Volendam 2024 eastern Canada season. Tips and lessons learned

[CGinMTL]

Greetings everyone. We are currently on the volendam. We are here may 4 th to 18 th

Thought I can start a thread to gather tips on the ship and the ports to help others 

[CGinMTL]

Montreal.

I know some people were upset when we boarded on May 4th as they felt embarkation was " disorganized".

Comparing it to fort Lauderdale is unfair.

I thought it was fine.

Just need to lower expectations.

Everybody did speak English. So no issues there

[CGinMTL]

Luggage in mtl

Never seen this before 

The needed to use a crane to lower 1 basket at a time onto the ship

Be patient getting your bags if you board in Montreal.

I will definitely take my own bags off the ship on the 18 th

[CGinMTL]

Quebec city

If you want to see changing of the guards it is 10 am daily at the Citadel

.

If you are Catholic

The basilic " porte saint " us open this summer

Sorry, don't know how to Translate. 

[CGinMTL]

Volendam . Connection to Ukraine

This is interesting .

[CGinMTL]

Sydney 

We are here today

 

Don't miss the giant fiddle.

They way we are docked today. I am sure some people will miss it.

 

Love this artist. 

Her father makes this art at it is very reasonably priced.

 

 

flowers are $2

trucks are $25 cad

Edited May 8 by CGinMTL
Add info

[terrydtx]

Following, we will be on the Volendam in August for Canada/NE. We are with 2 other couples and all in Vista Suites with CO.

[bebe08]

We are also on Volendam now.  We forgot about there being only one 110v plug in the room.  DH went to gift shop and bought a voltage converter with USB ports for 20$.  Our stateroom attendant obviously noticed and put a power bar in our room.  All that to say I recommend bringing an adapter if you have it so that you can also use the 230v plug as well.

 

To get to Mdr level 4 you need to go up to level 5 if approaching from midship and then back down to 4.

 

We are really enjoying the cruise. Ports are all repeats for us and most are easy to Dyi if you choose.  

 

Happy to answer any specific questions.

[Ellencruise]

On Volendam 6/22 to 6/29, Boston to Montreal. Vista suite.  Beautiful photos from other threads regarding this area.

[happytotravel]

Hello CGinMTL,

 

I will be on a b2b beginning on June 01.  Can't wait!

I am traveling in from the Townships and wondering what time you were able to check-in and what time you were able to board?

No embarkation lunch in the MDR I presume.  Where did you have lunch?

 

Also BeBe08, thanks for the tip on voltage plugs.  I'm traveling solo so one plug will do me fine although a power bar would be useful.

 

Looking forward to any other tips you both may have.

Enjoy your time onboard,  happytotravel

[terrydtx]

1 hour ago, bebe08 said:

All that to say I recommend bringing an adapter if you have it so that you can also use the 230v plug as well.

We never leave home without our adapter cubes that includes 4 USB ports on each. They are also good in hotels in over 220 countries. Almost everything we take uses USB for charging.

Edited May 8 by terrydtx

[richwmn]

 

I left Volendam last weekend. I had an ocean view cabin on deck three, but I believe all inside and ocean view cabins are the same.  Behind the TV is a rather large area containing 4 European style outlets. Only 1 of the outlets is in use for the TV. I am using 2 of the others for my laptop and a European type USB charger.

Edited May 8 by richwmn

[bebe08]

Embarkation began at noon and sail away was scheduled for 3pm with all aboard  being 90 minutes prior.  We got notification 2 days  before that sailaway was changed to 7pm due to operational reasons and all aboard remained 90 before sailaway so allowed for extra time in Montreal if you desired.  I am guessing due to the tides.  

 

We got to terminal around 1215...lots of  construction in Old Montreal so plan accordingly.  20 minute uber ride from hotel which was only a 6 minute walk.  We stayed at Springhill suites which was ideal location and worked great for us.  Huge line up at check in but it moved quickly.   Took approx 30 minutes to get on the ship.  Was able to go to stateroom right away and 5 minutes after we got to our room our luggage arrived.

 

We had lunch at Dive In on embarkation day.

 

Will look for the hidden plugs behind the TV...thanks for the info!

[ChinaShrek]

42 minutes ago, richwmn said:

 

I left Volendam last weekend. I had an ocean view cabin on deck three, but I believe all inside and ocean view cabins are the same.  Behind the TV is a rather large area containing 4 European style outlets. Only 1 of the outlets is in use for the TV. I am using 2 of the others for my laptop and a European type USB charger.

Are the TVs really that small on the Volendam? They do not look like the ones on the Rotterdam. 

[happytotravel]

Thank you, BeBe08

Sailaway for June 01 is also at 7 pm per email I received yesterday.  My plans are to arrive in the morning as I'm coming in by bus.  Will meet my stepson for breakfast before boarding.

 

Were you given a specific time for check in?

Thanks again, happytotravel

 

[Alphen]

Following, we will be on the Volendam in September B2B for Canada/NE

[Alphen]

Did anyone observe any luggage storage available in the Montreal cruise terminal? We would like to use this upon arrival back in Montreal on completion of our cruise.

[richwmn]

14 hours ago, ChinaShrek said:

Are the TVs really that small on the Volendam? They do not look like the ones on the Rotterdam. 

This gives you a better idea of the size of the TV. Again, this was an outside cabin. I visited a balcony cabin and the TV was much larger

 

[terrydtx]

16 hours ago, richwmn said:

 

I left Volendam last weekend. I had an ocean view cabin on deck three, but I believe all inside and ocean view cabins are the same.  Behind the TV is a rather large area containing 4 European style outlets. Only 1 of the outlets is in use for the TV. I am using 2 of the others for my laptop and a European type USB charger.

Hasn't the Volendam been upgraded to the larger wall mounted TV's?  We will be in a Vista Suite in August and some recent pictures showed a wall mounted TV. We had a small TV like that on the Noordam in 2019 and it was next to worthless and took up valuable counter space in our Signature Suite. The Noordam drydocking after our 2019 cruise added the wall mounted large TV's to all cabins.

Edited May 9 by terrydtx

[ChinaShrek]

39 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

Hasn't the Volendam been upgraded to the larger wall mounted TV's?  We will be in a Vista Suite in August and some recent pictures showed a wall mounted TV. We had a small TV like that on the Noordam in 2019 and it was next to worthless and took up valuable counter space in our Signature Suite. The Noordam drydocking after our 2019 cruise added the wall mounted large TV's to all cabins.

Yeah, that was kind of what I was getting at. I like the flat screen TVs with all of the movie options on the Pinnacle ships.

[terrydtx]

6 minutes ago, ChinaShrek said:

Yeah, that was kind of what I was getting at. I like the flat screen TVs with all of the movie options on the Pinnacle ships.

Those little screen TVs on a desk must be at least 20 years old, time for HAL to upgrade.

[Alphen]

19 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

Those little screen TVs on a desk must be at least 20 years old, time for HAL to upgrade.

Looking at the information about cabins on both of the R class ships (2023 and newer pictures) on a website that we cannot mention here, both inside and outside cabins on the lower decks, all appear to have new flat-screen (interactive) TV's. Not as big as on the Vista, Signature and Pinnacle class ships, but bigger than the old TV's that they succeeded.

Assuming that all cabins above that on higher decks have at least the same or better TV's.

Edited May 9 by Alphen

[terrydtx]

6 minutes ago, Alphen said:

Looking at the information about cabins on both of the R class ships (2023 and newer pictures) on a website that we cannot mention here, both inside and outside cabins on the lower decks, all appear to have new flat-screen (interactive) TV's. Not as big as on the Vista, Signature and Pinnacle class ships, but bigger than the old TV's that they succeeded.

Assuming that all cabins above that on higher decks have at least the same or better TV's.

The picture @richwmn posted above was from his Volendam cruise he just got off of, and looks like the old small screen TV's. Nothing close to what the other class ships have.

[Alphen]

3 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

The picture @richwmn posted above was from his Volendam cruise he just got off of, and looks like the old small screen TV's. Nothing close to what the other class ships have.

Well,

 

This was the TV in a similar cabin on Volendam that we had in 2017, so obviously replaced, although not as big, but bigger and newer than the old versions still!

 

Edited May 9 by Alphen

[terrydtx]

7 minutes ago, Alphen said:

Well,

 

This was the TV in a similar cabin on Volendam that we had in 2017, so obviously replaced, although not as big, but bigger and newer than the old versions still!

 

I found this picture from 2023 of a Vista Suite on the Volendam, so it looks like that category got upgraded wall mounted TVs. I found this on the Cruise Deck Plans website.

Edited May 9 by terrydtx