Homala

By any chance is this the food and walking tour? If so, we did that last year and loved it! Great food and interesting commentary on all the stops along the way. Have a wonderful time!

That sounds awesome! Do you fly to Amsterdam or to Rotterdam for that one? Do you do reviews? I’d love to read a review or live from the VoV. Yes, our cruise is listed as a Legendary cruise, which I’ve been researching and reading reviews (e.g., The Inside Cabin’s awesome live threads). I hadn’t even realized it was Legendary until a couple weeks after we booked it and am now even more excited. We have a verandah cabin, but I’m hoping a Neptune becomes available, although I’m not sure we’d be willing to pay the upgrade fee for one of those, not mention the Neptunes are sold out and probably unlikely to become available.

It’s to Canada, Greenland, Iceland and back to Boston. I wish it was the one to Northern Europe, although returning to Boston will make our flights much easier than flying to or from Europe. Maybe next time. This will be our longest cruise (25 days) and, while I think we’ll do just fine, I want to build up the days a bit more before committing to even longer.

Oh yes, I do now recall that HAL doesn’t like plastic water bottles anymore.

Oh, interesting. My travel water bottle is metal, too. I would likely have it in my carry-on. Just to be safe, I’ll probably drop off all my bags, including the carry-on, so I don’t have to worry about it or lug it around. If I don’t have my water bottle with me, I’ll just have to have a cocktail instead when I board! Ha ha!

No, the cruise we are taking is the 25 day leaving July 12th. You could stay on board and go on that one too!

This is good to know. Happy to hear water bottles are fine after other ports.

Phew! Good to hear!

Yikes! I forgot to ask about that, too! No liquids can be in carry-ons, I assume, but even that sounds odd. Normally our toiletry bags (with shampoo, etc.) are in our checked bags, but I usually have a water bottle with me.

We will be in Boston for a few days before the cruise, and this will be our fourth time staying there, so I think we’ll be ready to board after checking out of the hotel. But with all these great tips, I’m finding it difficult to decide with certainty what we’ll do. At least we have plenty of options!

Whogo - hotel check out time generally dictates when we head to the port as well. We always tried to board as early as possible, so we could drop off any carry-on bags in the room, explore a bit and then head to a nice, relaxing Mariner’s lunch. This time I believe we’ll try for a later breakfast and then head to the port at check out time from our hotel. We should be able to avoid the lido buffet and have a burger, hot dog or taco bar after the crowd dissipates. (Am I fooling myself that the crowds will dissipate the first day?) This time we have the main dining time, which I believe is at 8:00 (is that right for main dining?) so lunch at around 1:30 or so will be better anyway.

Another great tip! This will be our sixth HAL cruise yet I did not know we could get room service that first day. Sad to hear the menu is more limited, though. Still, I’m sure we could something to tide us over. Although Dive In or the taco bar may still be the winner. Especially if we find a nice table in the lido pool area. Thank you all! The HAL forum really has such a great group of helpful and knowledgeable people!

Another good tip! I did not know that we could use our boarding pass for a drink. That might come in handy! I’ve heard good things about that Hampton Inn by the port. Last year we stayed at the Seaport Hotel. Although we could walk to the port from there, we decided not to, because of our luggage, so we are considering the Hampton next time. Thank you for your responses and good tips!

Alberta Quilter: Oh the taco bar! I forgot about that and we do enjoy it! Also didn’t know that it was set up on embarkation day. When you boarded a few weeks ago in Boston, were there assigned embarkation times? I saw on here that they’ve done away with assigned times, at least for some ports/sailings. I would have thought that most people would arrive as early as possible if there were no assigned times, which kind of makes me want to wait until later. Thank you!

Thank you all! Now I’m thinking we may go ahead and board early after all and just hunt for an outside table. I also wasn’t aware that the Dive In was open on embarkation day. We do love their burgers. I guess we’ll just play it by ear, but knowing us and how we are like children on Christmas morning, so excited to board that ship, that we’ll probably go to board as soon as they allow us. Thank you for the lobster roll tip. Somehow I didn’t have one on our last trip up from Boston to Canada, but I definitely want one this time AND to go to Peggy’s Cove this time. Win-win!

The ship is the Volendam, so no Grand Dutch Cafe. I’d love to sail on one of the Pinnacle class ships, but the itinerary won out on this cruise. Pretty sure we’ll eat and then try to board around noon.

I agree! It was such a lovely, relaxing way to start off the cruise.

Oh my, Wasasalad! Quite the pre-boarding adventure! Too bad HAL wasn’t willing to give away the upgrades for a better price. What year was this? This will our third cruise out of Boston and also the earliest sail away. Love Boston!

Yes, I agree. Really leaning in that direction. If we do have to be on board at 1:00, maybe a late breakfast between 10 and 11. Really too bad that they eliminated the mariner’s lunch. Thank you for your input!

My DH and I just booked the 2025 cruise from Boston to Canada/Greenland/Iceland. This will be our longest cruise to date and new ports, too. We are extremely excited! Reviewing the HAL forum, I see a few changes since we cruised last year. We have enjoyed the mariner’s lunch at embarkation on all but our first cruise and are disappointed to see that it has gone away. They haven’t restarted the lunch, have they? Just wondering if many of you have decided to board later and have lunch in the port town. We are not big fans of the lido, especially when it’s crowded, but we also are so excited to board as early as possible, so we’re torn. Just looking for a little input. One more question: it looks like sail away will be at 3:00, which seems pretty early. Isn’t all aboard supposed to be 2 hours prior to sail away? If so, we would probably just go ahead and board as early as possible. Thank you all!

I’ll be boarding next week, so this is so exciting to read a live! Could you let me know when the early MDR dinner time is? It appears from the activity list that it’ll be 5:30, but I’ve read different times lately from 5:00 to 5:45. Hoping it’s on the later side, as this is the first time we’ll be doing early dining instead of late. Thanks!

Yes, good point that I won’t actually board at 11:00, but still probable that I’ll be on board before the MDR is open for lunch, which is where we typically have lunch upon embarkation. So it sounds like, if the doors are open in order to access the rooms, then we can drop off bags without annoying the crew. That’s great. Thanks CruiserBruce. You are always very helpful.

I’ve read conflicting tips on CC about whether it is ok to drop off carry-ons in your room upon embarkation. I have a relatively early boarding time coming up (11:00), so I expect our room won’t be ready yet. But IF the “fire doors” are open, would it be ok to drop off our carry-on bags before heading to lunch? (I wouldn’t even try if the doors are closed.) I don’t want to get in the way of the crew, who I know are working extra hard to get those rooms ready. But, boy, it would be nice to drop off those bags before lunch. Or I may take my chances and leave them with my regular luggage with the porters to be delivered and hope it all gets to my room before (early) dinner. TIA

That video was funny and what a catchy tune! I’ll be singing that all day!

Ok, I did my own research and it appears black flies are more of a problem further north and in wooded areas, rather than in Montreal, Quebec City, etc. Phew!