Highlights from Saturday through Tuesday: 1) Seeing the piano on the roof of the Montreal Cruise Terminal; the view from our hotel window of Mary, Queen of the World, Cathedral; the music at the Irish bar; and our enjoyable al fresco dinner at the Nacarat Terrace; 2) Jas standing up at the front seat on the top of the HOHO bus and shouting, “Tommm-meeee”, when we were stopped at a Hop-On point in Chinatown and he saw Tom and Kerry standing at the stop. I laughed out loud. It was such a Jas thing to do (and only slightly Ugly American). 😉; 3) Our breakfast at Ben & Florentine’s; 4) Being able to pass through U.S. Customs in the Montreal airport.
You can skip all the ‘blah blah’ and go right to the photos.
Montreal, Day 1, Sep. 3, 2022
We woke up early on Saturday, disembarkation day. Breakfast service would begin at 6:30, as the first airport bus would load at 7:15. Our bus, transporting us to the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth, where we would stretch our vacation for three more days while we explored Montreal, wouldn’t go until around 10:15 or 10:30.
While we were waiting to meet our friends for breakfast at 7:00, we stood on our verandah and took in the sights and analyzed the logistics happening on the pier. First a large crane lifted the gangway and placed it in position for the disembarking passengers. Then the crane moved to the end of the pier where it could lift containers of luggage, easing the job of moving so much luggage out of the ship and closer to its final destination.
The process was fascinating to watch. I’ll explain it the best I can without technical knowledge: The steel pallet (with 3 sides) is on the inside of the ship, on a platform where the crane can reach it. Employees inside the ship hand-load the bags into the pallet. (Jas, who spent many years as a Norfolk Southern Railway conductor, said the hand-loading was necessary because of the differing sizes and shapes of all the bags.) Then the crane operator picks up the pallet and lifts it from the ship, depositing it on the pier. Then a pallet jack (similar to a forklift) picks up the pallet and moves it to a door to cruise terminal. There are multiple busses to be loaded, and the bags are all color-coded and sorted. Personnel transfer the bags to dollies and move them to the assigned coach. The bags are then retrieved by hand and loaded into the baggage hold of the bus. Meanwhile, when the pallet is empty, the pallet jack moves it to the location where the oncoming bags for embarking passengers will be placed, as they prepare for the return cruise to Boston.
Seven minutes of watching the unloading activity.
(Apologies for not holding the phone in landscape mode. My sons have taught me better!)
The Zaandam has 197 suites, 383 oceanview cabins (with a non-opening window), and 136 inside cabins (no windows – these are the “cheap seats”.) That’s 716 cabins. Let’s say 200 people are staying on the ship to travel back to Boston. That decreases the number of cabins with bags to be loaded down to 616. Let’s call it 600. So if there are two people in each cabin, and each person has one large (checked) bag, that’s 1200 bags that have to be moved off the ship. Each of those are touched by a person to load them on the pallet, lifted by the crane, moved by the pallet jack, taken off the pallet by personnel inside the terminal, placed on a dolly, rolled to the bus, and loaded by the bus driver into the baggage hold.
When you think about it that way, it’s amazing (at least, I find it amazing) that all these bags seamlessly get from the airplane or train to the port into the pallets and then carried to the individual rooms and placed inside, all while the passengers are checking in, boarding the ship, excitedly walking around the ship to see all the public spaces, having a celebratory drink with their friends or partners, and then going to check out their cabins. Et voila! Their bags are on the protective “Luggage” mats on the foot of their beds. Just like magic. And back again at the end of the cruise.
We boarded our coach around 10:30-10:45. The people on this bus were staying at hotels in downtown Montreal before flying home. We were going to stay at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth; others on the bus were headed to the Sheraton. Our rooms were ready. By this time it was close to noon. Jas decided to take a walk and explore the area. I had eaten breakfast at 7:00, and went down to the too-expensive-for-that-calibre-of-food restaurant, which was understaffed and the service slow. I guess the U.S. isn’t the only country with a worker shortage.
Tom has some mobility issues and has difficulty walking more than 20 or 30 feet without stopping to rest. Kerry had arranged for him to have a scooter with which he could more easily navigate the city. Little did she know, when she ordered it, that it was going to be a superduper high-powered model. She (and we) referred to it as “the Harley” for the rest of the trip.
After Jas returned, we unpacked, and then walked over to Crescent Street, where we knew there was an Irish bar. We noshed and drank, then heard live music in the next room, so went and listened to some local musicians playing Irish music for their friends. What fun. It reminded us of our two trips to Ireland and all the music we heard there.
After a while, we headed back toward the hotel and stopped at the cathedral to explore. This building is beautiful inside and out, and worth a visit when you’re in Montreal. Then back to our room and texts with our pals to see where we would eat dinner.
We found the concierge downstairs to not be incredibly helpful (nothing like our concierge in the Neptune Lounge on board the Zaandam!). After she suggested three restaurants and none were open or had available tables, we asked her about the outdoor bar on the third floor, the Nacarat Terrace. She searched her computer screen and said they were basically booked, but they might give us some latitude as we were hotel guests.
They had one couch we could have for an hour. About half an hour later another, larger couch opened up, and that was not rebooked for about 90 minutes. This was farther away from the huge speakers the blasted the music the D.J. was spinning, so we were finally able to hear each other speak. And with the couch available for a while, we had time to just sit, relax, enjoy the food, the breezes, the views, and reshare experiences from the cruise. And swat the yellow jackets that were swarming around us. It really was a perfect end to a very long day (except for the yellow jackets).
Montreal, Day 2, Sep. 4, 2022
Sunday morning of a holiday weekend. The four of us, M&M and J&J, had decided to ride the Hop On, Hop Off bus to just see the city. The weather was very chilly, with rain threatening to mess up our day. Kerry and Tom had selected a restaurant they wanted to try for lunch, and they would try to navigate the HOHO bus and catch up with us throughout the day.
The first thing Jas and I did was search for a breakfast restaurant outside the hotel. The concierge (a different woman from the day before, and more helpful) directed us to Ben & Florentine, a block away. (“Consistently dazzling tastebuds all across Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba, Ben & Florentine has been a major landmark on Canada’s brunch landscape since 2009.”) There was a line out the door, but we were quickly seated, and served by a vivacious young woman, Marie, who made our breakfast a very enjoyable experience. You can tell from my breakfast photo that my avocado was rather unripe. When I suggested to Marie that she let the kitchen staff know that was not an edible avocado, she quickly adjusted my bill. Kudos, Marie! I wish Ben & Florentine would open up franchising in the U.S. I would gladly make a destination weekend anywhere within an hour’s drive of Youngstown out of being able to have breakfast with them again. (B&F’s PDF Menu, for your drooling pleasure.)
We walked with Mike and Marilyn to Dorchester Square, where we would buy our Hop On Hop Off tickets and board the coach. I fell in love with the fountain, adorned with a Pileated Woodpecker, on the edge of the square. Here’s the story behind that fountain.
For the next few hours, we sat in the front of the top deck of the HOHO bus, using the windscreen to shield us from the cold wind. (Let the record show that, at the beginning of Nordstrom’s Fall Preview sale, I had bought a nice warm quilted vest, knowing it would be perfect for this trip. Then, when packing under Covid pressure the day before we were to leave, I packed the vest, looked at Weather.com, and decided I wouldn’t need it, pulling it out of the suitcase and allowing myself only a summerweight cotton jacket. Bad choice!)
The sights we got to see from the top of the bus were great, and Jas and I both said we want another trip to Montreal, maybe by train from NYC. The views from the top of Mount Royal were stunning. (In case you’re ever trying out for Jeopardy, here’s a little Quebec trivia: “On October 3, 1535, Jacques Cartier climbed up the mountain and named it Mount Royal. He wrote: “Nous nommasmes icelle montaigne le mont Royal.” (We named the said mountain Mount Royal.) The name Montreal is generally thought to be derived from “Mount Royal”, the name given to the mountain by Cartier in 1535.”
After our tour, we wanted some lunch. Marilyn remember fondly a restaurant she and Mike had enjoyed in Montreal on a visit years ago, and we set out to find it. She remembered that it was on Crescent Street, which is chock full of restaurants. Both Mike and I thought, upon earlier googling, that it was no longer in business, having fallen to Covid. We did find the bar by the same name, but not the restaurant.
By this time Jas was starving and took it upon himself to find someplace for us to eat. He suggested a return to Hurley’s Irish Pub, but that suggestion fell flat. Out of frustration and starvation, we four agreed to go into a pub the next block north of Hurley’s and on the other side of the street—I didn’t know the name then and I don’t know it now! The food was a step below mediocre and very slow to arrive. And when we left that place, we just shook our heads!
By now it was after 3:00. I remembered having seen a Ben & Jerry’s a block away from Restaurant Unnamed, and dragged Jas there to get the taste of my lunch out of my mouth! And after that? For the rest of the day? I have zero idea of what we did. I remember that Tom and Kerry were still full from lunch, and didn’t plan to join us. I looked back at our text threads from that day, and find no dinner discussions! And, of course, there are no photos in my gallery from after we saw Leonard Cohen on Crescent Street!
Montreal, Day 3, Sep. 5, 2022
Monday – Labor Day in both the U.S. and Canada. M&M and J&J headed for Ben & Florentine for breakfast. About twenty minutes later, Tom and Kerry rolled up the street from the hotel and were able to sit in the booth across the divider from us. That’s my Brie & Blueberry French Toast you see in the gallery. OMG—Yum!
After breakfast, we all went our own ways. Jas and I took a walk to revisit the areas he had nosed around in the day before. The most fun was posing for mirror selfies in front of the Olympic Torch sculpture.
The rest of the day included a very greasy and unpleasant pizza from the restaurant in the hotel’s lobby; time spent with earbuds and movies on our individual iPads; packing, unpacking, and repacking; and a celebratory Last Night dinner at Rosély’s restaurant off the hotel lobby. (They may not be great at breakfast or lunch, but their dinner was lovely.) Tom and Kerry came in about the time we were finished, and we sat at the end of the bar watching a food magician make fabulous seafood cocktail plates.
Mike, Marilyn, and I had had enough for this last day and had to be up early for our airport limo, so we headed up. Jas, on the other hand, stayed at the bar for more drinks and conversation with Tom and Kerry. I was in dreamland by the time he came upstairs. That’s what vacations are for—doing one’s own thing.
Heading Home, Sep. 6, 2022
M&M and J&J were on a Delta flight out of YUL at 10:30, so I had my alarm set for 6:30, showered and dressed, finished my packing, and went to the lobby Starbucks-equivalent to get beverages and pastries to hold us until we got through check-in at the airport. Because Holland America had arrange the hotel and the airport transfer for us, they gave the two couples each a voucher, including gratuity, that would be accepted by the cabbie. The concierge had arrange for a driver with a large SUV to transport us. He was Lebanese and Jas had a wonderful conversation with him on the drive, learning all about his family and how he had ended up in Montreal. I never knew that Lebanon had been a colony of France from the 1920s through January of 1944. While Arabic is the official language of Lebanon, most Lebanese speak French. So those wishing to emigrate from Lebanon to North America find it easy to settle in French-speaking Quebec. Our drive to the airport passed quickly as we learned about this interesting man.
I was so pleased to realized we would pass through U.S. Customs at YUL, rather than at our first airport in the U.S., which would be LaGuardia. I find it somewhat stressful to know I have to retrieve my checked bag, go through Customs, and recheck my bag, all the while having a connection to make for my next flight. We’ve experienced this remote-U.S. Customs phenomenon twice when leaving Dublin, and I was very happy to learn that the Montreal airport was similarly equipped.
Once we were through security and Customs, we found a restaurant for breakfast. Fifteen minutes later, we heard Kerry’s voice, looked up, and there were our cruise partners, who joined us for breakfast before their later American Airlines flight.
We had an enjoyable breakfast with our friends, headed for our gate, flew easily into LGA, then experienced the newly renovated Delta terminal. Another easy flight into Cleveland, shuttle to the hotel where our cars were waiting, an hour-plus drive home, and then the ladies and the men went to their regular dinners-with-friends at Margherita’s. And we were back to our normal routines.
So glad we planned this cruise. So glad the powers-that-be let me onto the ship. And now Jas and I are looking forward to our next cruise on May 28, 2023, on the Holland America Noordam, out of Vancouver, up the Inside Passage, and by train from Whittier to Denali National Park. More fun, more memories.
Some Resources
Blog: Travels With Mai Tai Tom: The Global Adventures of Mai Tai Tom and Tracy – This couple has many lovely photos that I wasn’t able to get. We did the Hop On Hop Off on Sunday, not realizing the museums would be closed on Monday. This blog gives you a good sense of the artwork in the museums.
Website: Explore Public Art in Montréal
Holland America 2022, —Disembarkation and Post-Cruise Montreal
