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Charlottetown Prince Edward Island On this stop we essentially did the historic walk from the map handed out in port. We did deviate to stop at All Souls Church. This along with the other church we stopped at were both amazingly beautiful in very different ways. The architecture here was also very pretty as well. My lovely wife also made it in one of the pictures, I will make an appearance in Sydney. It was a very nice walk and I was able to have my DSLR out the whole time.

This is probably my favorite picture of the ship, and maybe from an artistic perspective the whole cruise.

It only snowed/rained on us once in Sydney. We were very lucky to miss it the rest of the time, but the skies were very friendly to us. We went out both in the morning and afternoon in Sydney and the morning was the snow/rain, and the afternoon was nice:) Halifax the rain rolled in just as our excursion bus got back to the ship. It was a little crazy how lucky we got with the weather.

We only ate on the ship with the exception of Halifax when we had a 6+ hour excursion. We were so rushed that I ate the protein bar that I packed in my camera bag. In Montreal we were in so late I only ate breakfast in the hotel. Living up to the thrifty name my wife really doesn't like eating off the ship. Sorry that I can't help you there. I can see why one would do this sailing multiple times, it is an amazing itinerary, and we are thinking of doing it again in the future.

It is funny growing up in Wisconsin we are used to the 80s one week, snow the next, and then back into the 70s in the spring. I packed my clothes the instant we booked, was forecasted long term in the 60s and 70s as far out as we could see. I packed light too, but went with the convertible pants that can convert to shorts and look nice enough to wear to dinner. Where we vacation for fishing in the early summer I learned to layer effectively. Our weather here has been a roller coaster temperature wise this year too. It was cold but didn't really impact our enjoyment of the cruise at all, other than missing out on the promenade deck, which we haven't seen since the freedom of the seas. Not sure how it impacted others, but we did here a few say that they saw snow for the first time. The crew for sure wasn't a fan of the cold.

Day 3 at Sea This will be an easy one. While we had a routine that sounds kind of boring lol, the time went by fast and I didn't do as much reading or puzzle books as I normally do. Today we did the EXC talk on the Canadian icons and we learned some things in it that we didn't know. My father in laws family made their own maple syrup from trees on their land and we actually still have a few jars of it, so they know the process well. My wife was going to go to the flower arrangement presentation, but it was overflowing and we both ended up at the shopping show thinking they would talk about the upcoming ports, nope it was all about the onboard shops. Then they gave out a 200$ off coupon at the end, which after the raffle turned out that the coupon needed to be used in the next hour or it was no good. Very disappointing. We did buy a watch onboard because it was on the top of my list and at a lower price than it should have been so we did ok. Supper I did the Seafood Deviled eggs and the Chile Rellanos, both were excellent. My wife did the I forgot the app and Garlic herb roasted chicken which was excellent. Kelly Macfarland was the comedian for the night and she was probably the funniest comedian I have seen at sea. Very good show. We ended up playing cards in the Hudson room to close out the night. They seemed to keep this room nice and cool. Only pictures are for an idea of how gloomy it was this trip, weather wise, not the experience though.

We really don't like using the apps, this is the first cruise my wife actually used her phone for pictures and stuff. We generally lock the technology in the safe. I have now stopped bringing my iPad and catch up on reading books and doing puzzle books during the relax and chill times. I end up doing too many screens at home and for work so I need to unplug from them.

Yeh it was a bit frustrating, but the food made up for it:) Also in the moment it seems like a big deal but we have learned to roll with it. Also since I have been on the gluten free diet, I have learned to roll with the punches a lot more than I used to, or maybe I am finally growing up;)

When we setup a 5:45 reservation for each night, we were told we would have the same table and servers we had that night. We liked both. We never had the same table and servers again, it was weird. The dining seemed very chaotic and we even ended up with a buzzer to get a random table with the reservation, while watching people without a reservation get seated right away. At least on the Zaandam they need to work on this, we have never seen something this disorganized. This was complaint 2. We did find that the 2 times we got seated in that open area on 4 behind the host/hostess stand that the servers were a lot better than anywhere else we were seated including deck 5.

We got burned by Uber due to traffic and some other weird thing in Florida and it was more than it should have been. That was likely our one and only Uber experience. Also thanks for the answer. We would actually like to do this tour again, maybe in the fall or summer. Summer for the Gardens in Halifax and fall would be for the colors as the trees change.

Yup we are. That and the supper clubs we go to that imo make some of the fancier steak houses look bad and overpriced.

When we got out of the terminal, they had Taxi vans, so space was not an issue. It appeared to be a flat rate to get down by the port, but not sure if that was based on the number of people or not. If there are say 2 people and a car worked, it may be cheaper. We were in get us to the hotel mode and the number stated seemed reasonable so we went for it.

Day 2 Activities and Supper One thing I do want to comment on is the lack of detail on the daily program. They list the activities and even highlight some. Unfortunately they don't provide any background information on any of these activities. Maybe we are spoiled by other lines that do this, but it does help us to make decisions about what activities we want to do each day. The activities for the day were walking around the city and once we were back onboard we played some cards, relaxed, and caught the dance sho In Tandem on the world stage. This show surprised us in that we all enjoyed it quite a lot. We did try to go out for the Pickelball basic instructions, but it was so windy at that point that we headed in for Happy Hour, which you will notice was 50% off house brands and cocktails from 4-5 in the crows nest and ocean bar. This happened nights 2-7 and was great. For the 4 of us, 4 brandy old fashioneds came to just under 25$ total each night. We weren't going to drink more than 2 drinks each this cruise but couldn't pass this up lol. Supper for me was the shrimp cocktail and the rack of lamb, and I really enjoyed it. My wife did the crab and artichoke dip, said the crab wasn't noticeable so she loved it, the cheese ravioli which she also enjoyed. Added a couple of sail out pictures too. We went to bed relatively early because we usually are up and getting ready at roughly 6 each day. We also fell into a routine pretty early in the cruise too.

There was a hair dryer in the top drawer, but we didn't use it, so no idea how effective it was. Hopefully someone else has used it and can comment.

We found that odd as well. My wife is a very picky eater, but has been branching out as time goes on. We never saw any always available options, but perhaps if you ask they are still available. We always watch the plates delivered to nearby tables and I thought one night someone had salmon when it wasn't on the main menu.

In the future we will know now. Too bad they don't kick out an email when you note that on the reservation to order it pre cruise. We had so little time to get ready for a new line that it was like cramming for a test in college:) Too bad you couldn't just carry a gallon or half gallon on with you.

Complaint number 1 - DI Water cost. First they do a gallon, which is always too much, a half gallon for a would be better. I even used it as water to take my medicine morning and night and didn't even use 1/2 of the gallon. Then the cost, just under 6 bucks is kind of crazy, especially when this is the first time we had to use it. I get up charging drinks because that is something people choose to purchase, the DI water, we CPAP users don't have a choice. IMO that should be offered near cost with a small amount of profit added. Knowing it is around a 1$ here, they have a huge markup on it. We did note that we needed it on our initial reservation, but likely missed that there was a specific spot to purchase it pre cruise. We thought what we did would have got us the water with the charge when we got to the room. Lesson learned.

The Room Wow how did I forget about this. The room was very nice. Lots of storage, honestly way more than we can use, and the bathroom was a decent size too. The only annoying or nice thing was the lights underneath the drawers by the bed and by the bathroom that light up by motion. Nice at night for getting to the bathroom, but bad in that they lit up by my CPAP tubing so that I needed bunch it up on the nightstand which isn't ideal. The power strip in the room was a nice touch.

Day 2 Quebec City Since the weather was overcast with the threat of rain, I left the DSLR onboard and we walked around a bit and took a ride on the Funicular to see the Le Chateau Frontenac. The Chateau was just amazing looking and not sure that there are words that can really describe it. I understand why we don't make buildings like this anymore, but wow we should. That could go for most of the buildings that we have seen so far. We also walked along the Governors Promenade for a while too, which had lots of steps. This will be the last post of the night:)

Exploring the Ship, Daily Planner, and the MDR Menu from Day 1 It was really exciting to finally be on the ship and to explore some. Really like the design of the ship and surprised it has 3 sets of elevators. Deck 5 was a bit weird to navigate, but we got used to it. We rarely walked past the pinnacle grill on deck 4 during the trip. Funny thing is we thought the sports deck would be a lot of fun with the shuffle board and the pickle ball. Obviously with the cold weather and the high winds we didn't make it back out there much at all. The library area was huge which was nice and the Hudson room looked like a nice place to play cards. Night 1 we played cards in the library. We didn't watch the Origin Story about the 150 years of Holland America. For supper I did the Crab Seafood cocktail and the New York Strip. The appetizer was enjoyable and the steak had good flavor, but had a couple of tough spots. My wife did the cod slider and really enjoyed it and Spiced Roasted Chicken which she also liked. Overall an enjoyable meal.

Sail out pictures. Yes I love to take lots of pictures lol.

That building is on Saint-François-Xavier street.

Embarkation So we kind of ignored our 12:20 time slot, but it was mostly because checkout time was at 11. We walked down to the port and when we got there it didn’t take long to get checked in and get through security. They had us sit in rows in an area they have setup. Once the ship was cleared to board, the priority guests were allowed to board first and then they started calling off the rows and we were onboard. It was a fairly painless process. Once we got onboard we dropped our carry ins off in the room and grabbed our key cards. Next order of business was off to the MDR for the gluten free pre order and lunch in the buffet. Will post the daily and the MDR menu soon.

Montreal views before embarkation. I did confirm that it is a 9 minute walk from the hotel on google maps. The architecture is just amazing in the older part of Montreal! The deck over the cruise port allows you to get an up close look at the ship. This is very unique and something I have not seen before.

It was very walkable. I would guess it was around a 10 minute walk at a leisurely pace. It is through a beautiful part of the city, so you may slow up to take some pictures. Or you could pre walk it in the morning to see the sights.