Hi All ! I'm New - Great Group Here !

[boobooboyee]

This really is a great message board - I've checked out a few and this is really the best! So many helpful people and such interesting information...

 

Hubby and I are going on the Spirit the last week of Sept - it's New England/Canada. Have any of you guys or gals been on a cruise there? My mom (82 and still cruising strong, God love her) has gone; she says to just get off the ship when you're at port and go exploring on your own (as she does with her friends). She doesn't like being tied down to a tour and I understand how she feels. But I was wondering how you would do something like that on your own. How do you know where to go when you get off, let's say, in Boston. I'll research a little in Frommers and such - but with so little time to get around and back before the ship takes off again - isn't it wiser to just book an excursion?

 

Any advice will be appreciated. And once again, you have a great board here ! BB

[salty dingo]

Welcome to the boards. I'm sure you will find lots of good advice and info here!

[*Wink*]

Hiya BooBoo ~ You're on the right track. I'm sure many here will help you with your question about "exploring." Another thing you can count on are your fellow ship mates and their suggestions. Get used to using the search tool in this forum. It's on the main page. Type in "Boston" or whatever you think a key word might be, and see what pops up. If this is your first cruise, you'll have a lot to read! Welcome aboard! :)

 

A.

[boobooboyee]

Thanks, Salty! AW - I didn't know that about the search engine - I'll definitely try it.

[ute_fan]

Have you found the "ports of call" section yet? There you can get additional information related to the ports for your cruise. Unfortunately, the Canada/New England ones aren't getting as many posts as some of the other boards (we're going on the Dawn on 9/21 to Canada/NewEngland), but you can still get some good ideas.

 

For Canada/New England particularly, it's a little confusing as people don't seem to know where to post exactly. There's one section for Canada that includes both Western Canada (think Alaskan cruises) and with Eastern Canada (the Canada/NE itineraries), and a separate section for New England ports. It's definitely worth it to spend time reading through both sections. Just ignore the Victoria/Vancouver posts from Western Canada.

[boobooboyee]

Thanks, Ute. I didn't even know there was a Ports of Call section...still just making my way around the site, I guess - and having a blast reading all the messages. Thanks again

[Rapture24]

From what I have heard, if you book your excursions through the ship and you somehow get held up, stuck in traffic, etc- the ship is supposed to wait for you- whereas if you go about it on your own you won't be so lucky.

 

Whether they actually do this or not, I'm not sure- but that is what I have heard. Maybe someone else can clarify that for you!

[boobooboyee]

Rapture - thanks. That's probably the biggest reason I want to talk my husband out of "winging it" on our own instead of booking the ship's excursions. Especially because we are going to Canada and are not bringing our passports (Just birth certificate, drivers license, etc.) I can just imagine we're out somewhere and can't make it back to the boat in time. I can see the headlines "Local Cuties Stuck at Dock" :confused:

 

I already booked the Martha's Vineyard one - that was easy; they only offered one tour and it's our last stop. :p

[tony@stanton19.freeserve.]

Apart from looking on the ports of call section, try looking at the rollcalls for similar trips, either on this line or other cruise companies.

Look at the shore excursions offered by the various lines for the ports you are calling at. Read reviews of past cruises on these boards and see what other people did when in port.

Then start googling for your ports and look for the local attractions.

Remember that the ship will often provide a shuttle bus into the city to the centre of the attractions.

 

When we did this cruise a couple of years back this is what we did:

 

Martha's Vineyard,

tendered off, wandered about, saw the oldest carousel in US, found the gingerbread houses in the Church campground, shopping, went for a meal on the dockside, went back to ship.

 

Boston,

Ship's shuttle into town, wandered around Quincy market, tried to book the Boston Ducks tour but availability was too late, took the hop on hop off trolley instead, found the Swan boats and the ducks, rode the trolley some more, shopping, sampled a pint of the excellent Boston beer, returned to shuttle pick up point. The heavens opened, the traffic ground to halt and we arrived back at the ship well after the all aboard time. As we were on the ship's shuttle, it didn't matter. Got back to ship which was even later leaving as the pilot was delayed in the traffic too.

 

Halifax Nova Scotia,

Walked into town and found the Frogs tour (like the Ducks) which showed us the City, the citadel and harbour. Wandered around again finding a nice pub lunch, wandered back to ship along the boardwalk and shopped at the market in the cruise terminal.

 

Bar Harbour, Maine

After clearing immigration on the ship we were tendered off.

Had booked the Oli's Trolley by email http://www.acadiaislandtours.com/ which took us up the mountain with a good commentary. Back down again for a nice crab cake lunch on the waterfront. Then took a ship's tour on the whale watching excursion which left from the dock

 

Newport Rhode Island

Tendered off yet again and after a little shopping found our way to the visitor centre at the bus station where we picked up a trolley tour http://www.ripta.com/content320.html which pent about an hour doing an island tour round the mansions.

 

With a little research you can do what you really want to do without being tied to what the tours dictate, often at a reduced cost.

 

There are some pictures in my signature if you are interested

[boobooboyee]

Tony - You are a real fount of information ! I'm printing your suggestions out right now...thank you so much.

[ute_fan]

I normally do a combination of ships tours/private excursions. I tend to base it on 3 or 4 different factors:

 

1) What's the length of the excursion vs. the length of time the ship is in port. If I have lots of "wiggle room" after, I'm more likely to go independent. If the excursion I'm interested in is lengthy and doesn't allow much leeway, I'll book through the ship.

 

2) Is the ship docked or is it a tender port? I feel better about using the private excursions if the ship is docked than I do if I have to worry about catching a tender to get back on board. If you're not familiar with tendering, it's where the ship can't dock, either do to geographic reasons or available pier space, and you ride a small ship back and forth between the ship and the port.

 

3) How comfortable am I with the port? I feel much more secure in Juneau, Alaska than I do in Belize City, for example. If I should, worst case scenario, miss the boat in Juneau, I'd be much less stressed than I would if I was stranded in Belize. Don't get me wrong -- I love Belize -- but I don't want to be there without my passport or luggage :eek: .

 

4) What is the cost difference in the excursions? Using Belize as an example again, we went to Lamanai. The cost of the ship's excursion was only $10 more than I could find it independently, which I considered cheap insurance.

 

For our upcoming Canada/New England trip, I've included a 5th factor: how many people are in port with us that day? The day we're in Halifax, there are 3 other ships in port with us, for a total of almost 10,000 passengers. Rather than fighting the crowds, I've booked a ship sponsored whale watching tour.

 

I don't base my decision on any one factor but weight the pros and cons of each excursion I'm considering. Must have something to do with being in the accounting field :D .

[boobooboyee]

Tony - you mentioned something about the "ship's shuttle" ? Do all NCL lines have shuttle buses from the port to other locations in town? That would certainly be a big help if that was the case - would they have schedules printed anywhere (so we'd be sure to get back in time) Thanks again

[boobooboyee]

Ute said, "For our upcoming Canada/New England trip, I've included a 5th factor: how many people are in port with us that day? The day we're in Halifax, there are 3 other ships in port with us, for a total of almost 10,000 passengers. Rather than fighting the crowds, I've booked a ship sponsored whale watching tour."

 

How did you find out that info, Ute ? That's great to know....thx ! BB

[ute_fan]

From this site: http://www.porttime.com/

 

Very useful site!

 

Maybe I'll expound a bit. I'd originally planned on going to Peggy's Cove in Halifax. However, I'd read several comments about how busy it gets when there are a lot of cruise ship passengers in port, so the idea of having almost 10,000 people there helped me change my mind.

[boobooboyee]

Thanks again Ute ! This looks like a terrific site to answer some of my questions. God bless

[boobooboyee]

I must once again say how wonderfully helpful this site is. Ute - I checked on the Porttime website and so far, for the time period that we are sailing, we are the only boat (Spirit) that will be at 3 out of 4 ports. The only one that may be crowded is Boston (5,000+ passengers from 3 ships) Maybe we'd be best pre-booking an excursion for that one...Thanks again !

[ute_fan]

Great news! We have the Caribbean Princess in port with us at every stop, so we've got over 5,000 passengers expected every day.

[CruisnGram]

Here's some more suggestions:

 

Halifax: Check out Your Cab Tours. Jonathan is very accomodating and has personalized a tour just for our group to include what we want to see. We're doing highlights of Halifax, Peggy's Cove and whale watching.He also has tours that you can pick from. http://www.yourcab.ca/rates.htm

 

St. John: Heather at Freedom Tours will do the same as Jonathan in Halifax. Again, they have tours that you can pick from or you can customize. We are doing a tour of St. John and St Martaan and the sea caves.

http://freedomtours.com/content/151140

 

Boston: Boston is a great city to just tour around on your own. We purchased the GoBoston cards which get you into most major attractions. Only problem is that you have to pick and choose which ones you want to do as you can't do them all in one day.

http://www.gobostoncard.com/

 

Bar Harbor: For a Harbor Tour, see how they lobster fish, and seal watch, try: www.lululobsterboat.com Captain John is wonderful!

 

Also, don't miss Acadia National Park. There are several companies that do tours. I think someone already mentioned Ollie's Trollies. We are using http://www.acadiatours.com/

 

Newport: This is the only town that we haven't booked an excursion. We are going to rent scooters and drive ocean highway. http://www.scootersofnewport.com/index.html

 

Happy planning!

 

CG

[tony@stanton19.freeserve.]

Tony - you mentioned something about the "ship's shuttle" ? Do all NCL lines have shuttle buses from the port to other locations in town? That would certainly be a big help if that was the case - would they have schedules printed anywhere (so we'd be sure to get back in time) Thanks again

 

 

On many cruises, either the port or the cruise ship will arange for a bus service to take you into town from the port if it is needed.

If it is arranged by NCL you can be pretty certain that there will be a charge, but it is normally a nominal fee around $5 say

 

In Halfax, NS you can easily walk to the harbour front area from the cruise terminal but there is actually a free bus operated by the city.

http://www.halifax.ca/metrotransit/fred.html

 

 

In Boston, although NCL arranged a shuttle bus service, there was actually a normal service bus operating. It's usually easier to use the shuttle service as you will not be familiar with the local transit system. If there are more than a couple of you, you may find that getting a cab back is easier/cheaper. That's why the return shuttle fare is good, many make their own way back, often walking or cabbing back as you may not be near the pick up point in town.

 

The other places are small and you will be dropped off at the port, often by tender

Of course I am basing this on our New England cruise and the places may differ on yours.

 

As always, you will find a wealth of info on these and similar boards.

Also remember to look on the main resort guides on CC.

http://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/ports/area.cfm?area=7