Floridanamaw

My suitcase comes in the house about two weeks before we leave and I'm usually 90% packed by several days before we leave. The morning we leave is just last minute things that I use that morning. My other half packs the night before. We each pack our own suitcases which really helps me!

Has anyone used Viator to book excursions and if so were you happy with them? I have found some things in Quebec City on their site but I'm unfamiliar with Viator. Anyone??

I'll add that Ketchikan is a very walkable and I loved the town. We went to Totem Bight state park with a ship sponsored tour and really enjoyed that and then had plenty of time to explore the town. We sailed right up too Sawyer Glacier. The ship then did a turn around. No matter which side you are on you saw all of it. Beautiful place. In Juneau we took the ship sponsored tour to Mendenhall Glacier. Don't do this. Catch one of the buses and go on your own. Lots to see and do there and not near enough time on the ship excursion. We also went up on the Mount Roberts lift and enjoyed that. Skagway we took the train excursion with Chilkoot excursion company. They are fantastic and have several different trips to choose from. You have to book ahead though. We had a whole car just for our group and it was great. Victoria we did a DIY and just walked into town and explored. We were also on the Jewel last September. Loved the ship! Enjoy your cruise and Alaska! I would go back to Alaska in a heartbeat if I could.

138east, thank you for that info. That is most likely what we end up doing. Hopefully the car rental will let us leave the car parked there while we explore some.

Thank you. All the excursions there are so expensive. At least the ones that sound good to me. I just thought we would opt for the bus. Is the Bay of Fundy worth going to see?

Okay thanks. That is what I was wondering. I plan on booking ahead of time.

I will ask the car rental (Enterprise) about parking there. I ended up using them because they were a LOT less expensive than some of the other locations and I honestly just don't know the area enough to know where anything is. Boston has become my one place that I'm having trouble figuring things out! So much to do and so little time before we have to leave and drive to NH. Thanks for map link. I can't get it to work but I think I'm having computer issues that is keeping me from opening links. I'll have to investigate that! Thanks for all your replies here. Lots of good info to remember.

We have a 200.00 OBC to use in September on our cruise. If we book our excursions through NLC will the OBC be used to pay for the excursions? I'm not sure how this would work. Thanks.

I ended up using a car rental place at Government Center. I haven't decided where we really want to go see for the 4 or 5 hours we will have. I really would like to do some of the Freedom Trail if not all of it. I'm not sure if the trolly is worth it or just driving to a starting point and try to park around there. I'm trying to find a good map of the area. There is so many things there to see and we just don't have that much time.

I'm looking at things to do in Saint John/Bay of Fundy. When I first stated looking on the NCL site they had the big pink hoho bus excursion and now that has disappeared from their site. Has anyone booked this independently or just bought tickets the day you arrive in port? I'm looking at other excursions also. All booked through NCL. Thanks.

Thanks for that information. I'll check into the Atlantic Ave area for car rental. Enterprise seemed to be quite a bit cheaper than the other agencies was one reason I picked that one. I'll keep checking around though.

If we only have, say 4 hours to tour Boston, is using the trolly still the best way to do it? We don't want to drive ourselves around not really being familiar with the area. I had rather leave the driving to somebody else.

I found an Enterprise car agency on Summer Street which isn't far from Black Falcon. The plan is to pick up a rental car when we dock Friday morning and then find a pick up stop for the trolly and spend several hours sight seeing Boston. If I'm not mistaken there is a parking lot for the trolly close to or at the Black Falcon dock that is open on port days. At the end of the day we will be driving over to Epping NH. I'm trying to figure out all the logistics.

LOL,,, I knew it was black falcon. I don't know why I wrote hawk. Thank you for the response.

We are cruising from Quebec to Boston in September on the Dawn and was wondering if the Black Hawk is the terminal we will be docked at. I am trying to arrange for a rental car and I want a agency close the the terminal. Thanks

I have AT&T and don't remember having any trouble using my phone in Alaska. I kept it in airplane mode except when we were in port in Alaska. I always had a signal and was able to post or send messages.

We stayed at the Blue Horizon and loved it and it's fairly close to Canada place.

We used both AT&T and Verizon while in Alaskan ports with no problems at all. Avoid using it in Victoria if at all possible and Vancouver if disembarking there instead of Seattle like we did. We both had a 30.00 charge for those two places.

Thank you all for your responses. I think we might have to try Modernos and sounds like Blue Lagoon would be a good one also. Looking forward to our cruise in September. Thanks again. 😀

I noticed that the Dawn does not have O'sheehan's like the Jewel does, which we really enjoyed eating at, but they have Blue Lagoon. Is this about the same as O'Sheehan's? Also, Moderno, is it worth the 20.00 per person charge to eat there? We sail on the Dawn in September for her Canada/New England cruise. O'sheehan's was great for breakfast and no fighting the buffet crowd. Do they open up other areas to sit at for breakfast since there is no outside seating on the back of the ship. We always had trouble finding a spot to sit at the Garden Café for breakfast but they opened up the restaurant next to it for extra seating. Thanks......

Thank you! Love the pictures. It's beautiful there and I'm looking forward to our cruise!

Okay. Thanks so much.

Are the stops long enough to really enjoy the park or are they like a get off and right back on kind of stop? Any idea how long they spend there?

Any other suggestions on what to do in Bar Harbor. Usually by our last port we are tired of "excursions" and just want to explore on our own. I really would like to see the park and a few other things there.

Thanks for any suggestions!

If we are going to use Oli's do we need to purchase tickets ahead of time for the National Park or whatever we want to do or can we buy them the day we arrive in port? I'm thinking this might be the best and least expensive way to do things while in Bar Harbor. Thanks for your replies.

Mendenhall glacier and nugget falls is beautiful. There is also a visitor center there. If you go give yourself plenty of time. The walk to the glacier and falls takes a while and there are other trails to se. We didn't have near enough time on our ship sponsored excursion. It was too rushed.

I'm glad I booked our New England/Canada cruise on the Dawn earlier this year! I actually was able to change our cabin yesterday from deck nine connecting balcony cabin to deck ten non-connecting balcony cabin at no additional charge. So I know there were cabins still available yesterday or either they were just switching people around. [emoji1] I did a search for September cruises on the Dawn and the one we are on, the 18th leaving from Quebec, shows up, but no prices are listed under each cabin type. I assume that means there are none available. We booked through a TA so maybe they still have cabins blocked off.