We have sailed on HAL before. Had an incredible adventure in June, 2011 to Alaska on the Statendam. We really looked forward to the Boston to Montreal cruise since we have never been to this part of the country. We spent two nights in Boston before the cruise and it was wonderful. We arrived at the cruise terminal and everything was so organized. Since we were in a Deluxe Verandah Suite, we were treated like royalty. Then we boarded and things began to go downhill. Our first night on board we had booked reservations in the Pinnacle Grill. It was the standard we expected. Food was excellent. Service was slow, but we were not in a hurry.

Day 1 and the first port was Bar Harbor. The tendering was not what we expected. We were told because of our cabin level we would have preferential boarding. That didn't happen, but we were still excited to see this part of the country. Bar Harbor was beautiful. Lunch at Gaylynn's was excellent. The bus was too crowded for the shore excursion but it gave us time to also see some of Bar Harbor on our own. The tendering process to reboard was not good. We stood in a very long line in the hot sun. I have MS and have difficulty standing. We watched people cut in line and no one did anything. There was no preference for boarding as we had been promised. My husband told a crew member about the MS and it didn't make a difference. We didn't realize that this would be the attitude throughout the cruise. We got back on board and decided we wanted to have a drink before dinner. The bartender in the MIX lounge was incredibly rude. I requested a drink that I had seen on the menu in our room and was told they had never heard of it. I tried to explain it was a specialty drink from their menu. He told us it didn't matter what was in our room, it was probably an old menu. We ordered something else and left to go to dinner. We arrived at the Rotterdam dining room. The host left us standing there for a good 5 minutes. He was doing paperwork. He finally looked at us and said, "What do you need? Do you have a reservation?" We told him no and he said "We prefer you have reservations." There were numerous tables empty. I had also been able to view the reserved tables while we were waiting for him to acknowlege our presence. He pointed over his shoulder and told us "Go stand over there." We tried to chalk it up to maybe he had a bad day. He was like this every evening we ate in the Rotterdam. We had even made reservations through the Neptune Lounge one night and he told us he didn't have them. When we asked him to check with the concierge, he refused and told us to move over and wait for a table. We were put at a table where they clean up the dishes. The dining room wasn't even close to being full.

Day 2 in Halifax and it was awesome. Such a sense of history. The shore excursion to the Fairview Cemetery was incredible. Lunch was excellent. We really enjoyed it. Same experience in the Rotterdam dining room with the host. Still very rude. A trip to the Neptune Lounge found all the goodies gone. The concierge said she had a problem with kids coming in from other decks and cabins not entitled to the Neptune. She said she couldn't stop them. I don't understand that. The Neptune is one of the perks with staying in the Penthouse or Deluxe Veranda Suite. We paid a good sum to have those perks. The food was good this evening. We went to another bar. Music was very loud. We discovered it was the time the ballroom dancers try to strut their stuff. It was funny to watch the competition amongst the couples. There was a lot of noise and traffic of kids running up and down the stairs and hall by our cabin. We took advantage of the laundry service. One of my DH's shirts was missing. It took 3 days for anyone to find it. Read more