B2B Canada - New England. Montreal to Montreal.

I am considering the possibility of doing the Montreal Boston, Boston Montreal cruises as a B2B in 2018. ( Montreal is our home port, no flying needed). I am just curious to see if someone has done this cruise before and if so, if any tips pr suggestions would come to mind. Thank you in advance!

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We did this cruise -- Boston to Montreal and then back to Boston.

It is a great itinerary.

Did it on the Maasdam.

We enjoyed the B2B, 5 years ago, aboard the Maasdam, along with other Canada / New England cruises which we have taken previously.

Leaving from, and arriving into Montreal will certainly be much better for your experience since the work to refurbish the cruise terminal is scheduled to be completed this year. So that is a real bonus .

The only disadvantage for the B2B is that you will only see Boston once, but since we drive to Boston each summer for Red Sox games anyways, we enjoy other aspects of Boston when we dock there.

We did this in the fall of '15 driving in from Ottawa. We had a hard time convincing port guards that we planned to park at the port lot. Finally we got thru' by showing our tickets. In the terminal we were given a tag to hang from our rear view mirror.

Imagine our absolute SURPRISE and DELIGHT not to be charged. We'd been unable to get a stamped ticket upon arrival, but had found out on line that it would be cheaper to pay a month's marking fee rather than a daily rate. Not sure if this was a one time event -- but we sure saved considerable money when we were simply waved through at the end of a great cruise.

Ruth

I am considering the possibility of doing the Montreal Boston, Boston Montreal cruises as a B2B in 2018. ( Montreal is our home port, no flying needed). I am just curious to see if someone has done this cruise before and if so, if any tips pr suggestions would come to mind. Thank you in advance!

I did this B2B twice. First time (first cruise ever) it was under a 14 day single booking number. Second time, HAL only offered it as 7 day bookings (except to Neptune suites). Completing the check-in online section, the HAL page expects you to name an airline flight or a hotel in Boston. Presumably, US customs/immigration will check that out. You must call your HAL PCC (or TA) to get the proper way to fill in codes so that the HAL system knows you are reboarding in Boston.

At the turnaround, you have extra paperwork and a second ID card for that day to allow you back on the ship via the same line as crew. They are quite good about explaining this onboard. US Customs and Border require a "zero count" with ALL passengers off the ship for about a half hour or a bit more. Both times a few of us shared taxis to Fanuel Hall for a short day visit.

Douglas

We did this cruise except from Boston back to Boston 3 years ago. I enjoyed the cruise but seeing the same identical ports was not that great. However, the weather was good in some ports going and not so good on the return so at least we had a second chance visiting the ports with better weather.

Thank-you very much for the feedback and interesting tips!

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