July 25, 2026 • 53 mins
In this episode, The Wishing Well's luxury travel experts, Terrie Dean and Harry Reif, explore what it truly means to *live your best life* through unforgettable, deeply personal travel experiences. Fresh off a remarkable Great Lakes luxury cruise, Harry shares a vivid, first‑hand journey aboard the Victory II, revealing how refined small‑ship cruising can transform not just how you travel — but how you see the world.
From Toronto to Niagara Falls, Cleveland, Detroit, Mackinac Island, Escanaba, Milwaukee, and Chicago, Harry recounts a week filled with handcrafted cuisine, historic ports, immersive excursions, and the kind of old‑world elegance rarely found in modern travel. Terrie connects Harry’s story to a larger truth: travel should be curated, intentional, and deeply personal — not a copy‑and‑paste version of someone else’s vacation.
You'll hear how luxury isn’t about price tags or prestige — it’s about meaning, comfort, craftsmanship, and experiences tailored to your dreams. Whether it’s the nostalgia of classic Great Lakes cruising, the joy of discovering new destinations close to home, or the simple pleasure of fresh pastries and sunset views from the deck, this episode celebrates the beauty of choosing travel that reflects you.
From Toronto to Niagara Falls, Cleveland, Detroit, Mackinac Island, Escanaba, Milwaukee, and Chicago, Harry recounts a week filled with handcrafted cuisine, historic ports, immersive excursions, and the kind of old‑world elegance rarely found in modern travel. Terrie connects Harry’s story to a larger truth: travel should be curated, intentional, and deeply personal — not a copy‑and‑paste version of someone else’s vacation.
You'll hear how luxury isn’t about price tags or prestige — it’s about meaning, comfort, craftsmanship, and experiences tailored to your dreams. Whether it’s the nostalgia of classic Great Lakes cruising, the joy of discovering new destinations close to home, or the simple pleasure of fresh pastries and sunset views from the deck, this episode celebrates the beauty of choosing travel that reflects you.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is a Lifeless Ordinary, the travel showing podcast from
your friends at the wishing Well two forty three f
Avenue in Harrisonburg and online at the wishing Well Don
PiZZ The wishing Well is your ultimate luxury concierge, travel
agency and a lifeless Ordinary. It's a travel showing podcast
hosted by Terry Dean, bringing her over forty years of
experience in the travel industry to help guide you to
(00:20):
great experiences in your travel, whether it be around the block,
around the country, or around the world. Now, let's bring
in Terry Dean and say hello, Chris.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I'm so delighted to be with you here. How are
you doing.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Oh, I'm doing great. It's always good to see you, Terry.
Another Saturday, another well. We had a little bit cooler
weather finally, but a lot of storms went through midweek.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Is that not a relief?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Yeah, for a.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Couple of days. I'm sure the heat will be back.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
And guess what, I'm another year older, Chris.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't it was your birthday.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
No, it's good. My birthday was yesterday. I was. It
wasn't a magic number. It was just a number. And
that's the.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Way I like them.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
I think Becca has one of those magic ones next.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Year, and oh, okay, you better be doing something.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Her birthday was at the beginning of the month, and
she's like, it's a big birthday. You're don't have to
do big things.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I know, right, Oh boy, cannot forget those big ones.
Cannot forget that.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
I'll probably coming to you and saying, let's book something
big for her birthday.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
And that'll be even better. I would love that. But truly,
I am so happy and delighted to be here again
on a lifeless ordinary and we've got a very special
show cued up for you today. The last time we
sort of untangled Chris, if you remember, the show was
the good, the bad, and the ugly of travel and
(01:46):
how not every travel experience is equal to another. And
for that matter, I will say not every travel experience
should be equal to another or even the same as
your friend who just came back from it, or that
honeymoon couple that just shared their amazing experience on their
Mediterranean Greek cruise. Travel is supposed to be unique, and
(02:08):
it must be unique and curated especially for you, your likes,
your preferences, your desires, and the other thing I think
is very important, Chris, is that travel really should fulfill
your dreams. That's what it's all about, right, Yeah, yeah,
And I think it's only appropriate on the heels of
(02:29):
last week's show to talk about one such experience that Harry,
my business partner, you guys know him, he was able
to experience for himself, and in doing that, he checked
off a very important box that was on his preferred
places to travel list, and he is here today to
(02:52):
talk to you about that.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
So we say hello Harry.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Hello Terry, and hello Chris. Hey, I'm so very very
excited to be here with you this week because I
get to take you on a very special journey, my journey.
It's a very personal cruise experience that I just returned from.
And for all of you out there listening to a
(03:18):
life less Ordinary, you know that we're always talking about
travel as an experience, and I think that's what the
two of you were talking about last week while I
was out cruising. But travel is not just a destination.
It's not just a property, it's not just a ship,
and it's not a train. And that's where I want
(03:39):
to start today. I want to talk about my experience.
I think We've talked about this before, but I grew
up in Michigan, and my childhood was surrounded by the
Great Lakes, so I'm really used to them. It's like
living in the valley looking at the mountains. The Great
Lakes were everywhere. But like a lot of people, I
(03:59):
didn't recognize how special those Great Lakes are. Instead of
all the grander and the beauty, all I saw was
a lot of water, a lot of fresh water, different
than the ocean water we're used to here. But in
my youth, I'd visited three of the Great Lakes multiple times.
Every summer. I went up and visited Lake Michigan and
(04:22):
Lake Huron. I visited Chicago, where I saw Lake Michigan
all the time. But I was really interested in the
other two, but not that especially interested, not at least
enough to go visit them. But I was interested in
learning just about the fun of being on the lakes
(04:43):
and about the history of the lakes and all of
the towns along the shore. Well I took for granted
they're striking beauty. You know, it's kind of like an
inland sea, if I can describe it for you. Great
lakes are great, not because they're wonderful. But because they're immense,
they're immense in scale. You get these vast ocean like horizons.
(05:09):
You got towering freshwater sand dunes, You've got rugged sandstone cliffs,
dramatic northern lights that everybody's always talking about. You can
see them up in the northern part of Michigan. And
that's what makes the Great Lakes great. If I'm painting
a picture for you, it's not just the lake that
(05:29):
we're used to visiting here in the valley. It's not
like going to Smith Mountain Lake. It's not like going
to Lake Mumah. It's like going to the ocean, except
there's no salt cress.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
I mean, you'll see ocean liner size ships on the
Great Lakes.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Well, you see thousand foot long or boats on the
Great Lakes, you know, larger than some of the biggest
ocean liners. The Great Lakes are actually a highway of commerce,
and many people don't realize as that, but you look
at the automobile industry. That's part of the reason it's
(06:05):
located where it is is because they could bring the
ore across the Great Lakes. They could bring supplies from
all around, you know, even ocean to the great lakes
and pass through them and deliver them to all the
automobile plants in Detroit. So these are not lake lakes.
These are great sized lakes. They're talking, you know, thousands
(06:31):
of acres of water.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Yeah, there's a reason why there are so many major
cities that cropped up around those lakes.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Exactly right. But growing up as a kid, I gotta
be honest and tell you, I just looked at all
that water, and I didn't recognize all the history, all
the grandeur, all the beauty, all the importance of these
great lakes. I didn't know. But my birthday's coming up too,
just like Terry's, I'm about a week behind her. But
(07:00):
with age comes wisdom, and given that I'm celebrating my
birthday next week, I'm going with the premise I'm gonna
suppose this. As I'm getting older, I'm getting wiser. And
so what that means is that I really am in
a position to now appreciate the beauty and the importance
of these great lakes that I did not do as
(07:24):
a kid. So for the past year, actually, Terry can
tell you, for the past year, I've been seriously looking
at returning to the Great Lakes, and things worked out.
Wishes really do come true at the wishing Well, not
only for our customers and clients, but also for us
as employees. So my wish to return to the Great
(07:47):
Lakes became became an attainable wish. Just recently, cruise lines
have been producing itineraries and ships just for cruising the
Great Lakes. They've been gaining in popularity, much to my delight,
and I wanted a special cruise on the Great Lakes.
I didn't just want to take a boat ride or
(08:09):
a ship ride. But my other half of my wish
was to have a refined luxury experience. I'm not sixteen anymore, Okay,
I'm been collecting Social Security checks for a while. So
I wanted that refined luxury experience, the kind that we
talk about every week. You know what I'm talking about. Yeah,
(08:31):
So think back to the nineteenth century, Think back to
images of coastal steamers. Those are really popular in the
Great Lakes and along the Atlantic coastlines, the kind that
people used to go on a journey for. They'd pack
their bags, they'd jump aboard one of these cruises, and
(08:51):
they'd go for a week or more, and they'd cruise
the Great Lakes, they'd cruise along the coastline on the Atlantic.
These ships were just cruise ships. They were luxury liners,
very luxurious, especially for that time. This is the kind
of ship that you think about royalty, you think about
(09:12):
wealthy people. That's what I'm talking about when I'm talking
about coastal cruisers. Am I painting a picture for you, Chris?
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yeah? And I'm really jealous right now.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
So that's what my dream was. Think about lots of hardwood,
think about elegance, think about fine dining. That's what I wanted.
I wanted to do that on the Great Lakes. So
as you and Terry and all our listeners join me
on this journey today, I want you to know that
I'm going to be taking a look at this experience
(09:44):
from various points of view, and I'm going to start
by talking about the ship itself. I'm going to talk
about the state rooms. I'm going to talk about the service.
I'm going to talk about the food that I experienced,
and finally, I'm going to try and summarize for the
two of you and everybody listening what this fabulous, unique
(10:05):
sailing experience meant to me and what I saw on
the various ports of call along the way. So that's
my stage. Are we ready?
Speaker 1 (10:16):
I'm ready. I'm excited about this. I grew up right
off the Great Lakes as well, but I was on
the southern side of them. My relationship with the Great
Legs was not nearly as romantic as yours was because
mine was all lake effects, snow in the winter.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
No, no, no, I got to see some of that too,
being on the opposite side of Chicago. But we're going
to talk about all of these things in just a minute.
I think we can take a quick break and we
should come back. I think about thirty seconds, and I'm
going to break down each of these areas and share
the details and share what made me so excited.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Well, I'm looking forward to our show today. We will
be back at thirty seconds. Here on a life less ordinary.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Who would think of driving off to a new destination
without items from Google to Siri?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Not the Wishing Weld guide your next travel experience.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Travel the world as you enjoy the very best destinations
and all they offer at the best prices. Our mobile
travel app keeps your vacation on track and keeps you
connected with our team of experts for help. If you
need it, call us at five four zero nine zero
eight two three three three stop, buy two forty three
nef Avenue, or visit us at the Wishingwell dot biz.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Welcome back to you a Lifeless Ordinary. It's a travel
showing podcast from your friends at the Wishing Well. You
can find them on neph Avenue and Harrisonburg online at
the Wishingwell dot biz. We're given to call it five
four oh nine oh A twenty three thirty three and
our show this week is entitled Living Your Best Life.
We are going to be reliving a really luxurious travel
(11:50):
experience that Harry just experience and Terry, this is going
to be a great show this week. We're really excited
about this.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
I think so because you know, really, Chris, this comes
right on the heels of what you and I talked
about last week about the uniqueness of travel and really
traveling outside of that rut that we get in sometimes.
I think this particular experience that Harry had really resonates
with all of the things that we talked about. Harry's
(12:20):
going to talk to us now about this experience in
more detail, and he is going to talk about the ship,
what in the world. Is this cruise line anyway that
does this fabulous sale? What do these vessels look like
compared to some you might have already heard of. What's
special about him? And then he's going to talk about
the state rooms. Why do we even care about the
(12:40):
state rooms, the place where we lay our heads at night?
What details did this particular cruise line include that elevated
his experience? I want to hear about that. I don't
know about you, but Chris, I do. And then the service.
How did the week actually run for him in terms
of staffing and attention to details?
Speaker 2 (13:01):
And then the food.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
Hello, Chris food you know I love food? I know?
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Or was it a swing in a mess? We want
to know? And finally I want.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
Him to talk about the fabulous unique sailing itinerary and
the ports of calls.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
So Harry, we welcome you back.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
We want to hear about this, and I am so
interested in hearing you talk about this ship, the Shoot
Cruise Line, and the actual ship itself.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Okay, So my journey started in beautiful Toronto and I
arrived to see this ship in person for the first time,
got one step closer to this dream vacation, and I
hit the port and I saw the Victory two. That's
the name of the ship, Victory two. She's got a
(13:53):
sister ship, Victory one. They are both owned and operated
by a company called Victory Cruise Lines. Okay, not surprisingly,
first impressions mean a lot, and the first impression was fantastic.
This is a two hundred passenger ship, so as cruise
ships go, she's not really large. She's just right size.
(14:17):
She's about three hundred feet long, about fifty feet wide,
and with matters a lot in the Great Lakes because
as you're going to hear, we're going to travel through
some locks across the way, so she can't be too wide,
but three hundred feet long, fifty foot wide. And the
important thing is this ship was specifically designed for luxury
(14:39):
and specifically designed for navigating the Great Lakes. It went
into service in two thousand and four, and it's been
renovated in both twenty nineteen and again just this year
in twenty twenty six. So it's a classic looking ship
that's brand new, and that's going to play into it
(15:01):
as I describe what I saw and felt an experienced.
So first thing, immediately upon boarding, I knew I was
on a special ship. It's like it felt like being
on a private yacht. I've not been on somebody's private
yacht yet I want to, But if I could imagine
what it felt like, this was it. It felt luxury,
(15:24):
It had a really nautical feeling. I wasn't boarding a
floating hotel, but I was boarding a nautical vessel. Nothing
corporate looking about her. She was freshly painted, steeling hardwood
on the exterior and inboard as soon as I stepped inside.
When I stepped outside, I could even see the trim.
But when I went inside, I saw hardwood everywhere. Chris,
(15:49):
I know you love woodworking. I know you love hardwood.
You would have feasted your eyes on what I saw everywhere. Hardwood,
the cabins, the public areas, just a fantastic kind of
this rich, exuberant yacht kind of look. And I found
(16:10):
myself comparing it to something that you know, maybe the
Queen would would be on the Queen's Royal cruise lines.
That same feeling, that similar to core when you walk
into a place you feel like this is stuff you
can look at, but you know you don't touch. The
(16:31):
good news is you could touch everything. But the look
was that that extraordinary, over the top would luxury watercraft
kind of experience? Am I painting the picture for you.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
I've seen some movies I think like maybe the Titanic.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Yeah, well this was not the Titanic she may talk about.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
I'm talking about the trim level, not what what happened
to come on, Harry.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Exactly. So let me tell you the next place I went.
After I boarded the ship, I checked in with the
friendly staff and I immediately proceeded to my stateroom. And
while I was on board, I got the privilege of
touring several of the cabin types, and there are basically
three cabin types on this ship. Most of the cabins
(17:26):
you enter through interior hallways, except for those on the
top deck. They had their outside entrances, so you walked
along the deck and went into the state rooms on
the very top deck. That was a special kind of feeling.
But every one of the state rooms I described them
(17:47):
as super cozy. But they feel like a boutique hotel
room rather than a cruise cabin. It's like going into
some of the hotels that we talk about in the
in the night kinds of places, you know, the riz
Carltons and those kinds of hotels. And the biggest plus
(18:08):
is that every single ship on the or every single
room on this ship faces outside. Again, she's not that wide,
so every room faces outside and you always get natural light,
you always have a view. So let me tell you
the difference between the rooms the standard rooms, and that's
what I was in. They're about one hundred and forty
(18:32):
five one hundred and eighty five square feet, but they're
laid out so intelligently. In my previous life, I was
an engineer, so I have an attention for detail on
how things fit together. But inside each one of the
rooms you get a queen size bed, or they can
be separated into two individual beds if you wish. You've
(18:53):
got a writing desk, and you've got a lot of
drawer space. And these aren't the ikea of fixtures that
you might find for dressers and drawers, but these are
hand crafted wooden drawers. Okay, so they're built in wooden drawers,
built in wooden closet space. Lots of efficiency there and
(19:19):
just enough room that you can pack all your stuff
in this space. You're not living out of your suitcase,
that's for sure. I unpacked my suitcase completely and had
room to spare. So that's the standard room. The random
rooms are nicer because you can step right out onto
(19:40):
that observation deck that's that fourth floor room. It's perfect
for grabbing morning coffee without having to dress up and
walk to the main lounge. You can just you know,
make it in your room and walk outside and their
chairs sitting outside your room to see the world go by.
Very very nice. And then there's the owner suite. Every
(20:03):
ship has one or more owner suite. In this one
has an owner suite. It's about three hundred square feet,
are about twice the size of the standard room, and
it gives you this semi private veranda where you can
sit outside, have some downtime away from everyone else. And
(20:24):
when you look inside any of these rooms, you're going
to find plush bathroobes, you're gonna find slippers, you're gonna
find nice, high end bath products. The room that I
was in, the bathroom wasn't super spacious, but it was
perfectly adequate. Plenty of room at the sink, plenty of
(20:45):
room to be in the shower, swinging around doing what
you need to do. Every morning. Wi Fi is included.
There's a flat screen television in the room that has
a ship board camera so you can see where the
ship is going. They have the gauges of the ship
on there so you can learn about the wind speed,
the direction, everything you need to know. And one of
(21:08):
the things that I liked is as I walked into
my room, there was fresh filtered water and a container
on a tray with my ice bucket there, all filled
for me, and I found my own personalized water bottle.
And by personalized, I mean someone had taken the time
to engrave this high end water bottle to be used
(21:32):
on my excursions with my name. I thought that was
a really nice touch, just exactly befitting the style and
that decre and the aura that this ship presented to ourselves.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
What struck me about each cabin is it had that
authentic historic look. But as I looked through my cabin
and navigated around inside it, it had all the modern
convene says. I mentioned some of them, But one of
the things that I'm always a stickler for is I
like great lighting. The lighting was great in the cabin,
(22:08):
not only in the bathroom, but in the in the
main part of the cabin as well. Hot water supply
very well engineered for that long shower that a lot
of people like to take, you know, in the morning
or after an excursion when you come back. Individual temperature
controls that actually worked. I've been to a lot of
hotels where the temperature control I think was just just
(22:30):
therefore amusement. The temperature control kept my cabin feeling just
the way I wanted to all the time that we
were on board. Everything was you know, was designed for comfort,
for efficiency, and design to have that look of the
classic you know liner that that I talked about earlier.
(22:55):
The luxury extended a whole lot more beyond just that
look and feel. The cabin attendant. I can't say enough
about the staff on board. The cabin attendant visited our
cabin twice a day. Of course, we needed to restock amenities,
needed to freshen things up, whether we needed new towels,
(23:16):
needed an extra a bottle of mouth washed in there,
needed our filter water refreshed, whatever we needed. And in
the evening the cabin attendants come in. They turned down
your beds and they leave chocolates on your pillows, just
as you'd expect at a fine hotel or on a
fine cruise line, and all of those things combined together
(23:39):
to make an impression from day one as I moved
onto my ship. Other parts of the ship that I
want to talk about life on the ship really centered
upon the onboard lounge. It's a large area, takes up
the better part of one whole deck of the ship,
and right adjacent to the lounge, which is a vintage bar.
(24:01):
I mean, if you walked into an old time cruise
ship and you looked at the bar, you'd find the
brass rail on the bottom. Again, nothing but hand carved
would put together to form a delightful place for you
to stop before dinner, after dinner, in the middle of
the day, to have a drink with friends, to meet
(24:25):
some new people. Just exactly that kind of an aora,
exactly that kind of feeling that I'm talking about, that
classic high end luxury look the cavern had. It reminded me,
I guess of an English tavern or pub had that
kind of look to it, where you come in and
(24:49):
the bartender's there, a couple of bartenders waiting for you.
There was no robot drink maker on board. They were
real bartenders. They handcrafted your drinks for you and They
made sure that your drinks were always replenished, whether it
was a coke zero or a you know, a bourbon
(25:10):
and a coke. They knew what you liked, and after
about one day, they remembered everything about their guests. As
you moved around between the pub and the lounge, they
had purposefully put shelves in there that were stacked with
board games. Every board game you wanted. You wanted to
play backgam and, you wanted to play cribbage, you wanted
(25:32):
to play Remi koub, you needed a deck of cards.
All of that was available for the guests, along with
a puzzle selection. So at night sometimes I'd go down
to the lounge or go down to the pub, I'd
pull a puzzle off the shelf and I'd get it started.
I wouldn't get that far, but I'd come in the
(25:52):
next morning and another guest had sat down and helped
my puzzle along a little bit, you know, a very
kind of you know, just like being in a place
with your family. Somebody else came along, did a little work.
I came back, did a little work, and then a
little bit later I'd come back and the puzzle was finished.
So that's the kind of feel that you have on there,
(26:14):
just that leisurely luxury kind of.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
Look, Harry, I've got a question for you. Yeah, so
it sounds like you had some of the what I
would call life simple pleasures to enjoy yourself when you
weren't in port. A lot of cruise ships have these
grand theater areas where they have nightly show entertainment or
(26:39):
live Broadway shows, that kind of thing. First of all,
did you miss that on a vessel like this and
talk to me about how that equated to the enjoyment
of passengers on board.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
Great question. I've been on the on the cruise ships
where they have the luxury productions that the trapeze artists
things like that. There was none of that on this ship. Instead,
they had a very nice stage, and they had an
onboard band, and that onboard band came to work in
the afternoon, played for a little bit, and then played
(27:15):
again after dinner. Every night. Every night they had a theme,
and one night it was motown, another night it was
folk songs. They had a theme every night. So while
there wasn't the kind of grand entertainment that we see
on some cruise ships, Terry, there was this again almost
(27:36):
a family style entertainment. I felt that they were on board,
you know, just for us. They took requests, people were
out there. There was a small dance floor for people
to you know, dance on, and yet you could be
in the lounge while the band was playing, and this
is especially important to me. I could still have a conversation.
(27:57):
They were a band, but they weren't a band that
was just you know, blowing the sound, turning the amps
up all the way and being loud. They were very entertaining,
they were very good. You could sit and listen to them,
but you could also have a conversation at the same time.
So it was a little bit of the big cruise
(28:20):
ship experience, but not entirely that that big stage that
you're talking about, Terry. What was nice about the lounge
also is that it's surrounded with windows, so when you
were in the lounge, you could watch the sun setting
outdoors as you were starting your cruise because the lights
(28:42):
the nights are late or a little bit, you know,
to the west of where we're located here in the valley,
but the sun stayed out for a while and you
could watch the sunset. After dinner, you could listen to
the entertainment. You could partaking conversation, you could have have
a you know, an adult beverage or a non adult beverage.
(29:03):
You could have a coffee. The lounge was always filled
with snacks and I should also say fresh baked cookies
when we talk about, you know, the conveniences and feeling
like you're again on that family yacht. So the feeling
was great, the ambiance was great. And one of the
(29:23):
other important things about the lounge I want to mention
is that every day in the afternoon when we boarded
from our excursions, we would almost everybody went down to
the lounge because every ship has on board what they
called a Lake Lourian. I'd never met a Lake Lourian before.
(29:44):
I didn't know if it was a person that was
on the lake named Lorii or Lorian. But a Lake
Lourian is kind of like a lake's historian or a
lake scholar. And they wouldn't come down and do university
level lectures, but they would give us a talk every
single day that was about the destination that we were
(30:06):
going to be at the next morning. They tell us
about that destination, they tell us the history, they tell
us what to expect they'd tell us about the excursions
that we could enjoy. They'd talk about everything ecology, history, culture,
they talk about the science of the Great Lakes. They
talk about the many shipwrecks, you know, years ago that
(30:30):
they had on the Great Lakes and the storms, even
the Edmund Fitzgerald, the famous shipwreck up there on Lake Superior.
We learned about that and what's happening, you know, to
this day, about looking at the causes of that, and
about navigation on the Great Lakes before they had all
the great equipment that they have today to protect us.
(30:51):
And these talks by the Lake Laurian were interactive talks.
People would ask her questions and she was so knowledgeable.
Not only did she have information about what she wanted
to talk about, but she had information about what anybody
on board might ask about. And we just her talks
brought real life and relevance to that experience that we
(31:15):
were going to have the very next day. Another thing
about the ship that I want to share with everybody
is I love being outdoors. Outside is my favorite place.
I wish I had a job where I worked outside
all day long, even in bad weather, I can still
be outside. And for our trip, the Great Lakes were
(31:38):
just ideal. It was the best place to be in
the weather that we had. The Great Lakes are typically
a little bit cooler than what we would expect here
in the valley because you've got the breezes. The geography
of the Great Lakes is different than in the valley,
and the valley we may have two or three weather
(32:01):
patterns and events going on at the same time. The
Great Lakes doesn't have the mountains surrounding them, so the
weather is pretty uniform, and if it's great somewhere, it's
great everywhere. And for us, the week was great. We
enjoyed days where the temperatures were up in the seventies
and in the eighties, a little bit in the nineties,
(32:23):
a couple days, but for the most part, very very comfortable,
and always with that breeze of the wind moving across
the water. When I wasn't viewing the cabins or the
cameras in my cabin on the TV, you'd find me
sitting at the bow or the stern or the open
(32:44):
deck at the top of the ship. When they designed
this ship, they took a lot of time to think
about special spaces, and I am so grateful that they
had space at both the bow and the stern where
I could just sit and watch the way of the ship.
You'll pass pass by, or I could sit up in
(33:04):
a bow of the ship and see where we were headed,
see the image that was on the shipboard cameras. It
was so fantastic. In the upper deck is wide open,
their chairs up there. Not a lot of activity up there,
nothing planned in a way of activity up there, but
just a place where passengers can go to walk. I
(33:27):
got my exercise just walking around the ship every day
on that top deck. If I wanted to. They had
lounge chairs up there where I could sit down and
just watch as far as the eye could see. Because
again we're on these great lakes. You're not looking at
shoreline all the time. Very often you can't see shoreline
(33:48):
either side of you, not you know, not on the
port side, not on the starboard side, not in front
of you, and not behind you. So it was a
great place on these decks where you could be by yourself,
or you see some small groups gathered. I saw lots
of couples gathered up there, just enjoying the scenery, enjoying
(34:09):
the water, and just enjoying the luxury of being on
this ship.
Speaker 4 (34:15):
Chris has given us a little beautiful slide show of
the Victory stew and.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Victory Cruise lines.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
What do you think, Chris, Well, it's everything that Harry's
been describing, and I encourage you. I do this every
time we record a show. I'm always in the background
looking at pictures because I want to be able to
really experience it as you listen to a Lifeless Ordinary,
or if maybe after the show, go back and listen
to the podcast, which you can find at the Wishing
(34:44):
Weld damp Biz, go along with as Harry's describing things,
and you can find pictures of it, and it's really
going to come to life for you, and you'll be
even more jealous than you were initially at Harry's experience.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
I don't think. I don't think I can do as
good a job as I want to describing what I saw.
I think, Chris, You're exactly right. The name of the
ship is the Victory too, and you can view online
what I'm talking about. You can see what I got
to experience firsthand. The pictures are great, they're not as
great as experiencing at firsthand, but they'll give you an
(35:22):
idea of what I'm talking about.
Speaker 4 (35:25):
Well, so far, Harry, we've heard about the ship itself,
we've heard about the state rooms, and a little bit
about what daily encounters were like for you, the lounge areas,
And that's so so exciting, and I'm sure it's exciting
to our listeners. I know that it is to us.
We're going to take a really quick break again about
thirty seconds. We're going to come back and talk more
(35:47):
with Harry about his experience on the Victory too, But
more importantly something that we can all appreciate, the culinary
experience on board.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
So don't go away.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Who would think of driving off to a new destination
without guidance from Google to Siri at the wishing Well
guide your next travel experience. Travel the world as you
enjoy the very best destinations and all they offer at
the best prices. Our mobile travel app keeps your vacation
on track and keeps you connected with our team of
experts for help. If you need it, call us at
five four zero nine zero eight two three three three,
(36:20):
stop by two forty three and f avenue or visit
us at the Wishingwell dot biz.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
Welcome back, to A Lifeless Ordinary. It's the travel show
and podcast from your friends at the wishing Well. They're
on f Avenue and harrison Burg. Stop in and see them.
You can also find them on the web at the
wishing Well dot biz and give them a call them
five four zero nine oh eight twenty three thirty three.
Past episodes of A Lifeless Ordinary are available on the
wishing Well dot bizz website in the upper right hand corner.
(36:47):
I encourage you after today's show to go peruse all
of the past six seasons. We are just last weekend
at our seventh season of A Lifeless Ordinary. Show today
is entitled living your Best Life, and Harry is bringing
us up to speed on his great lake adventure on
Victory Cruise Lines. Terry, if you are like me listening
(37:11):
to Harry describe all of this, you are extremely jealous
of Harry this week.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Oh man, you have no idea.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
What's wrong with feeling like royalty or cruising on a
ship that feels like a classic yacht. I don't think
I would say sorry, not sorry about that. And you
add to that the great level of customer service that
he tells me he experienced. I'm really enjoying hearing about
Victory Cruise Line. And I want to invite our listeners, Chris,
(37:41):
as you are hearing about Harry's personal experience, I want
you to know something that experience, though it was very
personal for him, is one that any one of you
can have as your own. I mean, if this is
a story, if this is a experience as Harry's retelling
this that resonates with you something you want to know
more about. Really, all you have to do is reach
(38:03):
out to us at the Wishing Well. We would love
to let this be a part of your repertoire of
travel experiences that you're going to have as well. So
we would invite you to talk to us anytime about that.
And as Chris always says, we're easy to find. We're
located in Harrisonburg at two forty three and f Avenue.
You can call us at five four h nine oh
(38:25):
eight two three three three. You can look us up
on the web. But Harry, we are totally enjoying the
information that you're bringing to us today about the Victory
Too and the great Lace experience that you had. I
know that right now you are getting ready to jump
into I know one of mine and Chris's favorite subjects
when it comes to travel experiences, right Chris, Food, Yes, food,
(38:50):
So we're gonna hear about Harry's culinary experience as well.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
But you're welcome that.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
So life's not living if you're not eating well, and
I love to live life. And the best part about
eating is it it delights at least a couple of
your senses. It starts by delighting your eyes. And dining
aboard this ship with this crew was amazing. It was
(39:16):
a highlight of the experience. As much as I enjoyed
going out and watching the views, as much as I
enjoyed going on the excursions, I made sure I was
back in time for dinner, that's for sure, and for
breakfast and when possible, for lunch too. The food was
absolutely amazing. Most everything on this ship was individually prepared,
(39:41):
fresh and plated, so when you saw it, it delighted
your eyes. When you tasted it, it delighted your taste buds.
I'm going to start with breakfast. Breakfast is a mundane
kind of experience for a lot of us not on
the ship. Cooked to order breakfasts are the norm. Can
visit a buffet line where they have some things pre made,
(40:04):
things like French toasts, things like poached eggs, but even
those they're out there unlimited supply because they're making them
fresh one by one. The pastries were not you know,
pop out of the box, put into the oven pastries.
They were hand crafted from from pastry dough and filled
and they were different every day. Likewise, with the muffins,
(40:28):
the meals, fresh fruits abounded, fine cheeses, Lots of locally
sourced foods on board, especially since you're on the Great Lakes,
You're going to have some fish that you may not
have tried before. Just excellent. There were a lot of
seniors aboard, and one of the things that sometimes is
(40:51):
an issue for some of us seniors are special dietary requirements.
I was amazed at the ability of this staff to
cater to everybody's dietary requirements as well as preferences. Lots
of times we talked and joked on this show about
(41:11):
the fact that I'm pretty good about eating most everything.
There are a couple things I won't eat. One of them, Terry,
that's it green beans. And it took them about a
day before they figured out that Harry didn't like green beans.
And every day afterward when green beans were part of
the menu or any kind of bean, they checked with
(41:31):
me and asked what I wanted as a substitute. So
it was really easy to please me as I walked
into the dining room. Every day, they have a counter
there and they've got a plate with every dining selection
that's available that day. So before you enter the dining room,
(41:52):
you look at each selection and you pick what it
is that you'd like to eat that day. Chris, that's
better than eating off of a menu, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Yeah, I'm still be on the fact that you want
to eat green beans, But yes, please, yes, I want
I do want French toast, I want eggs, benedict, I
want it all.
Speaker 3 (42:11):
And you can have not either of those. You can
have all of those every day on board the Victory
too special dietary requirements. I traveled with my brother in law.
He's very sensitive to dairy, not sensitive, he's allergic. He
has bad reactions. We let the staff know and every
day the headwaiter came out and gave him the next
(42:32):
day's man. You had him mark off what he'd like
to have off that menu, regardless of the dairy content.
Or anything in it, and he made sure that on
the following day when my brother in law Bob sat
down to eat, there was a version of that dish
available for him without any dairy in it, and it
(42:54):
was It was just amazing to me. I've never had
that kind of experience before.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
I love when establishments are willing to go that extra
step because that builds the repeat, repeat customers if it's
a restaurant, and especially on a cruise line like this,
I'm sure you and Bob want to go back.
Speaker 3 (43:11):
And his life went on, and as the week went on,
they learned what some of Bob's preferences were, and I
overheard them talking. One day the chef actually sent someone
out to purchase some food so that he'd have it
on board, because Bob ate every one of the whatever
it was, this is that they had of it, and
he went out and purchased more and brought it on
(43:31):
board so that he could prepare it and have it
available for him. To me, that's you know, that's a
step above what's required instead of just telling you what
they have available. I want to hit one other highlight
before I go into some of the excursions. One of
the things that also really impressed me on this trip
was every person on this ship was invited to come
(43:55):
up for a personal experience on the bridge. That's not
something the ships often do. It's something that you buy
as an extra. We were invited to come up on
the bridge, chat with the staff. They went through all
of the navigation equipment that they had on board. They
answered questions, talked about their experience, talked about their training,
(44:15):
and again it was that feeling of being on that
very personal yacht with friends rather than being on a
commercial cruise that you know, these kinds of things stood out.
But I want to take some time and talk about
the ports that we visited because that's important too. I
mentioned that we began in Toronto. Toronto's a fantastic city,
(44:37):
and Victory Cruise Lines provide you with a luxury hotel
the night before your cruise. You don't want to be
late for this cruise, but to be sure that you're
not late, part of your cruise fair includes a night
in a hotel in Toronto the day before, after which
they transport you to the dock to board the ship
(44:59):
you know, the following. So that's how it started, with
a day in Toronto, wonderful city. But we left Toronto
on board and we passed through toward our next destination,
which was Niagara Falls. Niagara Falls presents a challenge as
you move from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie. If you've
ever heard about the falls, you know that the falls
(45:20):
are falls, right, you're talking about dropping several hundred feet
and you have to get from one lake to another.
You move from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie by passing
through something called the Well and Canal. It's about twenty
seven miles long. It contains eight locks where they move
(45:41):
the ship from one level to another eight times and
it's all done naturally to move through there. So it
was an extremely wonderful experience. Took us most of the
night to get through there. We got to our port
outside of Niagara Fall and they took us by bus
(46:02):
and part of the tour that we were enjoying on
this is we went to Niagara Falls and jumped on
board the Hornblower, which is the ship that actually takes
you with a nine hundred horsepower ship. It takes you
to the foot of the falls. They circle around there
a little bit. You get to experience it either from
behind glass or you can put on your raincoat and
(46:24):
experience it up close. Absolutely fantastic tour de Falls. The
Falls area saw the world's first hydro electric plant created
by a guy by name Nikolay Tesla. If you've ever
heard of him, Nikola Tesla. And then we moved on
to our second port. Second port was Cleveland, and the
exciting thing about Cleveland we visited the Rock and Roll
(46:46):
Hall of Fame. We visited the memorial there to one
of Terry's former clients, a guy by the name of
Dave Matthews. He's a member of the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame. I got to see all his band
material and the clothing that he exhibit all dedicated to
Ham Terry. You would have loved seeing that. I remember
telling you about it. We saw exhibits for the youngest
(47:08):
inductee there, Richie Allen's if you remember La Bamba, Don
McLean's American Pie. He's the youngest inductee. We also saw
exhibits for the oldest inductee. Chris, you're the music expert.
You know the oldest inductee in the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame. I have no idea Willie Nelson at
age ninety. He's the oldest inductee, Lots of hands on exhibits,
(47:31):
a lot of fun. We moved from Cleveland onto Detroit,
where we visited the iconic Henry Ford Museum, a place
that I'll be going with another group in September on
our tour to Mackinaw Island. I'll be there twice this year.
But we visited the Henry Ford Museum. That's where you
see the history of the Industrial Revolution in the United States.
(47:52):
This is a Smithsonian class museum. You're traveling around on
teak floors. You see double scale locomotives. You see the
old model TS model as you visit the limousine that
President Kennedy was in on his fatal day in Dallas.
You see the bus that Rosa Parks was in. Lots
(48:14):
and lots of history plus farm equipment, every color, yellow, green, red,
You see the history of this country in the Industrial Revolution.
We went on from there up to Mackinac Island, where
we saw the Grand Hotel, the world's longest porch rode
around on the island. It's a place that's got only
(48:36):
three vehicles, horse and buggy and bicycles of the transportation.
Fantastic day there on the island. They consume about ten
thousand or they sell about ten thousand pounds a day
of fudge on that island. It's the special food there.
From Mackinac Island, we moved on to Escinama. That's the
(48:58):
Michigan Upper Peninsular, or they call it the Upers up there,
the Upper Peninsula. It's a Civil War historic Civil War
shipping port, a lot of iron ore still today, a lot,
a lot, a lot of lumber moves through their walleye
fishing lighthouses. Fantastic visits, small town. Then we moved on
(49:18):
to Milwaukee, Historic Milwaukee, the German town, to see the
breweries up there, Schlitz Brewery and the Mansion. And we
moved from there into Chicago, the Navy Pier. Those are
just the excursions and you can look at those online.
I'm going through those really fast because I wanted to
save a little bit of time to talk about again
what made this trip so special for me, and I
(49:41):
started by talking about the reasons I took this cruise.
The reasons I took this cruise was I wanted to
have something I could recommend for travelers that don't want
to go that far from home. It's a short distance
to go to the Great Lakes from our area here
in the valley. You can go a short distance and
you can get lots and lots of very interesting and
(50:04):
unique stops. But especially you can do this all in luxury.
This is a luxury cruising experience, folks. If I haven't
impressed that upon people today, I've done a terrible, terrible job.
And we didn't just go on a river cruise. We
didn't just go on a lake cruise. We went on
a great lake cruise, a place where there's more water
(50:27):
than your eyes can take in in a single sight.
You cannot see the shore when you were cruising the
Great Lakes. That's so important. You were talking about twenty
percent of the world's fresh water supply on the Great Lakes.
It was just a very very different cruise. And for me,
this epitomized what we talk about every week on this show.
(50:49):
It epitomized a life less ordinary. I saw things, even
though I lived in Michigan. I saw things I'd never
seen before. I had experienced I can remember I've never
had before. And I'm happy to be able to share
with the two of you and all of our listeners
today I felt like I was stepping back in time
when the words cruising, classy, and luxury were synonymous words.
(51:14):
I just sat back, chilled and relaxed in luxury.
Speaker 1 (51:18):
Harry, I'm so jealous. I'm hoping next time, maybe you'll
take me along with Bob on one of these trips.
I know, I say this every time you go on
a trip. I'm like, you know, you can take your
old buddy Chris along with you.
Speaker 2 (51:34):
Bob and Harry. There's a combos.
Speaker 1 (51:36):
Oh, we get so much.
Speaker 3 (51:39):
They didn't have any bunk beds in any of the rooms, Chris.
I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1 (51:43):
Oh no, that's fine. I didn't. I don't want to
bunk with you. I just want to I just want
to travel with you. Well, this has been a this
has been a fun journey, Harry. I really enjoy the
Victory Cruise lines. You were on Victory too, right.
Speaker 3 (51:58):
Yes, I was all right. And this is a trip
that you know that we talk about. Here is a
trip that we listened to. As Terry said earlier, we
listen to folks that call in and tell us where
they want to go. It's what helps us decide where
we're going to do. Our groups for the coming year.
Listen to the experience as this being one of them,
but there's so many others. Listen to what we talk
(52:20):
about and let us know where you want to go.
The trip that I told you about today was my dream.
Maybe it fits you to let us know, Terry.
Speaker 1 (52:32):
I'm sure there are going to be many people that
are listening to today's show that are going to be
like I want to book that trip, and the wishing
Well can definitely make that happen.
Speaker 4 (52:41):
We would love that and they can find us at
again two forty three f avenue in Here's Someburg, Virginia.
They can call us Chris at five four o nine
oh eight two three three three, or they can look us.
Speaker 2 (52:55):
Up on the web. We are at the Wishingwell dot biz.
Speaker 1 (53:00):
This has been a life less ordinary the travel show
and podcast from your friends at the wishing Well. There
are two forty three f Avenue in Harrisonbury. If you
have any questions on topics discussed today, please reach out
to The wishing Well online at the wishing Well don
Bizz or call five four oh nine oh eight twenty
three thirty three. Past episodes are available on the iHeartRadio
(53:20):
Lab and We'll see you again next Saturday morning at
ten for a lifeless ordinary from the wishing Well
This is a Lifeless Ordinary, the travel showing podcast from
your friends at the wishing Well two forty three f
Avenue in Harrisonburg and online at the wishing Well Don
PiZZ The wishing Well is your ultimate luxury concierge, travel
agency and a lifeless Ordinary. It's a travel showing podcast
hosted by Terry Dean, bringing her over forty years of
experience in the travel industry to help guide you to
(00:20):
great experiences in your travel, whether it be around the block,
around the country, or around the world. Now, let's bring
in Terry Dean and say hello, Chris.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I'm so delighted to be with you here. How are
you doing.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Oh, I'm doing great. It's always good to see you, Terry.
Another Saturday, another well. We had a little bit cooler
weather finally, but a lot of storms went through midweek.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Is that not a relief?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Yeah, for a.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Couple of days. I'm sure the heat will be back.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
And guess what, I'm another year older, Chris.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't it was your birthday.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
No, it's good. My birthday was yesterday. I was. It
wasn't a magic number. It was just a number. And
that's the.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Way I like them.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
I think Becca has one of those magic ones next.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Year, and oh, okay, you better be doing something.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Her birthday was at the beginning of the month, and
she's like, it's a big birthday. You're don't have to
do big things.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I know, right, Oh boy, cannot forget those big ones.
Cannot forget that.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
I'll probably coming to you and saying, let's book something
big for her birthday.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
And that'll be even better. I would love that. But truly,
I am so happy and delighted to be here again
on a lifeless ordinary and we've got a very special
show cued up for you today. The last time we
sort of untangled Chris, if you remember, the show was
the good, the bad, and the ugly of travel and
(01:46):
how not every travel experience is equal to another. And
for that matter, I will say not every travel experience
should be equal to another or even the same as
your friend who just came back from it, or that
honeymoon couple that just shared their amazing experience on their
Mediterranean Greek cruise. Travel is supposed to be unique, and
(02:08):
it must be unique and curated especially for you, your likes,
your preferences, your desires, and the other thing I think
is very important, Chris, is that travel really should fulfill
your dreams. That's what it's all about, right, Yeah, yeah,
And I think it's only appropriate on the heels of
(02:29):
last week's show to talk about one such experience that Harry,
my business partner, you guys know him, he was able
to experience for himself, and in doing that, he checked
off a very important box that was on his preferred
places to travel list, and he is here today to
(02:52):
talk to you about that.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
So we say hello Harry.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Hello Terry, and hello Chris. Hey, I'm so very very
excited to be here with you this week because I
get to take you on a very special journey, my journey.
It's a very personal cruise experience that I just returned from.
And for all of you out there listening to a
(03:18):
life less Ordinary, you know that we're always talking about
travel as an experience, and I think that's what the
two of you were talking about last week while I
was out cruising. But travel is not just a destination.
It's not just a property, it's not just a ship,
and it's not a train. And that's where I want
(03:39):
to start today. I want to talk about my experience.
I think We've talked about this before, but I grew
up in Michigan, and my childhood was surrounded by the
Great Lakes, so I'm really used to them. It's like
living in the valley looking at the mountains. The Great
Lakes were everywhere. But like a lot of people, I
(03:59):
didn't recognize how special those Great Lakes are. Instead of
all the grander and the beauty, all I saw was
a lot of water, a lot of fresh water, different
than the ocean water we're used to here. But in
my youth, I'd visited three of the Great Lakes multiple times.
Every summer. I went up and visited Lake Michigan and
(04:22):
Lake Huron. I visited Chicago, where I saw Lake Michigan
all the time. But I was really interested in the
other two, but not that especially interested, not at least
enough to go visit them. But I was interested in
learning just about the fun of being on the lakes
(04:43):
and about the history of the lakes and all of
the towns along the shore. Well I took for granted
they're striking beauty. You know, it's kind of like an
inland sea, if I can describe it for you. Great
lakes are great, not because they're wonderful. But because they're immense,
they're immense in scale. You get these vast ocean like horizons.
(05:09):
You got towering freshwater sand dunes, You've got rugged sandstone cliffs,
dramatic northern lights that everybody's always talking about. You can
see them up in the northern part of Michigan. And
that's what makes the Great Lakes great. If I'm painting
a picture for you, it's not just the lake that
(05:29):
we're used to visiting here in the valley. It's not
like going to Smith Mountain Lake. It's not like going
to Lake Mumah. It's like going to the ocean, except
there's no salt cress.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
I mean, you'll see ocean liner size ships on the
Great Lakes.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Well, you see thousand foot long or boats on the
Great Lakes, you know, larger than some of the biggest
ocean liners. The Great Lakes are actually a highway of commerce,
and many people don't realize as that, but you look
at the automobile industry. That's part of the reason it's
(06:05):
located where it is is because they could bring the
ore across the Great Lakes. They could bring supplies from
all around, you know, even ocean to the great lakes
and pass through them and deliver them to all the
automobile plants in Detroit. So these are not lake lakes.
These are great sized lakes. They're talking, you know, thousands
(06:31):
of acres of water.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Yeah, there's a reason why there are so many major
cities that cropped up around those lakes.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Exactly right. But growing up as a kid, I gotta
be honest and tell you, I just looked at all
that water, and I didn't recognize all the history, all
the grandeur, all the beauty, all the importance of these
great lakes. I didn't know. But my birthday's coming up too,
just like Terry's, I'm about a week behind her. But
(07:00):
with age comes wisdom, and given that I'm celebrating my
birthday next week, I'm going with the premise I'm gonna
suppose this. As I'm getting older, I'm getting wiser. And
so what that means is that I really am in
a position to now appreciate the beauty and the importance
of these great lakes that I did not do as
(07:24):
a kid. So for the past year, actually, Terry can
tell you, for the past year, I've been seriously looking
at returning to the Great Lakes, and things worked out.
Wishes really do come true at the wishing Well, not
only for our customers and clients, but also for us
as employees. So my wish to return to the Great
(07:47):
Lakes became became an attainable wish. Just recently, cruise lines
have been producing itineraries and ships just for cruising the
Great Lakes. They've been gaining in popularity, much to my delight,
and I wanted a special cruise on the Great Lakes.
I didn't just want to take a boat ride or
(08:09):
a ship ride. But my other half of my wish
was to have a refined luxury experience. I'm not sixteen anymore, Okay,
I'm been collecting Social Security checks for a while. So
I wanted that refined luxury experience, the kind that we
talk about every week. You know what I'm talking about. Yeah,
(08:31):
So think back to the nineteenth century, Think back to
images of coastal steamers. Those are really popular in the
Great Lakes and along the Atlantic coastlines, the kind that
people used to go on a journey for. They'd pack
their bags, they'd jump aboard one of these cruises, and
(08:51):
they'd go for a week or more, and they'd cruise
the Great Lakes, they'd cruise along the coastline on the Atlantic.
These ships were just cruise ships. They were luxury liners,
very luxurious, especially for that time. This is the kind
of ship that you think about royalty, you think about
(09:12):
wealthy people. That's what I'm talking about when I'm talking
about coastal cruisers. Am I painting a picture for you, Chris?
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yeah? And I'm really jealous right now.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
So that's what my dream was. Think about lots of hardwood,
think about elegance, think about fine dining. That's what I wanted.
I wanted to do that on the Great Lakes. So
as you and Terry and all our listeners join me
on this journey today, I want you to know that
I'm going to be taking a look at this experience
(09:44):
from various points of view, and I'm going to start
by talking about the ship itself. I'm going to talk
about the state rooms. I'm going to talk about the service.
I'm going to talk about the food that I experienced,
and finally, I'm going to try and summarize for the
two of you and everybody listening what this fabulous, unique
(10:05):
sailing experience meant to me and what I saw on
the various ports of call along the way. So that's
my stage. Are we ready?
Speaker 1 (10:16):
I'm ready. I'm excited about this. I grew up right
off the Great Lakes as well, but I was on
the southern side of them. My relationship with the Great
Legs was not nearly as romantic as yours was because
mine was all lake effects, snow in the winter.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
No, no, no, I got to see some of that too,
being on the opposite side of Chicago. But we're going
to talk about all of these things in just a minute.
I think we can take a quick break and we
should come back. I think about thirty seconds, and I'm
going to break down each of these areas and share
the details and share what made me so excited.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Well, I'm looking forward to our show today. We will
be back at thirty seconds. Here on a life less ordinary.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Who would think of driving off to a new destination
without items from Google to Siri?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Not the Wishing Weld guide your next travel experience.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Travel the world as you enjoy the very best destinations
and all they offer at the best prices. Our mobile
travel app keeps your vacation on track and keeps you
connected with our team of experts for help. If you
need it, call us at five four zero nine zero
eight two three three three stop, buy two forty three
nef Avenue, or visit us at the Wishingwell dot biz.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Welcome back to you a Lifeless Ordinary. It's a travel
showing podcast from your friends at the Wishing Well. You
can find them on neph Avenue and Harrisonburg online at
the Wishingwell dot biz. We're given to call it five
four oh nine oh A twenty three thirty three and
our show this week is entitled Living Your Best Life.
We are going to be reliving a really luxurious travel
(11:50):
experience that Harry just experience and Terry, this is going
to be a great show this week. We're really excited
about this.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
I think so because you know, really, Chris, this comes
right on the heels of what you and I talked
about last week about the uniqueness of travel and really
traveling outside of that rut that we get in sometimes.
I think this particular experience that Harry had really resonates
with all of the things that we talked about. Harry's
(12:20):
going to talk to us now about this experience in
more detail, and he is going to talk about the ship,
what in the world. Is this cruise line anyway that
does this fabulous sale? What do these vessels look like
compared to some you might have already heard of. What's
special about him? And then he's going to talk about
the state rooms. Why do we even care about the
(12:40):
state rooms, the place where we lay our heads at night?
What details did this particular cruise line include that elevated
his experience? I want to hear about that. I don't
know about you, but Chris, I do. And then the service.
How did the week actually run for him in terms
of staffing and attention to details?
Speaker 2 (13:01):
And then the food.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
Hello, Chris food you know I love food? I know?
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Or was it a swing in a mess? We want
to know? And finally I want.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
Him to talk about the fabulous unique sailing itinerary and
the ports of calls.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
So Harry, we welcome you back.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
We want to hear about this, and I am so
interested in hearing you talk about this ship, the Shoot
Cruise Line, and the actual ship itself.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Okay, So my journey started in beautiful Toronto and I
arrived to see this ship in person for the first time,
got one step closer to this dream vacation, and I
hit the port and I saw the Victory two. That's
the name of the ship, Victory two. She's got a
(13:53):
sister ship, Victory one. They are both owned and operated
by a company called Victory Cruise Lines. Okay, not surprisingly,
first impressions mean a lot, and the first impression was fantastic.
This is a two hundred passenger ship, so as cruise
ships go, she's not really large. She's just right size.
(14:17):
She's about three hundred feet long, about fifty feet wide,
and with matters a lot in the Great Lakes because
as you're going to hear, we're going to travel through
some locks across the way, so she can't be too wide,
but three hundred feet long, fifty foot wide. And the
important thing is this ship was specifically designed for luxury
(14:39):
and specifically designed for navigating the Great Lakes. It went
into service in two thousand and four, and it's been
renovated in both twenty nineteen and again just this year
in twenty twenty six. So it's a classic looking ship
that's brand new, and that's going to play into it
(15:01):
as I describe what I saw and felt an experienced.
So first thing, immediately upon boarding, I knew I was
on a special ship. It's like it felt like being
on a private yacht. I've not been on somebody's private
yacht yet I want to, But if I could imagine
what it felt like, this was it. It felt luxury,
(15:24):
It had a really nautical feeling. I wasn't boarding a
floating hotel, but I was boarding a nautical vessel. Nothing
corporate looking about her. She was freshly painted, steeling hardwood
on the exterior and inboard as soon as I stepped inside.
When I stepped outside, I could even see the trim.
But when I went inside, I saw hardwood everywhere. Chris,
(15:49):
I know you love woodworking. I know you love hardwood.
You would have feasted your eyes on what I saw everywhere. Hardwood,
the cabins, the public areas, just a fantastic kind of
this rich, exuberant yacht kind of look. And I found
(16:10):
myself comparing it to something that you know, maybe the
Queen would would be on the Queen's Royal cruise lines.
That same feeling, that similar to core when you walk
into a place you feel like this is stuff you
can look at, but you know you don't touch. The
(16:31):
good news is you could touch everything. But the look
was that that extraordinary, over the top would luxury watercraft
kind of experience? Am I painting the picture for you.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
I've seen some movies I think like maybe the Titanic.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Yeah, well this was not the Titanic she may talk about.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
I'm talking about the trim level, not what what happened
to come on, Harry.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Exactly. So let me tell you the next place I went.
After I boarded the ship, I checked in with the
friendly staff and I immediately proceeded to my stateroom. And
while I was on board, I got the privilege of
touring several of the cabin types, and there are basically
three cabin types on this ship. Most of the cabins
(17:26):
you enter through interior hallways, except for those on the
top deck. They had their outside entrances, so you walked
along the deck and went into the state rooms on
the very top deck. That was a special kind of feeling.
But every one of the state rooms I described them
(17:47):
as super cozy. But they feel like a boutique hotel
room rather than a cruise cabin. It's like going into
some of the hotels that we talk about in the
in the night kinds of places, you know, the riz
Carltons and those kinds of hotels. And the biggest plus
(18:08):
is that every single ship on the or every single
room on this ship faces outside. Again, she's not that wide,
so every room faces outside and you always get natural light,
you always have a view. So let me tell you
the difference between the rooms the standard rooms, and that's
what I was in. They're about one hundred and forty
(18:32):
five one hundred and eighty five square feet, but they're
laid out so intelligently. In my previous life, I was
an engineer, so I have an attention for detail on
how things fit together. But inside each one of the
rooms you get a queen size bed, or they can
be separated into two individual beds if you wish. You've
(18:53):
got a writing desk, and you've got a lot of
drawer space. And these aren't the ikea of fixtures that
you might find for dressers and drawers, but these are
hand crafted wooden drawers. Okay, so they're built in wooden drawers,
built in wooden closet space. Lots of efficiency there and
(19:19):
just enough room that you can pack all your stuff
in this space. You're not living out of your suitcase,
that's for sure. I unpacked my suitcase completely and had
room to spare. So that's the standard room. The random
rooms are nicer because you can step right out onto
(19:40):
that observation deck that's that fourth floor room. It's perfect
for grabbing morning coffee without having to dress up and
walk to the main lounge. You can just you know,
make it in your room and walk outside and their
chairs sitting outside your room to see the world go by.
Very very nice. And then there's the owner suite. Every
(20:03):
ship has one or more owner suite. In this one
has an owner suite. It's about three hundred square feet,
are about twice the size of the standard room, and
it gives you this semi private veranda where you can
sit outside, have some downtime away from everyone else. And
(20:24):
when you look inside any of these rooms, you're going
to find plush bathroobes, you're gonna find slippers, you're gonna
find nice, high end bath products. The room that I
was in, the bathroom wasn't super spacious, but it was
perfectly adequate. Plenty of room at the sink, plenty of
(20:45):
room to be in the shower, swinging around doing what
you need to do. Every morning. Wi Fi is included.
There's a flat screen television in the room that has
a ship board camera so you can see where the
ship is going. They have the gauges of the ship
on there so you can learn about the wind speed,
the direction, everything you need to know. And one of
(21:08):
the things that I liked is as I walked into
my room, there was fresh filtered water and a container
on a tray with my ice bucket there, all filled
for me, and I found my own personalized water bottle.
And by personalized, I mean someone had taken the time
to engrave this high end water bottle to be used
(21:32):
on my excursions with my name. I thought that was
a really nice touch, just exactly befitting the style and
that decre and the aura that this ship presented to ourselves.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
What struck me about each cabin is it had that
authentic historic look. But as I looked through my cabin
and navigated around inside it, it had all the modern
convene says. I mentioned some of them, But one of
the things that I'm always a stickler for is I
like great lighting. The lighting was great in the cabin,
(22:08):
not only in the bathroom, but in the in the
main part of the cabin as well. Hot water supply
very well engineered for that long shower that a lot
of people like to take, you know, in the morning
or after an excursion when you come back. Individual temperature
controls that actually worked. I've been to a lot of
hotels where the temperature control I think was just just
(22:30):
therefore amusement. The temperature control kept my cabin feeling just
the way I wanted to all the time that we
were on board. Everything was you know, was designed for comfort,
for efficiency, and design to have that look of the
classic you know liner that that I talked about earlier.
(22:55):
The luxury extended a whole lot more beyond just that
look and feel. The cabin attendant. I can't say enough
about the staff on board. The cabin attendant visited our
cabin twice a day. Of course, we needed to restock amenities,
needed to freshen things up, whether we needed new towels,
(23:16):
needed an extra a bottle of mouth washed in there,
needed our filter water refreshed, whatever we needed. And in
the evening the cabin attendants come in. They turned down
your beds and they leave chocolates on your pillows, just
as you'd expect at a fine hotel or on a
fine cruise line, and all of those things combined together
(23:39):
to make an impression from day one as I moved
onto my ship. Other parts of the ship that I
want to talk about life on the ship really centered
upon the onboard lounge. It's a large area, takes up
the better part of one whole deck of the ship,
and right adjacent to the lounge, which is a vintage bar.
(24:01):
I mean, if you walked into an old time cruise
ship and you looked at the bar, you'd find the
brass rail on the bottom. Again, nothing but hand carved
would put together to form a delightful place for you
to stop before dinner, after dinner, in the middle of
the day, to have a drink with friends, to meet
(24:25):
some new people. Just exactly that kind of an aora,
exactly that kind of feeling that I'm talking about, that
classic high end luxury look the cavern had. It reminded me,
I guess of an English tavern or pub had that
kind of look to it, where you come in and
(24:49):
the bartender's there, a couple of bartenders waiting for you.
There was no robot drink maker on board. They were
real bartenders. They handcrafted your drinks for you and They
made sure that your drinks were always replenished, whether it
was a coke zero or a you know, a bourbon
(25:10):
and a coke. They knew what you liked, and after
about one day, they remembered everything about their guests. As
you moved around between the pub and the lounge, they
had purposefully put shelves in there that were stacked with
board games. Every board game you wanted. You wanted to
play backgam and, you wanted to play cribbage, you wanted
(25:32):
to play Remi koub, you needed a deck of cards.
All of that was available for the guests, along with
a puzzle selection. So at night sometimes I'd go down
to the lounge or go down to the pub, I'd
pull a puzzle off the shelf and I'd get it started.
I wouldn't get that far, but I'd come in the
(25:52):
next morning and another guest had sat down and helped
my puzzle along a little bit, you know, a very
kind of you know, just like being in a place
with your family. Somebody else came along, did a little work.
I came back, did a little work, and then a
little bit later I'd come back and the puzzle was finished.
So that's the kind of feel that you have on there,
(26:14):
just that leisurely luxury kind of.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
Look, Harry, I've got a question for you. Yeah, so
it sounds like you had some of the what I
would call life simple pleasures to enjoy yourself when you
weren't in port. A lot of cruise ships have these
grand theater areas where they have nightly show entertainment or
(26:39):
live Broadway shows, that kind of thing. First of all,
did you miss that on a vessel like this and
talk to me about how that equated to the enjoyment
of passengers on board.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
Great question. I've been on the on the cruise ships
where they have the luxury productions that the trapeze artists
things like that. There was none of that on this ship. Instead,
they had a very nice stage, and they had an
onboard band, and that onboard band came to work in
the afternoon, played for a little bit, and then played
(27:15):
again after dinner. Every night. Every night they had a theme,
and one night it was motown, another night it was
folk songs. They had a theme every night. So while
there wasn't the kind of grand entertainment that we see
on some cruise ships, Terry, there was this again almost
(27:36):
a family style entertainment. I felt that they were on board,
you know, just for us. They took requests, people were
out there. There was a small dance floor for people
to you know, dance on, and yet you could be
in the lounge while the band was playing, and this
is especially important to me. I could still have a conversation.
(27:57):
They were a band, but they weren't a band that
was just you know, blowing the sound, turning the amps
up all the way and being loud. They were very entertaining,
they were very good. You could sit and listen to them,
but you could also have a conversation at the same time.
So it was a little bit of the big cruise
(28:20):
ship experience, but not entirely that that big stage that
you're talking about, Terry. What was nice about the lounge
also is that it's surrounded with windows, so when you
were in the lounge, you could watch the sun setting
outdoors as you were starting your cruise because the lights
(28:42):
the nights are late or a little bit, you know,
to the west of where we're located here in the valley,
but the sun stayed out for a while and you
could watch the sunset. After dinner, you could listen to
the entertainment. You could partaking conversation, you could have have
a you know, an adult beverage or a non adult beverage.
(29:03):
You could have a coffee. The lounge was always filled
with snacks and I should also say fresh baked cookies
when we talk about, you know, the conveniences and feeling
like you're again on that family yacht. So the feeling
was great, the ambiance was great. And one of the
(29:23):
other important things about the lounge I want to mention
is that every day in the afternoon when we boarded
from our excursions, we would almost everybody went down to
the lounge because every ship has on board what they
called a Lake Lourian. I'd never met a Lake Lourian before.
(29:44):
I didn't know if it was a person that was
on the lake named Lorii or Lorian. But a Lake
Lourian is kind of like a lake's historian or a
lake scholar. And they wouldn't come down and do university
level lectures, but they would give us a talk every
single day that was about the destination that we were
(30:06):
going to be at the next morning. They tell us
about that destination, they tell us the history, they tell
us what to expect they'd tell us about the excursions
that we could enjoy. They'd talk about everything ecology, history, culture,
they talk about the science of the Great Lakes. They
talk about the many shipwrecks, you know, years ago that
(30:30):
they had on the Great Lakes and the storms, even
the Edmund Fitzgerald, the famous shipwreck up there on Lake Superior.
We learned about that and what's happening, you know, to
this day, about looking at the causes of that, and
about navigation on the Great Lakes before they had all
the great equipment that they have today to protect us.
(30:51):
And these talks by the Lake Laurian were interactive talks.
People would ask her questions and she was so knowledgeable.
Not only did she have information about what she wanted
to talk about, but she had information about what anybody
on board might ask about. And we just her talks
brought real life and relevance to that experience that we
(31:15):
were going to have the very next day. Another thing
about the ship that I want to share with everybody
is I love being outdoors. Outside is my favorite place.
I wish I had a job where I worked outside
all day long, even in bad weather, I can still
be outside. And for our trip, the Great Lakes were
(31:38):
just ideal. It was the best place to be in
the weather that we had. The Great Lakes are typically
a little bit cooler than what we would expect here
in the valley because you've got the breezes. The geography
of the Great Lakes is different than in the valley,
and the valley we may have two or three weather
(32:01):
patterns and events going on at the same time. The
Great Lakes doesn't have the mountains surrounding them, so the
weather is pretty uniform, and if it's great somewhere, it's
great everywhere. And for us, the week was great. We
enjoyed days where the temperatures were up in the seventies
and in the eighties, a little bit in the nineties,
(32:23):
a couple days, but for the most part, very very comfortable,
and always with that breeze of the wind moving across
the water. When I wasn't viewing the cabins or the
cameras in my cabin on the TV, you'd find me
sitting at the bow or the stern or the open
(32:44):
deck at the top of the ship. When they designed
this ship, they took a lot of time to think
about special spaces, and I am so grateful that they
had space at both the bow and the stern where
I could just sit and watch the way of the ship.
You'll pass pass by, or I could sit up in
(33:04):
a bow of the ship and see where we were headed,
see the image that was on the shipboard cameras. It
was so fantastic. In the upper deck is wide open,
their chairs up there. Not a lot of activity up there,
nothing planned in a way of activity up there, but
just a place where passengers can go to walk. I
(33:27):
got my exercise just walking around the ship every day
on that top deck. If I wanted to. They had
lounge chairs up there where I could sit down and
just watch as far as the eye could see. Because
again we're on these great lakes. You're not looking at
shoreline all the time. Very often you can't see shoreline
(33:48):
either side of you, not you know, not on the
port side, not on the starboard side, not in front
of you, and not behind you. So it was a
great place on these decks where you could be by yourself,
or you see some small groups gathered. I saw lots
of couples gathered up there, just enjoying the scenery, enjoying
(34:09):
the water, and just enjoying the luxury of being on
this ship.
Speaker 4 (34:15):
Chris has given us a little beautiful slide show of
the Victory stew and.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Victory Cruise lines.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
What do you think, Chris, Well, it's everything that Harry's
been describing, and I encourage you. I do this every
time we record a show. I'm always in the background
looking at pictures because I want to be able to
really experience it as you listen to a Lifeless Ordinary,
or if maybe after the show, go back and listen
to the podcast, which you can find at the Wishing
(34:44):
Weld damp Biz, go along with as Harry's describing things,
and you can find pictures of it, and it's really
going to come to life for you, and you'll be
even more jealous than you were initially at Harry's experience.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
I don't think. I don't think I can do as
good a job as I want to describing what I saw.
I think, Chris, You're exactly right. The name of the
ship is the Victory too, and you can view online
what I'm talking about. You can see what I got
to experience firsthand. The pictures are great, they're not as
great as experiencing at firsthand, but they'll give you an
(35:22):
idea of what I'm talking about.
Speaker 4 (35:25):
Well, so far, Harry, we've heard about the ship itself,
we've heard about the state rooms, and a little bit
about what daily encounters were like for you, the lounge areas,
And that's so so exciting, and I'm sure it's exciting
to our listeners. I know that it is to us.
We're going to take a really quick break again about
thirty seconds. We're going to come back and talk more
(35:47):
with Harry about his experience on the Victory too, But
more importantly something that we can all appreciate, the culinary
experience on board.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
So don't go away.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Who would think of driving off to a new destination
without guidance from Google to Siri at the wishing Well
guide your next travel experience. Travel the world as you
enjoy the very best destinations and all they offer at
the best prices. Our mobile travel app keeps your vacation
on track and keeps you connected with our team of
experts for help. If you need it, call us at
five four zero nine zero eight two three three three,
(36:20):
stop by two forty three and f avenue or visit
us at the Wishingwell dot biz.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
Welcome back, to A Lifeless Ordinary. It's the travel show
and podcast from your friends at the wishing Well. They're
on f Avenue and harrison Burg. Stop in and see them.
You can also find them on the web at the
wishing Well dot biz and give them a call them
five four zero nine oh eight twenty three thirty three.
Past episodes of A Lifeless Ordinary are available on the
wishing Well dot bizz website in the upper right hand corner.
(36:47):
I encourage you after today's show to go peruse all
of the past six seasons. We are just last weekend
at our seventh season of A Lifeless Ordinary. Show today
is entitled living your Best Life, and Harry is bringing
us up to speed on his great lake adventure on
Victory Cruise Lines. Terry, if you are like me listening
(37:11):
to Harry describe all of this, you are extremely jealous
of Harry this week.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Oh man, you have no idea.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
What's wrong with feeling like royalty or cruising on a
ship that feels like a classic yacht. I don't think
I would say sorry, not sorry about that. And you
add to that the great level of customer service that
he tells me he experienced. I'm really enjoying hearing about
Victory Cruise Line. And I want to invite our listeners, Chris,
(37:41):
as you are hearing about Harry's personal experience, I want
you to know something that experience, though it was very
personal for him, is one that any one of you
can have as your own. I mean, if this is
a story, if this is a experience as Harry's retelling
this that resonates with you something you want to know
more about. Really, all you have to do is reach
(38:03):
out to us at the Wishing Well. We would love
to let this be a part of your repertoire of
travel experiences that you're going to have as well. So
we would invite you to talk to us anytime about that.
And as Chris always says, we're easy to find. We're
located in Harrisonburg at two forty three and f Avenue.
You can call us at five four h nine oh
(38:25):
eight two three three three. You can look us up
on the web. But Harry, we are totally enjoying the
information that you're bringing to us today about the Victory
Too and the great Lace experience that you had. I
know that right now you are getting ready to jump
into I know one of mine and Chris's favorite subjects
when it comes to travel experiences, right Chris, Food, Yes, food,
(38:50):
So we're gonna hear about Harry's culinary experience as well.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
But you're welcome that.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
So life's not living if you're not eating well, and
I love to live life. And the best part about
eating is it it delights at least a couple of
your senses. It starts by delighting your eyes. And dining
aboard this ship with this crew was amazing. It was
(39:16):
a highlight of the experience. As much as I enjoyed
going out and watching the views, as much as I
enjoyed going on the excursions, I made sure I was
back in time for dinner, that's for sure, and for
breakfast and when possible, for lunch too. The food was
absolutely amazing. Most everything on this ship was individually prepared,
(39:41):
fresh and plated, so when you saw it, it delighted
your eyes. When you tasted it, it delighted your taste buds.
I'm going to start with breakfast. Breakfast is a mundane
kind of experience for a lot of us not on
the ship. Cooked to order breakfasts are the norm. Can
visit a buffet line where they have some things pre made,
(40:04):
things like French toasts, things like poached eggs, but even
those they're out there unlimited supply because they're making them
fresh one by one. The pastries were not you know,
pop out of the box, put into the oven pastries.
They were hand crafted from from pastry dough and filled
and they were different every day. Likewise, with the muffins,
(40:28):
the meals, fresh fruits abounded, fine cheeses, Lots of locally
sourced foods on board, especially since you're on the Great Lakes,
You're going to have some fish that you may not
have tried before. Just excellent. There were a lot of
seniors aboard, and one of the things that sometimes is
(40:51):
an issue for some of us seniors are special dietary requirements.
I was amazed at the ability of this staff to
cater to everybody's dietary requirements as well as preferences. Lots
of times we talked and joked on this show about
(41:11):
the fact that I'm pretty good about eating most everything.
There are a couple things I won't eat. One of them, Terry,
that's it green beans. And it took them about a
day before they figured out that Harry didn't like green beans.
And every day afterward when green beans were part of
the menu or any kind of bean, they checked with
(41:31):
me and asked what I wanted as a substitute. So
it was really easy to please me as I walked
into the dining room. Every day, they have a counter
there and they've got a plate with every dining selection
that's available that day. So before you enter the dining room,
(41:52):
you look at each selection and you pick what it
is that you'd like to eat that day. Chris, that's
better than eating off of a menu, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Yeah, I'm still be on the fact that you want
to eat green beans, But yes, please, yes, I want
I do want French toast, I want eggs, benedict, I
want it all.
Speaker 3 (42:11):
And you can have not either of those. You can
have all of those every day on board the Victory
too special dietary requirements. I traveled with my brother in law.
He's very sensitive to dairy, not sensitive, he's allergic. He
has bad reactions. We let the staff know and every
day the headwaiter came out and gave him the next
(42:32):
day's man. You had him mark off what he'd like
to have off that menu, regardless of the dairy content.
Or anything in it, and he made sure that on
the following day when my brother in law Bob sat
down to eat, there was a version of that dish
available for him without any dairy in it, and it
(42:54):
was It was just amazing to me. I've never had
that kind of experience before.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
I love when establishments are willing to go that extra
step because that builds the repeat, repeat customers if it's
a restaurant, and especially on a cruise line like this,
I'm sure you and Bob want to go back.
Speaker 3 (43:11):
And his life went on, and as the week went on,
they learned what some of Bob's preferences were, and I
overheard them talking. One day the chef actually sent someone
out to purchase some food so that he'd have it
on board, because Bob ate every one of the whatever
it was, this is that they had of it, and
he went out and purchased more and brought it on
(43:31):
board so that he could prepare it and have it
available for him. To me, that's you know, that's a
step above what's required instead of just telling you what
they have available. I want to hit one other highlight
before I go into some of the excursions. One of
the things that also really impressed me on this trip
was every person on this ship was invited to come
(43:55):
up for a personal experience on the bridge. That's not
something the ships often do. It's something that you buy
as an extra. We were invited to come up on
the bridge, chat with the staff. They went through all
of the navigation equipment that they had on board. They
answered questions, talked about their experience, talked about their training,
(44:15):
and again it was that feeling of being on that
very personal yacht with friends rather than being on a
commercial cruise that you know, these kinds of things stood out.
But I want to take some time and talk about
the ports that we visited because that's important too. I
mentioned that we began in Toronto. Toronto's a fantastic city,
(44:37):
and Victory Cruise Lines provide you with a luxury hotel
the night before your cruise. You don't want to be
late for this cruise, but to be sure that you're
not late, part of your cruise fair includes a night
in a hotel in Toronto the day before, after which
they transport you to the dock to board the ship
(44:59):
you know, the following. So that's how it started, with
a day in Toronto, wonderful city. But we left Toronto
on board and we passed through toward our next destination,
which was Niagara Falls. Niagara Falls presents a challenge as
you move from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie. If you've
ever heard about the falls, you know that the falls
(45:20):
are falls, right, you're talking about dropping several hundred feet
and you have to get from one lake to another.
You move from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie by passing
through something called the Well and Canal. It's about twenty
seven miles long. It contains eight locks where they move
(45:41):
the ship from one level to another eight times and
it's all done naturally to move through there. So it
was an extremely wonderful experience. Took us most of the
night to get through there. We got to our port
outside of Niagara Fall and they took us by bus
(46:02):
and part of the tour that we were enjoying on
this is we went to Niagara Falls and jumped on
board the Hornblower, which is the ship that actually takes
you with a nine hundred horsepower ship. It takes you
to the foot of the falls. They circle around there
a little bit. You get to experience it either from
behind glass or you can put on your raincoat and
(46:24):
experience it up close. Absolutely fantastic tour de Falls. The
Falls area saw the world's first hydro electric plant created
by a guy by name Nikolay Tesla. If you've ever
heard of him, Nikola Tesla. And then we moved on
to our second port. Second port was Cleveland, and the
exciting thing about Cleveland we visited the Rock and Roll
(46:46):
Hall of Fame. We visited the memorial there to one
of Terry's former clients, a guy by the name of
Dave Matthews. He's a member of the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame. I got to see all his band
material and the clothing that he exhibit all dedicated to
Ham Terry. You would have loved seeing that. I remember
telling you about it. We saw exhibits for the youngest
(47:08):
inductee there, Richie Allen's if you remember La Bamba, Don
McLean's American Pie. He's the youngest inductee. We also saw
exhibits for the oldest inductee. Chris, you're the music expert.
You know the oldest inductee in the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame. I have no idea Willie Nelson at
age ninety. He's the oldest inductee, Lots of hands on exhibits,
(47:31):
a lot of fun. We moved from Cleveland onto Detroit,
where we visited the iconic Henry Ford Museum, a place
that I'll be going with another group in September on
our tour to Mackinaw Island. I'll be there twice this year.
But we visited the Henry Ford Museum. That's where you
see the history of the Industrial Revolution in the United States.
(47:52):
This is a Smithsonian class museum. You're traveling around on
teak floors. You see double scale locomotives. You see the
old model TS model as you visit the limousine that
President Kennedy was in on his fatal day in Dallas.
You see the bus that Rosa Parks was in. Lots
(48:14):
and lots of history plus farm equipment, every color, yellow, green, red,
You see the history of this country in the Industrial Revolution.
We went on from there up to Mackinac Island, where
we saw the Grand Hotel, the world's longest porch rode
around on the island. It's a place that's got only
(48:36):
three vehicles, horse and buggy and bicycles of the transportation.
Fantastic day there on the island. They consume about ten
thousand or they sell about ten thousand pounds a day
of fudge on that island. It's the special food there.
From Mackinac Island, we moved on to Escinama. That's the
(48:58):
Michigan Upper Peninsular, or they call it the Upers up there,
the Upper Peninsula. It's a Civil War historic Civil War
shipping port, a lot of iron ore still today, a lot,
a lot, a lot of lumber moves through their walleye
fishing lighthouses. Fantastic visits, small town. Then we moved on
(49:18):
to Milwaukee, Historic Milwaukee, the German town, to see the
breweries up there, Schlitz Brewery and the Mansion. And we
moved from there into Chicago, the Navy Pier. Those are
just the excursions and you can look at those online.
I'm going through those really fast because I wanted to
save a little bit of time to talk about again
what made this trip so special for me, and I
(49:41):
started by talking about the reasons I took this cruise.
The reasons I took this cruise was I wanted to
have something I could recommend for travelers that don't want
to go that far from home. It's a short distance
to go to the Great Lakes from our area here
in the valley. You can go a short distance and
you can get lots and lots of very interesting and
(50:04):
unique stops. But especially you can do this all in luxury.
This is a luxury cruising experience, folks. If I haven't
impressed that upon people today, I've done a terrible, terrible job.
And we didn't just go on a river cruise. We
didn't just go on a lake cruise. We went on
a great lake cruise, a place where there's more water
(50:27):
than your eyes can take in in a single sight.
You cannot see the shore when you were cruising the
Great Lakes. That's so important. You were talking about twenty
percent of the world's fresh water supply on the Great Lakes.
It was just a very very different cruise. And for me,
this epitomized what we talk about every week on this show.
(50:49):
It epitomized a life less ordinary. I saw things, even
though I lived in Michigan. I saw things I'd never
seen before. I had experienced I can remember I've never
had before. And I'm happy to be able to share
with the two of you and all of our listeners
today I felt like I was stepping back in time
when the words cruising, classy, and luxury were synonymous words.
(51:14):
I just sat back, chilled and relaxed in luxury.
Speaker 1 (51:18):
Harry, I'm so jealous. I'm hoping next time, maybe you'll
take me along with Bob on one of these trips.
I know, I say this every time you go on
a trip. I'm like, you know, you can take your
old buddy Chris along with you.
Speaker 2 (51:34):
Bob and Harry. There's a combos.
Speaker 1 (51:36):
Oh, we get so much.
Speaker 3 (51:39):
They didn't have any bunk beds in any of the rooms, Chris.
I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1 (51:43):
Oh no, that's fine. I didn't. I don't want to
bunk with you. I just want to I just want
to travel with you. Well, this has been a this
has been a fun journey, Harry. I really enjoy the
Victory Cruise lines. You were on Victory too, right.
Speaker 3 (51:58):
Yes, I was all right. And this is a trip
that you know that we talk about. Here is a
trip that we listened to. As Terry said earlier, we
listen to folks that call in and tell us where
they want to go. It's what helps us decide where
we're going to do. Our groups for the coming year.
Listen to the experience as this being one of them,
but there's so many others. Listen to what we talk
(52:20):
about and let us know where you want to go.
The trip that I told you about today was my dream.
Maybe it fits you to let us know, Terry.
Speaker 1 (52:32):
I'm sure there are going to be many people that
are listening to today's show that are going to be
like I want to book that trip, and the wishing
Well can definitely make that happen.
Speaker 4 (52:41):
We would love that and they can find us at
again two forty three f avenue in Here's Someburg, Virginia.
They can call us Chris at five four o nine
oh eight two three three three, or they can look us.
Speaker 2 (52:55):
Up on the web. We are at the Wishingwell dot biz.
Speaker 1 (53:00):
This has been a life less ordinary the travel show
and podcast from your friends at the wishing Well. There
are two forty three f Avenue in Harrisonbury. If you
have any questions on topics discussed today, please reach out
to The wishing Well online at the wishing Well don
Bizz or call five four oh nine oh eight twenty
three thirty three. Past episodes are available on the iHeartRadio
(53:20):
Lab and We'll see you again next Saturday morning at
ten for a lifeless ordinary from the wishing Well
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.