Quality Counts

Hank Schrader, USMA '71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert

Anne Schrader, Certified Travel Counselor & Certified Luxury Cruise Specialist

www.dreamdestinations.com

We just returned from a 2-week working vacation in Canada and the US. Our trip started on 30 September 2023 and ended on 13 October 2023.

We took the trip for 2 reasons—first to celebrate my 74th birthday and our 36th Wedding Anniversary, but also to learn about the vendor travel company, Uncommon Journeys.

The first week was a train trip and land package starting in NY City and visiting 4 cities in Canada.

On the second week, we boarded the Cunard Ocean Liner Queen Mary 2 in Quebec.

The entire tour was fully escorted by a professional tour manager, and Teresa, our tour manager, did an excellent job but was challenged by many last-minute changes by the tour operator.

My hope in writing this blog is to evaluate the trip in detail and see if we would recommend this company to our clients.

This blog will cover the land portion of the trip and the next blog, the cruise.

Overview

First a little background—we had originally consider a shorter train trip to see some of the National Parks out west, but on closer inspection, learned it was primarily a bus tour, which did not have as much appeal to us.

After placing a deposit on the park trip, we were able to switch to this 2-week adventure. This was handled reasonably well. The brochure of the Royal Canadian Holiday offered us a journey that “combines four of our most popular Canadian destinations—Niagara Falls, Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec City—into one stylish trip complimented by a fifth stellar setting, Cunard’s Queen Mary 2, on a 7-night passage from Quebec City down the St. Lawerence River and East Coast to New York City.” We liked the idea of train travel combined with the cruise and a lot of free time to explore on our own, so it sounded like a good fit for our travel style.

Our autumn adventure was called the Royal Canadian Holiday.

The First Week

We joined the trip in progress in Albany, NY instead of starting in NY City. Our first adventure was on an Amtrak train from Rensselaer. NY, where we took a 6-hour train ride in up-state NY on the Maple Leaf over the Water Level Route of the former New York Central Railroads and crossed the US-Canada border by train. I should point out that originally, we were to start in Albany, NY but it was changed to start in New York City. It was the first on many changes to the itinerary that were not provided to us in a timely manner. Our documents were late before we started the trip and we felt incomplete as compared to other vendors we have used for clients. Start and ending times were not listed on the information we received and seemed to change, so we often had to check and worry if we would be on time to leave or what time we would arrive at our new destination.

The Maple Leaf train on Amtrak was a comfortable ride, with some good fall colors but the peak colors had not arrived yet. As we had hoped for, the train ride did offer excellent views and scenery along the Mohawk River. There is one major difference between train travel in the US and Europe—Amtrak prohibits drinking your own alcoholic beverages onboard, so unlike Europe, where we often share a bottle of wine as the scenery rolls past, we had to rely on the snack car for beers, as the wine selection was less than stellar. Here are some pictures:

Anne in her seat on the Maple Leaf train

Rolling down the tracks with the Mohawk River outside

Fall is slowly change to brilliant colors

An old engine from the New York Central Train Line

Crossing the Niagara River—our first glimpse of this powerful river

After clearing Canadian customs, our group of 12 was transported by taxi to our hotel. The transfer was difficult since the taxi cars were small and there was a lot of luggage—a 2-week cruise with 2 formal nights always requires a lot of extra luggage.

In fairness to Uncommon Journeys, they did suggest we limit the amount of luggage for the train potion but allowed up to 4 pieces per person for the cruise (Cunard’s allowance). There was no sound plan to allow for these differences, which added to the chaos during transfers.

Our original itinerary stated we were going to get off in Buffalo, NY, and drive to Niagara Falls—the constant theme was changes and slight deviations during the land portion of the trip.

Niagara Falls, Canada

Upon arriving at our hotel, we found a new hotel that was substituted for the Doubletree by Hilton at the Falls. We stayed at the Crown Plaza Niagara and the rooms were adequate but not the upscale experience we were expecting. In one of the most scenic places on earth, with dramatic falls, the view from our room was a parking lot. Here are 3 pictures:

Anne couldn’t resist placing this brochure on our view window—not much of a view!

The tour the next day, after one of the poorest buffet breakfasts meals we have ever eaten, for most of our group was on the Maid of the Mist boat tour to see the falls up close and personal. This is a similar boat or may be the boat our group took.

We avoided this wet adventure and made some reservations for our clients. You might be surprised by this—we often have deadlines, new reservation requests we need to book, and clients that need help during our travels and we try to keep fully operational but sometimes are a little slow responding.

Arriving on a Saturday, with very warm temperatures and lots of tourists, made this a less than an ideal start of our tour.

The next day (Sunday) we skipped breakfast and enjoyed a day exploring the falls on our own and we had an excellent lunch at the Secret Gardens. Here is the view we had during our lunch, as we were on the outside terrace.

Somehow, maple ice cream makes everything better and a couple of local tap beers helped improve our mood. With less people, the trip improved and the powerful falls were spectacular, yet there was not much else to see or do after about an hour of walking along the river. Here are some pictures:

The American Niagara Falls and the small Bridal Veil Falls

Niagara Falls—from left to right American Falls, Bridal Falls, and Horseshoe Falls

At 1000 AM on Monday, we took a comfortable coach (bus) to Niagara-on-the-Lake, where the Niagara River meets Lake Ontario. Prior to the visit to Niagara-on-the-Lake, we stopped twice. The first stop was to see the whirlpool on the Niagara River and the second stop was a winery.

The whirlpool is caused by the huge volume of water rushing over Horseshoe Falls as it crashes into the narrow Niagara the narrow Niagara Gorge.

The winery stop was confusing—it was supposed to be a bathroom break but also a wine tasting, but since the winery didn’t know we were coming, they decided it was too much trouble to pull together a quick tasting for us. Here are some pictures:

Peller Estates Winery near Niagara-on-the-Lake

Niagara-on-the-Lake was my favorite stop on the land portion of the trip. The nickname of the town is “The Loveliest Town in Canada”. For me, it lived up to this claim. It is a charming, quaint place that has a George Bernard Shaw Festival, great restaurants, and pubs. Small boutique shops are the norm here and wineries dot most of the landscape. At a local hat shop, I bought a replica hat of the famous Indiana Jones hat—a little cheesy, but most think I looked pretty good in it. After our short visit, a good lunch at a pub, we were off to Toronto. Here are some pictures.

George Bernard Shaw statue in Niagara-on-the-Lake

While not in this stop, here is my new hat:

Toronto

We got into Toronto in the evening and stayed at the Radison Blu, right on Lake Ontario. The room was a nice upgrade from our previous poor accommodations, and the included breakfast excellent.

We also had an included dinner at the Amsterdam Brewery, food only and no drinks included. Great place, but since we didn’t know in advance our dining location, we had just grabbed a quick pizza at the brewery before the meal for a late lunch snack. Fortunately, the food was great, the beer excellent, so we didn’t feel upset about our second meal, but we really didn’t need it as much as others in the group. It does bring up a minor problem—the lack of a clear itinerary and last-minute changes, caused confusion that could have been totally avoided.

Again, we didn’t take the tour here as we worked on reservations and both of us had visited Toronto, Canada’s largest city before—I took our daughter up to the soaring CN tower on a previous trip and we all saw The Phantom of the Opera play—Toronto is often the opening for plays in North America that eventually get to Boardway in NY City.

We enjoyed the Amsterdam Brewery so much; we ate al fresco the next night with great views of Lake Ontario. Here are some pictures:

Lake Ontario viewed from the Amsterdam Terrace

Hank with his traditional beer picture in the Amsterdam Terrace

plane flying out of Toronto Airport over Lake Ontario

Montreal

We went to Montreal by train aboard Via Rail Canada. The transfer to the train station was by some large Uber sedans, and as seemed the norm, the transfer was chaotic. Because there was no central drop off point at the large train station, we had to scramble to get the group together, and find our train car. We found out later, the tickets were bought only the day of the departure instead of buying them earlier, as Uncommon Journey’s should have done.

The train was a good experience, comfortable and still great patches of color, but still not peak conditions. A good point of reference here—the peak fall colors seem to be later and later recently but as we often say, Mother Nature decides the weather and climate conditions, not us.

In Montreal, we stayed at the Omni, and it was a nice hotel and easy walking distance to great restaurants, bistros, and Brasseries. The Omni Mount Royal Hotel is located on Sherbrooke Street—this is the most exclusive and wealthiest area in all of Canada before WW II, and it was fun exploring this part of the city.

I really enjoyed the stay here—Montreal is very walkable as we stayed near McGill University, and it was fun and lively. We love wandering and finding great eating places. There was an included meal on the second night of our stay, but we skipped it and ate on our own, as we just enjoyed wandering so much and had a late lunch at a great Brasserie with a brew pub.

Quebec City

Our transfer from Montreal to Quebec could not have gotten any more confusing, as two groups joined our band of 12—4 in one group and 13 in another, all set to cruise on the Queen Mary 2 with luggage everywhere. Anne bravely jumped in to help load the luggage compartment of the coach. Ultimately, we got it all in and took a 4-hour ride into Quebec. Apparently, another tour group guide from Uncommon Journey’s had a personal emergency, so Teresa now had 2 extra groups to deal with for our final day of the land tour. The first part of the coach ride was colorful, as you can see by this picture.

There we did a bus tour of Quebec City and arrived at the port on 6 October, my birthday. The coach tour included seeing the old town, the Plains of Abraham (a large outdoor park), and the Citadel. We were supposed to have lunch, but that didn’t happen as most of us just wanted to board the Queen Mary 2 and eat onboard.

A good picture of Quebec City port area. In the far right is the Citadel and the large hotel on the left is the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac. Quebec is the only fortified city in North America

Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac is the most famous landmark in Quebec City. This luxury hotel was designed to fit in with the old town Quebec surroundings as a prestigious place to stay during a visit to Quebec City.

A panoramic view of the Port of Quebec City

Boarding the Queen Mary 2 was very efficient, but that may be because many were on a 14-day cruise that started in NY City, so less folks had to board in Quebec City.

Our Final Thoughts

Uncommon Journeys had a great trip planned for us, but it just wasn’t executed properly. There were just too many last-minute changes and a lack of timely information. That being said, it still was a good trip. Having seen how other luxury tour operators handle their trips, we found them lacking—quality counts! This tour may be right for some, but I think most of our clients were prefer a smoother operation.

You can make your own judgments, but at $15,418 for both of us for the two weeks’ vacation, it just did not deliver the quality and attention to detail we expect from a luxury trip.

We are travel experts, ocean and river cruise specialists, and Europe destination experts. We have first-hand knowledge of almost anywhere you want to visit in Europe. We know our products and the vendors who sell them to you. We have designed special tours for dozens of clients, led several and will continue to find just the right vacation that will exceed your expectations.

When you are spending your hard-earned money for a vacation, you want an advisor who can match you with the right trip. You want someone who will understand your expectations and fuel your anticipation (or excitement) to get you the best possible trip experience. And, you want someone who can help you with the decision making process. We think we have all these qualities.

Whatever your Dream Destinations are, we are here to help you get the best possible vacation based on what is important to you! We will provide you high quality, expertly planned travel. Please give me a call 713-397-0188 (Hank) or email me at hschrader@dreamdestinations.com. We want to help you: Savor life…make memories…Visit Dream Destinations! Your journey begins here!

ANNE has earned a degree from the University of Houston in Hotel and Restaurant Management. Serving as the President of Visit Dream Destinations, LLC, since 2016, she is uniquely experienced professional travel advisor with over 26 years’ experience in the travel industry. Among her numerous certifications, she is a Certified Travel Counselor (CTC) by the Travel Institute, considered the gold standard in travel agent certification and she is also an Accredited Cruise Counselor (ACC) by the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), as well Luxury Cruise Specialist also from CLIA. Having traveled often to Europe since 1989, she has expanded on her certification as a Destination Specialist in Western Europe (DS) with extensive first-hand experience in luxury vacations. She holds numerous other specialty designations from individual vendors. An expert photographer, she delights in capturing the true essence of destinations to share with all.

HANK is a certified Western European Destination Specialist (DS) who has been traveling to Europe for 52 years. He is also an Accredited Cruise Counselor (ACC), conferred by the Cruise Line International Association (CLIA). This recognized expert in cruise and leisure travel is a retired Army Officer, and taught World Geography for 8 years. He is a `71 graduate of West Point and has earned 2 master’s degrees. His other Certifications:

AmaWaterways River Cruise Specialist
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Avalon Waterways Specialist
Brit Agent

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