Cruise season opens in Montreal [Video]

Cruise ship Staff Capt. Rakesh Prasad can’t forget the traumatized expressions on the faces of hundreds of Ukrainians who boarded Holland America’s Volendam in April 2022.

The 1,500 refugees, who had fled their homeland two months earlier after Russia’s invasion triggered an ongoing war there, boarded the ship with their scant possessions largely packed in plastic bags. The ship they boarded at the Port of Rotterdam would be their home for the next six months.

“You looked at the kids, you could feel how afraid they were, there was no happiness,” said Prasad, standing by the Volendam’s indoor pool after the ship docked at the Port of Montreal on Saturday.

The Volendam, now back to ferrying vacationing travellers, was the first cruise ship of the 2024 season to arrive in the city. The port authority held a ceremony aboard the vessel to celebrate the occasion, with invited guests including diplomats …