New England and Canada Kid Friendly Tours

[cruisingram1]

We'll be on the Enchantment in mid July for a 9 day cruise to New England and Canada. Was hoping someone can recommend some kid friendly tours and activities. Private or ship sponsored. Girls are 8 and 10.

 

Here is the itinerary.

 

Portland ME

Bar Harbor ME

Saint John NB (we've got that one covered already.. private tour of Bay of Fundy)

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Boston (Not too worried about Boston as there's probably too much to do and choosing from the options will be the issue. )

 

Thanks for your input.

[Keith1010]

For Bar Harbor you could look at renting bicycles at the Arcadia National Park.

 

Keith

[crusinmama06]

I meant to tell you about Arcadia -- it seems to be the thing to do at Bar Harbor. :D There is a web site for them...

http://www.nps.gov/acad/index.htm

[lmg1230]

We have been to Halifax with our kids, however, it wasn't on a cruise. The waterfront area itself is a lot of fun. My kids particularly liked the Harbour Hopper tour which is one of those land/water vehicles that tour around town and then drive into the harbour to give you a view of the city from there. Depending on what they are interested in you may like to visit the Halifax Citadel although it is a little farther away. We also enjoyed the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic which is located on the waterfront and has interesting exhibits on the Titanic and the Halifax Explosion. Make sure you visit COWS ice cream for delicious homemade ice cream with unique flavours like "Wowie Cowie" and "Moo Crunch". I have a Nova Scotia page on my family travel blog if you would like to see photos and a fuller description of what we did in Halifax. The link is in my signature.

 

Lisa

[Cheryl H]

Well, for Bar Harbor, we were supposed to be on a tour featuring a ride up to Cadillac Mountain in Acadia Nat'l Park. The bus let us off right at a walk to a photo spot. We took our photos and could see the ship and Bar Harbor below us. The other half of the tour was to be a ride on the 4 masted schooner, the Margaret Todd. We saw it in the harbor and it would have been really neat. Except that there was a storm the day before and they either lost their gangway or their pier. Not sure which. But you might check into that. It was a ship sponsored tour.

 

For Portland, we chose the Kennebunkport tour. We had a scenic bus ride thru the town and by the bay I think. Then we came to Kennebunkport. It was a cute little town. We had a nice lunch at Federal Jack's. Our son picked a small school bus toy in one of the shops.

 

In Halifax, we had the hop on hop off tour. We hopped off at the Citadel. One hint here, go inside to the visitor office and try to sign up for the guided tour. We missed lots of information. I saw a guide leading another group around and it sounded like they got a better visit than we did. Then we hopped over to the Maritime Museum. We enjoyed the exhibits there. I think one floor was about the Titanic, and the other floor was about a huge explosion that occurred there years ago. Then we asked directions to a good place to eat. We walked out the door and over to the boardwalk, and thru the historic properties area, and ate at Salty's. We had a table with a view of the sea. We walked back to the historic properties area and there was a building full of shops.

 

In Boston, we were there at the start of our cruise. We stayed at the Seaport Hotel. It was nice and allowed no tipping even though we tried to tip our bellman. It was very close to the children's museum. So we did the children's museum before we went to our ship. The Seaport held our luggage for us.

 

Then after our cruise, we had reservations at the Airport Hilton. Airport Hilton and Hyatt are right together. There is a water taxi at the Hyatt. So we rode the free shuttle from the Hilton over to the water taxi stand at the Hyatt. We bought round trip tickets and rode the water taxi over to Long Wharf.

 

Once on Long Wharf, there's the aquarium, and nearby is Legal Seafood. Had the best fish and chips there off all the places we went that week. Then we rode the hop on hop off trolley. We hopped off at the USS Constitution in Charlestown. If you do that, get in the line for the free guided tour. That was really informative. We went below deck and saw all the sleeping quarters, etc. and we heard what conditions were like for the soldiers. Then right across the street you can walk around the USS Cassin Young.

 

Then we hopped over to the Old Statehouse (there are restrooms there in the basement). And if you go in the wrong door, you'll be going in the T (subway).

 

We rode the hop on and hop off to see the rest of Boston. At the end of the route, we walked across the street and under the glass canopy to Faniel Hall/Quincy Market. An officer sent us out and around to Zuma's Mexican. It was pretty good and there was a nice jewelry store above it. Everything was less than a hundred if I remember right. It was mostly semi-precious stones/jewelry. Very nice. There was also Christopher Columbus park right there which I think you could walk thru to get to the Italian end and there are more restaurants there I believe.

 

That's about all I can think of from our trip. There are photos of our trip below my signature. We were on the Jewel.

 

Have fun on your trip!!

[cruisingram1]

Great suggestions, all. Thank you for taking the time to reply to my question!

[Peace2U]

We'll be on the Enchantment in mid July for a 9 day cruise to New England and Canada. Was hoping someone can recommend some kid friendly tours and activities. Private or ship sponsored. Girls are 8 and 10.

 

Here is the itinerary.

 

Portland ME

Bar Harbor ME

Saint John NB (we've got that one covered already.. private tour of Bay of Fundy)

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Boston (Not too worried about Boston as there's probably too much to do and choosing from the options will be the issue. )

 

Thanks for your input.

 

We took the tall ship tour in Halifax. I originally wanted to go to Peggy's Cove but my 8 year old would have been bored. The ship tour was interesting and he got to steer the ship for a while.