Low expectations due to age of the ship

Item: Volendam
Rating: 2.9
Author: marinjoe

Volendam Cruise Review

marinjoe

Contributor Level: Purser

173 Days Till Next Cruise

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 5

Helpful Votes: 88

Overall rating:

2.9 out of 5

7 Night Canada & New England Discovery (Boston To Montreal)

Sail date: May 11, 2024

Ship: Volendam

Cabin type: Suite

Cabin number: 6199

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 14 days ago

Review summary

Lovely stops of quaint Canadian sea villages and so clean compared to their American counterparts. Be sure to have a lobster roll on land.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

We did not like the specialty dining rooms and the last night at the Pinnacle when we ordered mine lobster was a complete rip off. All five of us were extremely disappointed in the service and food. What I would recommend is not preparing for any specialty dining and just waiting to hear back until you are onboard. The Canolettos restaurant suffered the same problem for 3 out of 5 meals served. If u prepay you are stuck. We only ate in the main dining room once and that was enough to not go back. We enjoyed lido food much more so our group ate there 4 out of 7 nights.

Onboard Activities

1 out of 5

Entertainment

1 out of 5

Waste of space and tome

Service and Staff

4 out of 5

Very good servo e by all

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

Good for a ship that age

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5

This cabin category is part of what the cruise lines call a Vista suite which is a marketing scam. It is a standard balcony cabin in the aft of the ship. It is the third cruise line we booked using this category and it is not worth the extra cost. The difference is in the amenities which are hard to figure out the value. Having said that the cabin was comfortable and service was excellent by the cabin stewards. I would not recommend this cabin because of the location. It is right at the stairs and elevators so there is a lot of noise and because of our location. I think a main ship water line was next to our cabin so we had to listen to repeated sounds of flushing between floors. It was weird. Overall in spite of the ship’s age, it is well-maintained and comfortable. With only 1400 passengers lines are short. In the end we took everything into consideration and loved this routing.

Disembarkation

5 out of 5

8 Comments

Lawnboy1956 13 days ago

gjkari, I just returned from that cruise on May 11th and feel the following regarding the ports. Boston, This is great city with a lot of history if you’re into that. Bunker hill, the old North church, USS constitution, and you can travel out to Lexington and Concord to where the first shots of the revolution were fired. Bar Harbour I took the “Puffin tour” from HA and it was a boat tour of the surrounding islands and wildlife narrated by a naturalist, it was well the $ Halifax This is a great city with a nice waterfront area. They have a Titanic museum there, this was the spot where to recovery effort was centred and many of the recovered bodies are buried, you can visit the cemetery if you want. A 45 minute drive from the cruise Port is Peggy’s Cove which is world heritage site. If you get a chance take the ferry from downtown across to Dartmouth and back, it’s cheap and on the way back you can get a great view of Halifax downtown and a Navy base. Up the hill from downtown is the Citadel fort completed in 1828 and it’s a National Historic Site. Sydney I nice little city but not much to see there unless you go on a Cabot trail tour. If you do book with HA as its several hours long and you do want be late getting back to the ship. Charlottetown This is the site of Canadian confederation, the founding of our country. It’s a nice little city and easy to walk around and see things. If you are an Anne of Green Gables fan you can visit those sites but book a tour it’s a bit of drive. Quebec City This is a beautiful and historic city. It’s the site of the only walled city in North America. To see this city you must walk up very high hills to see everything. On top is the historic Citadel de Quebec. It was the fort built by the French to protect their claim to their colony. In 1759 the British attacked and defeated the French thereby taking overall hold of all the land that would become modern Canada. Montreal If you want to see a lot of what they have to offer you will need to spend a few days. The city is built around a small mountain in the middle (Mount Royal) you can go to the look-out on top for some great views of the city. You can go to old historic Montreal which is right at the port. It’s the site of the original settlement buildings and market from 1605 established by Samuel de Champlain called Place Royale. You will find the Place Jacques Cartier in that area which has many street performers, restaurants and patios right front of city hall. I hope this helps a bit.

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