**Montreal Liquor Stores - Holiday Closings**

Does anyone know if liquor stores will be open on October 7th (Sunday) or 8th (Thanksgiving Day in Canada)? We will be staying in Old Montreal on those dates, before our Veendam cruise, and would like to purchase wine and liquor.

They will be open on Sunday. On the Monday, you can get wine or beer at any depanneur! Welcome to Montreal and have fun

The SAQ will usually keep the store at 1108 St-Catherine West open most days until 10PM. It's an SAQ Express and the phone number is (514)861-7908.

Beer and Wine is available at convenience stores (locally called a dep (in English) or a depanneur (in French)) as well as in supermarkets. The rules pertaining to wine are a bit difficult to explain, but basically any wine that you find at a depanneur or a supermarket will not be identified by grape, it is forbidden. All the wine will be marked as "vin de cepage" or varietal wines. Essentially table wine.

Wine at an SAQ store is sold as normal wine is sold. The better wines will say "mise en bouteille au chateau" (Bottled at the vineyard).

Normal store hours on Sunday are noon to 4PM or 5PM in some cases. Mondays would normally be 10AM to 6PM, but it is unknown what the hours will be, yet. The two closest outlets to Old Montreal are:

501 place d'Armes (514) 282-4533

866 St-Catherine East (514) 842-3398

Both of which are SAQ Classics. If you want to look for availability, prices and any other information, the SAQ's website is at http://www.saq.com

Be prepared for some sticker shock. You might notice that hard alcohol is sold in 750ml bottles in Canada to avoid the sticker shock! You might want to consider bringing in your one bottle of duty free alcohol with you to take on the ship. The cheapest bottle of Vodka (for example) is a 750ml bottle of Moskova for CAD$18.95. Stoly will put you back CAD$22.90. And Wyborowa will set you back CAD$22.20. 40oz of Vodka (1.1l of Silver Wedding) will set you back CAD$27.10. And in the Rye department a 750ml bottle of Seagrams VO or Canadian Club will set you back about CAD$21.45 to CAD$22.45. On the other hand, you can get REAL Havana Club for CAD$23.45 and up.

:) Thank you both very much for the information. Cheers!