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Shore Ex Booklet Canada/New England 2014

Cruiser Andi

By Cruiser Andi,
in Holland America Line

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Cruiser Andi

Cruiser Andi

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Does anyone know the general "rule of thumb" for when HAL releases the deatailed booklet of shore excursions? I'm sailing Veendam for a Canada/New England cruise in August of 2014. I'm doing the round trip Boston itinerary.

 

Also, any input on must see places or places to avoid would be appreciated.

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CruiserBruce

CruiserBruce

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I don't know that they release a shore excursion book anymore. It is all on line. At least for us over the last 3-4 years. The excursions will be available to book on line 6-8 months in advance of sailing. There will be info on the HAL website of previous years tours. No promise they will be available on next years cruise.

 

Without knowing your interests, limitations, budget or anything else about you, hard to make any recommendations.

Edited by CruiserBruce
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CruiserBruce

CruiserBruce

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Thanks CruiserBruce. I see the link online for the booklet and it comes up with a message that the booklet isn't available and to check back later. Hoping someone might know a generic timeframe of when the book is made available online.

 

To my knowledge there isn't a true book for each area's cruises. One thing HAL does is, once you start buying excursions, they create a customized book just for your cruise. That may be the "booklet" you are seeing. As your excursions aren't available to book, the "booklet" isn't active yet. Once you start booking excursions, that "booklet" will populate, and you can see it. It loads VERY slowly.

 

The excursions will be available 6-8 months in advance. You will be able to see full descriptions of each excursion by signing in to your reservation on the HAL site..

 

On the HAL website you can look up each port and get an idea of what will be offered, based on previous year's excursions. This is a pretty good way to see what is going to be offered, although price info may be hard to calculate.

Edited by CruiserBruce
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Cruiser Andi

Cruiser Andi

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6 to 8 months gives me plenty of time to plan. The last couple of cruises I've purchased excursions onboard so didn't pay much attention ahead of time.

 

As far as interests, budget and limitations:

 

We are interested in exploring new places. It's why we travel. I'd love to hear what people enjoyed and why or what they didn't enjoy and why. If I know the why, I can make a determination if it's something I might want to try.

 

Budget is still up in the air. It all depends on the must see places and I'll work my way backwards from there. I'll make it to the must sees and then see what else might fit with the budget.

 

Limitations are few and far between. My DH and I are in our late 30's and in pretty good physical shape.

 

We live in a Oregon and are looking forward to visiting the east coast and cramming as much as we can into the little time we have at our disposal.

 

Thanks again!

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sail7seas

sail7seas

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Does anyone know the general "rule of thumb" for when HAL releases the deatailed booklet of shore excursions? I'm sailing Veendam for a Canada/New England cruise in August of 2014. I'm doing the round trip Boston itinerary.

 

Also, any input on must see places or places to avoid would be appreciated.

 

 

We did this cruise (again) last August and thought it still a great cruise. We have done it several times in the past on Maasdam. Wonderful itinerary IMO

 

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Cruiser Andi

Cruiser Andi

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We did this cruise (again) last August and thought it still a great cruise. We have done it several times in the past on Maasdam. Wonderful itinerary IMO

 

 

That's wonderful news. I'm eagerly anticipating this cruise. We've scheduled two days in Boston pre-cruise to tour town and are excited to see new places. We've never been to the East coast so it's all new to us.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Mary Ellen

Mary Ellen

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Yes I am. This is the first time I really need to pre-plan carefully since I have mobility issues. So I'd like to see what our options are.
If you find some shore ex that appeal to you but you have concerns about if they will work for you, call the 800 number for the HAL Shore Ex dept. The info they have will depend upon how well the tour operator has filled out the forms, but I've had good luck finding out the distances that one must walk and the number of steps/stairs to navigate. DH has problems walking but stairs aren't a problem. Calling allows us to take tours that we might have otherwise ruled out because of the rating HAL had given them. We're also finding that private tours often fit our needs better. Good luck.
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mamaofami

mamaofami

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Does anyone know the general "rule of thumb" for when HAL releases the deatailed booklet of shore excursions? I'm sailing Veendam for a Canada/New England cruise in August of 2014. I'm doing the round trip Boston itinerary.

 

Also, any input on must see places or places to avoid would be appreciated.

 

Be sure to eat lobster in Bar Harbor and Halifax.

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