ellieanne

I highly recommend a tour of Cliff Walk and The Breakers in Newport. Also, the Trinity Church in Newport is worth seeing. The wineglass pulpit is amazing. Halifax is a lovely city. The Hop-on/Hop-Off bus is a great way to see the sights and get off to linger if you want. The Citadel is really interesting and the Maritime Museum has a great exhibit on the Titanic and the Halifax Explosion. It's also really easy to find food along the boardwalk at the waterfront. Cows Ice Cream is touristy, but it's good ice cream too. I do not recommend the nature trail at Irving Nature Park on a tour. The guide I had on that tour was a competitive walker and thought everyone on the tour was as well. Three people on our tour tripped over the roots because she was walking so fast. We had to send someone running to catch her because she did not notice or pay attention to the people at the back of the group calling for her to stop for a moment. I wish I had seen more of the Nature Park than what was beneath my feet.

I am a bit sorry about this. My cruise in September had assigned boarding times and I think it was the best and easiest boarding process I have had since my first cruise in 1998. It was easy and controlled the number of people in line at any time, which meant minimal waiting tp check in or board. And it was easy to find a table in the Lido for a quick lunch once we got on board. I wish they would have kept the timed boarding. It was even easy to get all our boarding party together, all I did was call HAL and have them move one cabin to a later time so we could all board together and my parents could have both mine and my brother's assistance. (The 1998 cruise ranks as best boarding because they did all the processing in a ballroom at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal with drinks and snack provided and bussed groups to the ship on a schedule -- we had about 90 minutes to check in and wait, and explore the hotel and the Gare Centrale. That was best system, but I can see why they might not do that anymore.)

My brother had no problem using his Keep Cup on our last cruise (in September). They are barista-standard sizes, so no problems fitting under the group heads on most machines.

On my last cruise, my parents & brother had priority boarding; I did not (all separate cabins/bookings). Our assigned check-times were all the same. I was invited by the check-in staff to follow my parents through the priority line, even though my brother was there to assist them and had priority check-in status. I opted to go through the regular people check in and was finished at exactly the same time and boarded at exactly the same time as the others in the group with priority. I did ask, the check-in staff offered. So you never know what will happen when you get to the boarding lines. My best suggestion would be to stay as a group as long as possible, and then if you are separated in the process meet up again on the other side or on board. It's not a big deal either way.

This is one reason why I am out on the wrap-around deck at sailaway.

I agree, mostly. Sometimes even the best plans get a bit waylaid. On one of our stops in Sydney, NS, a group on a tour was held up due to a massive accident that closed part of the road back to the port. Obviously not their fault, and even if they could get to an alternate route, they would be late back, despite having left with plenty of time to make it back before all-aboard time. The group contacted the ship and the ship waited over 45 minutes for them. That's fair, and it didn't have a significant impact on getting to the next port. There are degrees and there are reasons. In Boston, there is not much leeway, because port operations are controlled by Logan Airport, so the time is tight and the ship leaves. In Sydney, NS, the port is smaller and there is a bit more leeway about coming & going time. However, it would have been perfectly reasonable to assess the late passengers with any over-time fees charged by the port. (For the record, I do not know if that happened, but it would be a reasonable thing for the ship to do.) It's not always the passengers' fault, but that does not mean it is not always the passengers' responsibility.

On my last pre-Covid cruises, port agent information was printed on the maps given out by the Shore Excursions team at the pier. I don't remember if they were on the maps on my cruise this past September, but I do know the port agent information was not on the daily programs. I picked up the map for Quebec City and found it less than helpful, mostly shops and a strange scale with little information to help navigation, so I didn't bother picking up maps for other ports, instead getting one from the local tourism bureau kiosks once ashore.

No. On my very first cruise, we left 2 passengers on the dock in Boston. Everyone on the ship was waving to the two late passengers. They were not on a group excursion, but ashore on their own and the ship did not wait for them. There had been pages for the passengers for about 20 minutes prioir to the ship leaving, but they were standing open-mouthed on the dock as the ship was pushing away. (Boston was the last stop before the end of the cruise in New York the next day. I heard later they beat the ship to New York and were able to re-board to pack to leave the ship.) I was on a ship-sponsored shore excursion in Portland, Maine and that excursion was delayed getting back to the ship. The ship waited for that tour, though everything had been pulled in but the gangway and ship staff were on the dock to hurry the delayed guests aboard. These two experiences are why I always use ship-sponsored shore excursions to go ashore in new ports, and many times in busy ports.

My experience is they are on the menu, but are not always available, and may "sell out" early in the cruise.

If you want activities, HAL is probably not the line for you. There are things planned, trivia contests, deck games, and beer tastings, etc. but it's not a full schedule. My experience is that HAL is a sedate line, with plenty of time and opportunity for chatting with friends/family, reading, and relaxing. And that's what I want in a vacation...just time in a relatively quiet environment. But I know that's not for everyone. My husband enjoys the music venues, but there again, what we want is quiet enjoyment of the music, rather than huge productions. I find the food good. I'm not a foodie by any means. I want well prepared food, but I'm okay with mid-range chain restaurants. I would much rather well prepared basic food than art projects on a plate with trendy ingredients and preparations. Given my choice, I am picking peasant-style dishes over fancy ones every time. (I grew up in New Orleans, with South Louisiana soups, stews, and casseroles...well flavored and prepared food, but not fancy to New York palates.) Basically, it depends on what you want from the cruise. HAL is perfect for us in ways that Norwegian, Carnival, Princess & Royal Caribbean are not.

There is an ice cream station in the Lido, not out by the pool. On my cruise, the lines for ice cream were always very long, and sometimes flowed into the lines for the other desserts. It also meant if all you wanted were cookies, you had to stand in the ice cream line or cut in to just get the cookies. Poor planning on the layout, but very nice ice cream.

I do miss the days when they had liqueurs at the ice cream stations. That made for some really nice afternoon treats. But I guess, as it goes with all good things, greedy people ruined it for everyone.

Of the Vista class, the Zuiderdam is my favorite. I love the art theme, and like remembering the floors based on the Commedia del Arte statues in the elevator lobbies. But really, it's a great ship otherwise. My favorite places are either the Lido (when my who travelling party are together -- the large tables make it so easy for groups of 6-8 to gather together -- or the Ocean Bar for drinks & reading during the day. My husband really liked how easy it was on our cruise to find a lounger, especially since he preferred the ones well away from the edge of the pool, and he really enjoyed the music venues. I liked the "secret" path to my Deck 1 stateroom through the Main Show Lounge...so much easier to run up and down through those stairs than wait on an elevator. It was a great ship. Temperature is subjective, and really dependent on location cruising. We loved our Canada/New England cruise on the Zuiderdam, but it was a bit overcast and chilly, so the dome roof was almost never opened. But on the Panama Canal cruise we had on the Zuiderdam, the roof was always open and it was quite warm. Even the temperature in the Main Dining Room was dependent on the weather outside, probably due to all the windows in the room. If you are chilly a lot of the time, I would suggest dressing in light layers so you can stay comfortable no matter the weather/temperature.

Ohh, yes the tender lines are awful. I wanted to get back to my cabin just past the entrance to the stairs and I was told by several people, even when I said all I wanted was to get to my cabin "Sucks to be you, the end of the line is way back there."

Zaandam (smaller ship) or Eurodam (larger ship), though I have a spot for the Zuiderdam too. The S-Class Veendam is still my favorite ship.