Saturday, May 19th - Montréal, Québec
Last day on board and no rest for the weary. The wake-up call came in at 5:45 am so that we could witness our arrival into the Port of Montréal. We didn't bother with showers, we'd get to that later as we waited for our disembarkation call.
Before we could even leave the cabin we realized that Mike had packed his key card in his luggage, a problem since my key card had stopped working the day before; without a working key card we had no way to get back into the cabin if we left. As Mike dressed, I went up to the front desk to get my key card working, and learned that Mike was required to have a card to disembark. Whoops! The front office staff made a new card for Mike which fixed both problems: we could now get into our cabin and off the ship.
Back in the cabin, I gathered up Mike and we headed for the Sky Deck. We were glad we got up early, since by the time we made it outside we were only a few miles from the Old Port. The weather was incredible: not too cool (the info system was reporting 48 degrees but it felt warmer), the skies were clear and wind calm. As we reached the top deck we were just passing the edges of the commercial district, and the Lachine Rapids were just in front of the ship.
We've always enjoyed entering the Old Port of Montréal because of the Lachine Rapids: they race into the channel from the port side with a 4-6 knot current. They can really knock a small boat like ours around, and in talking with Captain Draper yesterday, we learned that even a ship as big as the Maasdam must adjust for the current's effect. The ship has to crab into the current, then once beyond it and in the still water of the port the ship must slow very quickly. The Maasdam performed this maneuver beautifully, and then we were in the still waters of the Old Port.
Soon
came another tricky maneuver: nosing the Maasdam's bow
close to the far side of the inner basin, while swinging her stern
past the end of the cruise ship terminal's pier, then backing down
into place alongside the pier. As we've witnessed in earlier ports,
Captain Draper's control of the ship was superb and the Maasdam slid
quietly and gently into her berth. It was 6:40 am.
Ship's position at 6:40 am: 45° 30.120N 73° 32.920W, berthed in the Old Port of Montréal. We'd come 2,996 nautical miles from Fort Lauderdale.
We went down to the Lido on Deck 11 for our last meal aboard. Unlike past mornings at that early hour, the Lido was jumping - everyone was up and about since if all went as expected, disembarkation would begin at 8 am. Breakfast was great - and it'll be the last time we'd see bacon and sausage until the next cruise.
We headed back to the cabin to shower and then wait for our disembarkation call. We had "Green 4" tags - the color and numbers meant something to the crew, nothing to us, but we figured we'd be one of the last groups called since we have private transportation down to Vermont and don't need to meet a flight. That was fine with us, since Mike's daughter Andrea was driving two and a half hours up from Vermont to pick us up and we didn't want her to have to leave too early in the morning to come get us.
At 7:30 am, the public address system called for express walk-off's; these were folks carrying all of their own luggage off the ship. After that came various announcements for specific guests to meet with Canadian Customs on board the ship in the Half Moon Room; I'm not sure what the purpose was for those specific meetings.
The first of the general disembarkation groups was called at 8:25 am: groups Black 1, Black 2, Red 1 and Red 2. I sat in the stateroom working on the log, while Mike went out for a lap around the ship to watch the disembarkation process. He reported back that despite the Front Office's request not to clog the hallways and stairs, people were inclined to do so.
At 8:45 am, the groups Black 3, Brown 1, Brown 2 and Red 3 were called for disembarkation.
I left the cabin and wandered down to the Atrium, and yes, Mike was right, lots of people sitting and standing around, including folks with the same Green 4 tags which I knew wouldn't be called for quite a while yet. You'd think waiting in a cabin as we were doing would be more comfortable. However, despite the congregated guests the path was clear for departing guests and disembarkation seemed to be moving smoothly along.
At 9 am, the groups Black 4, Brown 3, Red 4, Blue 1 and Blue 2 were called for disembarkation. No green groups yet.
At 9:05 a lifeboat drill for the crew was called for lifeboats 1, 3 and 5. We had been assigned lifeboat #1, and for a moment - before they said "crew drill" - we thought we had to go to a lifeboat drill. Wouldn't that have complicated things? Just after that announcement, we got a phone call from Andrea saying that she'd arrived at the pier and was awaiting our disembarkation. We let her know we'd be there as soon as we were allowed off the ship.
At 9:15 am, the groups Red 5, Blue 3, Orange 1 and Orange 2 were called for disembarkation. At 9:30 am, the groups Green 1, Green 2, Orange 3 and Orange 4 were called. We figured we'd be called in the next round, so at 9:40 am we packed up the cabin and moved down to the Deck 6 Atrium to join the other "waiters."
At 9:45 am, Green 3 & 4 were finally called along with other groups but I didn't write them down because we were on our way!
Off the ship, cards scanned one last time, then Mike headed off to collect the bags while I stood in the Customs line. We had purchased a case of Kahlua on board at the duty free shop - Mike's favorite drink - and expected to have to pay duty either at Canadian Customs or US Customs, but the Canadians waved us by. We were free to head out to the curb where Mike's daughter Andrea had the car waiting for us. By 10 am we were loaded into the car and underway. It was incredibly painless.
An hour down the road at the US/Canadian border there was a significant back-up at the US Customs facility and we waited in line for about 40 minutes before finally inching up to the Customs agent. After being asked a few simple questions regarding our itinerary we were waved on by; we were never asked about alcohol at all even though the case of Kahlua was sitting on the back seat in full view of the agent. Good deal.
We were in Burlington, Vermont, by 12:30 pm. We'd be here a few weeks so that Mike could attend to work and his clients, then back to Florida. What a wonderful trip! If you read this far, you know we really enjoyed our 15 days aboard Holland America's Maasdam and were very pleased and impressed by her crew. Great trip, and memories to last a lifetime.
