C 2 C

We just finished sailing on Zuiderdam for 14 days and our 14th HAL cruise in the last 13 months. The food has never been better. We had many minor issues with room maintenance and billing errors, the worst in our cruise history.

I book my cruises based on advertised specials on certain websites. I then book the cruise while on board or at home and transfer the bookings to the company offering the best deals. I have a number of cruises booked through a large box retailer to get the gift cards at the end of the cruise. The call center is based in Montreal and I have yet to get an agent whose native language is English (or French). Call centres are not known for great salaries or benefits for their employees. I enjoy talking to Filipino staff on board. I don't mind at all talking to them on the phone. There are a number of American states that have accents way worse than the people with whom I have had contact with overseas.

If companies really wanted to save money and become more profitable, they would outsource their CEO and CFO.

Let your budget determine your choice. It's all about location, location, location.

At one time, briefly, there were free language lessons (Rosetta Stone) on Celebrity. It is time to bring it back for Tagalog. Filipinos are absolutely wonderful on board. Why not let them handle our concerns while we are at home as well?

Your experience is different than our B2B which ended when you boarded. There was one general trivia at 4:00 pm and music trivia at 6:30. Trivia was never crowded perhaps because it included topics such as True/False, give the date, plants, drinks, landmarks. To us it was the worst trivia experience in over 20 years of cruising and many people just stopped coming. The trivia master even allowed a team of 8 to win despite stating at the outset that there was a limit of 6 per team. We loved the food though. Every meal was excellent.

We used an online agency for a decade but gave up on them when they no longer communicated by internet or phone when covid hit. Now that agency is owned by a South American company. A problem for Canadians is that the dollar valuation for cruises varies greatly and TAs in the US do not like Canadian pricing. We cruise at least a dozen times a year and have yet to find a Canadian source that gives the 9-10% OBC for booking. I believe that any agency giving more than the 9-10% will be cut off from Celebrity if they find out. I refuse to believe anyone that says they get more than the 10% plus refundable prices, plus gratuities over and above Celebrity pricing. ( I would love to be proved wrong).

We were on Zaandam in May as well. The MDR was great, the Lido a bit lacking.

We just returned from a HAL B2B cruise on Zuiderdam, and the food was fantastic, both in the Lido and the MDR. We can't remember a better culinary experience outside of specialty restaurants in more than a decade. Unfortunately, I am now suffering from dessert withdrawal.

On Zuiderdam voyage last week, fewer than 10% of men even bothered with a long sleeved shirt let alone a jacket.

Summit is riding out the storm in Quebec City. We board Zuiderdam tomorrow. It was an amazing sunny day in Montreal today. Cloud cover from Lee might obscure the sky tomorrow. We don't leave for Boston till Sunday night.

I just heard from a friend that Summit will be overnighting in Quebec City for an extra day to avoid Lee. A certain map program shows Zuiderdam and Summit docked a mile or so apart. We will be boarding Zuiderdam tomorrow.

Do a search on a certain website listing cruises 14 days or longer originating out of a Florida port for X, HAL, and any other cruise company. For cruisers who want to have an extended sea experience will not find it unless they wish to string a number of shorter cruises together.

My glass of wine is situated on HAL's 5 inch tile for the Inaugural Season of the MS Ryndam. We loved the ship.

Weather info: Hurricanes and Tropical Storms (theweathernetwork.com)

Bum Phillips: famous football coach would not wear his hat in a domed stadium. He said a gentleman does not wear a hat indoors.

The IQ of the staff at the door. Frequent cruisers know how to impress their partners, others wear whatever they can get away with. Some will be turned away but you will see a variety no matter the code of th eday.

Lee is a long way off from Quebec. We will be onboard and don't foresee any problems at all. Halifax is A 1,000 KM from Quebec. Zuiderdam is presently near PEI and will be heading up the St Lawrence soon. After hitting Nova Scotia, Lee will head NE, not towards Quebec.

I'd would finally go to the show again if they gave me $20.00

Because you are overnighting in Quebec and because there are no immigration procedures, you can leave as early as you want. Independent travel arrangements such as Uber or a taxi may be a better way to travel to the airport. You can be picked up right at the terminal. We cruised out of Quebec last year and will do so again in 2 weeks.

We were there in May and had absolutely no problem. Perhaps because I was the taxi driver and my Tom Tom found the parking garage right across from the terminal. I believe we started to board about 11 but as you say, few seats were available.

Loved San Francisco

Blackduck59: Thank you for your posts on Zaandam. We are Celebrity cruisers but last year we cruised on the N Statendam from Quebec to Boston and back. This spring we cruised on Zaandam from Montreal to Boston and back. In two weeks we will sail on Zuiderdam from Quebec to Boston and back. We are lucky enough to be within driving distance, only 8 hours to Montreal from Southern Ontario. Although we enjoyed the small ship experience of Zaandam, especially the food, the experience was not up to the standards set by the N Statendam. We really like the new class of ships compared to the new Celebrity Edge class. We enjoyed the N Statendam so much we booked 8 weeks over the holidays in the Caribbean, Christmas to Feb 2023. HAL is so good attracting loyal cruisers, we had over 700 back to backers in Dec., something we never experienced on Celebrity.