cgolf1

Do they ask you the cost of stuff bringing in? I saw something and I am now costing out my camera and CPAP machine because of government site I read.

So I have started to research a US citizen flying into Canada. I am not learning much and what I am sounds easy. Below is what I have found. We just need to bring our passports dont bring meat products like beef jerky even if it is sealed. medication in original containers. Need to buy smaller Alleve and Guafenison because I don’t want to carry the Costco jumbo bottle;) Didn’t see any restrictions on prepackaged breakfast items like granola bars or bagged peanuts or cashews. The part I am confused on is it doesn’t seem as if we need to fill out a declaration form of any kind. This doesn’t make sense. Again this is to aid in my research, I will trust but verify any answers. We have not flown outside of the US before.

I am surprised that US port towns or border towns don't take Canadian money, it actually makes sense which is likely why it isn't allowed. I am sure there are people that cross regularly that then either have to use a card or carry both currencies.

Many years ago when we crossed into Windsor from Detroit, they did. Honestly in the Caribbean they all accept Dollars even though that is not the currency there. So it is a fair question.

So to prepare for this cruise, how has everyone handled this? If we carry dollars will we get the right rate or will it be guestimated? The difficult thing is we have zero clue how much money that we will spend. Luckily we both have 1 card with no foreign transaction fees so we should be good for credit purchases. For stuff like stopping at a bar, Mug and Anchor, we would likely use cash. Not sure how many other things would require cash. Thanks in advance

New to HAL, do all the ships have a happy hour and is it even for first time HAL cruisers? On our previous 18 cruises across Disney, Royal, and Celebrity this is unheard of. The closest was on Royal were we got a 10 drink punch card that gave us 1 to 2 free drinks. This does sound cool to me.

So far looking at this board doesn't even come close to what I have been seeing on the Celebrity boards and on social media. This board is a breath of fresh air:)

Not one hundred percent sure on hotel yet. The issue we have is our flight gets in at 10:45 pm so not sure if pays to get a hotel near the airport and get a ride in the morning or get to the hotel by the port at roughly midnight. we don’t know how long customs takes but guessing it will be a bit. Lots of decisions but it will be comfortable weather when we go.

So confused and trying to figure this out. I believe the Zaandam will sail out of the, Montreal Cruise Terminal - Iberville Station, and we are looking at a hotel that google maps says is a 9 minute walk or another is a 3 minute walk to the port. Is the area down by the port safe to walk with luggage and is the port easily accessible to walkers? When sailing out of Tampa we walked into the port and it worked out really nicely.

It looks like Bar Harbor will be ok for us. Just bummed that Oak Island isn’t doing tours this year. We are huge fans of the show.

A Canada New England Cruise.

We are officially booked. Super excited especially to be back on a smaller ship.

Being mid to late 40s sailing the Edge twice now with the Constellation between those, we had a different opinion of the Edge second time around. The first time we loved it and the music vibe that they had on the ship. The live music was insane along with the production cast. The second cruise on the Edge with the exception of one singer was just meh, so we found we enjoyed the ship less. We still love the magic carpet, but besides that it was difficult to find an outdoor space to play cards due to how the wind travels through the ship. The Connie, man we loved that ship. We do want to sail it full, less than 600 when we were on, but it is what a cruise ship layout is to us. We are going on an S class in 2025 so we will see how that goes and how we like it. So far M class is #1 for us, but there are things we like about the E class and have no issues with booking on them again.

Apparently we are at a crossroads too. We are looking at booking a last minute Cruise on HAL and if I am being honest I am really excited about it, incredible itinerary, assuming the wife gives the go ahead. Who knows we may find another cruise line that we like as a secondary option.

To introduce us we are in our mid to late 40s and started out sailing Disney then moved to Royal and now have landed at Celebrity where we have done 3 cruises and have 2 more booked. We are low key and like to hang out and watch the ocean pass and honestly don't do a lot of activities other than the shows onboard and generally failing miserably at trivia. We aren't foodies by any means, but we do love good food. I am the adventurous one that likes to try new dishes and my wife is really starting to branch out. I am also gluten free, so that can sometimes be a challenge. My wife did some quick research on here and did find good reviews for HAL's handling of food allergies. We found an amazing itinerary on the Zaandam to hopefully book last minute. My wife wasn't really onboard until I heard grumbling when she read about each of the ports and most had places that she really wanted to see, and some she had already known about. This will be the smallest ship we have sailed by quite a bit. The good news is a rough ride doesn't bother us. Our favorite cruise to Hawaii regularly had 20 to 30+ foot seas. I am making an assumption that a smaller ship doesn't sail as smoothly. So very generically what can we expect and any tips for sailing on the Zaandam? Most important question, does the promenade deck have a walking path that fully circles the ship and are there spots to sit outside on that deck? We loved this on Disney and are finding that many ships no longer offer this.

Hi all new to this board. We are looking at one of the Montreal to Boston cruises, and from what I am reading here, the Bar Harbor stop that is listed should stay this year. That was one of the ports selling my wife on booking this pretty much last minute, at least for us. Thankfully work is flexible enough. Would hate to book only for it to change.

I think the wife and I fit into the demo they are looking at, 40s, who will likely stick with Celebrity for a while. The only issue they likely don't like about us is that when we started cruising we weren't in a spot we could spend a lot of money on rooms or high price upgrades onboard, minus the Disney cruise hoodies I still wear and are in my closet;). We did try suite class at some point and said not for us along with specialty dining. Now all my reviews are the thrifty cruiser, because even though we can now afford much better we actually found that we prefer sailing in inside rooms, and still can do without the dining or a drink package. One thing they will always get us for though is the excursions. On one of our first cruises they held the ship because our ship based excursion was quite late. I now we could save money doing it on our own, but removing all worries on a cruise is worth a little extra to us. I have always wondered if cruise lines would prefer that people like us find another way to vacation;)

It must have after our trip which was a lot of fun last month. Since we are fairly new to Celebrity though, we have a different sky;)

I highly disagree with #1. People are people regardless of the amount of money they have. It's always a toss up whether you will get a great group of passengers or not regardless of the line you are sailing.

That may be true, but some genuinely said they saw it as a learning opportunity for her. The teachers that knew us, knew that we wouldn't complain. My wife now works in a district office and deals with the calls, so I fully understand what you are saying. We didn't get a lot of assignments per say but direction on what to work ahead on. I don't want to get nailed for the virtue thing again, but my daughter did well in school, so we figured she could handle the work load as well. If she had issues with school we would not have taken her out and cruised without her. Not sure if it matters, but we do live in a smaller school district as well. We gave up some educational opportunities for her to get a less chaotic environment. She got her engineering degree so it likely worked out, but she may have been more prepared for college if we had moved to an area with a larger school district.

Money and time of year. If you live where winter sucks it is nice to get a small break from it in a warm place, we still do this today. Holiday break cruises, very expensive along with the spring break cruises. Generally the Jan/Feb time is a good time to cruise cost wise and for sanity during the cold weather stretch. Though I got blasted for saying this earlier we worked with our daughters teachers and made sure she was up to date for each class even if that meant carrying a heavy history book in our luggage and never had any issues or complaints from the teachers. They did appreciate that she was caught up when she got back and many times was ahead of the class.

What, I have had this conversation with teachers on other forums so I put that there because we did make sure she did her work, maybe the responsible was too much. Sure I could have worded it different but the kids being up to date in school is generally the reason they aren't let out. I could give a **** what people think of me lol especially as a parent since I have a working 25 year old living at home. We failed miserably!!!!!!

Our 2025 Reflection cruise without the perks was a little over 120 per person per night and they added a 550 OBC. That is after taxes and port fees. Back to our Disney days we liked to keep it in the 120 to 130 range PPPN, but that was before taxes and port fees were added. A 2025 on the Beyond was 127 PPPN without the perks. For us that is super affordable. We ultimately went with the Reflection to try an S class ship. I do understand that insides are not for everyone just as the retreat level isn't either. We did the Disney retreat level rooms twice, and it just wasn't for us. We apparently are too simple or something because we didn't use the extra services that were available to us. We only did it twice because my mom who sailed with us in a separate room with our daughter wanted to try it too. The first time we did it one room had opened up and we were able to upgrade for a very cheap price.

That is a horrible idea. We took our daughter out of school for a 15 night Hawaii cruise and she did her homework everyday in the stateroom and was ahead of the class when she got back. I guess though we were responsible parents though making sure that she did the work, maybe not all do.

I guess I have a unique perspective because we sail inside rooms and even out to 2025 the prices are still very affordable. Having only done 3 cruises with Celebrity, I would say that the Edge seemed to be a similar experience to our first trip on it when it first came out, minus the weird Eden stuff. On our partial panama canal cruise this year, we still thought they have the best food of the lines we sailed and the service still tops Disney. The food options on our last cruise were less than even our Constellation cruise in 2022, but the quality was there. It could be the itinerary we did, but the crowd we had on the edge was very well behaved and I never saw a drunk person. We are mid to late 40s and I would say the majority of the people were older than us. Maybe we haven't sailed Celebrity enough, but for the prices we pay the quality and service is there.