Rubyfisch

Yeah - the numbers can get wonky. On my first Holland cruise, effectively all of the cabins were sold, but we were several hundred under capacity because there were so many solo travelers.

We were on a Volendam in May. We got there a little before noon, and basically never stopped moving. People were already on the ship. We got through all the processing steps right at noon. They stopped boarding for a few minutes as they were escorting off the crew whose contracts were up, with all their luggage, to take them over to Logan. We were on board right have noon. It was very similar last year on Zuiderdam, although we were maybe 20 or 30 minutes later.

Here is the smoking policy - it varies by ship:

Same. On my last cruise, I was at a table for eight or ten alone, and some folks I met were at a table for two near by. The people at my table didn't show up repeatedly, so the head waiter checked in with them (so my cruise friends could move over), and they said they were coming that night. And they didn't. Or the next night. In short, if you aren't using it, you may be impacting others as well.

In both Boston (in 2019) and Baltimore (2022 and 2023), when I've gotten off a ship I wasn't ask anything about declarations one way or another. I'm not even sure where you would declare something if you needed to pay a duty (which has never come up for me). They just looked at my passport and waved me through. I normally use the Mobile Passport App at airports, and it's wording is much narrower - it's not all food, it's fruit, meat, etc.

The Sumner is Route 1A, the Ted Williams is the pike (aka I-90) is open, but there might be more traffic. An Uber should be fine - the only way to avoid the traffic entirely would be to take the blue line.

We've done two. In August of last year, it was pretty much smooth from Boston to Quebec. This May, it was so windy that we missed Sydney because we couldn't get into the channel. Most of the rest of that day, we were getting hit with 50 mph winds and were listing at a very noticeable angle. Neither was a rough as I've seen it out more on the open Atlantic (either coming back from Bermuda or heading down the coast).

Gah .... Wrong tread - I thought this was mine .... Sorry.

All the photos are from my Pixel 6 smartphone. I'm generally pretty happy with the camera - particularly in low light. There are some interesting, longer itineraries (like 10 or 11 days) that hit some of the farther out Canadian ports, but those aren't in the cards of us right now with work and other commitments.

I think Volendam usually goes into Quai 21 or 22. But on our trip in May, we got stuck at Quai 30 due to a planned protest. It's not that far from Quai 30, but it's definitely less convenient.

I didn't talk to anyone who had specific issues, but we waited a long time for a tender - almost an hour - fairly late in the process when I would have thought things would have been faster.

The current was brutal on our cruise a couple of weeks ago. We were late into Quebec and had to run on four engines instead of three.

It's not a great design - there is nothing to stop the smoke from wafting into the other areas. On this itinerary, because of the relatively long port calls, it was really only noticable very late at night and on the sea day. I much prefer a smoke free casino if it's going to be in the middle of ship.

The folks we met who did gamble seemed to really like the casino staff. And the bartenders and waiters at The Mix (which is the closest bar to the casino) are lovely.

It was open when we were sailing on the St. Lawrence (on our sea day) as well as between Quebec City and Montreal. So basically when we were in motion. We aren't gamblers, but it seemed like both tables and slots were open.

So I've never done this, but one thing people have suggested is the water taxi will apparently hold your luggage. You could do that, stroll along the Green Way, get some seafood for lunch, and take the water taxi over the Logan.

Finally made it home - Boston traffic is ... Awful. Well ... That's a wrap on this trip. Happy to answer questions if anyone has any. If not, I'll be back in August.

So, just some final thoughts as we crawl through traffic on the way home. Holland has a lot to offer. The itinerary was great, the staff is wonderful, and the service is fantastic. Our room was comfortable and spacious. As previously mentioned, I didn't love the shower, but who does love cruise ship shows .... We do both agree we preferred Zuiderdam to Volendam. The layout on Deck 5 is not good, and the smoke from the casino (which is made worse by the layout) is annoying. I also felt the Lido has way fewer options than Zuiderdam. I do understand that the only reason we got to Montreal is because Volendam is smaller, so there is that. I also forgot to mention this earlier, but Starlink worked great - we had the middle package and it could do everything we wanted (including playing YouTube videos). I prepayed for one login and upgraded for an additional $10 a day (you get four logins).

The meal service on Air Canada Express in Business Class exists, which should be noted as somewhat impressive given it's a 45 minute flight, but it's also always weird ... Landing into Boston:

The band at Ocean Bar was playing dance music when I was there - it was later in the evening though.

As I said ... 25 year old plane ....

Our ride home:

Quick wrap up on Montreal. We love it here - from the food to the culture to the beauty. If you want to hit a couple of the included things, the Passport Montreal is definitely worth doing. We used three of the five entries (we'll use the rest in August) and it already paid for itself. Montreal has great public transit - an affordable weekend and multiday passes. A couple of things to note - all of the announcements and most of the signs are in French only. Also, I seem to not be able to find system maps in a lot of the stations. But Google Maps will take care of telling you which way you want to go (it is not by direction or inbound/outbound, it's only by line terminus). If you can, spend a couple of days here pre or post cruise. And for Quebec terminating cruises, consider whether going out of Montreal makes more sense, and add a few days here. In short - A la prochaine, Montreal. Je t'aime.

Let me start with flights between Boston and Montreal all stupidly expensive considering it is a 45 minute flight in a 25 year old plane. The upgrade to business class is often not substantially more, and comes with two free checked bags (up to 32 kg/70 lbs) and lounge access. I find it to be worth it, even though the lounge is ... Somewhat limited. Eating breakfast here ....

At YUL, it's important to remember that US flights are in a separate terminal from both Canadian flights and other international flights. You go through customs in Montreal, which is nice. As seems to always be the case, the Mobile Passport line is shorter than any of the other lines (including Global Entry).