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Canada/NE excursions...Need Help


Lovetocruise2002

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Hubby and I are starting to plan our first Canada/NE cruise. Typically we don’t think much of excursions but this will be our first time at any of these ports and also our first with sailing this area. We are prepared to spend a significant chunk on excursions. Trouble is that I have no idea what the “most do” things are at each port.  We are thinking more sightseeing because this may be our one and only time with this itinerary.  What are your recommendations? I will take any. TIA ?

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17 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

So, Sabrina, which NE cruise are you doing ?  Have you abandoned the Group on Oct 11, 2020 ?

Yes, unfortunately that timing isn’t going to work for us. It’s Canadian Thanksgiving and I would have to leave the kids while they are in school.  We rebooked on Adventure for July. 

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2 hours ago, twangster said:

Research Acadia State Park for Bar Harbour.

+1 on this. I went to college about two hours south of there, and while I never made it up that way, all of my classmates who did raved about it.

And while you’re in “Bah Hahbah”, make sure to get a lobster roll. That is something I did manage to do post-college, and you’ll be hard-pressed to get one better.

Portland has probably changed a LOT since I was last there over 25 years ago, so can’t really recommend anything. Unless you or hubby is into craft beer, that is... The Allagash brewery is located not far from the port, as I understand it. I am a huge fan of their craft brews and I imagine a tour of the brewery would be a lot of fun.

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3 hours ago, twangster said:

Research Acadia State Park for Bar Harbour.  
 

Boston can be self explored along the Harbour with stops for local food.  

For other stops an organized tour may be a solution but all have seafood based food appeal. 

Start with ship excursions then search local tours along lines of interest.  

Which blog of yours had the St. John/Halifax info? Was it your sailing from Quebec last year? I cannot remember anymore.

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I can help with Maine as I have lived here for 25 years.  

Portland - very walkable small city. You are right in the old port area that is a mixture of shops, restaurants, and yes, brew pubs. You may want to take a morning tour that will take you aroind town and to some light houses and walk the cobblestone streets of the old port.

Tip -If you have a chance to climb the last remaining N.E. ship signal observatory on a tour, go for it. It's unique with an incredible history. 

Bar Harbor - Home base to the northeast's only National Park. It's an amazing place were the ocean meets not only the rocky coast but the mountains rising up to 1500 feet from sea level. If at all possible go explore the park. You may be limited to the park loop road but there are enough stops to get a flavor of the park. The downtown is charming and very well kept. 

Tip - I have hiked up most of the peaks on the island but with time constraints, find a tour that drives you up Cadillac mountain. 360 degree views and your ship will look like a bath toy from up there.

Enjoy!!

 

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2 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Which blog of yours had the St. John/Halifax info? Was it your sailing from Quebec last year? I cannot remember anymore.

Adventure Snowbird...and St.John‘s is in Newfoundland vs Saint John in New Brunswick.  I would think a Canadian would know that.   Maybe you are a bot. Need to update.   ???

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/9521-adventure-ots-13-night-snowbird-migration-quebec-to-ft-lauderdale-oct-8-2018/&tab=comments#comment-86747

 

 

 

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5 hours ago, twangster said:

Adventure Snowbird...and St.John‘s is in Newfoundland vs Saint John in New Brunswick.  I would think a Canadian would know that.   Maybe you are a bot. Need to update.   ???

 

Haha. This bot definitely needs a reboot in the form of a cruise and more hours of sleep. I will have to re-read that blog this coming weekend.

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Boston is a great walking city, but you'll need to get a ride from the port.  Get to the Boston Common and go from there.  No matter which direction you head, you'll run into history.  One day is not nearly enough to take everything in.

I took a look at some of the excursions, the only one I'd highly recommend the Duck Tour.  Whenever we have visitors from out of state, we take them on a Duck Tour.  You can book it yourself, but the Duck Tours typically book way ahead and you are assigned a very specific time.  A Fenway tour would be interesting as well, but there's no excursion that I can see.  I would not recommend the tours outside of Boston such as Lexington & Concord, Cape Cod or Salem, etc.  There's plenty to see in the city itself.  You can walk the Freedom trail yourself, maps are available in many locations and you follow a red line to the various stops.  The USS Constitution and the North End are great locations.  You can cross the Charles River into Cambridge and walk around Harvard Square and Harvard Yard.

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@Lovetocruise2002, just remembered that Doug Parker, who hosts the Cruise Radio podcast, just did an episode on September 29 reviewing a CA/NE sailing on Carnival that he and another cruise blogger just finished. They talked about a lot (all?) of the same ports, and they pretty much did it all on their own; walking the Freedom Trail in Boston, getting a taxi in Portland IIRC, etc. Probably worth a listen for some more ideas.

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Saint John wouldn't have much..Reversing Falls is neat to check out..has a walk out over the falls......small waterfront downtown area...

 

Halifax has lots to see and do. If you like historical stuff there would be some tours around that, but to be honest there is lots to do and see on your own in Halifax and within walking distance of the ship. Excursion wise going to Peggy's Cove is a popular one but it takes pretty much the whole day I believe so no time to explore Halifax at all.

 

I live 2.5 hrs from Halifax and 1.5 from  Saint John...so can give some additional recommendations or hopefully answer some questions you may have come up as it gets closer.

 

Bar Harbor is amazing....been there a few times...walking across the bay on low tide on a sand bar is pretty cool.....Cadillac Mtn in the park is great as well.

 

Fly out of Portland often but haven't explored there much...I know the waterfront is very nice, but not sure excursion wise what there would be in the area.

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3 minutes ago, monctonguy said:

Excursion wise going to Peggy's Cove is a popular one but it takes pretty much the whole day I believe so no time to explore Halifax at all.

That is what I noticed when I started my preliminary research.  I am torn between the two...I want to do both.  The ship is in port from 7am-5pm and it's a Sunday.  Not sure if that matters for things?

13 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

@Lovetocruise2002, just remembered that Doug Parker, who hosts the Cruise Radio podcast, just did an episode on September 29 reviewing a CA/NE sailing on Carnival that he and another cruise blogger just finished. They talked about a lot (all?) of the same ports, and they pretty much did it all on their own; walking the Freedom Trail in Boston, getting a taxi in Portland IIRC, etc. Probably worth a listen for some more ideas.

Awesome!  I will check it out this weekend along with re-reading @twangster's blog.

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I know I commented to you over in FB-land, but I don't think I mentioned there that we rented a car in St. John's.  We wanted to go out to the St. Martins sea caves and aren't really fans of the bus tours.  It's a bit of a drive out to the sea caves, but there is a car rental place a block from where the ship docks.  They even let you return the car after hours with a key drop box.  Having a car rental made it easy for us to visit the sea caves and the reversing falls and gave us time to explore the area immediately by the port.

If you do the design your own tour in Bar Harbor, I would recommend hitting Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park first thing to beat the rush.  It's a one-way road up and down the mountain and parking at the top/overlook area is limited.  We used At Your Service Tours for a private tour (https://www.atyourservicetours.net/tours/) and it was a great, comfortable experience.  Bar Harbor will be the only tender port.

Other than Boston, all of these ports had shopping and restaurants within blocks of the port so if you're into browsing little local stores, plan some time for that.  Halifax and St. John's even route you through a little shopping area to get on/off the ship.

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21 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

That is what I noticed when I started my preliminary research.  I am torn between the two...I want to do both.  The ship is in port from 7am-5pm and it's a Sunday.  Not sure if that matters for things?

 

It may....I mean not much would be open or on the go before 10am...probably closer to 12 on a Sunday. But there is a big market right down on the waterfront..there is a brewery as well(not sure on hrs for both of those). And then there are a lot of restaurants...from pubs to high end ones in the downtown area....Spring Garden road has lots of shops and restaurants....nice park further up to. Just depends on your interests I guess. But its probably  either Peggy's Cove or explore Halifax, but not both I am guessing.

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48 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

That is what I noticed when I started my preliminary research.  I am torn between the two...I want to do both.  The ship is in port from 7am-5pm and it's a Sunday.  Not sure if that matters for things?

https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/lhn-nhs/ns/halifax/visit/heures-hours-accessibilit  The Citadel opens at 9am.

https://www.garrisonbrewing.com/ - Garrison Brewing right at the port opens at 10am.

Halifax Public Gardens opens up at 7am.

You're going July 15, 2020?  Halifax Gay Pride Festival is going on that week..and there's a summer craft fair in Victoria Park.

 

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1 hour ago, AshleyDillo said:

Bar Harbor will be the only tender port.

Might have to qualify that with should be the only tender port.

It's not the same port, but on my Iceland & Greenland sailing our port stop in Sydney, Nova Scotia was unexpectedly changed from docked to tendering, with our departure time changed from 3 PM to 4 PM. The reason given was "port congestion".

I don't know if St. John's is ever subject to the same kind of whims, but figured I'd mention that. At least Halifax doesn't appear to have ever had that kind of change applied.

@monctonguy or maybe @twangster, would either of you know if Sydney's port area appreciably smaller than St. John's, where this sort of change from docked to tendered would be more-expected (or at least, less surprising)?

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17 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

 

@monctonguy or maybe @twangster, would either of you know if Sydney's port area appreciably smaller than St. John's, where this sort of change from docked to tendered would be more-expected (or at least, less surprising)?

Sydney has a pier but in adverse weather they’ll close it and offer tendering.  Ironic because adverse weather generally means no tendering. We skipped it when our Captain declined their offer to anchor and tender when winds made the pier unattainable.  

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Sydney is expanding their port to be able to handle more ships..no idea if it will be done by July or not....same for Charlottetown.....expanding but not sure when it will be completed.

 

Saint John (St. John's is in another province)  doesn't  have tendering that I am aware of and can handle multiple large ships....much bigger than Adventure so should be fine there.

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14 minutes ago, monctonguy said:

Sydney is expanding their port to be able to handle more ships..no idea if it will be done by July or not

Well, since my sailing is in August 2020 and we're already flagged as tendered, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess... not. ?

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We took the NE Adventure cruise 2 months ago.  

We did the Land and Sea tour in Bar Harbor.  We all enjoyed it (2Adults, 1 15 year old, 1 13 year old).  After walking through the village and hearing about the history of some of the buildings, we boarded a 5 mast sailboat and took a ride on the sea edge of the Acadia.  We had a park ranger on board with us and he was a wealth of information.  It was a very enjoyable afternoon.  I wish we had more time in Bar Harbor as I would have loved to also take Ollie's Trolley into the park, and walk across the sand bar.  Another time, I guess.  

In Saint John, we just took a walk.  I didn't feel there was much to see, but they have a lovely walking path that is paved with a few benches scattered throughout it and some cool sculptures to look at too.

In Halifax, we walked to the Maritime museum.  It was a nice museum and we were also able to watch 2 movies in their dome theater.  Our original plan was to then walk to the citadel, but we were tired and hungry so we just went back to the ship.

We didn't stop at Boston on our cruise, but I have taken a week vacation there.  And we still didn't see everything in a week.  I think the highlights of the week were the whale watching tour (put on by the aquarium) and the Lexington trolley tour.  But really, everything we did and saw was fantastic!  We had a Go City card for the week so we were able to keep costs down.  I think if I had to choose 1 thing it would be a whale watching tour.  We saw 23 whales the day we were out.

No comment on Portland.  I've never been there.

Good luck!

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4 hours ago, monctonguy said:

Oh yeah..and the OP isn't even going there...guess I should follow the thread more closely.....:6_smile:

 

4 hours ago, JLMoran said:

Yeah, I semi-hijacked it there. But it was good information to know!

He TOTALLY hijacked my thread.  Get your own Iceland thread.  ?

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15 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Was this the one through Royal?  Or did you do private?

We did the one through Royal.  It was comparably priced to private and we didn't have to do any work.  And I also figured since we took the afternoon excursion and it was cutting it close to all on board time, I didn't want to take any risks.

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Boston, I have been there twice with my son, once as a port form Anthem and the other on an overnight 6th grade school field trip. 

The port day was better. We went to see the USS Constitution https://www.nps.gov/bost/learn/historyculture/ussconst.htm Caleb loves this type of historic thing. It was an adventure in public transportation. We took a taxi there, arrived at opening, went to the museum and into the ships at the site. It's on the OTHER side of town..  We water taxi'd back to the Boston Aquarium area, met an old friend who lives in Boston, and went to the children's museum with her 3 year old. It was a good day; August, not to hot, not too cold. 

On the school field trip, on our own we went to the Aquarium, had lunch at the Boston Sail Loft (it was very good), walked the Freedom Trail, toured Paul Revere's house, went to Quincy Market, then ate as a group at the Hard Rock Cafe. Day 2, we went as a group to the Museum of Science, ate lunch there (awful lunch.. neat museum), then went on a Duck Boat Tour https://bostonducktours.com/  It was a very different perspective of Boston! 

Halifax: We opted to take a taxi ($5.00 CAD) up to the Citadel, toured that, then wandered downhill to the Boardwalk, and went to Tim Horton's!! (It's better in Canada than the US), enjoyed a snack of coffee and donuts and cocoa ( AND free WIFI ), then wandered back to the ship along the boardwalk. We stopped at the Maritime Museum (more historic boats for Caleb).. 

St. John: We left the boys in Adventure Ocean.... My husband and I walked from the pier to the left, along the waterfront all the way to the reversing rapids and back. It was concrete or pavement the entire way. It was a nice walk, and we watched harbor seals, which I hear is an uncommon sight (we were lucky). 

Ahh.. Bar Harbor.  Acadia National Park is NOT flat. We rented bikes from Acadia Bike Rentals. We took the bike shuttle into the park, then proceeded to ride around a lake. Eagle Lake?  (not sure)My youngest's bike would not shift gears for him, I had to fiddle with it to get it into the lowest gear, and we left it in that gear. So I have a lovely family photo of the 4 of us BEFORE the bike ride. But not one AFTER. There were tears. There was frustration. We walked. fter all this, I would love to do it again, with my own bike and breakdown gear. Alone.

Then we received a full refund for Josh's bike rental. MORAL: if you ever rent a bike, put it on the stand in the shop, and try all gears and the brakes. We ate at the gloriously fun tourist trap Route 66 Restaurant, then entire family was back into happy cruising mode. 

Portland: We just walked around the port and shopped. It seems there is a port on each trip where we are wiped out and need a day "off". Portland is a port town, I do want to give it a second chance. Perhaps whale watching?

Have a great New England trip. It is by far, my favorite cruise ever. We went in late August, the temperatures were mild, the seas calm. That is remarkable out of Bayonne. 

 

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Must sees from our 2017 trip.

Bar Harbor- Acadia National Park.

Halifax- Peggy's Cove and Titanic cemetery.

St John- Reversing Rapids. Make sure it's during high or low tides.

Portland- Great walk around town with must stops to eat at Standard Baking Co, Gorgeous Gelato, Holy Donuts, Eventide Oyster Co and Duckfat.

Happy Cruising!

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29 minutes ago, FManke said:

Portland- Great walk around town with must stops to eat at Standard Baking Co, Gorgeous Gelato, Holy Donuts, Eventide Oyster Co and Duckfat.

Glad you mentioned that!  That was going to be my next question...the "must try" places to eat.  So far I have Holy Donuts (Portland), The Barking Crab (Boston), Mike's or Modern Pastry (Boston).

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On ‎10‎/‎12‎/‎2019 at 1:45 PM, Lovetocruise2002 said:

New question...

Hopewell Rocks or St. Martin/Reversing Falls? 

Tagging @monctonguy or anyone else who has input.

Hopewell Rocks is pretty amazing...highest tides in the world?!...BUT, to really appreciate it you need to be there for a low and high tide.....so depending on your schedule not sure if that's possible. AND it would be over a 2hr drive each way.......

Reversing Falls would be the closest and wouldn't take more than a couple hrs to check out the skywalk and enjoy a ride in the water.

St. martin would be my recommendation... give you a good taste of the east coast scenery as well as some tides and rocks and beaches.....I would prob recommend that based on schedule!

 

 

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