MS Veendam August 17-24 Historic Coasts

Well, I'm essentially packed. As some of you know, I'm an early bird and will be on a 6:23 bus tomorrow for Baltimore's Penn Station. I went out this morning to check the actual time at my stop and am expecting good weather for my bus/train trip to Boston.

I plan to have daily updates as usual on this thread and also at the site I now use for my "routine" travels:

http://getawaysfrom21044.wordpress.com

What I do here will be almost exclusively narrative; pictures will be published on the wordpress site. 24 hours from now I'll be on my way.

The itinerary is:

Boston: August 17

Bah Habah: August 18

Saint John: August 19

Halifax: August 20

Sydney: August 21

At Sea: August 22

Portland: August 23

Boston and home: August 24

Roy

Roy,

Have a wonderful time...I'll be looking for your cruise log!

Have a great cruise.

Bon Voyage!!

Ray, Have a great cruise. Enjoy the MS Veendam.

Roy, safe travels tomorrow and Sue and I look forward to meeting you on the Veendam!

Debbie

As always we look forward to following you again on one of your cruises.

BON VOYAGE with calm seas and great weather!

Barbara and Dan

Bon Voyage!!!

Looking forward to your updates!:)

Hi Sheila,

Hope you and Fred are well and not working too hard at the Inn.

Our warmest regards!

Barbara and Dan Gallo

Fellow cruisers on a past msMAASDAM Caribbean Gem cruise

Looking forward to your review Roy. And of course Welcome to Saint John on the 19th:D

Bon voyage! Enjoy your cruise. Ant the train ride..:)

Hope you have a wonderful cruise!

Welcome to my neck o' the woods. Based on today, we seem to have ordered our best summer weather for you. It's a beautiful day.

Looking forward to reading your reports here. Have a great time.

Have a great time Roy.

Welcome to my neck o' the woods. Based on today, we seem to have ordered our best summer weather for you. It's a beautiful day.

Looking forward to reading your reports here. Have a great time.

Thank you all. The weather in Maryland is also perfect but is due to turn nasty over the weekend. One of our roll call members has been reporting weather for our ports and it looks like we may hit the jackpot throughout the cruise.

Roy

I left the house on schedule, and both the city bus to downtown Baltimore and the free connection to Penn Station were uneventful. Downtown was showing a lot of concrete walls as preparations have started for Labor Day's Baltimore Grand Prix. I'm now in Penn Station, tickets to Boston and back in hand, with about 55 minutes until my train arrives. It's a beautiful day with a very nice sunrise about 5 minutes after I boarded the bus. Looks like great weather throughout the trip.

This post comes to you live from Baltimore Penn Station.

We have a picture perfect day here in Boston today to welcome you. Tomorrow is supposed to be the same. An ideal day to board a cruise ship and sail away. :)_

Looking forward to your review Roy. And of course Welcome to Saint John on the 19th:D

Kazu,

Will you and/or Sapper be meeting the ship, assisting ashore in some way in Saint John?

Pretty close to on time and we've cleared Connecticut. The beaches to the train's starboard looked very inviting although it may not have been warm enough to be in the water. I couldn't figure out access; there may have been a pedestrian tunnel under the track.

Kazu,

Will you and/or Sapper be meeting the ship, assisting ashore in some way in Saint John?

Plans have been made. Stay tuned

This post comes to you live from Train 86, chugging merrily through Rhode Island.

Roy

Thank you all. The weather in Maryland is also perfect but is due to turn nasty over the weekend. One of our roll call members has been reporting weather for our ports and it looks like we may hit the jackpot throughout the cruise.

 

Roy

Well, I'm essentially packed. As some of you know, I'm an early bird and will be on a 6:23 bus tomorrow for Baltimore's Penn Station. I went out this morning to check the actual time at my stop and am expecting good weather for my bus/train trip to Boston.

 

I plan to have daily updates as usual on this thread and also at the site I now use for my "routine" travels:

 

http://getawaysfrom21044.wordpress.com

 

What I do here will be almost exclusively narrative; pictures will be published on the wordpress site. 24 hours from now I'll be on my way.

 

The itinerary is:

 

Boston: August 17

Bah Habah: August 18

Saint John: August 19

Halifax: August 20

Sydney: August 21

At Sea: August 22

Portland: August 23

Boston and home: August 24

 

Roy

I'm looking forward to your updates. I'm booked on this itinerary for next August.

Have a great time cruising to my favorite destination! Looking forward to your reports.

We have a picture perfect day here in Boston today to welcome you. Tomorrow is supposed to be the same. An ideal day to board a cruise ship and sail away. :)_

 

 

It really was a picture perfect day (at least evening) in Boston. Rita, I love this itinerary but there are some special things about this year.

With beautiful weather, the day started out pretty much as planned. I left the house at 6:15 and walked about 500 feet to my neighborhood. My bus went by in the wrong direction, and after continuing about 2 blocks returned for an ontime 6:24 arrival. As we made our way through the local mall parking area the sun rose brightly over the roof of the mall.

On arriving in Baltimore around 7:20 I got a quick snack. For the last few years Baltimore has hosted a Labor Day Grand Prix, and preparations were underway with barriers erected on some streets and bleachers in evidence. The free Charm City soon had me in Penn Station. My board showed departures up to about 10 minutes late, my 9:23 train 86 fluctuated between on time and 2 minutes late. The gate opened about 9:15 and at 9:26 we had cleared the Baltimore tunnel. My business class car was uncrowded initially.

We stopped 10 minutes late in New York, and ran about that late most of the way, but arrived in Boston 2 minutes early. It was about a 20-minute walk to the Hilton Faneuil. I got dinner at a Panera just around the corner and took a walk along the Rose Kennedy Greenway to North Station and back in the evening.

As today's parting shot, it is wonderful to be back in Boston. While I love the city, I don't get here very often. My brother spent 4 years at Harvard, I went to college in upstate NY but spent a couple of months in an Actuarial Science seminar at Northeastern University and have fond memories of my time here. My time here is all too short but still great.

This post comes to you live from the Hilton, Boston.

Roy

Thanks for your reports.

Wishing you a fabulous cruise.

Bon Voyage Roy, I will be looking forward to your updates :)

Roy, have a great cruise and I hope your Captain is Pieter Bos. Please give your impressions of the Veendam.