveway up to the main entrance or from the street level you can take two flights of stairs up and then there is around the corner, if you’re facing the hotel on the right side, there is an accessible entrance. It’s usually activated with a key card, but if you’re just coming to the hotel for the first time you can hit the intercom and they will open the door for you. And then from there it’s just a short walk to the elevator and you can go up two levels to the main lobby. Theresa: However, I think when you have your luggage and it’s unfamiliar to you, just get dropped off right at that main entrance because you’re very close to the check-in and Victory, I almost said Viking, right? Victory does have like a hospitality desk so you can go and check in there. They will give you instructions as to where to meet the bus the next morning. And what is nice is that Victory is smart. I think they know about all the delays in travel and they maybe don’t want to wait for people who have been delayed. So the first day of your cruise, and which is included in the fare, is a hotel stay. So that’s really nice. And on that day, well, the next day they have options of a short excursion. So I know a lot of people took one that gave them a tour of Toronto. We’ve been there many times so we did some things on our own. You can listen and hear all about that in the previous podcast. And they told us what time to check in for boarding because you cannot walk to the port. You need to take a bus. So they had several buses arranged and we all had a scheduled time to meet in the lobby to catch the bus and go to where the Victory One was docked. Robert: And I think there were about 150 passengers this time. The bus held like 40 something. And so they had to make several trips to get everybody from the hotel to the dock. Theresa: And we did leave our luggage out so we weren’t encumbered with having to take luggage into the bus unless you were like us. We did keep a few things out because we don’t want to pack our computers or meds or anything like that under the bus. But all of the luggage was transported by bus. Robert: And delivered to our room, to our cabin. Theresa: It delivered to our cabin. When we got there I think we were on a 330 bus which in a way was an awkward time. Well we had done things earlier in the day so we didn’t really have time for lunch. And when we boarded the ship they did have some light snacks and drinks for us. So let’s give you a tour of the ship. And one is always a good place to start. So deck one is where the coastal dining room is. And that’s the main dining room. There actually is another area. The kitchen’s down there or the galley I should say. The one thing we found interesting is although it’s the main dining room there are no public restrooms on that floor. Toward the bow of the ship there are some state rooms and a medical center. Robert: Deck one is also where you may board the ship. The gangway was usually coming out of either deck one or deck two. Theresa: Right. It depended on the height of the lake. And what was really nice about dining on the ship is the they had the always available items like lots of ships do. And you could have dinner from 6 30 to 8. There’s no assigned seating. You can just go at your leisure. Most of the tables seat four or more people. There’s a couple two toppers. Robert: And there’s some eight toppers. Theresa: And there are eight toppers. So it’s a good way to meet new people. And we usually sat with different people every night except when we didn’t feel like it. You know if we didn’t feel up to socializing we could find one of the two toppers. Or if we went later we could do that. Robert: And a full breakfast is served there. Lunch is served there. And dinner is served every day. And for dinner it was very interesting. I’ve not really experienced this before but as you walk in the entrance is sort of a long hallway. And on the right there’s a countertop like a kitchen counter that they display everything that’s going to be available on the menu. And it’s the real food that has actually been cooked and prepared and presented there. And it was interesting because sometimes it would get a little congested getting into the dining room because people would gather and they’d start looking at the different dishes. And so the seating was maybe a little tight. It was it was different. And you know it is a small ship. There are lots of people. So the chairs are pretty close together. And they’re larger upholstered chairs. So they’re very comfortable. Theresa: Right. And it’s a very elegant dining room with white table cloths and white napkins and set up with two wine glasses and water. It was a very pleasant place. And all surrounded by windows so you could enjoy the scenery while you were eating. And since we are talking about that main dining room we can go into a little bit about the food. Robert: Yeah. We had different meals every day. The they had as Teresa mentioned there were certain options that were available every day. They usually had three of those options. It was like a filet, a salmon, and maybe a chicken dish. And then they usually had I think it was probably four other entrees that were that would change every day. And the sides were also included in the entree. But you could also get additional vegetables or a twice baked potato as your side. Theresa: And it was really a four course meal. You start it with appetizers. Sometimes the chef’s out in a mousse bouche. And besides the appetizers the next thing was soups and salads. And Robert really likes a real Caesar salad which they had. I think he should just ask for a bowl full of anchovies. I still let him sit at the same table. Robert: It was a real treat for me. Theresa: It was a real treat for him as was having fish every night because we don’t eat that much at home. One thing I really really liked is the food was always hot. So if you got soup it wasn’t cool. It wasn’t lukewarm. It was hot as it should be. And every meal that I had was hot. It sounds like a little thing but it was very important. Robert: They always had a red wine and a white wine that they offered. They circulated constantly with that. You could also order other drinks. I usually had iced tea with my dinners. Other people ordered different things from the bar. We did not have a bad meal on the ship. Every meal was good and I would have certainly repeated any of them. Theresa: Yes they were very good. Well prepared. And like Robert said we tried to think was there anything we really didn’t like and the answer to that was no. So I definitely give their food good reviews. The service was good. I think there were some newer people though but being the first cruise on the Great Lakes, I believe the second they started on the St. Lawrence Seaway, if you go early you got to give people a little grace. But the servers were friendly, engaging, and by the end we had our favorite server. And Robert also likes iced coffee which some people don’t understand what that is. It’s a glass of ice with coffee poured over it. It’s not like the iced coffee you get in New Zealand that’s dessert. But once the server, every morning once the server knew him he got his reputation. Every morning his iced coffee was ready. Robert: And it was, sorry, and it was a real treat. Shall we move on to deck two? Deck two is the more active deck. There’s a lot more happening on deck two. Theresa: Right that’s where you have all your lectures. There is a lake lorien who tells everything you need to know about the Great Lakes. We also had a photojournalist as a guest who told us about his life. He did mostly sports and we happened to be there during the Kentucky Derby which was one of the events he photographed. And that’s where you hear what’s going on the next day. So you should go there to find out what time you disembark with an overview of the shore excursions. Our cruise director, interestingly enough, was also a musician. So there was the Victory One Band which they were fun. They played a variety of music. Lots of people dancing and people were excited to go there sometimes. That was a full house in the evening. And then behind that area is the tavern which is a smaller bar but cozy enough and a lot of people hung out there. In the morning they have pastries, muesli that everybody loves, coffee, tea. Later in the afternoon they have a popcorn machine so you could get popcorn there. They sometimes show movies there. It was just the hub of activity. It was the hub of activity. And outside of that there were two restrooms. Robert: I wanted to say something more. Say it. Okay. The coffee machines were available 24 hours a day. They had the cappuccino option. They had americano. They had a variety of choices of lattes and such. And in the morning from about 6 to 10 they offered pastries. And then at 10 o’clock it changed over to cookies. And so from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. there were always cookies and always well stocked to go along with your coffee. Theresa: But just be aware, if you’re like me and not a raisin fan, some of those raisin cookies look like melted chocolate was in them. So I accidentally had one. Robert said they were still very good. I just don’t like the surprise of thinking I’m having chocolate chip and I get raisins. Robert: I like raisins though. Theresa: Yeah, he likes raisins. I’m sorry for him. Robert: But Teresa was starting to explain that beyond the Compass Lounge is the purser’s desk, restrooms, the spa salon, and then a very small gym. Theresa: And the elevator’s there too. And the elevator goes up four decks. It does not go to the sun deck. So I never saw it, but Robert did. And what’s, we found some of the crew very entertaining. We took a look in the gym and I never saw any people there, which is okay because we were busy all day. I think it probably had three machines in it. Robert: Yeah, it had three machines, a treadmill, one of the kind of skiing machines, and then a bicycle, some sort of bicycle. Theresa: But there was room there, so you had no excuse not to exercise if you weren’t getting enough exercise on shore. There’s also a spa there and we met some people who were on the St. Lawrence Seaway part of the cruise and they said they love the masseuse there and had gone several times. Robert: Moving up to deck three. Theresa: Three, that’s an easy one. It’s all cabins. And we can talk about the different cabins since it’s all cabins. Robert: There’s one more thing on deck three. At the rear of the ship there is a staircase that will take you up into the grill. And otherwise the entrances to the grill are out in the open. And if it’s raining and such you might get a little wet, but you can simply go down the hallway for deck three and take the inside staircase up to the top. Theresa: Oh, so we were going to talk about different kinds of cabins. There are different sizes of cabins, most with queen or two single beds. They range from 146 square feet up to 185 unless you are in the owner’s suite, which is 335 square feet. So that’s a good size. And the cabins have a refrigerator and stocked with drinks. Victory is an all-inclusive cruise, so you can have beer and pop because it’s the Midwest. It’s not the soda there. And you could make requests, say you like Coke or Sprite or a certain type of beer. They will take care of that. Robert: Our cabin was on deck four and the entrance is from an open-air promenade. So we had a very private entrance and it was very pleasant. We had a couple of days of rain, but there was also a little bit of a covering over the entryway, so we really didn’t get that wet. Theresa: Right, and it wasn’t that far of a walk. That was one spot, and I will say as far as our our state room, you do have the outside door and I think twice we got stuck in our room. I don’t know if it was because it was too cold, but they immediately came and fixed it. And there are not a lot of high thresholds, even in the room. The bathroom had a short threshold and I think if you’ve cruised a lot, you instinctively lift up your foot to step over the threshold, even if it doesn’t exist. So the bathrooms though, if you need a wheelchair, it might be difficult. They’re small and the shower has a very high lip on it, and it’s round in a corner and it has the curtains that wrap you in the wetness or warmth or whatever. At least mine did. Robert: And if you’re going through a door that leads to the outside, the threshold was a little bit higher to prevent water from entering. If you were on an interior hallway and going into interior rooms, there was really no significant threshold that you’d have to navigate. Theresa: And we enjoyed our room and we had blackout curtains which were nice. We did have some people thinking, oh someone was lost at the beginning staring into our window and I can’t remember which. Robert: She was trying to find the hallway to get to the stairs or the elevator and she had sort of lost her bearing and wasn’t sure and was thinking that our cabin door was the door into the hallway, which was actually in the middle of the ship. Theresa: Right. So clearly it was not, but she was a pleasant enough person and a little bit embarrassed. And we didn’t really care because we didn’t. The other two advantages of being on deck four, one is that there is a terrace at the front of the ship. So we enjoyed sitting out there sometimes. We also had two chairs and a table right outside ours, so we had our own private seating. But it was a little chilly and sometimes windy. In fact, sometimes it was so windy that the rattan sofas from the terrace flew all the way down to our room, which was interesting. The other. Robert: The rattan sofas were very nice to sit on on the bow, especially while we were sailing or we were coming into port. You had a beautiful view from there. Theresa: That was very nice. And then at the opposite end of the ship is the grill, and that’s a specialty restaurant. It is included. They, and you have to make a reservation though, and they do have assigned, well, certain times you can sit wherever they put you sometimes. At the beginning of the cruise, they seemed to seat us with other people. At the end, they just said, take a seat anywhere. So that was interesting. But the grill actually has heated stones where you cook your meat or your fish or your whatever, your, I forget, the vegetarian. Robert: So it was a, they called it an interactive dining experience. And they would bring the stone out to your table, heat it to 400 degrees, and then you would order whatever meat you wanted. I believe the options were usually some sort of beef, fish of the day. They had lamb. Some days they had jumbo shrimp. And then they also had kind of a mixed grill, which was a bit of beef, a bit of ham, and I think a large shrimp. Theresa: I think it was everything, all of the above. Robert: And you cooked it yourself, and you could cut it up and sort of, or you could cook it as one sort of piece, or you could cut it up into slices and sort of cook it through that way. Theresa: And they did bring us aprons to put on. Robert: Yes, yes, that was interesting. Theresa: Which I could use one just when I’m not even cooking my food. Robert: And then when your food was done, they provided you with a plate on the side. You could just move your meat or your protein or whatever you were cooking onto the plate. And then the sides were all served in sort of family style. They had serving dishes that we had mushrooms, we had some sort of like roasted potatoes, and some vegetables, broccoli and some other things. And then I think on some days you could actually, you could order a pasta or something like that. Theresa: In the grill? Robert: In the grill, yes. I think it was the first time I ordered the pasta. Theresa: You didn’t cook? Robert: I did cook, but the pasta was a side. Theresa: Oh, in addition. The pasta was a side. Robert: In addition, the pasta was a side. Theresa: Yeah, that was an addition. So there was plenty of food, and it was fun cooking. Just be careful you don’t burn yourself on the stump. Robert: Now the grill, at other times, in the morning it’s sort of a buffet kind of breakfast. There is an omelet station, and then there’s a variety of pastries, and cereals, and the muesli, and yogurts, and other things. Theresa: Coffee tea. Robert: Coffee tea that you can pick up on your own. And then for lunch, kind of the same thing. It was a buffet, and they had kind of like a build your own hamburger, a hot dog, and then usually maybe some kind of fish or something else, a pasta or something. Theresa: But the big secret there is there’s a freezer there that has individual cartons of ice cream. Robert: Not just any ice cream. They had Haagen-Dazs, and they had Blue Bunny. Theresa: And Ben and Jerry’s. Robert: And Ben and Jerry’s, yes. Theresa: Yeah, they had several flavors. That was interesting. And at lunch you can also have your wine or beer. I will say it said there would be local beer served, and they were all IPAs. So for the non-IPA beer drinker, that was just harsh. Robert: And above the Deck 4 was Deck 5, which included the Sun Deck that was open to passengers. Now it was only accessible on a sort of a steep stairway. Going up was not really a problem, but coming down was maybe a little bit anxiety-creating. As you went down, your toes were sticking out over the steps. So it’s one of those stairways that you actually want to turn around and walk down with your toes first. And remember that toes grip and heels slip. Theresa: Right, and I know some people who they got up, but they weren’t sure they could get down. And there was also a bridge tour, but you had to go up to Deck 5. There was no elevator that goes there. I did not go to the bridge tour.Show Notes
Music Credits (click to expand)
Carpe Diem — Kevin MacLeod
Licensed under CC BY 4.0
https://incompetech.com
Ascending the Vale — Kevin MacLeod
Licensed under CC BY 4.0
https://incompetech.com
Bloom — Pixabay Music
Licensed under Pixabay Content License
https://pixabay.com/music/
