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NCL Dawn 7 day NE/Canada-has anyone done?


Siuolbear082015
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Hi all,

 

My wife and I were thinking of doing Alaska or a NE/Canada cruise as our next one. I came across this itinerary for a NE/Canada cruise that looked interesting-it's a 7 day that starts in Boston. It has stops in Portland, Halifax, Charlottetown, Gaspésie, Saguenay (La Baie), and ends in Quebec City.

 

Has anyone ever done this cruise? Any chance to see some wildlife? Being able to see some wildlife/nature is what attracted us to Alaska, but it looks like some of Canada offers that as well (and we are much closer to the east coast).

 

Please let me know if this may be better on the NCL boards, but I am more interested in knowing more about the port cities.

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i just got off a princess cruise which stopped in halifax. there are many car rentals right there at port and we drove to peggys cove. it is all 'back roads' but except for a giant skunk, we saw no elk/bear. if you like to drive around back roads and see scenery i'd say you'd be happy here. the road goes along the coast and tons of little boats and houses and a few restaurants to visit.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Both Alaska and the New England Canada area are just gorgeous and I loved both the cruises. Alaska, to me, is much grander and just unbelievable. We will go back to Alaska someday but next year we are doing another New England cruise because we too are closer to the east coast. We took a seven day from New York and then back to New York. The ports we have in common with the one you are looking at are Portland and Halifax. We loved both! Beautiful landscapes and lighthouses in both. As far as wildlife goes we really didn't see any on the New England cruise except for dolphins on a few different days.

 

In Alaska everything is just so massive that it is hard to fathom unless you are there. We visited a glacier on a land excursion and it was breathtaking. We were on a small ship so we were also got to sail pretty far into Glacier Bay. The captain slowly circled the ship around for probably 45 minutes while there so that everyone got great looks at everything. The highlight of our trip was the whale watching excursion and at another port we went kayaking. We actually saw a whale and her calf while kayaking and it was amazing. We also saw a couple of whales while cruising. Bald eagles were also pretty common to see while doing excursions. We did not see any moose or bear while there.

 

Good luck with your decision. I don't think you will be disappointed with either. The only other cruise besides these that I have done was a Caribbean and I didn't enjoy it near as much. The New England cruise we are taking next year starts in Quebec City and goes to Boston but we have different ports than the one you are looking at. I chose this one in particular because it stops in Bar Harbor. Acadia National Park is on my bucket list so that is why I chose it.

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Both Alaska and the New England Canada area are just gorgeous and I loved both the cruises. Alaska, to me, is much grander and just unbelievable. We will go back to Alaska someday but next year we are doing another New England cruise because we too are closer to the east coast. We took a seven day from New York and then back to New York. The ports we have in common with the one you are looking at are Portland and Halifax. We loved both! Beautiful landscapes and lighthouses in both. As far as wildlife goes we really didn't see any on the New England cruise except for dolphins on a few different days.

 

In Alaska everything is just so massive that it is hard to fathom unless you are there. We visited a glacier on a land excursion and it was breathtaking. We were on a small ship so we were also got to sail pretty far into Glacier Bay. The captain slowly circled the ship around for probably 45 minutes while there so that everyone got great looks at everything. The highlight of our trip was the whale watching excursion and at another port we went kayaking. We actually saw a whale and her calf while kayaking and it was amazing. We also saw a couple of whales while cruising. Bald eagles were also pretty common to see while doing excursions. We did not see any moose or bear while there.

 

Good luck with your decision. I don't think you will be disappointed with either. The only other cruise besides these that I have done was a Caribbean and I didn't enjoy it near as much. The New England cruise we are taking next year starts in Quebec City and goes to Boston but we have different ports than the one you are looking at. I chose this one in particular because it stops in Bar Harbor. Acadia National Park is on my bucket list so that is why I chose it.

 

Great info, thanks for the reply! Yeah we want to get out to Alaska soon but airfare will be much much cheaper for us on the NE/Canada cruise, so that is why we are thinking of doing that one this upcoming year. Glad to hear you enjoy them!

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You're welcome. I understand about the airfare as well. We got a good deal on the price of the Alaskan cruise so that made the airfare a bit better to take. We also flew to Alaska on the same day that we boarded the ship and let me tell you that was one long day with the time changes and all. By the time we went to bed that night we had been up for 23 hours. Happy cruising!

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We have been on both an AK and a NE/Canada cruise. I don't remember seeing any wildlife from the ship on Canada/NE. As a previous poster said AK is grander. Also, Canada is slower and more relaxing. We saw a number of small fishing villages.

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  • 3 weeks later...

We have done both Alaska and Canada/New England. Liked Alaska, but every port looked alike to me and they of course had all the same Diamonds International shops.

Canada/New England we loved, so much we are doing again in 2018. Each port was unique, and we loved that it didn’t feel like a “cookie cutter” cruise. We did Holland-America for both, but decided to try out NCL for 2018.

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  • 3 weeks later...

We've done Alaska 2x and NE once (doing again on the Dawn in October). We saw whales, dolphins, bald eagles, black bear, etc. in Alaska. We saw some whale blow holes from a distance in NE, and lots more in Boston. We prefer Alaska just due to the awesomeness, but we enjoyed NE, too. Fall colors can be hit or miss, but they say that Columbus Day weekend is usually the best time to go.

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We have done both Alaska and Canada NE several times, always with Holland America. Both cruises are a great respite from the heat in Florida in the summer. They are completely different and we enjoy them both. This year we are combining the Canada NE with Bermuda (3 weeks total - Boston to Bermuda round trip for one week, then Boston to Montreal round trip for 2 weeks). If you want to see wildlife, take the Inland Passage route if you choose Alaskan cruises. But in either place, I think you will have to take appropriate excursions from ports to see a great deal of wildlife.

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