Halifax and St. John excursions

Hi, I'm new here! I'm Christy from Tampa, Florida. I'm mom to three kids; two boys ages 10 and 12; and my younger is a girl who turns 8 this week. We have a cruise planned out of the New York port at the end of July. We are taking the Carnival Glory for five nights. We have two stops. One is in St. John and the other is in Halifax. Can anyone recommend the best excursions to do at those two stops for families? I appreciate any recommendations or advice. Thank you! :)

If you check in the Ports of call you should be able to come up with something you and your family would enjoy.

Yeah, I did look, but nothing is really just standing out to me that much. I didn't know if there were more things to do that are fun and exciting that aren't mentioned on the cruise line's website. Or if I did choose from what they have listed, what might be the MUST-DOs of that port...just not sure.

Hi, I'm new here! I'm Christy from Tampa, Florida. I'm mom to three kids; two boys ages 10 and 12; and my younger is a girl who turns 8 this week. We have a cruise planned out of the New York port at the end of July. We are taking the Carnival Glory for five nights. We have two stops. One is in St. John and the other is in Halifax. Can anyone recommend the best excursions to do at those two stops for families? I appreciate any recommendations or advice. Thank you! :)

A couple of years ago in St. John I used Fundy Tours and they were great. They will customize the tour so you will be able to see a lot. I highly recommend them. You will be able to do this tour with just your family and therefore spend as much time or as little in each place as you would like.

I don't have a recommendation in Halifax because I did not like the tour we booked. But it is easy to walk of the ship and get a tour. There are many taxi drivers there as soon as you come out of the port building. That is what I will do the next time I am there. Their prices were cheaper than the tour that I had booked also.

Hi, I'm new here! I'm Christy from Tampa, Florida. I'm mom to three kids; two boys ages 10 and 12; and my younger is a girl who turns 8 this week. We have a cruise planned out of the New York port at the end of July. We are taking the Carnival Glory for five nights. We have two stops. One is in St. John and the other is in Halifax. Can anyone recommend the best excursions to do at those two stops for families? I appreciate any recommendations or advice. Thank you! :)

Hi, Christy! Welcome to Cruise Critic!:) We did this same cruise in June 2011 with our daughters, then 5 and 8. We didn't do any official excursions, but instead just walked the two towns on our own.

Halifax was lovely for doing on our own - beautiful town, nice people, and so much to see. We shopped a little, went to the Maritime Museum and walked up the hill to the Citadel (though we didn't go in) and back. We ate lunch at a nice Japanese restaurant on the boardwalk.

In St. John, we also walked on our own. Less of a tourist-focused town, but still full of nice people and ineresting things can be seen and enjoyed. The outdoor marketplaces were neat. But you might want to look inot an actual excusrion here. The Bay of Fundy (we had been there before, on a land-trip) is definitely worth seeing. And I hear there is ziplining over the reversing falls (that wasn't there when we visited the Reversing Falls in 2000). Good luck in your research and enjoy! It's a very nice cruise.:)

Hi, I'm new here! I'm Christy from Tampa, Florida. I'm mom to three kids; two boys ages 10 and 12; and my younger is a girl who turns 8 this week. We have a cruise planned out of the New York port at the end of July. We are taking the Carnival Glory for five nights. We have two stops. One is in St. John and the other is in Halifax. Can anyone recommend the best excursions to do at those two stops for families? I appreciate any recommendations or advice. Thank you! :)

I suggest doing the Harbour Hopper and the Discovery Center you don't need to book through the ship both places are a 10 to 15 min walk from the cruise terminal. I hope this helps and enjoy my home town

Hi, I'm new here! I'm Christy from Tampa, Florida. I'm mom to three kids; two boys ages 10 and 12; and my younger is a girl who turns 8 this week. We have a cruise planned out of the New York port at the end of July. We are taking the Carnival Glory for five nights. We have two stops. One is in St. John and the other is in Halifax. Can anyone recommend the best excursions to do at those two stops for families? I appreciate any recommendations or advice. Thank you! :)

Hi Christy....you might want to visit the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. They have great exhibits there http://museum.gov.ns.ca/mmanew/en/home/default.aspx and the Citadel Hill (Fort) at noon-time would be fun for your children too as they fire the cannons at noon-time. Both are within easy walking distance to Pier 21. If you do get tired you can always get a taxi back to the ship.

I hope you all enjoy your day in Halifax....Donna:D

We did this a couple of years ago and had a great tour of Saint John with I think Freedom tours.

Saw the reversing falls go in both directions.

Port of call pages is where to go for more info and ideas.

We rented a car in Saint John about a block from the terminal and drove to St. Martin where we saw the bay at low tide and walked into the sea caves. From there we did the Bay of Fundy Trails making several sight seeing stops including a waterfall and foot bridge. It was very beautiful. On the way back we stopped in St. Martin again and the tide had come in and completed covered where we had been walking a couple hours before. We got back to the ship with a couple hours to spare.

In Halifax we did the whale watching tour but didn't see any whales. We then walked the boardwalk and stopped in the Maritime Museum with the Titanic exhibit. That was very interesting for my kids.

We rented a car in Saint John about a block from the terminal and drove to St. Martin where we saw the bay at low tide and walked into the sea caves. From there we did the Bay of Fundy Trails making several sight seeing stops including a waterfall and foot bridge. It was very beautiful. On the way back we stopped in St. Martin again and the tide had come in and completed covered where we had been walking a couple hours before. We got back to the ship with a couple hours to spare.

 

In Halifax we did the whale watching tour but didn't see any whales. We then walked the boardwalk and stopped in the Maritime Museum with the Titanic exhibit. That was very interesting for my kids.

Unfortunately we couldnt get to the sea caves as tide was in.

Maritime musuem in Halifax very interesting but not sure how much small kids would like it.

In Halifax, I second the recommendation of the Harbour Hopper tour. It's a 1/2 hour land tour followed by a 1/2 hour harbor tour on an amphibious craft. My sons loved it. They also loved the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic - if your kids like the Titanic, they have a great exhibit; Halifax was the port for recovery efforts and the museum has artifacts from the ship that were recovered immediately after the sinking. There's also some very kid-friendly exhibits, and with the museum ticket you get to board the Acadia, a 1913 hydrographic ship that is part of the museum. My kids love climbing around ships. (As an aside, oldest son did this tour when he was 13. He's about to turn 22 and take an officer's commission in the US Navy. Guess something rubbed off.:p)

Saint John is a little harder with kids, although our kids love the city. For your first visit I would recommend a horse-drawn trolley to introduce them to the city and its history and then do a walking tour along Harbour Passage - great views of the harbor and an easy walk from the ship. You can have lunch aboard Glory or have lunch in one of the many restaurants near the waterfront; Grannan's, in Market Square, has a nice outdoor dining area that kids like (with very kid-friendly food and beer on tap for the adults), and Steamer's, across the street from the dock area, have really good food.

Unfortunately we couldnt get to the sea caves as tide was in.

 

Maritime musuem in Halifax very interesting but not sure how much small kids would like it.

My small kids (5 and 8) loved it and still wanted to stay and keep looking even after a few hours when DH was bored and wanted to leave. But I admit, my kids are a little weird.:p:o

The sea caves are so cool! We kayaked up to them and explored them on our land-based trip to NB in 2000.

Don't know if it's been said already, but when I went (only did the 4 day), we did a Trolley tour of Saint John. Tour guide was wonderful, Saint John was absolutely beautiful, and got to see the Reversing Falls! It was awesome! We toured the market afterwards and got to see a giant moose!

See the attached photo for me with the moose (I like moose).

Saint John is an industrial town and from some one who lives in NB, it isn't one of the spots where we would spend much time. That being said I would look for one of the excursions outside the city, anything that involves the Bay or around the St Martins/Fundy Trail area.

Many others have said there is a lot within walking distance in Halifax. My top three picks would be the Maritime Museum, The Discovery Center (for your boys) and Citadel Hill. You could spend plenty of time at anyone of the three.

Unfortunately we couldnt get to the sea caves as tide was in.

 

Maritime musuem in Halifax very interesting but not sure how much small kids would like it.

I made sure to check the tide schedule on the intranet before we decided to do the car rental and trip up there. It worked out perfect for us to not only walk into the caves at low tide but we were able to see it after the tide came in on our way back from the Bay of Fundy trail. Quite an amazing thing to witness for our kids. My kids were 14 and 17 at the time we went so a little older than OP's.

Bay of Fundy Trail:

St. Martin tides:

Halifax is the definite highlight of this cruise. We did Peggy's Cove and absolutely LOVED it. The views are wonderful and the drive there is very enjoyable. The tour is combined with a Halifax city tour which includes the Citadel and the Maritime Museum.

In St. John's, we took a tour to The Reversing Falls and were quite disappointed. We arrived right when the tide wasn't flowing in any direction, so we just stared at calm water. :mad: The tour guide tried to make it interesting by showing us pictures of what it looks like when the river is flowing but it was very ho hum. As others mentioned, St. John is an industrial town, and there was a huge plant with smokestacks right across from the Reversing Falls, making the view even less appealing. :(

Halifax is the definite highlight of this cruise. We did Peggy's Cove and absolutely LOVED it. The views are wonderful and the drive there is very enjoyable. The tour is combined with a Halifax city tour which includes the Citadel and the Maritime Museum.

 

In St. John's, we took a tour to The Reversing Falls and were quite disappointed. We arrived right when the tide wasn't flowing in any direction, so we just stared at calm water. :mad: The tour guide tried to make it interesting by showing us pictures of what it looks like when the river is flowing but it was very ho hum. As others mentioned, St. John is an industrial town, and there was a huge plant with smokestacks right across from the Reversing Falls, making the view even less appealing. :(

That just goes to show how subjective things are. For us, Saint John was the highlight of this cruise. We loved seeing the tides in St. Martin and the Bay of Fundy was beautiful. Besides the Maritime Museum and boardwalk, Halifax was kind of a disappointment for us. Especially when we didn't get to see any whales on our whale watching tour.

In Halifax, Harbour Hopper is fun, since its 30 minutes on land and then the vehicle does 30 minutes in the water.

That just goes to show how subjective things are. For us, Saint John was the highlight of this cruise. We loved seeing the tides in St. Martin and the Bay of Fundy was beautiful. Besides the Maritime Museum and boardwalk, Halifax was kind of a disappointment for us. Especially when we didn't get to see any whales on our whale watching tour.

It's funny, this reminds me of how DH and I felt in Victoria, B.C. We went on a whale-watching tour that took up pretty much all our time in port and never saw any whales. In the hour or so we had left afterwards to walk around Victoria, we had just enough time to realize how beautiful the city is and just a hint of how much it had to offer that we missed out on.:( Next time in Victoria, we'll explore the city. I recommend you do the same next time you're in Halifax.;) It really is a lovely city. But you're right - it is all very subjective.

In Halifax we did a city tour but the weather was awful so even though it was a nice tour we did not enjoy it . We then went to Tub's Pub for lunch and had the best chowder ever . In St. John's we walked around and were going to take the city tour on their local bus ( check the St. John web site for info ) unfortunately we did not realize there was a time change so we hopped on a horse drawn tour which was reasonable and interesting .

I LOVED our excursion at Trunk Bay in St. John (St. Thomas was our port). It was rated one of the top beaches in the world. There is an underwater snorkel trail, a shop, food and that beach!!!!

We are on the Glory leaving on the 29th with DW and DD(18) and DD(11) renting car in Halifax and seeing Peggys cove and stopping for lobster on the way and then some walkinig around town before getting back on the ship, not sure what Saint John will be yet leaning towards just walking around the town. Join the roll call for the cruise you are on and get to know some of the people you will be sailing with.

Hi, I'm new here! I'm Christy from Tampa, Florida. I'm mom to three kids; two boys ages 10 and 12; and my younger is a girl who turns 8 this week. We have a cruise planned out of the New York port at the end of July. We are taking the Carnival Glory for five nights. We have two stops. One is in St. John and the other is in Halifax. Can anyone recommend the best excursions to do at those two stops for families? I appreciate any recommendations or advice. Thank you! :)

HHHHHEEEEELLLLLLLLLLOOOOO Christyzdc: Welcome to Cruise Critic. The last time I was in St. John, last year, we took a trip to St. Andrew by the sea. It was a nice trip. If you don't like that idea then try a shore excursion around the city. In Halifax you might want to take a trip to Peggy's Cove or a tour around the city of Halifax.

Halifax is a walkable city and you could see a lot of things. St. John is somewhat less walkable since you have many hills. However, you can get around on foot at St. John too depending on which port they use. Both cities are pretty nice and hope you and your family have a good time.