LIVE: Zaandam 6/4 - 6/11, Montreal - Boston

[cwd79]

Great review, thanks for this. We board June 11th. Do you happen to know if they have ESPN on the TV? I ask because hubby is a huge hockey fan and the stanley cup final will most likely be going on during our cruise and it will be shown on ESPN. Thanks

[Sir PMP]

Good job so far..

[whogo]

Great live report, nyold, thanks for the photos and all.

[nyold]

6 hours ago, LouChamp said:

Love HAL since the 1970s. Thank you especially for the food pictures.  Question…do they still have the yum yum man? Our daughter loved him! 

Hi what is the yum yum man?

 

[nyold]

4 hours ago, SLC1954 said:

Cruising into Quebec City this morning, we passed under 2 bridges up river.

Thank you for this, I was still sleeping 😝

[nyold]

Pic of the slot machines. I think the entire casino is mostly slots plus maybe 7 tables 

 

I didnt see ESPN but can double check. The channels didnt work well all the time. When iy works it's nice but intermittently it would lose all "outside" channels and only ship channels would work

[nyold]

Breakfast and Lunch buffet. I had congee for breakfast it was amazing. For lunch, boy the sambal was crazy spicy, but overall great food. I espcially like the fried chicken but forgot to take a picture of that

[rocksteady27]

51 minutes ago, nyold said:

Pic of the slot machines. I think the entire casino is mostly slots plus maybe 7 tables 

 

I didnt see ESPN but can double check. The channels didnt work well all the time. When iy works it's nice but intermittently it would lose all "outside" channels and only ship channels would work

Thank you for the pics!

[nyold]

The excursion today was Montmorency Falls and Orleans Island, and also a sugar shack. They were impressive in different ways. The starting time was moved UP from 8:30 to 7:30, I am guessing because they want to avoid the rain. Well they were right. It started raining JUST as we arrived back at port. But this change was not communicated anywhere, I feel like they could have warned us somehow. I only knew because I was checking the app the night before.

 

When you get off the gangway, there are people pointing you to the right bus. The tour guide would scan your room key, so no need to have the app open. 

 

 

[Sir PMP]

1 hour ago, nyold said:

Hi what is the yum yum man?

 

Yum Yum Man, aka the bell ringer with his cart with mints, dates etc. is long gone. It was a beautiful tradition.

[janmcn]

Thank you for your photos! So happy to see the “old library “ looking the same!! Look forward to being there soon😁🛳

[canadianbear]

Looks like you’re already having a wonderful time.  Enjoying your pictures!  We saw the ship just as we were flying into Montreal yesterday to finally see our daughter and grandkids.   I told my husband we need to do this cruise next year and tie it in with a visit.  
 

 

[lakedweller64]

did you notice if the casino was very smoky thanks 

[nyold]

30 minutes ago, lakedweller64 said:

did you notice if the casino was very smoky thanks 

It's not that bad. Usually on other ships it is smoky but this time it is manageable. It might be because it is right across the hall from the perfume shop 🤔

[lakedweller64]

I’m not so sure what is worse lol thank you we really appreciate your posts

[rkacruiser]

5 hours ago, nyold said:

For lunch, boy the sambal was crazy spicy, but overall great food.

 

Was Sambal mixed in with your food or did you add it?  There are different levels of "heat" for Sambal.  

 

Thanks for your very good report and pictures.  I enjoy seeing that the Library area looks the same as when I last saw it in 2020.  I wonder if any of the books that I left are still sailing.  

 

The views downriver from Montreal are interesting as your pictures show.  

[nyold]

View from the gym. Raining this afternoon, but it makes the river cruising somehow very calming.

 

Also when and where for tomorrow (sea day)

[nyold]

Apologies for the rotated photo earlier

Edited June 5, 2022 by nyold

[SLC1954]

@lakedweller64 the casino has not been open yet as we have been in Canadian water since we embarked yesterday. Tomorrow we move into international water.  FYI, lots of (8) blackjack/poker tables and one roulette table.  
 

[nyold]

3 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

Was Sambal mixed in with your food or did you add it?  There are different levels of "heat" for Sambal.  

 

It was a separate add on, but in my hubris I requested a lot of it and mixed it without thinking. I was breathing fire afterwards. The server told me that this is imported straight from Indonesia so it was the real "strength" level and not the Americanized one that I'm used to. Oh well today I learned 🥲

[nyold]

Although tomorrow is the sea day, today was the first gala night.

Soup, shrimp cocktail, and lumpia (which is basically a summer roll). Prime rib and rack of lamb. The lamb is probably one of the top 5 that I've had, so very tender it's amazing. Souffle and strawberry romanoff.

 

[nyold]

The dance performance musicology was really good. Whoever coreographed / produced it is an artistic genius. The screen worked in tandem with the dance, and the way they assigned each instrument was creative and unpredictable to me. Sadly no pictures as per the performance rule.

 

I checked out the classical duo for the first time. They are pretty good. I frequent BSO pretty often so my standards are high, but I find this duo very enjoyable. You dont get the same "strict" atmosphere of course, but it'a more informal but they are still very talented. The duo is married and I especially like their interpretations on the more modern music. Their last piece was Joy of Spring by Mao Yuan, I'd have to look it up later.

Edited June 6, 2022 by nyold

[nyold]

Sea day today. MDR lunch: fried chicken waffles, cauliflower, spring rolls, fries (the aiolis were really good), croque madame, rock fish, ravioli, sundae, chocolate cake, cheese cake. Virgin mojito for drink. Only deck 4 was open, and even then it was about 50 pct occupancy. It was open 12-1, we entered 12:50 and stayed until 1:40 ish. Behind us there were maybe 4 or 5 tables left. 

[nyold]

For bfast we had room service. Apologies for bad lighting because DW was sleeping and I didnt want to disturb her. Continental breakfast and passionfruit yogurt. The latter was absolutely delicious but DW thinks too sour. The pastries were ok, still crispy but not flaky. 

[nyold]

The ship clock moves forward today as we went from Quebec to the gulf, en route to Halifax. The phone did NOT move automatically so we were caught by surprise by the room service delivery. At least it happened now instead of during port day where we miss something important lol. After we manually adjusted phone timezone, everything is good.

 

The pool and buffet were absolutely crowded. The library too, as we were just hanging out there playing card games.

 

The shop had some sale and the items kept rotating. I almost missed the totebag sale.

 

We attended the flower arrangement class. Ok the guy is clearly knowledgeable, but he is new at presenting the class I think. Couldnt really present and does his demo at the same time, lost track at what he was doing etc. It was informative still.

 

The captain announced that they would go slower than originally planned, but I missed the reasoning. He mentioned that we might see whales in this region.

 

FIL commented that for the first time we cannot see land from the ship, now it truly feels like cruising instead of river cruising. I dunno, I think river cruising has its own charm, but there were definitely insects when we were still on the river.