We were offered a good deal on back-to-back (B2B) seven-day cruises out of Boston for August. We decided to take them (1) hoping the weather would be cooler and (2) to celebrate Chuck’s birthday. We didn’t mind that we had been to all the ports before nor that we would have the same itinerary going to and from Montreal.
The ship was the Volendam, one of the two Holland America (HAL) smallest ships. We had sailed the Volendam once before to Canada and we’ve sailed its sister ship – Zaandam for 4 different sailings. We knew what to expect in terms of pros and cons (in our opinion) from the larger ships.
Pros – easy to navigate around the ship, large staterooms, large promenade deck, and fewer people. Cons – fewer dining venues, fewer music venues, few outlets in stateroom, and no balcony stateroom category (the balcony rooms on the Volendam and the Zaandam are considered Vista suites – one step below the Neptune Suites).
This cruise we had an inside cabin. On the larger ships, I find the inside cabins to be a little claustrophobic (Chuck does not) but the inside cabins on the Volendam are big – roomy enough for a small couch, table, chair and desk along with the bed and two bedside tables.
However, there were only 2 regular outlets and 2 European outlets at the desk. There were none beside the bed. I was glad I brought my European outlet converter and my portable charger. Still felt like I was playing musical outlets.
We were on the 3rd deck aft which made it very easy to walk out the door at the end of the hallway right onto the Promenade deck. However, we always knew when we were either picking up/dropping off the pilot boat captain or docking because the vibration/noise from the thrusters was powerful. Earplugs helped.
As usual on 7-day cruises, the ship was full both ways. In Montreal, the Cruise Director announced that 153 passengers were staying on to go back to Boston. I was happy that we did not have to change staterooms for the 2nd leg of the cruise.
For the most part, we had very good weather. Didn’t see much of the cloudiness from the Canadian wildfires nor did it rain very much. The weather on many days was in the 80’s. I was hoping for the 70’s but 80’s were better than the high 90’s and low 100’s we left.
We took one organized tour during the 14 days. Some days we just wandered around the port area. Some days we stayed aboard.
Let’s go to Canada.
Next up: Travel day to Boston