Photo review Maasdam 7-n Canada/New England cruise June 27 2015

First a small correction. The rental agency (Enterprise) in Charlottetown yesterday was still open when we got back, and we got a ride back to the terminal with them. It was today in Sydney that Budget closed early, because of Canada Day, and we shared a taxi back.

Today we got to Sydney, NS, on Canada Day. I just love Lido breakfast (many options and many cooked to order), and today it was a calm beautiful morning so we had breakfast out on the Lido terrace just after we arrived in port:

We had booked a rental car with Budget, which had a pick-up service and was also the only rental agency to be open on Canada Day.

Originally I had planned for us to drive a circle tour around part of the Bras d'Or lake, visiting Baddeck and Iona. But we changed our plans to Louisbourg fortress instead, partly because I had seen pictures of the fortress and I was thinking it might be a do-not-miss sight, and partly because our original plans would have entailed a much longer drive - and yesterday we got stressed and today we would have even less port time.

We got to Louisbourg fortress and it was a beautiful day, we were told they only get a few of those each summer. It was also free today, because of Canada Day. It was fun with lots of locals arriving to celebrate the day at the fortress.

View of Louisbourg fortress, from Lighthouse Cove across the bay:

As I understand the entire fortress was in ruins and everything has had to be restored. The site is also staffed by reenactors. It's very pretty and quite convincing. There's also a lot of potential, they could open more activities/businesses and a real restaurant for instance, the café is very small. We got some bread from the bakery and visited different types of houses.

So we continued our day in the beautiful Louisbourg fortress. It was really a photographer's haven.

Shortly before noon, there was a presentation in the castle within the fortress. The musketeers marched, played music and fired their muskets. A cannon was fired too. And we all sang "O Canada" to celebrate Canada Day.

We bought a simple and quick lunch from the cafe on site, they didn't have much on offer. Then we drove to Lighthouse Cove on the other side of the bay, to get some views of the fortress (picture in the post before), the lighthouse and the coast. We also figured it might be a more quite spot than Peggy's Cove lighthouse (which we skipped).

We could also see some lobster fishing in action.

Today we got to Halifax, our last port in Canada. For the third day in a row, we had a rental car reserved, this time with Budget again. When we arrived into port, it was quite a foggy morning, but we decided to go ahead with our plans anyway and hoped the weather would clear up.

Our calls to the rental agency only stuck in their answering machine, so we couldn't arrange a pickup. Luckily it wasn't far to walk. We walked along the boardwalk and that would be all we had time to see Halifax itself.

The lighthouse in the harbour actually looked better in the fog:

Halifax is also the main base of the Canadian Navy, and we saw some interesting drills going on:

Our plan for the day was to drive to Mahone Bay and Lunenburg. After that if we still had time we might do Peggy's Cove; my reasoning was that we had and would see other nice fishing villages and lighthouses, it might be overrun with tourists and it was a detour on slow roads. We never did have time for it of course...

Anyway we drove towards Mahone Bay, and the weather improved! In contrast to for instance PEI, the roads were very desolate and boring, but the Mahone Bay-Lunenburg area was pretty. We saw the famous three churches in a row view in Mahone Bay:

We continued on to Lunenburg. It's a pretty fishing town with colorful houses, the town is also a World Heritage site. We found it nice but perhaps a bit more touristy than we had thought. This is the main dock in Lunenburg:

Some of the nice colorful houses in Lunenburg:

A panorama of Lunenburg, seen from the other side of the bay. To the far right in the photo you can see the sailing ship "Bluenose II" (a replica), the ship is a symbol of Nova Scotia and also appears on the Canadian dime:

More colorful houses in Lunenburg:

We drove back to Halifax. As usual, we basically only had time to return to the terminal and get our internet fix before we had to board the ship again. It's great that the Canadian cruise terminals (on this cruise) have free wi-fi.

Sail away from Halifax, with the same lighthouse that was in the foggy morning picture (last post):

Another lighthouse on our way out to the open sea:

This was also our second and last formal night on board. This night we got the Surf'n'Turf in the MDR:

Really enjoying your review and photos as this cruise is one I hope to enjoy soon. Especially nice to see your pics of PEI since I'm a big fan of Anne of Green Gables. Seems like this port gets missed a lot due to weather, but glad you had a nice day. Thank you for taking the time to share your cruise with us.

I'm also enjoying your excellent review and photos. We enjoyed the same cruise a few years ago, but in October, hoping for fall colors, but we were a week or so too early. We just poked around in the ports and didn't rent a car, so it's great to see what we missed, plus we couldn't dock in Sydney due to a storm.

Keep up the good work. I'm enjoying the cruise all over again!

Thank you all for your comments.

Today we arrived in Bar Harbor, which would be our only tender port and also our first port in the US. As such, we all had to go through a border inspection onboard in the Explorations Cafe before getting tender tickets. They summoned us deck by deck via the PA system. They had two lines, one for US citizens and one for foreign nationals. US citizens were of course processed very quickly and ahead of schedule, but we foreigners had to wait in line for about 30min (at least faster than at the airports). I wish they would have separated us further into Canadians and other foreigners, and/or checked beforehand if we already had immigrated to the US shortly before departing from Canada/Montréal - these measures could have sped up the process.

After this, there was a lengthy wait for tenders too. I had wished to get ashore and see the tide rising at sand bar, but it was already gone when we got ashore. You probably need to do the itinerary in the reverse direction (so no need for immigration) if you want to get ashore early in Bar Harbor.

We could already see some of the beautiful seaside mansions of Bar Harbor from the ship when we arrived:

Since I already suspected we might be delayed, I had not booked anything, I was simply planning to do a walk-up to Olli's Trolley and get one of their tours. We had thought of doing the longer Acadia NP tour, but we just missed it coming ashore and didn't want to wait, so instead we took the shorter Cadillac Mountain tour, thinking that afterwards we could do the free Island Explorer buses or just walk about the town.

The Olli's Trolley tour was good, but it's a little short to only get a 15min stop on top Cadillac Mountain. Apparently it's the highest mountain along the west Atlantic coast until you get to Rio de Janeiro. The views were great:

When we got back from the tour, we walked in downtown towards the Village Green only to find all the interesting Island Explorer bus routes crowded. We gave it a pass and just decided to walk a curcuit around town:

I would have liked to see more of Acadia NP (specifically Thunder Hole), but in the end we had a very pleasant walk in Bar Harbor; along the shore, in the residential areas and browsing some shops. We saw many pretty houses, some decorated for 4th of July (tomorrow):

Also we had time for a nice lunch. We chose West St Café, I had read some recommendations before and the Olli's Trolley guide also recommended it. It was very busy but service was quick and friendly, the meal IMO was one of our best during the cruise. We got the Seaside Sandwich Special, which consisted of Clam chowder, Lobster roll (Crab for my partner) and Blueberry pie (Maine is supposed to have very tasty blueberries):

This was the last night of our cruise. We had a casual Lido dinner and then watched a movie ("the Imitation Game", very good!) in the Wajang theatre (since the only show would have been Dancing with the Stars at Sea finale) and packed our bags of course.

I might have missed it, but has anyone asked what camera you use? It must have a nice f-stop to have gotten such great interior pictures. Whatever it is, we want one. :)

I especially loved your PEI and Fortress of Louisbourg pictures. We are also renting cars and doing similar routes. The West Street Café sounds (and looks) wonderful.

I might have missed it, but has anyone asked what camera you use? It must have a nice f-stop to have gotten such great interior pictures. Whatever it is, we want one. :)

No one has yet asked about the camera (in this thread) :cool: It's a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ1000, a bridge camera (fixed lens), and physically almost the same size as a DSLR. I got it last October, and I simply love it! The lens is amazingly bright with F2.8-4.0 over a 25-400mm eqv focal length (16x zoom), the caveat being that the sensor is smaller than in a DSLR (but bigger than in a compact). However for evening dinner shots onboard, I take those with my iPhone 6+, it's a bit too embarrassing to lug the Lumix to the MDR... especially on formal night. For instance the Louisbourg interior shots were taken with the Lumix, and that was difficult because there were no electrical lights only daylight etc.

I especially loved your PEI and Fortress of Louisbourg pictures. We are also renting cars and doing similar routes. The West Street Café sounds (and looks) wonderful.

Yes, our favorites were definitively PEI, Québec and Louisbourg :). Enjoy your upcoming cruise!

Thank you. Panasonic makes some great cameras. We have an older Panasonic Lumix point and shoot that still does a great job. We have Nikon and Canon DSLRs, but this time we aren't lugging them. Instead we are using our new Samsung Galaxy S6 cell phone cameras, so I was excited to find that you took your food pictures with your cell phone. They have come a long way.

It sound's like you had a very good cruise. My DH and I, along with friends we are cruising with, have certainly enjoyed your cruise.

So this morning we arrived in Boston and disembarked from the Maasdam. Disembarkation was very smooth since immigration had been taken care of yesterday in Bar Harbor, we only had to hand in our customs declarations in Boston while walking straight through the terminal. We chose a late independent disembarkation and still carried off our own bags, it was very convenient for us.

Boston Black Falcon cruise terminal, seen from the ship:

We took the bus, Silver Line #2, from the terminal to South Station and then we took the subway/trolley Red Line into Downtown Crossing. We had booked the Hyatt Regency in Downtown for three nights. The Hyatt was very nice and was recently renovated throughout. We couldn't check in this early of course, so we just handed in our bags and headed out.

Our plan for the day was to walk the Freedom Trail, thinking it might be extra special on Independence Day. It was enjoyable but in some places quite crowded with tourists.

We started with Boston Green and Massachusetts State House:

The Old State House is a beautiful building, but it's spectacularly dwarfed by the surrounding skyscrapers:

Especially Quincy Market was crazy crowded. The North End was much more quiet and we had lunch there. This is Paul Revere Mall (in the North End):

We did walk all the way to the Charlestown Navy Yard, however the USS Constitution is currently in drydock. I liked this mock-up section of the ship, complete with posing sailors:

We took the Charlestown ferry back to Waterfront/Downtown and then returned to the hotel to check-in and rest.

In the evening we headed out for the fireworks. We took the subway/trolley Red Line to Kendall/MIT, thinking it would be less crowded and that it would be nice with the skyscrapers of Back Bay as a backdrop for the fireworks (which are launched from the Charles river in between). It was a nice view, but there were tons of people on this side of the river as well. The bridge was closed both for cars and pedestrians, the subway was the only way to cross. This created massive queuing for the subway after the fireworks. The fireworks lasted almost for 30min and were great.

Skyline of Back Bay just after the fireworks (notice the smoke to the left side):

For our second day in Boston, we did some shopping and sightseeing in the Back Bay area. We also needed a resting day...

Back Bay has some very nice residential areas:

The Boston Public Library is a beautiful building on Copley Square. It was especially nice for us to see, since the main reading room in the NYC Public Library was closed for renovation.

On the other side of Copley Square, is Trinity Church:

So this was my final photo-post for this cruise!

On July 6, we got a rental car and did an excursion to Newport RI to see the mansions and the town. On July 7, we took the Amtrak Acela back to NYC (the train got delayed 2,5 hours!). We did some last-minute sightseeing in NYC and the took our night SAS flight back to Copenhagen.

In summary, it was a very good cruise and a great vacation (with our pre- and post-travels). We were slightly disappointed in a few aspects of the Maasdam, but the itinerary of the cruise is superb with great ports, albeit being very port intensive and the port times are a bit short.

Thank you all for your kind comments and thank you for reading!

Any questions?

See you next cruise /Henrik

Your review has been great! We also ate at the West St. Café and enjoyed it greatly. I thought about getting the meal you did but my husband wanted me to get the whole lobster! He knew it would be so good. And he was right! He travels and gets to experience local foods so he wanted me to have this treat! Makes the lobster on the ships less appealing now.

We got the mussels and calm chowder in Charlottetown and enjoyed that meal too!

Hi everyone, I realize this thread/ review is almost a year old now, but I thought it might be an inspiration for this summer season.

Anyway, I have finally finished my movie about the cruise and uploaded it to YouTube:

It's a long movie. Montreal & Ottawa are between minutes 14-28. The cruise from Montreal to Boston is between minutes 28-53, with interiors from Maasdam mostly in the beginning. Finally Boston is between minutes 53-58.

The thank you, Laurino, for posting. I was able to relive our very pleasant cruise on the Maasdam. Enjoyed seeing places we had visited and others we didn't. We couldn't stop at Sidney due to bad weather, resulting in an extra sea day, or for me, seasick day! We did have a little extra time in Halifax as a result.

Thank you. Great job on photos and video. Great memories from our four repo cruises from Canada to Fl and once from Fl to Canada. Three times on Maasdam.

Thanks for sharing your talented gifts of photography and video.

Great photos and video. Thank you so much for posting!

Thanks for the comments :)

I'm so glad you came back to give us your video link. It is wonderful. We did the Montreal to Boston cruise in September and ended up doing some of the same excursions you did, and it was such fun to re-live that trip. We went to Mahone Bay/Lunenburg and the Fortress of Louisbourg. We had done the car trip to the North Shore on PEI a few years ago, so this time we drove along the northeast and east shores, which are also beautiful.

Honestly, after watching your video, we have almost decided to repeat that cruise next year. It is such a gorgeous area, and there's so much to see.

Thank you!

Thanks for the info and thanks for the video. I'm doing Maasdam to Alaska this summer and just booked Cabin 421, so, I'm happy to see you enjoyed that location. Great pictures!

Thanks for the info and thanks for the video. I'm doing Maasdam to Alaska this summer and just booked Cabin 421, so, I'm happy to see you enjoyed that location. Great pictures!

OK great :) Just note that I haven't been inside cabin 421. I probably wrote this before already; I just know that we stayed in cabin 418 and had some noise issues because there's an AC-room next to it and not a corridor as it seems in the deck plans. On the starboard side I seem to recall there was a corridor and not an AC-room (otherwise Interior cabin 423 would be inaccessible) which leeds me to believe that cabins 419 and 421 are better, and also 420 on the port side. However cabins 420 and 421 might be affected by slamming doors or people walking on the outside stairs next to them, I don't know, althought those stairs were not very popular on our cruise.

I'm so glad you came back to give us your video link. It is wonderful. We did the Montreal to Boston cruise in September and ended up doing some of the same excursions you did, and it was such fun to re-live that trip. We went to Mahone Bay/Lunenburg and the Fortress of Louisbourg. We had done the car trip to the North Shore on PEI a few years ago, so this time we drove along the northeast and east shores, which are also beautiful.

 

Honestly, after watching your video, we have almost decided to repeat that cruise next year. It is such a gorgeous area, and there's so much to see.

 

Thank you!

That sounds wonderful :) I'd like to do the Cabot trail on Cape Breton Island some time, it just seemed a bit long as an excursion from Sydney and during a short port stop. Would definitely like to see more of PEI too.

Thanks for a great review of photos & your video. We are doing the same cruise in October but on the Rotterdam, think I'll have to pack some travelcam for the sea day! We are also going to take the train from Boston to New York but on the day of departure. How long did it take for you to disembark & catch the bus to South station? Thinking we will catch the train that leaves around 11.40am.

Thanks for a great review of photos & your video. We are doing the same cruise in October but on the Rotterdam, think I'll have to pack some travelcam for the sea day! We are also going to take the train from Boston to New York but on the day of departure. How long did it take for you to disembark & catch the bus to South station? Thinking we will catch the train that leaves around 11.40am.

Oh a bit difficult to remember... However I checked the time tags on my photos. At about 8.20am we were still onboard and I was taking pictures of Boston harbor from the Lido deck, probably just after breakfast. We probably debarked at about 9am with our own luggage. Then shortly before 10am I was taking pictures of the Financial District, because we were heading to our Hyatt hotel there. Getting there we used the Silver line bus to South station and then switched to the Red line subway, so our journey was longer than yours. I seem to recall that debarkation was fast since we already did US immigration onboard in the previous port Bar Harbor (in Maine), so in Boston we only had to clear customs with our bags, and that's much faster. So you should be fine. You could do the early self-debark with your own luggage, if you want to be on the safe side.