Blackduck59

I would doubt it. You won't get off the ship at 4 if you dock at 4. Then it is at least 45 minutes to the garden from the port. The Butchart Gardens is huge and it can easily eat up 2 hours for a "quick" walk through then another 45 minutes back. I would suggest you try Beacon Hill Park, it's free and much closer to the port. I'm sure that an excursion will be offered by your ship to Butchart Gardens and that may be the way to go if you want to get to the Gardens and back to your ship with certainty.

I'm not sure about words of wisdom just a few observations. On our Pacific Coastal cruise aboard Orion the service in the restaurant was painfully slow. There were also other issues in the restaurant that caused us to dine elsewhere. There was always crab in the cold section of the world buffet and the sushi selection was on the opposite side of the ship. The hot selections were tasty and most importantly you didn't have to wait for 45 minutes for the entree to arrive. There were different selection on each night. Most importantly get your "specialty" reservations as soon as you can or you may not get them at all. Please do enjoy your cruise.

On our cruise you couldn't reserve in advance, at least we couldn't. For the Restaurant that didn't matter, just line up at 6:00pm and you should be seated fairly quickly. We stopped dining in the Restaurant after the 3rd 1 1/2 hour long dinner ordeal. When we went to book our "guaranteed" dinners in specialty dining there was no availability before 8:00 pm. That was in the morning the day after embarkation. There were also reports from our cruise where reservations were made in advance and no record of them were found on the ship. So if you can't make specialty reservations in advance di it as soon as you board the ship. As with everything your experience may vary depending on the ship.

Actually the OP titled the thread "The buckwheat pancakes are not buckwheat" implying that they had no buckwheat in them. The whole title of the thread is misleading, in fact it invites criticism. Because something on the ship isn't as good as the version served in their favourite diner back home doesn't mean the "buckwheat pancakes aren't buckwheat" it means they are different from what I'm used to and prefer the ones from home. I'm not sure how "helpful" this thread was intended to be. Sticking with the original post something as simple as a burger can be so varied starting with the fat content of the ground beef, remember fat makes flavour. The key is getting the right balance. Also those that lament that the burger is "overcooked", sorry food safe demands an internal temperature of 160 degrees. Just because Bob's Burgers back home serves it blood rare does not make it right. If you intend to serve ground beef rare then you better be grinding it in house every day making sure there is no contaminants on it (nasty things like E.coli could result serving rare ground beef from a bulk supplier). So the OP didn't like the Dive in Burger fair enough, others apparently like them. And complaining about frozen fries...really? How many cruise ships serve fresh cut fries? On the subject of Lobster, most lobster tails are not the crustaceans we are used to seeing from Maine or Nova Scotia, they are something else altogether. Just like the many different species of shrimp and prawns they all look similar but they are different and taste different. If you require good lobster you better expect it to be getting pulled out of a live tank. If that is not available to you then you will get a different result.

Depending where the buses are, it's about 80 meters if they are close to the port building. When we got off Orion in April the taxis were at the very end of the parking lot about 100 meters from the gangway.

In most places buckwheat pancakes aren't even on the menu. The op started with "the buckwheat pancakes aren't buckwheat". I'm not sure what that means. I would suggest that if the pancakes have buckwheat in them, they are buckwheat. Much like commercial bread is not "whole wheat" it is actually made with white flour and has the germ and bran added to it. Now just because HAL doesn't make their buckwheat pancakes like Chuck's Diner back home doesn't mean they aren't buckwheat.

Even on a sea day you should get a signal while you are in the inside passage. Civilization is close by no matter whether you are closer to Vancouver Island or the mainland. If the wifi fails you then try your cellphone it might just grab a signal. If that doesn't work then think about panic stations 😉.

Oh Oops you still have to visit Canada, just saying. That is because of a very old protectionist US law.

Enjoy your vacation elsewhere.

You are welcome to your opinion but I don't see anything in that press release that lays it at the feet of " Canadian Officials". Clearly the train operator wanted concessions that the Government of Yukon Territory didn't find agreeable. There is no mention of what the problem was. Sorry a business decision was made by the operator, that's not on "Canadian Officials"

Which sailing are you on? We're doing that itinerary next year too. Boston to Montreal.

Please do describe the "Major Headaches" that Canadian officials caused for the excursion people. Where you witness to said headaches or were the excursion people using the nasty Canadian Officials as an excuse for not being prepared?

@Vineyard View I think the August 23rd sailing is the only HAL cruise in the 2023 season that includes Newfoundland. I hope we actually get to stop in Cornerbrook as it is weather dependent. Oddly enough I have been "Screeched In" and have the certificate but I've never been to "The Rock". If we do get ashore I'll have to do it again. 😁🥃🐡

Thank you, we will be cruising on the August 23rd 2023 departure from Boston. We are hoping for a pleasant experience but the reduced cost compared to Viking gives HAL a fair amount of slack. With Viking I spent Volvo money but got a Mitsubishi experience. With HAL we are paying Subaru money and hope for a Subaru experience (We like Subaru and have a Forrester as our weekend and road trip car 😉) Whatever our experience I will be happy to share.

@rbslos18The price I quoted for the HAL 11 day is from our actual invoice. The price I quoted for the Viking cruise was from Viking's website. Full disclosure the Viking voyage is 13 days but the 2 extra days are overnights so in essence a very expensive floating hotel room with included meals which many will choose to dine ashore during those long port stays. The HAL cruise is also a more interesting itinerary for us with stops in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI and Newfoundland. Viking only visits Nova Scotia (Halifax) and Quebec in Canada. The only places on the Viking itinerary that aren't on the HAL cruise are Gaspe, and New York.

For us the casino is simply a wide hallway on must pass through to get to the theatre. Unfortunately smoking is allowed in there so we will have to do the deck up or deck down detour for that. I've been on ships with kids and barely knew they were there. I suspect that there will be some but there really isn't anything for kids to do on Zaandam and I dare say most people travelling with kids will choose a less expensive option with many more distractions on board. If there are a bunch of kids...oh well. Maybe they will learn that Canadians don't live in igloos and Canada isn't covered in snow all year.😉

Cheers, takemewithyou just to be clear we didn't book the Neptune suite, we chose a Vista suite instead. We will use the substantial savings on the cruise to cover airfare and pre/post cruise activities. I only mentioned the Neptune suites because you can book one of those for the cruise we chose for less than a veranda cabin on a similar (but less desirable for us) itinerary on Viking.

@CurlerRob Thank you for your valuable observations. While I may be wrong about the cabin comparison in my post, the price comparison was Vista Suite in Zaandam to Deluxe veranda in Viking ocean so that comparison is still valid. As a matter of fact we could have booked a Neptune suite with "have it all" for less than the cost of a Veranda cabin in Viking Ocean. For the drinks package I have looked at the bar lists and pretty much everything I want fits under the price cap including Grahams 6 grapes port. There is an interesting story around that port on our one and only Viking Voyage. @Heidi13had mentioned I should ask for it as nice finish to a good meal. So thinking it would be readily available wherever drinks are served in Orion. I asked for it in Explorers lounge and was promptly told that it was only available in "Chef's Table" I thought okay I'll get it when we go to chef's table. I assumed wrongly that getting a reservation at Chef's table would not be a problem...WRONG. So after we finally got our one "Guaranteed" reservation for Manfredi's I thought I would ask for the port there (being so close to Chef's Table) and imagine my surprise when the wine steward came with a brand new bottle and made a full pour which I tasted and he topped up. I was impressed, he got a nice cash gratuity. We didn't have Silver Spirits and I was surprised when the charge was only $7.00 on our account (well worth the price). So we managed to get our "Guaranteed" dinner in Chef's Table for what was our last night on the cruise. The "included in the fare" port was Sandeman, so I asked for the 6 Grapes as a replacement. After quite a long delay someone came to me and said that port was only available by the bottle. I didn't bother getting into the fact that I got it by the glass next door the night before (I didn't want to get the excellent wine steward in trouble). For the specialty dining, it's all well and nice that they are "Included in the fare" but if you want to dine before 8:00 good luck to you getting you "Guaranteed" reservation let alone more than once. I can book my specialty dining in advance and once for each is enough for us. Of course if we booked the Neptune Suite (priced less than a veranda on Viking) the specialty dining rules are different. We took a chance on Viking, paid a premium price and didn't receive value for our dollar. We'll take a chance on HAL and see what happens and hope we receive an experience that is appropriate for the price we paid.

Happy birthday Mic enjoy your day, perhaps a couple of nice steaks on the barbie with some prawns and roast potatoes with Rosemary 😉

Funny how rosemary added to anything associated with beef as the protein is just better.

That's a nice looking meal Julie. I do a similar thing with the potatoes but I leave them as 8mm thick slabs that I toss with oil and seasoned salt and bake in a 200 degree oven until they are crispy on the outside and soft in the middle.

Well I thought I would share this as part of my one and done reasoning. I did a quick comparison for our next adventure. Which is New England/East Coast Canada. The closest comparison I could do was a 13 night Viking (with 2 overnights) compared to an 11 night on HAL (No overnights). The price for the Viking Cruise is $8,999.00 per person in a deluxe veranda, making it $17,998.00 per couple. To contrast the HAL cruise we booked was $5,542.50 per person for a vista suite (similar to a penthouse veranda on Viking) making it $11,085.00 per couple, that's almost $7,000.00 difference. The cruise we booked was with "have it all" pricing which includes a beverage package, Wi Fi, and 1 dinner for each of us in The Pinnacle Grill and Canaletto, these reservations can be made in advance so we shouldn't have to beg to get a table before 8:00 o'clock which is well past an appropriate dining hour for my diabetic wife. There are also excursion credits. Just for argument's sake the beverage package on HAL is for drinks up to $11.00 in any venue at anytime. This includes spirits and specialty coffees (with or without liquor), not just beer and wine during meal hours. For a variety of reasons we are unable to use the thermal suite so that "included in the fare" perk on Viking is lost on us. I must admit Zaandam is a much older ship but not much bigger than Viking Star but Zaandam has a higher passenger capacity. So with the difference in the fare we can pay for our flights, an overnight in Boston pre cruise a couple nights in Montreal post cruise as well as our train fare to Ottawa with a couple nights there before we fly home. Like I said we wanted to be wowed by Viking and we weren't, as it turns out we weren't the only ones who were not happy with their Viking Orion experience, and that was on all 3 of the Pacific Coastal cruises that were completed before the start of the Alaska season.

What EXACTLY do "Canadian Officials" have to do with the requirements of the United States. If testing was still a Canadian Requirement for testing then that would be on "Canadian Officials". The current situation is exacerbated by staffing issues.

We really wanted to be wowed by our cruise on Viking Orion, unfortunately we weren't. Having read many glowing reports and looking at the helpful posts and camaraderie among the regulars on the Viking board we felt confident we had made a good choice with Viking. We paid the premium price expecting a step above our excellent experience with Celebrity. I understand that Viking has no control of the sea state but Orion seemed to be fairly unstable even in a moderate sea. She was not just rockin' and rollin' but shaking and rattling (no I'm not talking about the entertainment). I now better understand the concern of another member during their recent trans Atlantic voyage although I surmise the sea state for them was even worse. Yes I understand weather on the Pacific Coast so crappy weather was always possible even probable. Again, nothing Viking could do. I had expected exceptional service from all crew but it just seemed that we were invisible (and I'm a big guy) to the servers much of the time. When someone did stop to ask if we wanted anything all crew were very courteous and cheerful. Celebrity had a "system" with the drink menu whether it was laying down or standing up. We tried both ways...no joy. If there is a system on Viking I wish I had gotten the briefing. Food quality and variety in "The Restaurant" and "World Cafe" were okay but certainly not outstanding. One glaring thing was just how "crusty" the buns were in the bread basket, very hard. For what should be a fine dining experience in the restaurant I was struck by the lack of care in plating the meals, everything was splocked on the plate akin to Chucks Diner. I's not like they were in a rush, the 2 times we ate dinner in "The Restaurant" it took well over an hour. The world buffet was okay as well but nothing was outstanding. Scheduling of "Entertainment" seemed strange to me. Trivia in the theatre at noon? Musicians starting to play in the lounges at the beginning of dinner service? Meanwhile there is literally nothing laid on in the afternoon (except afternoon tea). I will say that our 1 dinner in Manfredi's was excellent. Starting right upon arrival at the host station we felt like valued guests. All our food selections were wonderfully prepared. The included wine suited us fine although I did request the Grahams 6 grapes port to finish (that wasn't necessarily an easy thing to get) I don't want to make this an extra long opening post so feel free to ask questions or add your own comments. For us this cruise did not represent good value for the $8,000.00+ CAD that we paid for a 9 day voyage (actually 8 because we disembarked a day early in Victoria)

Okay, although the current state of cruising is up in the air; I would like to move forward. I'm looking for local knowledge on the land down under. I don't want to get specific in the "topic" but will throw out questions within the thread. Also I will be happy to answer any questions you may have about Canada. Keep in mind that like Australia Canada is a vast country and I probably don't know your buddy Bruce in Moose Jaw. But I do have pretty good knowledge of my home Province of BC. I look forward to gaining local knowledge from you and passing on local knowledge of my part of the world. First stop Auckland we have 2 days before the cruise what is not to be missed in Auckland?