Veendam August 4 Boston to Cuba and return

Anyone booked on this cruise?

Booked on Boston - Cuba - Boston - Montreal. Aug 4 - 25. Travelling solo.

My husband and I are also booked Boston-Cuba-Boston-Montreal. HAL usually has a notice in the ship's paper each night of an LGBT get together scheduled in some bar around early dinner cocktail hour. Often LGBT passengers do not visit this thread but do show up at the cocktail hour. With HAL it is hit or miss re the number of LGBT passengers.

We have not yet received our cabin assignment. We have selected open seating but may change to late seating, if, as has happened often in the past, the open seating part of the dining room is 3/4 empty when we show up for dinner (between 8:00 and 8:30).

We have booked HAL's all day Havana tour and a 1/2 day tour in Cienfuegos. We plan to go back into Havana after the tour is done to have dinner and walk around. I speak Spanish well enough for us to feel comfortable on our own. We hope to also go out for a while on our own in Cienfuegos.

We would really appreciate any advice you could offer re the Canadian ports. We have been to all of them previously but we are sure we have missed seeing and learning a lot.

Look forward to your reply.

Travelling solo, meal time is something I dread. Not that I mind eating alone but often get strange looks. On several past cruises I have chosen fix time dining, with a large table, have made some great friends, but didn't see the option when I booked HAL. If you decided to go to fix time, and are looking for someone to join your table, let me know.

I will be flying in the day before, with the exceptions of Boston, Cienfuegos, PEI and Sydney I believe I have been to every port before. One suggestion in Quebec City that I would make, go to lunch at the Le Parlementaire Restaurant - National Assembly of Québec, it is just outside the walls of Old Quebec, and something I tried to do each visit. It in in expensive, nice service, at leat in teh past and they try and use locally sources ingredients. There is also a nice flea market outside town, Marché aux Puces Jean-Talon Charlesbourg, easiest way to get there is to rent a car. the entrance, if I remember correctly is actually on the the cloverleaf .

I love old Quebec, it is a great city.

Let's try to meet on board. Our names are Robert Croan and Michael Feldman, Cabin #131. Possibly cocktail hour the first day, or at the LGBT meeting if there is one that afternoon. Let us know your name and Cabin # so that we can be in touch. BTW, we have been to the ports you said you have not been to, on a previous cruise, but are looking forward to seeing them again.

Only got my cabin number last night, 3 days out. #761. My name is Bart Fraize and I think your partner and myself may have something in common, and our line of work.