Excursion or Sight Seeing Recommendations

We are going on a Royal Caribbean cruise at the beginning of October and looking for excursion recommendations or sights that are a must. We will be going to these places

Portland, Maine

Rockland, Maine

Bar Harbor, Maine- We are signed up for Acadia National Park tour and lobster bake here

Halifax, Nova Scotia-We are wanting to do whale watching here...does anyone know if this is a good time of year or any other recommendations?

Sydney, Nova Scotia

Corner Brook, Newfoundland

Quebec City, Quebec

Thanks!

Halifax is a poor choice for whalewatching - wrong side of the island for the good feeding grounds. There's a chance of whales but it's slim at any time of year compared to Bay of Fundy side or near Cheticamp. Do the Citadel and Maritime museum instead.

From Sydney I like Louisbourg Fortress and the mine at Glace Bay. Both may be feasible depending on port time.

Quebec - man, too many options. What sort of stuff do you like? Are you staying overnight or longer post-cruise?

Portland Maine is very walkable. The Old Port area has good restaurants and shops. If you feel more energetic you can walk up to the Portland Museum of Art, which has a nice, small collection. There is a museum at the Miane Historical Society (also up the hill from the waterfront). One really fun thing to do in Portland is to take the ferry from the Maine State Pier to one of the islands. Peaks Island is closest - you can walk around it or rent bikes.

Do not go whale watching out of Halifax. If you stop in Saint John, New Brunswick there may be whale watching from there, but October is getting late in the year.

Acadia National Park in Bar Harbor was very scenic and interesting. You'll enjoy that. In Halifax we did the Harbour Hopper which is an amphibious war vehicle that gave us a tour of the city by land and sea. It was fun and we just walked around the city and waterfront which was near the port.

Halifax is a poor choice for whalewatching - wrong side of the island for the good feeding grounds. There's a chance of whales but it's slim at any time of year compared to Bay of Fundy side or near Cheticamp. Do the Citadel and Maritime museum instead.

 

From Sydney I like Louisbourg Fortress and the mine at Glace Bay. Both may be feasible depending on port time.

 

Quebec - man, too many options. What sort of stuff do you like? Are you staying overnight or longer post-cruise?

Why would that be the only port the offer whale watching on?

Why would that be the only port the offer whale watching on?

You'd have to ask your cruise line that, I can only tell you the facts - that Halifax is a poor choice for a whale-watch at the best of times compared to the waters off the inner coasts of Nova Scotia. This is easily enough verified by Googling comparative sighting stats on whale watches from St Andrews by the Sea (the biggest whale-watch port on the Bay of Fundy) and Cheticamp vs. those out of Halifax.

Further, by the time of your cruise the southward migration of humpbacks is underway so what whales might be potentially seen out of Halifax will be even further reduced in number. Read the small print carefully - unlike primo ports I wager you'll find no guarantees of seeing a whale on any Halifax departure, whereas you can either get a refund or another free trip in ports that are actually good for whale-watching.