Amazing Azamara – Day 5 – Quebec City (1st Day)

Reading time: 5 minutes...

Welcome to our BIG Holiday of 2025! We’re with our good friends Ralph and Karen, taking in Canada, Greenland and Iceland.

Day 5 — Wednesday, 6th August
Quebec City

Missed a previous Post?
Day 1 – Onwards to Montreal
Day 2 – Montreal – 2nd Day
Day 3 – Montreal – 3rd Day
Day 4 – Joining the Azamara Quest

Quebec City

Morning all! 😊. We were both awake early and up and about by 6.30am. After an overnight sailing, we docked just before 8am in Quebec City where it looks like a fine day ahead!

With its population of just over half a million, Québec City sits on the Saint Lawrence River in Canada’s mostly French-speaking Québec province. Typically, it consists of stone buildings and many narrow streets. Potentially, there was plenty to see here – and we’re here tomorrow too, until 8pm, so we had already prepared a list of possible places to look out for during our time here.

• The Old Port
• Place Royal
• Plains of Abraham
• Quebec National Assembly
• Place D’Armes
• The Citadelle
• Chateau Frontenac
• The Basilica
• Dufferin Terrace
• The Old City

We planned to be early this morning, and we were already enjoying breakfast at just after 8am! Consequently, we must have been one of the first off the ship as we waited for the first shuttle bus of the day at 9am. There was some initial confusion about why the buses weren’t already there waiting for us, but it was already a beautiful day, so it didn’t really matter (plus it gave us an opportunity to chat with more of our fellow passengers).

We were soon aboard with a few other ‘early risers’ as we took the free shuttle into Quebec City. As we approached our destination, it became immediately obvious just how narrow the roads were, judging by the extra caution taken by our driver. Bizarrely, even the NEWER roads seemed to have been artificially reduced in width with bollards just to make mass tourism even more challenging! The lack of confidence in our shuttle driver was to be more than made up for by our bus driver later! 🫨

The Shuttle dropped us alongside Terrasse Dufferin and we took the opportunity to briefly look around before it got too busy. Of course, the most famous building here is arguably, Le Château Frontenac.

An imposing and impressive structure in equal measure! 👍. Next stop? The ‘Big Red Bus’!

You’d think this would have been easy to spot, but we completely missed it the first time around. Our excuse was either a) we were so early, it wasn’t in position yet or b} we were distracted by the impact of seeing Le Château! Having retraced our steps and consulted the map – there the Bus was – big AND red and just in front of where the shuttle dropped us! Doh!!😉. It was popular too, where the upper-deck was completely full by the time we began the tour.

So, as usual, today was about purchasing a TWO day ticket costing C$26.45 (approx £69 per couple) and using today to take the whole route in order to get a sense of the scale of the city. The route would take under two hours, and I planned to take as many photos as possible to give you, the reader, an idea of what the city has to offer.

Actually, it was quite a challenge capturing any photos. With the Bus treating the city’s local roads as a bit of a racetrack (in spite of the narrowness of the road and the growing number of pedestrians) it was difficult enough keeping my balance, let alone, focusing and snapping! Anyway, here we go: ‘Snapshots of Quebec City in around 90 minutes’… 😊

Just like Montréal, Quebec City was a mix of different architectures where the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ sat alongside each other.

Somehow, for us, I think Quebec had the edge. It may have been purely subjective, but the old part of the City certainly had more to appreciate than Montréal, whilst the more modern parts here seemed to be more attractive, complementing this city’s proud history.

Maybe the nicer weather today helped tip the scales in favour of Quebec City? – but it all felt very welcoming. And in a way, more colonial.

And if that wasn’t enough, it’s worth remembering that it’s all very close to the water (St Lawrence River) AND probably one of the largest public Parks, I’ve ever been though – The Plains of Abraham. The Park was a former battlefield but now ceded to the City for gentler pursuits (all 240 acres of it!) 😯👏

Everywhere was manicured within an inch of its life, giving the impression this was a well-loved (and well looked after) city

When we finally returned to where we began, the City was now a lot, lot (lot!) busier. We all agreed that the Bus had given us exactly what we hoped – a full appreciation of the look and feel of Quebec City, both ‘old’ and ‘new’.

Next stop was Starbucks located at the Terrace Dufferin (one small concession to the global spread of Americanism, although we did spot a McDonald’s here too!), where we agreed a plan for our return tomorrow (more about that later!). For now, it was a short spell outside in the sun, enjoying a freshly prepared coffee and a slice of cake. It would have been perfect if there was some form of street entertainment… and then…

It was now back to the Ship to prepare for a complete change of mood and tempo as we prepared to ‘feel the soul’. But before all that – FOOD! 😋😋

The food tonight, in the Discoveries restaurant, was EXCELLENT!

Feel the Soul?

As many of you know, we haven’t sailed with Azamara before, and we’ve recently learned that they often arrange a few ‘special’ evenings on many of their Cruises. Ours was no different, and tonight, as part of their ‘AzAmazing Evening’ series (no, not a typo!), we were invited to ‘Feel the Soul of Quebec’ and ‘discover the heart of the city through captivating music and storytelling’ with world-renowned composer Steve Barakatt.

The event was held at the Historic City Armoury completely rebuilt after it burned down some years ago. What a space! Great lighting, comfortable seats and NOT what we were expecting at all!

Steve did his thing for the next hour followed by a Q&A, plus an unexpected encore piece. Overall, although I’m not sure I felt what I was supposed to be feeling, you couldn’t fault him as a performer – and a passionate one at that! The whole thing was totally professional and augmented by great lighting effects and visuals too! In short: a highly polished piece of entertainment, expertly managed by Azamara. It can’t have been easy ferrying most of the Ship’s passengers halfway across town, but the co-ordination of the travel arrangements was carried out with military precision. 👍

As we returned to the Quest, we were greeted by a Jazz Band and a welcome from the on-duty crew. If that wasn’t enough, they were offering free drinks too! 👍😊. Once we were on-board, we ended the evening by heading for Deck 10 and the Ship’s ‘Living Room’ where late-night nibbles were begging to be sampled. It would have been rude not to!

Gosh! We stayed up late tonight – it’s 9.45pm!!! We must be on holiday!!! 😉👏

Tomorrow…

One of the many great aspects of a cruise with Azamara is they often schedule a ‘sleepover’ in a Port – and that extra ‘day’ gives more time to fully enjoy the location. Earlier, we’d taken the Red Bus Tour around the City of Quebec and that had given us ideas of where we plan to spend longer tomorrow. We’re going to visit The Citadelle (an impressive star-shaped group of military buildings – the largest military fortification in North America); the Place Royale (part of the old cobblestoned streets of Quebec City) and maybe more!? 😊🤔

In the evening, we’ll set sail for Saguenay (pronounced as you would expect: sag-er-nay) in Quebec 😉

10.10pm: Nighty night! 💤💤 – see you Thursday! 😊