shipgeeks

Re Hopewell Rocks:  I looked at the excursions listed on our September cruise. There is one that goes to Hopewell Rocks; it lasts 7 hours, and costs $169.  It says there is a lot of fairly challenging walking.

Ceester, thank you for the link.  I now have the times for our days there. (Good ones!)

doctoranna, we are planning to go to Fallsview Park, not far from Saint John port.  I'm not clear on whether one can walk down to the water (or non-water!) there; in our case we just have an interest in seeing the reversal. We are booked on the HOHO bus for the day, as we've been to Saint John several times, but have always spent our time on foot, exploring the city.

1 hour ago, Anton said:

Wording from one of my Utopia invoices for October:

 

A gratuity of US$16.00 per person per day for guests in non-suites staterooms, or US$18.50 per person per day for guests in Suites, will be automatically applied to each guest’s SeaPass® account on a daily basis.* These gratuities are distributed to the crew, such as dining, bar and culinary services staff, stateroom attendants and other hotel services teams, and others who work to enhance the overall cruise experience.

Guests who booked Star Class Suites or who prepaid gratuities prior to boarding their cruise will not see a daily charge applied onboard. An 18% gratuity will be automatically added to beverage package,specialty dining, spa and salon purchases.

That would be last October, not this year.

On a very recent cruise we saw a young man in a tank top being refused at MDR.

90 miles?  My Saint John (not St. John!) map shows Fallsview Park and the Reversing Rapids across the bay from the ship terminal; on the route of the HOHO bus circuit.

I have not yet found the charts for the time of low tide and high tide on the day we will be there in September.  There are such charts, which can be helpful in planning when to be there.

On our first X cruise, back in 1997 on Meridian, we received The Invitation.  The dinner was delightful.  We asked the Social Hostess "Why us?", and she just smiled mysteriously. We had an inside cabin, not savvy enough to have buttered anyone up.

After that, we had a number of other invitations, all for no apparent reason. The last one was in the early 2000s.  Ship friends who were invited later than that were usually in the highest category cabins, or otherwise "valued" for similar reasons.

It was a good run for us.

OP, we have been to some of your potential ports several times (and some not at all), and I understand that you are overwhelmed with all the research.  However, especially regarding Portland and Halifax, my advice would be to NOT do an excursion. Both are attractive cities with interesting histories. Both lend themselves to just walking. In Portland, you can take the mail boat, the narrow gauge railway, walk up a street of Victorian houses to a nice lookout.  If you want to see a lighthouse, get up early, before your ship docks, and watch the ship sail past a lighthouse. Portland is also known for its food and breweries.  In Halifax, there is a waterfront boardwalk, with the Maritime Museum several blocks from the port, and eateries and pubs along the way. Walking up the hill will take you to the Citadel, botanic gardens, old cemetery, and more. We always enjoy just rambling in both of these cities, and never understand why people book bus tours out of town. Town is where it's at!

I've read some who say they leave the lid off their ice bucket for humidity in the cabin.

The sink tap water in the cabin should be fine.  And for those who say it is a prohibited item, a hot water bottle is not an electrical appliance, it is a rubber "bottle" that one fills and caps in order to have a warm cushion.

 I am not the least bit surprised at an innocent question like a Nespresso.  Not only do I see the naughty table at the end of every cruise, I also read "another site" in which people regularly state that they take their own bedding, pillows, shower curtains, bathmat, storage products, box fans, white noise machines, string (party) lights, balcony furniture, hammock, food products, and more. Some take an extra suitcase or two just for these items.

RC and Carnival, and very occasionally NCL, all use the Port of Baltimore, but schedule their cruises so they are never in port on the same day. And they all use separate parking areas.

I agree about watching for Fort McHenry (port side).  And for many years we placed ourselves on a high deck in order to watch as we sailed under the Key Bridge.  It always looked like we were too high to go under.  When we sailed in June, with the bridge gone, it was very emotional seeing the extent of the damage.

Vision's Promenade Deck has partially (70%?) teak flooring, and the rest the non-wood stuff.

Longer cruise for sure.  The atmosphere of a short cruise does not appeal to us, and the effort of getting to the port and back would negate the joy of the cruise.

We prefer a standard oceanview cabin every time.  We've tried balconies, and just do not enjoy them. We haven't tried a suite, but don't see any reason to want one.

By the way, our preference for long doesn't mean 7 nights; that is still fairly short.  Our choice is 12 nights or more.

OP, I'm curious what your other ports are. 

We had a similar offer on Princess a number of years ago, except it was a phone call.

How far ahead is your cruise?  In our case, the call was the Friday before a Tuesday cruise. 

After some thought, we accepted, and it all worked out very well.

8 minutes ago, icsys said:

 

Yes it shows the gangway times 'on the day'.

 

I mean it would be better if arrival and departure times for every port day was in the planner in advance.

They know what they are so I don't see why they can't add them?

 

Maybe I'm missing something, as I don't use the app.  The itinerary I have from before I even booked my cruise, and confirmed on my booking, shows all the arrival and departure times. (I know things can change if there is a medical emergency or something, but I can make my plans around the fact that I see 9am to 6pm on my itinerary.)

I will throw in the idea of sailing from Baltimore, on a small (2000 passenger) ship, Royal Caribbean's Vision of the Seas. BWI would be the airport, and Trinity Reservations is a good source of hotel info, including those that provide shuttles to the port.

Are you primarily interested in cruising to the Caribbean?  Vision does a rotation of itineraries, including Caribbean (12 nights), and South Coast and Bahamas (9 nights).  She is a classic ship without the amusement park vibe that larger ships might have, and passengers are mainly adults.

But if sailing to Portland prior to Canadian ports, there is no Customs process. We regularly sail from Baltimore to Boston, Portland, and then to Canada. After Halifax we return by sea to Baltimore.  No formalities that affect us at any point.

Thank you!

Have any of these cruises taken place yet?  I see two coming up, and two in 2025.  Any feedback or thoughts?

18 hours ago, maggiev said:

@shipgeeksSouthwestern NY so Baltimore would be an option, no further a drive than to Boston.  I’ll look at dates, if 9 nights includes 2 weekends it would be an option.

I’ve sailed Royal & do like them.

Carnival still has not come out with 2025 rates yet 

 

9 nights on Vision is always Thursday through Saturday.

There is a discussion of this question on Royal Caribbean, re the future "Discovery Class" ships.  ("Is RC building any more small ships?")

Economy of scale is certainly a factor.  (And apparently, some people just love that crush of thousands of passengers.)  In favor of smaller ships is the fact that some popular homeports have bridge height limits, and some cruise ports appear to be limiting the size of ships, or will do so in the future.

We've done C/NE cruises in September a number of times.  I don't recall the seas ever being rough. And weather-wise, we had fairly hard rain once in Halifax; all the other days and ports had great weather. Temperatures ranged from shirtsleeves to sweater and light jacket.

By far our favorite itinerary!

When we did TAs, we always used the cruiseline air booking option.  We saved a lot.  One time I priced it through the airline, and it would be $4,400 each. We got it through the cruiseline for around $700 each.

Those were always on major airlines, not budget lines.  And we accumulated enough miles to fly first-class to the west coast the following year.

I'm wondering if the need to have a long flight, either before or after a transatlantic cruise, would be too much.  We find the flights so exhausting and uncomfortable that we gave up that type of cruise, even though it was one of our favorites.

Would a crossing on Cunard, and a return crossing, be worth considering? With the right planning, perhaps a few days in the UK or nearby, and then a return crossing on a different Cunard ship, could be a possibility.

Similarly, in the spring a number of the mainstream lines do an eastbound crossing, and it might be possible to link up with a Cunard return.