I've been trying to get my husband to do the 'leaf peeper' cruise for, at least, 4 years &, to my surprise, he acquiesced this year. Of course, we always choose Oceania when possible. We flew in early to Montreal and spent two wonderful days/3 nights so our happiness began there! Embarkation was flawless and we were greeted by our beautiful & gracious cabin stewardess who immediately noted my only two requests...ONLY dark chocolate @ night and ALWAYS Diet Coke in the fridge; and the requests were always met as well as her sweet greeting every day! This ships far excelled over Nautica because of service; the crew was not only flawless but went the extra mile by memorizing names immediately as well as details about what we liked, wanted and needed with our meals! Quebec City was our first port and it was fabulous and then things began to go downhill. Whoever decided that Saguenay was worth even 1 hour must have lived in a VERY remote village because it is a real snooze. Unfortunately for the poor captain, the weather was extremely uncooperative as we were forced to completely pull out of one port right before we were going to drop anchor and so we had a second sea day and, to make matters worse, rough seas AGAIN made the captain switch from Bar Harbor to Portland so, again, our itinerary was rocking as much as we were on the ship. Everybody around us was becoming the coughing and sneezing brigade so when I ended up going to the Medical Center as well it was no surprise that I was not alone. If we had been longer at sea I think we would have turned into one of those 'Sick Ships' that you read about! Luckily, the crew was able to dispatch us to our respective fates...me to my own doctor!

On the bright side...after the previous 3 cruises I've had to work for 3 months to take off the weight that I gained and this time I have nothing to lose! Such a shame though when one chooses a bowl of mashed potatoes & a pot of tea for dinner...but those breakfast smoothies saved me!