Live from the Volendam - New England & Canada (May 25 to June 1)

[Rubyfisch]

Good morning from Montreal:

 

 

We didn't get the all clear until about 7:20. We took the last set of tags as we are in no rush ....

[Rubyfisch]

One last Lido breakfast:

 

[puppycanducruise]

Thanks for sharing your cruise.  Great pictures. 

When's your next cruise?

[Rubyfisch]

16 minutes ago, puppycanducruise said:

Thanks for sharing your cruise.  Great pictures. 

When's your next cruise?

According to the app - 84 days 🙂 ...

 

We actually booked it long before this one - it's a seven day on Zuiderdam, basically the same itinerary.

 

And I may possibly have booked something for 2025 on board yesterday....

[Rubyfisch]

Top deck pictures:

 

 

 

 

Biosphere:

 

 

Mount Royale:

 

 

I think this is Habitat 67:

 

 

Edited June 1 by Rubyfisch
Spacing

[Rubyfisch]

Our tag was called at 8:46, and we were off the ship with our luggage at the bus stop across the street by 9:00.

 

Buses in Montreal either require a transit card or are exact change only. We have Opus cards and I was able to use the Chrono app to buy us three day passes this morning. Loading cards from the app is finicky but definitely worth it.

 

The bus stop was a little hard to find - but we are now on the 715 to our hotel. You can also take this to the 747 to the airport. Assuming you have a transit card, this is incredibly easy - the stop is across from the port and it's all flat.

 

This stop looks like this:

 

[Rubyfisch]

The taxi line was massive - not sure about Ubers. It's a 16 minute walk to the metro.

[Lido deck main]

Great review, very enjoyable read.  Thank you,

[terrydtx]

Thank you for your live report. We are doing the same cruise on the Volendam in August but for 11 days, I agree with you 7 days is just to short. We are going to take the train back to Quebec City and spend 3 nights there before flying home. We have 2 other couples with us all in Vista Suites in a row. Your blog has us even more excited for this cruise.

[Rubyfisch]

We stopped off our bags and got coffee. Now we are off to the Biodome - which is not the Biosphere.

 

[Rubyfisch]

After some caffeine, we took the metro to Biodome. We've meant to come out here for awhile, but never made it. We decided to buy the Passport Montreal - it's a flat fee for five different attractions, good through the end of October, so if we don't use them now, we can use them in August.

 

From the outside:

 

[Rubyfisch]

Basically, it's a large, indoor zoo divided up into five climates. Here are highlights of the tropical rainforest:

 

 

 

 

 

[Rubyfisch]

Highlights from the subpolar region:

 

 

 

 

 

[Rubyfisch]

The maple forest:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rubyfisch]

And the Gulf of St. Lawrence:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rubyfisch]

They have a lovely (if a bit pricy) cafe - I think it's all vegetarian food, but I wouldn't swear to it. I got the chili with a potato cake - it was very tasty:

 

 

 

[Rubyfisch]

Afterwards, we were going to go to the botanical gardens, but we were hot and tired, so headed to the hotel.

[Rubyfisch]

We are staying at thee Holiday Inn on Rene Levesque - we've stayed here before and really like it.

 

Inexplicably, we were upgraded to a suite .... And asked if we wanted the bigger suite or the better view - we went for the view:

 

 

 

 

[Rubyfisch]

Dinner was at our favorite restaurant, Garage Beirut, on Rue Mackey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rubyfisch]

We went on a cruise on the St. Lawrence today with AML. It was included in the Passport Montreal, but otherwise would have been $45.  There were a couple included with the pass, but we picked the longest one. They start boarding half an hour before departure - I'd recommend getting there early and sitting on the starboard side. Narration is live and in French and English.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rubyfisch]

We had lunch at Jardin Nelson in the Old Port. It's a lovely place with lots of outdoor seating. It can get very crowded (and doesn't take reservations) but we were lucky and got a table right away.

 

General vibe:

 

 

 

Iced cappuccino:

 

 

Egg and cheese crepe with maple syrup:

 

 

[Rubyfisch]

We then went on the Ferris wheel (also included in the passport):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rubyfisch]

We are checked in for flight tomorrow ... 

[terrydtx]

43 minutes ago, Rubyfisch said:

We are checked in for flight tomorrow ... 

Safe travels home.

[Rubyfisch]

Dinner at another of our favorites - Burger Bar on Crescent. I got their house blonde and pesto mac and cheese - I'm ready for a nap ....