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What to do with four ships in port in Halifax?


handbellplayer
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There will be 4 ships and over 7500 cruise ship passengers in Halifax on 9/22. I didn't realize this far enough ahead of time to find a good excursion. There are some ship excursions available or we could do a walking tour on our own.

 

Here's my question - will it be miserably crowded no matter what we do? Private taxis are $55/hour and we can't afford that. I'm afraid the town will be wall people if we just try to walk around. Any suggestions?

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Halifax has over 300,000 people in the city proper (I doubt you'll be walking out in the burbs) so 7,500 is a relative drop in a bucket in terms of the streets being able to handle you. 8-9am and again 4-6pm you'll have commuters to worry about - and at lunchtime on a Friday there will be many office drones heading out for lunch - so things might be a bit tighter on sidewalks near downtown business areas - and the port itself will obviously be busy as all those folks (and crew with time off, tour buses etc.) have to go in and out.

 

But many cruisers seem to feel that Halifax is a stop that you have to leave - they're all fired-up about visiting Peggy's Cove and/or Lunenberg. A tiny village with hundreds/thousands of tourists descending upon it? Blech. The good news is most people are pretty crappy at research so they'll sign up for tours without considering this - and everyone on a bus to Peggy's Cove is someone you don't have to worry about for at least 3 hours, as much as 6 hours if they're taking in Mahone Bay & Lunenberg too.

 

Then there's the 'go see the high tides' tours that take folks up to the Bay of Fundy. While there are some spectacular tides in the narrow parts on the Nova Scotian side, it's the Hopewell Rocks (New Brunswick) that are the famous 'walk on the sea floor!' place that most folks are expecting.

 

In short - many of those 7.500 people will be out of town for at least half the day, straight from the port whether on private tours or ship tours, so you don't have to worry about them. Fair warning it's been a while since we were in Halifax and we've never cruised in, so take the following 'places that might be busy' thoughts with a few grains of salt. Maybe some prior cruisers/locals with experience of multi-ship days downtown might have more accurate info to offer...

 

The Citadel is free this year for Canada150, which will increase the number of visitors - but only cruisers who pay attention to Canadian news/do good research would know that, so it should still be very tolerable on a weekday as there won't be many locals visiting (that early in the school year field trips don't happen).

 

I'd personally avoid Pier 21 - the immigration museum - as it's very close to the ship so a lot of impromptu visits might happen (and from what I recall of my visit there are so many bottlenecks around exhibits that even a single tour bus pulling in had us skipping a big section to avoid the horde then coming back). It's in a big cavernous building, but actual exhibits are much smaller so it can feel really crowded even though half the floor space is totally empty.

 

The other spot I'd consider likely to get overwhelmed with cruisers is the maritime museum - due to the Titanic connection there seems to be a big overlap with the kinds of folks who like to cruise.

 

If it were me I'd make a beeline for Maritime or Citadel if these interest you as soon as you can get off, to beat the crowds.

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Halifax has over 300,000 people in the city proper (I doubt you'll be walking out in the burbs) so 7,500 is a relative drop in a bucket in terms of the streets being able to handle you. 8-9am and again 4-6pm you'll have commuters to worry about - and at lunchtime on a Friday there will be many office drones heading out for lunch - so things might be a bit tighter on sidewalks near downtown business areas - and the port itself will obviously be busy as all those folks (and crew with time off, tour buses etc.) have to go in and out.

 

But many cruisers seem to feel that Halifax is a stop that you have to leave - they're all fired-up about visiting Peggy's Cove and/or Lunenberg. A tiny village with hundreds/thousands of tourists descending upon it? Blech. The good news is most people are pretty crappy at research so they'll sign up for tours without considering this - and everyone on a bus to Peggy's Cove is someone you don't have to worry about for at least 3 hours, as much as 6 hours if they're taking in Mahone Bay & Lunenberg too.

 

Then there's the 'go see the high tides' tours that take folks up to the Bay of Fundy. While there are some spectacular tides in the narrow parts on the Nova Scotian side, it's the Hopewell Rocks (New Brunswick) that are the famous 'walk on the sea floor!' place that most folks are expecting.

 

In short - many of those 7.500 people will be out of town for at least half the day, straight from the port whether on private tours or ship tours, so you don't have to worry about them. Fair warning it's been a while since we were in Halifax and we've never cruised in, so take the following 'places that might be busy' thoughts with a few grains of salt. Maybe some prior cruisers/locals with experience of multi-ship days downtown might have more accurate info to offer...

 

The Citadel is free this year for Canada150, which will increase the number of visitors - but only cruisers who pay attention to Canadian news/do good research would know that, so it should still be very tolerable on a weekday as there won't be many locals visiting (that early in the school year field trips don't happen).

 

I'd personally avoid Pier 21 - the immigration museum - as it's very close to the ship so a lot of impromptu visits might happen (and from what I recall of my visit there are so many bottlenecks around exhibits that even a single tour bus pulling in had us skipping a big section to avoid the horde then coming back). It's in a big cavernous building, but actual exhibits are much smaller so it can feel really crowded even though half the floor space is totally empty.

 

The other spot I'd consider likely to get overwhelmed with cruisers is the maritime museum - due to the Titanic connection there seems to be a big overlap with the kinds of folks who like to cruise.

 

If it were me I'd make a beeline for Maritime or Citadel if these interest you as soon as you can get off, to beat the crowds.

 

Thank you for the advice!

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