Dave’s Live from Veendam 14-day Canada-New England, October 3-17, 2015

Hello all,

I’m doing another “Live From” blog, this time from MS Veendam on a 14-day round-trip cruise from Boston to Quebec and back.

Here is our itinerary:

- 3 Oct, sail from Boston at 4 p.m.;

- 4 Oct, Bar Harbor, 7 a.m. – 3 p.m.;

- 5 Oct, Halifax, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.;

- 6 Oct, Sydney, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.;

- 7 Oct, Charlottetown, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.;

- 8 Oct, cruising Gulf of St. Lawrence;

- 9 Oct, Quebec, arrive 8 a.m.;

- 10 Oct, Quebec;

- 11 Oct, Quebec, depart 4 p.m.;

- 12 Oct, cruising Gulf of St. Lawrence;

- 13 Oct, Charlottetown, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.;

- 14 Oct, Sydney, 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.;

- 15 Oct, Halifax, 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.;

- 16 Oct, Bar Harbor, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.;

- 17 Oct, return to Fort Boston at 7 a.m..

Here is a map of our itinerary:

We wanted to do a cruise to Canada and New England, especially during the time when we had higher odds of seeing fall colors in the trees. We chose Veendam over Maasdam because of the two nights stay in Quebec, which would give us lots of time to explore that city; Maasdam continues on to Montreal before heading back.

We have not been on Veendam since the late 1990s, well before her modifications. It will be interesting to see the changes.

I hope we do get to see some of the leaves in sunshine. It is looking less like this will be a “Travels with Jaoquin” blog, although Bermuda is now in the hurricane’s path which is hard on them. But, there is enough unsettled weather in New England and eastern Canada just from routine lows and nor’easters. We don’t really mind the wind and rain, but would prefer to have at least some sun on the trees now and then.

We are due to visit Bar Harbor tomorrow, and there is very little rain forcast. But, there is a bit of wind. Since that is a tender port, I hope the ship will be able to run tender operations safely. But, the nice thing about doing the round trip is that we have a second chance to visit on the way back if the first opportunity is missed.

When we made final payment, our PCC was able to get us the OBC for shore excursions, the Dine-Around package and some other bennies. She did explain that the OBC was available to be applied to any charge, since we had already booked most of our excursions; I will report on how that goes, but as others have posted that it applied to anything, I expect we will find the same thing. I have also read on CC how the dine-around works, so DW and I have discussed what nights won’t work, and I will go try to change if the reservations they give us are inconvenient. We have dinner reservations ashore in Quebec for Friday, so that night for example would be a non-starter.

This is a port-intensive itinerary, and while I intend to post at least once a day, I may get behind sometimes.

I will post this now, and check in again later.

More later,

Dave

I was hoping you'd do a live from thread. You do such a great job. Looking forward to it. Hope you and Mrs. Dave have a great cruise!

great news - ive enjoyed your 'live froms' before and looking forward to this one - have a great cruise and thanks for taking us along

Pre-cruise activity

We left Arlington, VA early morning on Friday, Oct. 2, by taking a cab to Union Station in Washington, D.C. We took the 6:55 a.m. Acela Express train that got us to Boston almost exactly at the scheduled 1:40 p.m. arrival time. We could have flown from Reagan National to Boston Logan in less time, but we prefer to take the train whenever we can, because it is much more comfortable.

It had been raining in the D.C. area, and almost the entire train trip up the Northeast corridor, and it was raining in Boston when we arrived. And, the wind was picking up. We caught a cab to our hotel, the Marriott Long Wharf, which is in the historic waterfront area of Boston, very near Faneuil Hall and the North End. We had stayed there before, and found it to be a comfortable hotel and convenient location.

We had intended to go into the North End for some Italian food, such as at our favorite trattoria that features southern Italian cuisine, but the wind and rain caused us to go to the nearer Quincy Market, next to Faneuil Hall, where we visited a bar and restaurant we had been to before. We shared some wine and enjoyed a light dinner, and then returned to the hotel for a good night’s sleep before embarkation day.

Saturday, October 3, embarkation day

This morning the weather was still unsettled, so instead of walking to the great little café on Salem St. in the North Ed, we just enjoyed the hotel’s buffet. Now, we are just re-packing everything and waiting until it is time for catch a cab to Black Falcon cruise terminal.

I will check in again after we are aboard, have gotten into our cabin, and I have set up the internet account.

More later,

Dave

Looking forward to another one of your great live reports.

Will be a couple of weeks behind you as we board the MS Maasdam in Montreal for the 13 day Atlantic Coast cruise to Port Everglades.

Thanks for sharing your cruise experience.

Looking forward to the accounts of your cruise. I've followed your writings and pics before and felt like I was there! I hope the storm doesn't mess up any plans or blow the fall foliage off the tress. Happy sailing!

Looking forward to your "Live" review.

I will be taking my first cruise on a HAL ship next year, so I welcome and appreciate your posts.

Welcome to my neighborhood. Sorry that Mother Nature has given you such a chilly reception.

But good news, there is lovely weather in the forecast for mid-week; you should be getting that sunshine you're looking for just as you reach the area with "color".

Looking forward to reading your posts (at least the ones before I head out myself).

Can't wait to hear more! Hope you have a fantastic time on your cruise.:)

Thank you for starting your live post. We will be on the Veendam for the first time in November for the Mexican Riveria cruise out of San Diego. I'm very interested in your opinion of the ship. We currently have a BA guarantee, waiting for stateroom assignment. Have a wonderful cruise!

Thanks so much for taking the time and $ to bring us along with you. I'm sure we're all looking forward to your posts. Hope you brought rain gear!

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

Gerry

I'll be looking for your posts and you and the Mrs. have a great cruise, even if a wet one.

It is supposed to rain here on Mon. when you are in Halifax. Hopefully it wont be too bad. We have had 2 and 1/4 inches since Thursday morning.

Our trees have started to turn and we have a few that are really pretty right now here in central NS.

Enjoy.

Helen.

hoping the weather co-operates for your cruise Dave and you see lots of great foliage.

always enjoy your live threads. So glad you are doing another one.

Hope you have a great cruise; I'm looking forward to hearing all about it.

Always enjoyed your live blogs...thank you for doing another one.....here in NC we are having a windy and wet weekend...so lots of time being spent on cruise critic!! Bon voyage:):):)

I'm looking forward to your blog, thank you! We will be aboard the Veendam for the first time next April (13-day East Coast/Canada). I'll be interested to hear about the ship and the ports. Have a great cruise!

Thanks for posting, I'm interested in all the details!

Saturday, October 3, embarkation day (Cont.)

Well, we aboard Veendam. We arrived at the Black Falcon Cruise Terminal about 11:30. The cab dropped us at the curb, and porters took our large bags. Agents checked that we had passports before we went up the escalators to the check-in hall.

We filled out the health questionnaires and cleared the security screening pretty quickly. We were given a 4-5 Star blue card, and went to the express check-in line for the usual check of passports, taking of photos and getting our cards.

We then went to a separate waiting section for suite and 4-5 star passengers, and about 10 minutes later were called to board. The cabins were ready, and we were able to go to ours right away. We did a lot of the chores of embarkation day, and I will post the On Locations and other details later. But, I wanted to make a quick post to let you know we have arrived, and to tell you how Veendam does the dine-around package.

Dine-around. There were no reservation cards in our cabin, so I went to the dining reservations desk, and was told that they would make whatever reservations we preferred, but that we should act soon, as they will fill up. I returned to DW and we discussed our choices, and returned to the reservations desk and was able to get the Pinnacle Grill and Canaletto reservations we wanted.

More later,

Dave

Have a wonderful cruise! I know I'll enjoy following along, I've been to several of the ports on car trips.

Nice to know that you are able to make your own reservations for the dining around package.

We are booked for the Veendam Mexican Riviera over Christmas, so will look forward to reading your review and blog!:)

Saturday, October 3, embarkation day (Cont.)

This was a very hectic afternoon, more so than it seems the last few cruises have been. It seemed there was always something still to be done.

Our bags arrived fairly quickly, and we were able to get unpacked. Both DW and I noticed when we packed a couple of days ago that our bags seemed to have less stuff in it, and that feeling was reinforced when we unpacked. Everything fit, with extra drawers and closet space still available! No doubt in a few days we will discover we forgot to pack something like casual shirts for me (it happened once, long story) or she doesn’t have hose and heels for formal night or something, but we did inventory and we still don’t know why we have less stuff.

Maybe after 20+ cruises, we’ve learned how to pack? Nah, it can’t be something that weird – we must have forgotten something.

We did have time to introduce ourselves to Henry at the Ocean Bar, and activate the $100 drinks card that we got as part of the same promotion that gave us the dine-around. Harry told us Happy Hour starts tomorrow.

We then went into dinner, and both had the traditional prime rib. We have table 301, on the rail on the centerline directly across from the entrance. It’s a nice location, but we think they have new chairs or something, because we seemed to be closer to the chairs of the people behind us each way, and had to bother them to get out of our seats. (And before you think anything, we weigh the same as before, so it’s not that we have to push farther back to get out of the chairs.)

I will post the dinner and dessert menus tomorrow -- I’ve just started the blog and am already behind, but I will keep going and post when I can. Here is today’s On Location:

More later,

Dave

Good to see they had lunch in the MDR. Thx Dave.

Weird the On Locatin has no mention of the captain or his officers.

Excited as always for your reports, Dave!