20 Sept 2014: On location Halifax, Canada.

And thus I left the ms Maasdam yesterday after a very pleasant 14 days, thanks to Captain Arno Jutten and his team.  As I was able to finish everything on schedule, I could even throw in My Holland America History lecture for approx. 600 guests in the show lounge. Hotel Directors and Cruise Directors always try to offer something that is not on the regular schedule and I was glad to oblige. What was unusual but very heartening, was the number of crew that popped in during the lecture. That was something I was not used to but I am glad that there is the interest among them as well for the rich history of our company.

While I was doing that the good ship Maasdam was travelling up the St. Lawrence River on the way to Quebec. It was sunny but very chilly so most guests when not taking part in activities were watching the world go by from behind the glass windows. I did the same after my lecture was finished, high up in the crow’s nest. Holland America introduced the “On Location” program about a year ago and its purpose is that the guests connect as much as possible during their cruise with the area that they are sailing through. So more local food is prepared and served on board, more local information/ lectures and if it fits in the schedule, local entertainment on board.

For those who enjoy beer, this comes close to a Guiness but it is a touch lighter

A pleasant side effect of all this is, at least for me, that the ships now stock local beers. There are more and more Micro brewery’s and some of them produce very good stuff. In Alaska they stock in Juneau and here on the East Coast Canadian beers. Of course the regular run – of the –mill beers  but also from two local and smaller breweries. One from Prince Edward Island and one from Montreal.  Thus I managed to test them one by one, one every other day, after a full day of talking.

Some were to my taste, some were not. But this way is a great way of taking part in local culture and so I did. Most of them are produced by the Prince Edward brewing company, which brews 11 different beers of which we had 4 onboard the ship. For me the winner was Iron Bridge Brown Ale. It is quite heavy so you drink it more like a wine than as a Lager.

The next morning we were in Quebec and docked at an unusual spot. Even I had never been there. It was a busy day in Quebec with three ships in. The Norwegian Dawn, the Seabourn Quest and the Maasdam.

A not so exciting view of the cargo port  of Quebec.

A whole raft of reasons caused the Maasdam to be relegated to a side harbor. First of all there are limitations of how much the cruise terminal and dock can handle during change over day. Both the Norwegian Dawn and the Quest had change over and that mean that they took preference. A 3^rd ship on the ship dock, there was room for it, was considered too much of a capacity issue, both for the terminal and for the roads leading in and out of the terminal area.

So the Maasdam was banned to a cargo dock on the side. In principle not much of a problem for docking but this dock was further out. The Port Authority lay on shuttle buses to cover the distance and the only issue was that there is a Marina inbetween with a bridge.

On this electronic chart capture you can see the dark blue where the ship docked in the L shape and the light blue below where the shuttle buses had to travel through the Marina

A bridge which opens every time a yacht wants to get in or out. Luckily it was Friday and thus most yachtie’s were still at work, earning the money that they then could spend on that hobby of “going nowhere at great expense”. If it had been a Saturday, the shuttle bus service would have been a challenge. A real challenge.

But all went well and again it was a sunny but very chilly day. Apart from the wind hiccup in Bar Harbor this has been a very good cruise for the guests onboard.

That cruise ended in Montreal and here it was time to say good bye to the ship and to fly to Halifax, where I will join the Veendam on the 22^nd.

The Veendam is the last ship that receives the training for the new three alarm system that is being implemented and by mid-October all ships, all crew and also all guests will attend Boat drills under the new three step sequence.