Need help with Canada/New England Cruise

[lomo]

I am booked on the Canada/New England Cruise going from Boston to Montreal. I have to choose between getting off the boat, taking the city tour and going straight to the airport. Or, staying over one night, but leaving on a flight scheduled at 7:15 the next morning. I was wondering if others who have taken this cruise can comment on the end in Montreal and how they handled it. I am concerned about getting airport transportation at 5:00 in the morning and I'm also concerned about taking the city tour and sitting at the airport for 3-4 hours. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[mhshapiro]

We did a NY to Montreal on Rotterdam VI a couple of years ago (great cruise). We stayed over a day in Montreal at the end of the trip.

 

It was only a short taxi ride from the pier to the downtown area, where our hotel was located.

 

As I recall it was about a 35-45 minute taxi ride to the airport from the hotel during morning rush hour. However, our flight out was not nearly as early as yours.

 

However, Montreal is a cosmopolitan city, so it should not be difficult to arrange taxi transportation to the airport even at 5 AM, although you might want to have your hotel concierge arrange it the night before.

[wwinfl91]

You might even want to see if you can schedule a longer stay in Montreal. We did a Maasdam cruise last year from Ft Lauderdale to Montreal and stayed over for 3 days after the cruise. Montreal is really an interesting city with lots of interesting places to see and things to do. I agree with the above poster that you probably won't have a problem getting an early taxi as long as you arrange it with your hotel ahead of time.

 

I would advice you to get to the airport with enough extra time because you will end up spending some time in their customs area. We spent more time there than any airport that we have ever been at. They had two lines open and 50-60 people lined up because some kind meeting was going on and then when the meeting ended and other lines opened up, our guy suddenly decided to close his booth and we had to go back and get in another line.

 

Anyway Old Montreal was a very interesting place to visit and see the sights. Lots of good restaurants and generally friendly people (except for the customs people).

 

Have a great next cruise.