Transatlantic, New England and Canada

[Fish & Chips]

Hello to all you knowledgable people. We are due to embark in Southampton on 26th September 2019 and very excited. We have never been to Canada before and are over whelmed regarding the excursions offered by Cunard. My question is: which trips are a must do? and can we do any cheaper than Cunard? Thanks for your help.

[TheOldBear]

Have you joined any of the M930 crossing's roll calls? Or the M931 New England/Canada roll call?

 

Our last New England/Canada cruise was back in 2010, so my excursion information is far from current. I would say that for Bar Harbor a Cunard excursion is not essential. There were many tour busses waiting at the tender landing.

 

 

[princeton123211]

2 hours ago, Fish & Chips said:

which trips are a must do? and can we do any cheaper than Cunard?

As a general rule, most excursions can be done less expensively on your own (with a few exceptions for those that have a heavy transportation component). We prefer to do things on our own, especially on a big ship like QM2 where the excursions can be comprised of several busloads of people, but will opt for the ship excursion for trips where I get even the smallest inkling of doubt that we could miss the ship if we did it on our own. 

 

Looking through your itinerary, New York, Newport, and Boston are all very easy to pick something interesting and do on your own. Uber/Lyft/taxis work well to get around and Newport/Boston are very manageable on your own-- New York you'll have to be a bit picky in what you have time for. Quebec is also in this category-- you'll most likely want to see the city and the city is very easy to walk around in on your own without paying for a tour. 

 

Places like Sydney, Saguenay, and Sept-IIles are a bit more sleepy and you might want to look at some of the excursions that go further away from these port stops-- could be a good excuse for looking at whats on offer. Halifax is sort of a toss up-- its a big enough city that you can do things in town but there are a lot of options to go to picturesque places outside of town on an excursion. 

 

This is a fun itinerary as you do get 2 separate days in NYC. I would recommend making the first day sightseeing heavy and use the second to be more relaxing and to go see things that you invariably will have to skip because of time constraints the first day. 

[Fish & Chips]

Thank you for your very informative reply. We can start planning and getting excited.

[kmerlin14]

I go to Halifax on business quite often and I think you will find it is easy for find interesting things to do right by the cruise ship dock. I'm not a big fan of driving in the city, so I usually park my car and walk everywhere. The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic is right on the water front and it has good exhibits on the Titanic and the Halifax Explosion. Pier 23 has a good museum on the role of the port in Canadian Immigration and it is right on the waterfront as well. There are also the Historic Properties and there are sometimes festivals on the waterfront like the buskars. 

 

Further up the hill, but walkable for a five-year-old is the Discovery Centre which would appeal to kids. The Citidal is also very interesting, but it is higher on the hill and the hill is steep, so if you don't like hills you might want to splurge for a taxi. The Halifax Botanical Gardens and the Nova Scotia museum are also interesting and there are many interesting historic buildings as well. You should be able to pick up a map at the tourist info which is also on the waterfront. I think HMCS Sackville, Thomas the Tugboat, and the Bluenose II are often in port as well, so there is plenty to see close by the cruise ship. 

 

I'll be honest, I usually find Peggy's Cover underwhelming, probably because it is usually so crowded. We often take pictures of the buses in the parking lot when we go. Lunenburg is a world heritage site and I find it much more interesting, but that could be because some of my ancestors were among the founding families. But both of them will mean spending part of your port day on the bus or in a car. If you do decide to go, try to eat at Shaw's landing in Dover. The food was fantastic there and we were so glad we'd eaten there instead of braving the crowds at Peggy's Cove.

 

And we are doing the Eastern Seaboard cruise in 2020, so I appreciate hearing about Boston and New Port. Our other ports are Sydney and double Quebec city.

 

[Solent Richard]

On 7/22/2019 at 7:36 PM, Fish & Chips said:

Hello to all you knowledgable people. We are due to embark in Southampton on 26th September 2019 and very excited. We have never been to Canada before and are over whelmed regarding the excursions offered by Cunard. My question is: which trips are a must do? and can we do any cheaper than Cunard? Thanks for your help.

 

Good morning Fish & Chips.

 

Luckily I wrote a comprehensive review on how my wife and I did Halifax when we too called there on Queen Mary 2.

 

You can read the full account of our most recent Halifax visit here...

 

https://solentrichardscruiseblog.com/2015/09/11/one-way-to-do-halifax-nova-scotia-second-edition/

 

...which included a visit to the Titanic cemetery....

 

 

On a previous visit we made the effort to visit Peggy's Cove (It is a very popular itinerary with the ship's excursions) though again we did it privately. I wrote a review here...

 

https://solentrichardscruiseblog.com/2013/09/17/one-way-to-do-halifax-nova-scotia/

 

We actually thought it was a good place to visit and could understand its popularity...

 

 

...our driver was very obliging and included our first visit to the Fairview lawn Cemetery plus a few other gems.

 

We too are returning in 'the Fall' and I have planned a visit to the historical sites associated with the... 

 

 

 

 

My inspiration for this next visit was purchasing the book on the explosion from the Maritime Museum when we called into Halifax on Queen Mary 2's 175th Anniversary voyage.

 

 

[Solent Richard]

Perhaps another tip for F&C.

 

We also did a Queen Mary 2 Grand New England and Canada cruise in September though it didnt cover all the same ports as you will. 

 

It did, however, cover Bar Harbour, New York and Quebec so I will include a link to that review for your interest...

 

https://solentrichardscruiseblog.com/2013/03/21/queen-mary-2-grand-new-england-and-canadian-wonders-cruise/

 

At Bar Harbour we had a wonderful time and, although we were hosted by cruising friends who lived in Maine, I did notice that shoreside there were local tour operators who would take you to Cadillac Mountain - a must see - particularly for the views...

 

 

 

(Spot the ship in the background?)

 

And of course, no visit to Bar harbour is complete without a lobster lunch...

 

Whatever you choose, have a great trip.

[Tonopah]

5 hours ago, Solent Richard said:

 

Good morning Fish & Chips.

 

Luckily I wrote a comprehensive review on how my wife and I did Halifax when we too called there on Queen Mary 2.

 

You can read the full account of our most recent Halifax visit here...

 

https://solentrichardscruiseblog.com/2015/09/11/one-way-to-do-halifax-nova-scotia-second-edition/

 

...

 

Thank you for posting this. I hope you don’t mind that I shared the link on the roll call page for our journey on the QM2 to Halifax next summer. 

[Solent Richard]

50 minutes ago, Tonopah said:

Thank you for posting this. I hope you don’t mind that I shared the link on the roll call page for our journey on the QM2 to Halifax next summer. 

Good afternoon Tonopah.

 

Not at all.

 

I'm delighted to be of assistance.

[Fish & Chips]

Thank you all for such informative replies. I can see that we are going to have a busy time. It may even require a return journey in the future.