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Looking at booking HAL's Boston to Montreal in August w/teens


love2driveinct
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This would be my 7th cruise and our 5th as a family. We've been on RC, DCL, & CCL, so HAL would be a first. We love RC & CCL, but their itineraries aren't as appealing. No one else goes to Quebec & Montreal. I've read mixed reviews on the Maasdam, but I'm trying not to worry about it too much -- for us, it's this cruise or nothing.

 

In 2004, my husband and I went on a five-night RC cruise roundtrip Bayonne to Halifax & Saint John. We had a great time and swore we'd returned to Halifax someday if given the opportunity. (No offense to Saint John, lol.)

 

We live in eastern Connecticut, so seeing Newport, Boston, or Portland is not of interest to us since we've "been there, done that", and starting from Boston instead of NY/NJ is much more appealing. We were actually not planning on cruising this year -- we were going to drive to Montreal & Quebec and stay for a few days in each. That may or may not be the less expensive option, by the time you factor in all the expenses. Anyway, taking the cruise gets us to 1) Halifax, a cool city with Titanic history, 2) PEI, a place we'd probably not otherwise ever get to visit, and 3) Sydney, another place we'd likely never visit.

 

Our "kids" are 20, 17, and 13 and love sightseeing vacations.

 

Love to hear anyone else's thoughts on how they chose their perfect Canada/N.E. family cruise.

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This would be my 7th cruise and our 5th as a family. We've been on RC, DCL, & CCL, so HAL would be a first. We love RC & CCL, but their itineraries aren't as appealing. No one else goes to Quebec & Montreal. I've read mixed reviews on the Maasdam, but I'm trying not to worry about it too much -- for us, it's this cruise or nothing.

 

In 2004, my husband and I went on a five-night RC cruise roundtrip Bayonne to Halifax & Saint John. We had a great time and swore we'd returned to Halifax someday if given the opportunity. (No offense to Saint John, lol.)

 

We live in eastern Connecticut, so seeing Newport, Boston, or Portland is not of interest to us since we've "been there, done that", and starting from Boston instead of NY/NJ is much more appealing. We were actually not planning on cruising this year -- we were going to drive to Montreal & Quebec and stay for a few days in each. That may or may not be the less expensive option, by the time you factor in all the expenses. Anyway, taking the cruise gets us to 1) Halifax, a cool city with Titanic history, 2) PEI, a place we'd probably not otherwise ever get to visit, and 3) Sydney, another place we'd likely never visit.

 

Our "kids" are 20, 17, and 13 and love sightseeing vacations.

 

Love to hear anyone else's thoughts on how they chose their perfect Canada/N.E. family cruise.

 

Well, I think this would be a great sightseeing vacation for you and your family because you are in a new port almost everyday and there is a lot to see in the different ports. I did a Boston-Quebec-Boston in 2015 on the Veendam and am doing a 14 day Boston-Montreal-Boston trip this June with my mom. The Maasdam is an older ship, but you won't be spending much time on it anyway... we've been on it many times including a 17 day trip to Aus. & New Zealand and really enjoyed it each time. It doesn't have the water parks kids seem to really enjoy but there are a couple of pools.

 

 

If you do go, make sure you go out to Ft. Louisburg when you are in Sydney. It is a wonderful re-creation of a fort from the 17th (18th??) century and people are in period costume. We loved it even though it was rainy the time we visited. I'm sure the kids would enjoy it too.

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I'm talking my 4th cruise from Montreal ... on Saturday. And I think HAL is great. Yes, the ships on this route are smaller ... which is why they can sail all the way to Montreal! The fact that the Veendam is "older" means nothing. It has all the bells and whistles. And I really like the cabins in that class of ship. Given that there is only one "day-at-sea" - you're not going to be hanging around the ship a lot anyway. I prefer the smaller ships ... less lines ... quick processes. Not a mob!

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I'm talking my 4th cruise from Montreal ... on Saturday. And I think HAL is great. Yes, the ships on this route are smaller ... which is why they can sail all the way to Montreal! The fact that the Veendam is "older" means nothing. It has all the bells and whistles. And I really like the cabins in that class of ship. Given that there is only one "day-at-sea" - you're not going to be hanging around the ship a lot anyway. I prefer the smaller ships ... less lines ... quick processes. Not a mob!

 

I'll be on the veendam Saturday too. 3 more sleeps!

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Did you get the email that the Veendam is docked at a pier about 6km east of the previously booked Iberville Terminal in Montreal? I just got the email this morning. I wonder how many didn't.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well we're back and reporting in. We were on the first Canada/New England Veendam sailing of 2018. It was great. We really enjoyed the itinerary. Mostly Canadian ports, which delighted us.

The ship was about 3/4 full in my estimation, which made for lots of pool chairs, ease of getting off at ports etc. We found the ship to have an older than average HAL demographic. I would say 60-80, with average age of early 70's I would say. That never bothers us as a young family. The seniors are often doing the things we are not interested in doing - eg. casino, indoor activities etc. Never a crowd at the pool, tennis court, etc.

We LOVED the ports. Quebec City - spectacular to just walk around. Sydney, NS, we rented a car and went to the Miner's Museum in Glace Bay (awesome - went right down in the mine with a retired miner for a tour) and bought 4 lobsters fresh from the ocean and had them cooked for us and we ate them at a picnic table in a park. Delightful. Charlottetown we rented a car and took a wonderful drive along the southern coast, had a seafood lunch at Victoria By the Sea, tour of Cows creamery and of course a sampling, Halifax was rainy but we did up the Maritime Museum with the Titanic exibits and the Halifax Explosion exibits. Bar Harbour we just toured the shops and had a great seafood luch at the Thirsty Whale pub. In Boston, we caught a bus and headed to the airport to fly back to Montreal.

What we loved about this cruise was how layed back it was. There was scenery all the time. With the scenic touring down the St. Lawrence River and around the Gaspe Penisula, you could see land I would say 90% of the time. Always something interesting to see.

My kids really enjoyed it. My 16 year old said she liked it better than a Caribbean cruise.

The overall feel to it was very relaxing although it was port intensive. I guess what contributed to that was the fact that we are Canadian and feeling at home in Canada.

I highly recommend the itinerary and I know for sure we will be doing it again. If you have any specific questions - ask away.

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Thank you for the review. We are Canadians as well and booked this HAL cruise for the itinerary. I expect the activities and entertainment will be different from a Royal Caribbean cruise. I'm cruising with a tween and worry there won't be much for him to do. Would you happen to have the daily activities list? I would love to see what activities, fitness and night time entertainment the Veendam has and I enjoy keeping busy/entertained. If you don't mind answering, what did you like or not like about the ship, service or activities/entertainment? Does Veendam still have the self-service laundry room as shown in the deck plan? I'm looking forward to visiting Eastern Canada. Thanks in advance for all comments.

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I think it really depends on the teen. My teens are happy to hang together, hang with us, do activities together. They have never used the kids club. My daughter got a letter saying she was one of two teens on the ship. Maybe in summer there will be more kids. However, if your teen depends on excitement and the company of other teens, I'd be a bit concerned or at least make sure they're prepared for a subdued vacation. There is a very nice tennis court on deck 12, ping pong tables, pool of course, Crows next was always great.

Yes, it has a few self service laundries on the ship.

What did we like/dislike? We liked how small the ship was/We thought the choice at the lido could have been better at dinner time/We love the Dive-In and Taco bar, but wish it was open past 5pm /We like the shows at night - especially when it is more catered to the middle age crowd like ourselves (so glad to see the old tunes, big band and shows appealing to the 70+ crowd appearing less) WE LOVED the ports - all so Canadian. HAL does up the Canadian ports moreso than anyone else. Unfortunately, I don't have the daily planners. I forgot to take them. You will see the usual spa and wellness promotions, fitness/yoga classes, bridge, majong, daily movies (run twice a day - we took in a few including Black Panther), trivia, afternoon tea, entertainers in lounges, etc. Hope this helps.

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Can't say it's perfect, but we're taking our first Canada & New England cruise next month, along with my parents and our two youngest (18 & 21). Very much looking forward to it, as it is our first time to each port of call, which are Portland, Bar Harbor, Halifax, and St John.

 

We choose this itinerary for many reasons, but partly because my parents wanted to do a northern route. We've done Alaska twice, and thought we'd give the East Coast a try. Ideally we'd have liked to venture farther into Canada, but this was the best choice in the available time frame.

 

It's our first week of a B2B, however the second week we'll be heading south, to Florida and the Bahamas. Starting things off with 3 days in NYC, so this will be the longest vacation we've ever taken. The only disappointment is that our 24 year old daughter, who's in her final year of grad school, won't be able to join us until the second week, for the southern itinerary.

 

There are so many things we want to see that it will be impossible to get them all in, so we'll probably be scheduling another trip north, hopefully sooner, rather than later.

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We did this cruise with teens a few years ago and our son(18 at the time) who liked to stay up late would end the night in the upstairs lounge talking to all the performers. He had a great time and so did our daughter who was about 16 at the time. When we arrived in Montreal for a few days of sight seeing on our own we were surprised by how many people from the cruise greeted our son as we walked through the streets. Although it is an older crowd on Holland America in the summer months you get teens and kids as well. Maybe because it was a smaller group of them it was easier to form friendships on board.

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We did this cruise with teens a few years ago and our son(18 at the time) who liked to stay up late would end the night in the upstairs lounge talking to all the performers. He had a great time and so did our daughter who was about 16 at the time. When we arrived in Montreal for a few days of sight seeing on our own we were surprised by how many people from the cruise greeted our son as we walked through the streets. Although it is an older crowd on Holland America in the summer months you get teens and kids as well. Maybe because it was a smaller group of them it was easier to form friendships on board.
Reminds me of our last Alaskan cruise on Radiance. Walking on deck, riding the elevator, walking the streets in port, we'd hear a chorus of voices shouting our youngest son's name. He had a wonderful time making friends on board.
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