Rubyfisch

19 hours ago, Crew News said:

Just for clarification:

 

Food service personnel, as well as Room Stewards, work split shifts that are dictated by available crew meal and training times.

 

After reviewing my daily programs for the past few years, the Lido Market closes at either 8:00 or 8:30 PM each evening.  On every ship in the fleet and for the many years that I have been collecting menus, the Lido reopens at 10:30 PM for the Late Night Buffet.

 

The Late Snack is for those crew members who are shift workers (entertainers, Spa, Shops, etc) but all passengers are welcome,  The first few Late Snack nights always have many passengers but as passenger clothing becomes tighter, they stop coming for their fourth meal each day.  It is an especially nice opportunity to pick up charcuterie items for your stateroom without waiting in a long line at the regular Lido Market hours.  FWIW the cubed Specialty cheeses change each evening.  The menus begin on Embarkation Day and run in 7-day cycles regardless of cruise segment duration. The menus are served on every l HAL ship in the region.  Sample:  Late Snack Menu Alaska Day 04

 

If I remember the year correctly, before 2018, when the US government ordered that food prep/service was restricted to fixed locations with appropriate ventilation and open flames were banned, there was always a cookout beside the Lido pool on late port nights for those returning from late excursions.

On Zuiderdam in August, it was 10 to 11, not 10:30 to 11:30.

I've done two solo cruises, and really enjoyed both. I have another booked for December (my first solo on Holland). I've found have a schedule and a plan helps a lot. If you got to breakfast at the same time each day, you'll see the same people - and maybe strike up a conversation. Go to activities - do the morning walking or stretching, join a shuffleboard tournament, fold origami frogs, play trivia. Bring a book or three, for those in between times. Consider booking something at most of the ports, even if you aren't really an excursion person.

Also, others might disagree, but I can't imagine cruising solo without the upgraded Internet package. I want to be able to watch silly YouTube videos if I get lonely or text my friends pictures of sunset or Google what to do at the next port.

In an Uber home ... So I think we are all done but the laundry. If anyone has questions, happy to answer them.

And I'll be back for another live in December.

Landed back in Boston ... There is inexplicable traffic on the ground at Logan ... We circled for probably twenty to thirty minutes, landed almost 25 minutes ago, and are still stuck in ground congestion not able to reach our gate ... So, you know, like driving in Boston .... 😆

Route into Logan:

Just boarded our flight home ... I really hate CRJ900s ... I have so many bad memories of getting stuck in the regional terminal at Harts Field in Atlanta because of mechanical issues in whatever miserable CRJ was taking me to a smaller southern airport.

Seriously, a Dash-8 would be better ....

We took the 747 bus to the airport - it's a quick and easy ride. Also, if you are taking the bus from the airport, there are two options 747-1 and 747-2, which used to have different names.

If you want to go downtown on the bus or to the main train station, take 1. If you want to get on the orange or green lines, take either.

The Bell Centre plays the Canadiens fight song .... 

(Hopefully this video works ...)

We got coffee at Columbus & Co., which is a large French coffee chain. The coffee and pastries are great there:

13 minutes ago, akeka said:

I sailed HAL solo to Hawaii and the key for me was assigned dining.  My table of 8 was all singles except for one couple and we had a great time together that crossed into other shipboard activities.

I am a big fan of set time dining, and when possible, at a big table with others.

Well folks, we are almost at the end ... The bags are repacked, we are checked into our flight, and we'll be heading to the airport in a couple of hours.

But the surest cure for the post-cruise blues is another cruise, right? We have a couple booked, but this is my next one - a solo cruise at Christmas on Neiuw Amsterdam in the Caribbean. I spent the past to Christmases on Royal Caribbean solo, and had one booked for this year, but kind of got cold feet about it, so before final payment, I decided to switch it out for this one. I haven't done a solo on Holland or a Caribbean on Holland, so if anyone has advice, let me know.

Dinner at another favorite - Burger Bar Crescent. This pesto Mac and cheese is amazing ....

We went to see Aura, the light and music display at Notre Dame. You can't take pictures during it, but here are some from before it starts. It's quite dark before the show, so some of these are taken using my Pixel's night mood with a six second exposure. The show is music and lights, with no explanation or really any communication other than to not take pictures. But it is pretty cool.

.

We had lunch on La Belle & La Boeuf, a local burger bar chain. I forgot take pictures but it was pretty good - I had a fancy grilled cheese with tomato soup and sweet potato fries.

Now we are back at the hotel watching the rain roll in.

Then we went to the Montreal Tower - this was our last attraction and it seemed like the best of the options. It had really good views, but I don't think I would have paid full price for it. It is directly next to the cruiseport where we got off Volendam, so I think you could probably drop your luggage off and then do this before boarding if you were starting Montreal of you wanted to.

A little tiny cruise ship was docked - I think I saw her while we were on the Saint Lawrence on Friday. The ship is the MS Hamburg, on a Greenland to Montreal cruise.

View of Mont Royal behind the skyline:

You take an elevator up to the main viewing platform, and the stairs up another could of flights:

Biosphere in the distance.

We bought the five attraction Passport Montreal last time we were here, and had one of each class of attractions left to use. We went to the Science Center first. This gave us a chance to practice our French as the displays are mostly geared towards kids, so the French is very easy. They had this cook projected light display about meal, as part of a whole exhibit on the science of food:

13 minutes ago, atexsix said:

I enjoy church tours, but did so many in France that they started to look the same after awhile.  This church is stunning though.  

 

You can almost hold a service in your hotel room, huge space!

It's so unnecessarily large ... I feel we could play multiple games of volleyball in here at the same time.

We had dinner at our favorite restaurant - Garage Beruit:

Just now, daisy-mae said:

I'm a little late to this thread...just wondering if you noticed anyone playing pickleball onboard? I didn't see it mentioned in the dailies? Thanks.

The sports court was closed for the whole trip as they were resurfacing it. Apparently, they are trying to fit two pickleball courts instead of one up there.

We always stay at the Holiday Inn on Rene Levesque. Last time, we randomly got upgraded to a suite, and it was really nice to have some extra room to unpack and repack everything. This time around, upgrading to a suite was only like 30 CAD a day, so I decided to do that. They put us in the most ridiculously large room ... Not complaining, but I don't get it. I don't have much IHG status anymore (I switched to Marriott for work travel). But regardless ... 

Our room isn't ready, so we went to Starbucks. My partner pointed out this is first cup of strong coffee we've had all week ... The coffee on the ship tastes fine, but man is it weak.

Also - I got this ... Do they have these in US Starbucks? They are really good ... It's egg, potato, and chive:

We got to the airport around 10:00 am, and are now on the 747 bus into Montreal. Fingers crossed our room is ready.

We were up at 5:20, had breakfast in the lido, and our tag was called at 6:32. Our bus was on it's way by 6:55, and we're a little over halfway to Montreal. 

We'll be there for a couple of days, and I'll post some highlights of that, but happy to answer questions, etc.

After dinner we went to the Rolling Stone Lounge for a bit - they were great:

Last dinner in the MDR for this trip:

Tomato soup:

Salmon:

Cookie sundae:

Dinner menu: