This was our first cruise with HAL on Maasdam, a smaller ship. Sailed before with RCI, Princess, NCL. As always, I picked the cabin in the lower part of the ship, in the middle third, and with a window to avoid sea sickness. The stops were: Quebec, Charlottetown, Sydney, Halifax, Bar Harbor. With the exception of Sydney we took a panoramic tour of each place, one tour was in a horse-drawn carriage. All tour guides were good, talking non-stop, we learned a lot from them.
I thought the scenic cruising on St Lawrence river would be a great thing, this is why we picked a smaller ship… we were 2.5 hrs late departing, and sailed mostly in the dark. Disappointed.
On boarding, the mandatory muster. This was the first time in long time that we had to stand outside, waiting for the crew to round up all those who are late. I was cold and tired. Also did not like having a bathtub. It was deep with wide sides, not easy to climb in and out having bad knees. My husband figured it out: sit down on the wide tub edge, bring your legs in, and be very careful not to slip off.
We stayed pre-cruise visiting museums, got passes for metro and buses. Metro was easy to figure out.