TMLAalum

We found a liquor store 11 minutes walk from Hampton Inn Chelsea airport. We are all set!

Thought we could easily purchase wine at a grocery store or CVS as at home but not in Boston! Is there a liquor store in close proximity to the Boston cruise pier where we can buy our permitted one bottle each?

For Celebrity to have done this on their Eclipse Iceland/Greenland cruise, where the Sky Lounge is perfect for cold-weather scenery-viewing, whale-watching, etc. is especially upsetting. Folks in inside cabins especially are impacted by this.

We are on the following cruise r/t Boston. It's too early for autumn colors so I was surprised that the ship appears to be sailing at full capacity. If Park West big spenders (perhaps from all lines) are being comped now I know why!

@marys350

Thanks. We also had been to Quebec and environs on a land trip but not to the island. Looking forward to the tour.

23 hours ago, marys350 said:

We took the Taste Trail on the Island of Orleans tour through Quebec Bus Tour company last September. Pick up and drop off was at a bus stop at Le Chateau Frontenac Hotel. They offer a number of tours. Our email confirmation ticket listed the address of the pickup location. We took a taxi from the port to the bus stop. After the tour, we rode the funicular  and walked back to the port.

https://quebecbustour.com/home/

 

We will be doing that tour soon. Can you please share more about it?

We also booked a tour of Chateau Frontenac. Just saw a romcom on Prime that featured that hotel and likely L'Ile Orleans: French Girl. Great scenes of Quebec! And a cute movie.

In answer to your 1st question: so long as you are on the cruise you are booking for others you all get the OBC. You can still book for others for the reduced deposit but no OBC for them if you aren't sailing with them. 

11 hours ago, bbodb1 said:

This might be a reason to consider becoming a Nexus pass holder but having never used my Nexus pass for this specific purpose, I would definitely research this first. 

 

I can tell you from experience having a Nexus pass makes crossing the U.S. / Canadian border MUCH faster. 

I don't think Nexus helps in Portland unless you are arriving by personal watercraft from out of the USA. It does help when traveling by car because there are designated Nexus lanes. 

Regardless, a visit to Ellis Island would be informative:

Ellis Island | Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island

Plan Your Visit - Ellis Island Part of Statue of Liberty National Monument (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

What is especially interesting is the 90-minute Hard Hat tour on Ellis Island where you get inside the immigrant barracks, etc. 

Search Result - City Experiences™

LGW to Southampton? Tentatively we can fly to LGW from DUB on Ryanair (I know🙃) but how easy is it to travel from there without backtracking to London?

2 hours ago, m@rm@r said:

Hi everyone. We are with Royal at the end of the month in Boston and we were thinking of walking to Quincy Market. Is it possible or is it too far and difficult to get there? Thanks in advance for the advice.

We walked it to/from the Boston Cruise Port. Per Google Maps it's a 41-minute walk. Go for it!

15 hours ago, SeaMatesNYC said:

Fjord Cruise Hjørundfjord

 

Board right next to cruise ship pier. 
 

https://www.cruise-service.no/en

 

Climb to the viewpoint after. 
 

Great day. 

 

This is exactly our plan! We will get off at Urke rather than Oye which gives us an hour before the return trip. Current pricing is 850 NOK. 

Our only debate is whether to book ahead or wait til we arrive in Alesund and see the weather. How full was the boat if you recall?

@waiting2retire

Thanks. I posted on the RS Norway forum and the answer there was as positive as yours. A few more questions:

Did you find a place for a quick lunch in Oye?

What else can one do for the 30-minute stop there?

What would we miss if we disembarked in Urke?

Did you buy tickets that day? (Advance purchase is risky if weather is rainy)

Thanks!

Our cruise only visits one fjord- Flam. But out of Alesund there is a r/t cruise on the Hjorundfjord that goes as far as Oye and back and would work with our time in that port. Other stops are Trandal, Saebo and Urke. Would this cruise be worth taking for scenery?

Thanks!

16 hours ago, sir_ragu said:

Thank you.  It a bucket list item with the possibility of going back another time but I have alot on my bucket list!

If you are like my DH and me, once you participate in Paris you will want to return.

When we finish our r/t Southampton cruise next year we planned to fly home after spending time in London. But then seeing Paris via the Olympics and knowing how we are just a Eurostar train ride away, we've added Paris to our itinerary for at least a couple of nights.

29 days on the Eclipse B2B from Buenos Aires to San Diego.

1 hour ago, sir_ragu said:

Thanks for the responses but just for clarification, we will be onboard a cruise where one of the ports is Le Havre and looking for a day excursion from Le Havre to Paris and returning to the port in Le Havre.

If you want to cross Paris off your bucket list to say "been there, done that, bought the t-shirt" go for that excursion. But it will be a whirlwind day. Better to choose an excursion closer to Le Havre that will give a flavor of France, e.g Etratat and Honfleur. Or the D-day beaches. Less time in transit and more time to savor. If you are set on going to Paris independent of a cruise ship excursion you can check out Viator, etc.

We visited Montmorency Falls on a land trip when we were staying in St. Anne's. Though we aren't returning during our upcoming overnight in Quebec, we are using this company, Quebec Bus Tours, for a different excursion.

Here is the link to their tour to Montmorency Falls:

Old Quebec and Montmorency Falls – Quebec Bus Tour

@chengkp75

Happy to read your comments about Charleston Navy Yard. We plan on heading there after we check into our Chelsea Hampton Inn, fingers crossed that our flight into Logan is on time! If not, we will visit there in the morning before noon checkout and ship check-in!

KP64 spouse of USMMAalum

Again, may I suggest booking through the Netherlands site for the same train formerly known as Thalys. Train tickets for international trips by train - Fast & comfortable | NS International | NS International. I thought I'd set up an alert thru them, but it may have been on the former Thalys site. Getting notified as soon as tickets are available and purchasing them then will save you money.

For all our European train travel I've learned so much from the Man in Seat 61. Here is the link to his information about travel from Amsterdam to Paris:

Trains from Amsterdam to other European cities  | Times, fares, tickets (seat61.com)

We are debating whether to go there. It is walkable from the pier so it could be something to do after we board our ship @noon, have lunch and go there before all aboard. Sailaway is 6pm.

We've passed by the Tea Party and from the re-enactment hoopla it reminds me of being in Ketchikan and hearing the noise from the Lumberjack show there.

@Lojay2 Most definitely a viable option if not the best option for travel from Amsterdam to Paris!

We did the reverse last August. We booked the Thalys (now Eurostar) train from Gare du Nord to Amsterdam Centraal as soon as tickets were available- approximately 4+ months ahead. I set up an alert on the Netherlands booking site: https://www.nsinternational.com/en/ and found it user-friendly to book. We booked the cheapest seats which were 35 Euro pp and were just fine for the 3-hour journey.

Our river cruise boat dock was a manageable walk with luggage from the Amsterdam train station. 

If you post here: British Isles/Western Europe - Cruise Critic Community you will likely get more responses.

@Derbie

No problem: Here is the link to Cicerone and the Chateau Frontenac tour we have booked:

Visitors - Cicerone. Currently it is on the right side of the page and is priced at @22 CDN pp.

@TS Von

I think I know you from TUG!

BJB

I have heard Eclipse has those sets. But actual mahjongg is not like playing it on an app- you need other players! The best way for you to learn is to see if there are other players on your cruise and ask to learn from them. If you are on the following cruise (8/28) I would be happy to meet you when we are playing and teach you American Mahjongg which differs from the Chinese game. Head over to the roll call: August 28, 2024 Boston to Quebec - Page 8 - Celebrity Eclipse Roll Calls - Cruise Critic Community I will be bringing my mini-set in case there are not full-size sets available.

6 hours ago, zqvol said:

To see the real effect of the reversal you need to visit twice, 3 or 4 hours apart. 

Yes. Fortunately, we were on a land vacay to NB and got to experience this at Hopewell Rocks.