Brest, France

NCL Getaway Transatlantic, Day 12

May 11, 2017 - Brest, France

We were so excited that we finally get to walk on solid ground after all these sea days. MOR and I went down to O'Sheehan's for breakfast at 6:30 to start our day. We figured that there could be a lot more people at the buffet since most people would want to head out early.

As we were walking to O'Sheehan's I noticed that there was barely anyone around so I quickly snapped a few photos of the empty ship.

Part of the casino where you would have to walk past to get to places on deck 7.

O'Sheehan's by the atrium.

Inside O'Sheehan's

There were not that many people at O'Sheehans' and we got our food quickly. The portions were not too big but there were just too much food for us still. To avoid the crowds and have a quick breakfast, this is a good place to be.

My Country Style Platter.

MOR's omelette.

After breakfast we walked out on deck to see how the port was like.

It certainly looked like that there's nothing worth seeing nearby that we can walk to.

We could see that tour buses were driving up to the port.

gangway was being set up

Our port time for Brest was suppose to be from 8:00 to 4:00. We thought it would be OK if we meet at 8:30 and get off the ship but we were told that we couldn't until they announce when and where to get off. While waiting, I went to deck 8 and watched how they were preparing for us to get off. Gangway was put in place, vendors setting up their booths, buses came shipside and seemed like we were ready. But...

As we were watching, I talked to a couple of people nearby about getting into town. One person swore that the only way to get into the city would be paying the $15 NCL shuttles. Another person said to just take the free port shuttle and then walk into town, it should be easy. For our group of 7, it's quite a lot of money to pay for the ship shuttle so I decided that we would just use the port shuttle and see how it goes. NCL kept telling us to purchase the shuttle tickets ahead of time because the free shuttle is very limited.

I wonder what that ambulance was there for?

Now we needed to get from deck 8 to deck 6 where the line was to get off the ship.

Glass walkway on deck 8

Wasabi and Raw Bar on deck 8

Shops

Down to deck 6

Yes, it was raining!

We got into this ridiculously long line just to get off the ship. It was very slow to the point of not moving most of the time. And the line went from the Atrium on deck 6, then it went down the stairs to deck 5. As people were stuck in the stuffy stairways all of a sudden they announced that the gangway is now on deck 7. From the photos that I had, I thought that the gangway was on deck 7 all that time. Why did they have us going downstairs was beyond me. Of course, everybody had to turn around and head back up and of course, people were confused and upset. Those people behind us were now ahead of us, and people who got off the elevators were able to just cut in line. What a mess and what a safety hazard! It was poorly organized and managed and I blame it on the officers in charge. By the time we were off the ship it was after 10:00.

A young man from the tourism office was passing out maps of the city as we got off the ship. I asked him about the distance to the city center from the shuttle drop off point and I think he misunderstood my question and told me about the trams. Then another more experienced woman came to the rescue as she was passing out the shopping guides. She pointed out on the map where we would be dropped off and how we could get to the different places in town. They kept calling the free shuttle drop-off point the 'port gate' but actually it was farther than where I thought the port gate was.

There was actually no line for this free shuttle and there was a short line for the $15 NCL shuttles.  This picture was taken from the free shuttle stop.

The gangway from deck 7.

On the free shuttle. Before getting off the bus, I asked the driver when the last bus going back to port would be and he said 3:00. Well, the $15 shuttles started at 9:30 and the last bus back was at 2:30 while this free bus starts operating at 9:00 and end at 3:00, a whole hour more service time than the expensive shuttle. NCL was not telling the truth!

This was the stop for the free shuttle. It was near R Cronstadt and R De L'Elorn. 

Some buildings along R. De L'Elorn. There is a stairway behind this area where you could walk up to the city center. You can see this clearly on the city map. A couple of people went that way using the stairs. We figured that we would want to go to the castle and the monument area anyway, so why not start there an walk back to the city center.

An interesting building that looked vacated along the city wall.

For us, we just followed a group of people and walked towards the American Monument. It was about a 12 to 15 minute walk from the shuttle stop to the American Monument.

Stairs going up to the American Monument and Cours Dajot park from Av. Franklin Roosevelt.

From the wall looking back down to the harbor.

Cours Dajot

Av. Franklin Roosevelt

American Monument

We could see the Getaway docked a little away.

This would have been a nice walk if it wasn't raining.

One of the side streets.

A monument at the end of Cours Dajot.

Looking back at the Cours Dajot space. Smaller than I expected.

The Chateau across the street.

National Marine Museum and Brest Chateau.

The castle.

R. De Denver right outside the castle.

Very nice! Just wish that it wasn't raining.

With the rain and the limited time, we decided not to go inside the museum. We are not museum people anyway.

Porte Jean Bart

I planned on crossing the river to see the Tanguy Tower and Saint-Malot Street which is an authentic street of the 17th Century, but with the rain we just had to change our plans.

The iconic bridge of Brest, Recouvrance, a massive drawbridge.

Notice the bridge near the water.

Didn't get to cross this bridge.

Now that we did not cross the river to the Tanguy Tower, we just follow the tram track on R. De Siam (Siam Street) the main street of this city. 

Just like any main streets in a city, there are many interesting stores and shops along Siam Street.

A narrow entrance to the Carrefoure supermarket. We went in for a peek and bought several things including some packages of biscuits that the port lecturer talked about to take home.

Then we turned on R De Lyon and found this cathedral. If I remember correctly, it's the St. Louis Cathedral. Quite a huge church!

Unusual stained glass windows.

By now, we really needed to find a restroom. It's not easy to find toilets but after looking for a while, we finally spotted one right across from the Liberty Plaza. I think that was the drop-off point for the $15 bus.

Liberty Plaza

Office of Tourism across from the plaza.

A short line with mostly passengers from the ship at this public toilet at the corner of Siam Street and Av. Georges Clemenceau. It was free.

We were hoping that we could find some crepes and cider which are part of the food culture in Brittany but unfortunately we did not find any. At around 1:15, we figured that we had seen most of the sites we wanted and with the unpredictable weather we should head back to the ship. So we followed Av. Georges Clemenceau down hill looking for the little stairways back to the shuttle stop.

Went past the bus station...

made a left turn on R. Poullic Al Lor ...

and there it was, the little stairway on the right.

The bottom of the stairs, R. Am Troude.

An easy walk...

back to the shuttle stop where a bus was waiting.

We were shocked by what we saw when our bus reached port. A long line of people waiting to get back on the ship. Someone from NCL got on our bus and told us that we had three options: 1. get off the bus and get in the long line; 2. the bus can drop us off at the vendors where there are seats to relax and we can board later; 3. take the bus back to town and come back at a later time.

Not knowing how long the wait would be sitting near the vendors and certainly not enough time for us to go back to the city, we decided to get in the long line and waited. That was a good decision because that line got longer and longer just in a blink of an eye until we couldn't even see the end of it at some point. People were all coming back around the same time and it was more than 1,000 people deep standing and waiting. Some crew members went along the line to get those with disabilities but it really didn't help. Some people were saying that this would be considered "elder abuse" if this happens at a nursing home leaving people standing outside in the cold and windy weather. Fortunately it was not raining when we were in line. Apparently, the problem was they only had one gangway opened on deck 7 and that gangway was not stable with that many people on it. It was quite dangerous. They finally had another gangway up on deck 5 just before we got back on. After standing in line for an hour, we were finally back in our stateroom.

Oh Lord! How much longer?

Smile!

After washing up a little we headed up to the buffet for a late lunch. Then a little relaxation in our cabin after the six-hour walking in town and standing in line. By the way, they also canceled the mandatory drill which was scheduled for 3:30 today. I don't think anyone was up to doing the drill after what we went through.

Dinner was at Tropicana again after a couple of days away but this time they could only put us at a table next to Nelson's station. Nelson was so nice that he took over our table so he could take care of us. 

Hungarian Cream of Mushroom

ChC's sirloin steak tartare

We shared the bottle of wine from the platinum dinner.

My main-the roasted pork belly. Very good!

We were all very tired and planned on getting to bed early. We had an extra hour because of time change backward. Then the captain announced that there is some engine problem and the ship had to slow down which means we will not get into Southampton until 12:00 noon tomorrow instead of 8:00am. We will stay in Southampton until 12:00 midnight which means we will not have enough time to get to Zeebrugge the next day. Another canceled port which I was so looking forward to and had a taxi booked. We will be sailing to Rotterdam from Southampton with an extra sea day.  Well, of course there were many angry people who expressed their feelings at guest services. As I was standing near guest services, a woman in front of me said she will get off in Southampton because she doesn't trust NCL or this captain anymore. This cruise has been most unpredictable and disappointing. Poor management and organization was to blamed. Unfortunately, many passengers had no idea what was in stored for them the next day when we docked at Southampton. Another day that turned really bad for many.