Cornishpastyman1

Hello, my husband and I are going on our first NE cruise Sept 22 on the anthem of the seas. We just booked yesterday so not a lot of time to plan. We are in our mid 30's, like to see as much as possible , and don't like group tours if we can avoid them. Here are our ports with my questions I have and recommendations we need.

 

Boston: thinking maybe renting bikes? Open to suggestions. In port 7:00 am-7pm

 

Bar Harbour- 7 am-6 pm. We want to see all the best of Acadia park. Is that the best thing to do here ? What are the must see stops ? We are open to biking or hiking if that's a good way. Should we use the island explorer free bus or rent a car ?

 

Halifax Nova Scotia 7 am-5pm -is Peggy's cove worth it if we see all the Portland lighthouses? What else is fun to do here? Should we rent a car or take a bus? Easiest place to rent from? Whale watching here?

 

 

Thanks for your help!!

If it's any interest the Atlantic Canada & New England link in my signature below has the videos of what I did at those 3 ports. All the best, Tony

If you are near the Moorish Castle and have time to spare, a few yards uphill are the WWII tunnels. Not as atmospheric as the Great Siege Tunnels but still very interesting. This tour takes 45-60 minutes and was £8 in 2013 All the best, Tony

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I did this. We needed a beach day and the city was charming too. All the best, Tony

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Hi,

We are in Lisbon on the 18th August 2016 on Navigator and have never been to the city before. I'm looking for some advice on the must see places and also the best way to explore the city. RCL only offer a bus tour and we'd prefer to do a little more walking and exploration.

Thanks in advance.

This was my day there using a day travel ticket (€6 in 2103) All the best, Tony

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Has anybody been to the Salmon ladder in Ketchikan, and when is the best time of day to go?

Seems like it will be a cool thing to see.

Any other suggestions for things to see? We know there are totem poles to see in the area.

Thanks for any info

Safe sailing

At around 1.39 in this shows the ladder and fish running it. It was the last day of July and they were easy to spot, although I don't think this would count as heavy numbers.All the best, Tony

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For those that have cruised Canada/New England, what are you favorite ports and why? We are undecided on the cruise line and would rather choose itinerary over ship. So many options! Thank you:)

The Atlantic Canada & New England playlist link in my signature below has videos of all the ports on my cruise last summer. I would say Boston and Quebec City are outstanding and all the others were nice, pleasant, very enjoyable etc rather than really memorable. All the best, Tony

We are booked on a cruise that has the above referenced ports of call. Any ideas of things to do on these port days? Any recommendations of tour companies would be great too as we have never been to these ports.

 

TIA.

 

Kim

Hi Kim

We just did this at those lovely ports. If you want to go into Diocletian's Palace (Split) you'll need a bit of local currrency from the bureau de change just outside it, and walking up to the fort (Kotor) costs about €3. All the best, Tony

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No, you'll need to take cab or metro. Closest metro to port area is Matosinhos Sul or Brito Capello http://www.metrodoporto.pt/uploads/document/file/40/Mapa_de_Rede_ColorAdd.pdf

I'm sure we got on the metro at Matosinhos, which is about 400 yards from the port. A return from there to the city was very cheap.

Hi!

 

Booked on the NCL Jade leaving July 23rd 2016 from Venice, Italy and I'll be in Athens, Olympia, Santorini, Mykonos and Corfu. I'm trying to book excursions ahead of time and I"m having a very difficult time finding something.

 

I have looked at both shoreexcursioneer.com and cruisingexcursions.com, but upon more research all I keep finding is bad reviews of the two companies.

 

I'm looking for suggestions/help with where to book excursions/good excursions. I'm going with my mom and sister. We're all over 21, walking isn't an issue and we really want to enjoy these ports.

 

The only site I did find with good reviews (albeit a few) is guidemeingreece with their Santorini and Olympia tour.

 

Please help!

In case it gives you some ideas of what you want to see, I did all those on my own and made videos of the days, which can be found from the GREECE link in my signature below. All the best, Tony

We are looking for suggestions for Porto. Is it a port/ city that we can do on our own, or can someone suggest a tour that picks up at the port?

It's a very pleasant city to do on your own. This was our few hours there. That boat trip on Douro runs pretty regularly and costs about €10 pp. All the best, Tony

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Thanks for your videos cornishpastyman. How lucky you are to live in St Ives, I do hope you appreciate it. The videos have helped me decide what I'm going to do when on my cruise in August.

Thanks Debbie, I really do enjoy living in St Ives and know how lucky I am. Gibraltar is a superb port of call, one of my all-time favourites and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. All the best, Tony

Thank you marazul! Appreciate the suggestions!

The Ho-ho service at Nice is good way of seeing beyond the Old Town. When we did this in 2013 it was about €20. We walked from the tender dock at Cannes to the station and took the train to Nice. All the best, Tony

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What about la pettite train? Has anyone taken that?

Yes, it's good fun, all the best, Tony

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Good info!! So we can store all our luggage at the terminal as we leave, go and do our walk around or whatever we wind up doing, walk back or take a cab to the terminal, get our luggage and taxi to airport?? Is that it? Thanks for your help.

Yes, exactly so. We found the lady at the Tourist Info booth very helpful, and she also gave us an excellent map of the city. If you take the funicular up to the Chateau Frontenac area the man selling the tickets very much likes the exact change (about $2.50)

There's a group of 8 arriving on the Dawn in September. We're taking a late afternoon flight and need tips on how to handle our luggage, best transportation, and ease of a walking tour and ease to get back to airport. Appreciate all help!!

There is a very good set up for this. As you approach the exit to the cruise terminal you'll see the very helpful Tourist Info booth, who will order a cab for you. Ours came within 10 minutes and the journey took about half an hour. It cost about $32 I think, but we were 6 so needed a big vehicle. If you are overnighting at the port you can ask the day before about all this.

For those that have a later flight and want to see more of Quebec City there is a bag storage facility there too ($2 per bag/case from memory).

We just walked around QC and took the 800 bus to Montmorency Falls. All the best, Tony

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Been to Peggy's Cove, and really don't see the attraction. Given all the history in Halifax (Citadel, Maritime Museum and others), I much preferred to spend my port call at these places and on a schooner for wine and cheese and a sail around the harbor. Maybe its just me, living around rocky coast, lighthouses, and small fishing towns all the time. :o

Also living on the coast, I agree with that. Peggy's Cove is perfectly pleasant and we did enjoy our time there but as a spectacle it's not that dramatic in normal summer weather. I did go, as part of a family outing and would reiterate that it was in no sense a waste of the day, but had I been alone would have stayed closer to the port, which is not short of interesting things to explore. All the best in whatever you (OP) choose to do, Tony

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To be honest, I didn't know about this rule but took a piece of fruit off the ship each day. As they don't do a bag search, unless they have sniffer dogs as you leave I don't see how it could be policed.

We are couple in 50's. Pretty Active. Looking for Kotor advise. We are there from 7-4 on a Saturday in August. The views from far above the city look breathtaking. Here are my thoughts, please help me choose:

 

1) Just hike to top of church. Get good view of Kotor (not as stunning as the higher points). Then spend time walking in the city. Is there good sites there? Enough to do in the old town to keep us interested? Pluses, we'd get a bit of exercise and minimal cost.

 

2) Take a tour that goes up into the mountains with many different views of Kotor and the surrounding cities. The pluses of this are the scenery and variety.

 

Can anyone shed some light on either of my ideas? Am I missing something?

In case it's any help, this was our day there, which is more option 1. The city is very pleasant to walk around but there's not a lot to see. You'll certainly get your exercise if you walk to the top of the fort (Around 1300 steps, most of them uneven :)) Say an hour to walk up, 30 mins to come down. Take a bottle of water with you, this fool didn't.

In the afternoon we just took that boat out around the islands via Perast. That was lovely but I with hindsight wish I'd done a trip that allowed us to get out and have look at Perast. All the best, Tony

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Hi there,

 

We are going to be stopping in Split. What is there to see if we want to stay in the city and not take a trip away from it? Is it walkable from the ship? Thanks a lot.

This is what we did - you will need a bit of local money for the palace but there is a bureau de change a few yards from it. The beach we went to is nearby too. All the best, Tony

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OK, we will be on the Summit, and I am beginning the planning for a trip to St. George's.

 

All suggestions appreciated.

If it's any help from about 2.00 in this shows what we did there. We only had half a day as we went to Dockyard in the afternoon after quick swim at TB. All the best, Tony

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I could not find this, but, how high is the solo chairlift on Capri? The 4 of us have a fear of heights. Thank you in advance!

From about 1.04 shows it. I would guess the maximum drop is about 30 feet. All the best, Tony

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We did just that last year, no problem getting one at the port (in July). It was $60 per hour and we said we wanted to see Peggy's Cove and Fairview Cemetery. The man said that would take 3 hours. We also spent about 10 minutes at the Swissair Memorial on the way home. So it all cost $180 and we gave $200, which was fine for 6 of us. All the best, Tony

 

For 6 people, what type of vehicle did you have? Van? Minivan? Did you pre-arrange it or did you just find the taxi near the pier. We arrive in Halifax on July 1 (a holiday) and wonder if taxis will be scarce, thus reserving the ride may be necessary.

 

When you exit the terminal (where there are lots of shops etc) you will see the taxi rank. There were 2, maybe 3 waiting, all big enough for 7 passengers. There are also boards stating the cost of tours, usually stating 2 destinations, one of which is always seemed to be Peggy's Cove. There wasn't a board for PC & the cemetery but we knew that the cemetery was on the way back from PC with a relatively minor detour so we just asked the next taxi off the rank how much that would be. He said 3 hours so $180. I think it actually was nearer 3.5 hours but maybe we had 10 mins extra at PC, and of course we also saw the Citadel and the SwissAir memorial (at his suggestion).

 

I have no idea if 1 July will be extra busy but if you know you want to do that sort of thing I would book one. All the best, Tony

Am I the only one who can't view the videos? Nothing is loading for me

No, they won't load on my iPad at the moment but work fine on my big computer. Try again tomorrow !

So on our day in Bruges, we are planning on doing the city on our own, without the ship's tour, and we'd love to experience the canal rides. However, looking online, information about this is scarce when it isn't included in a tour package. Does anyone know:

1) Where the canal boat rides start and where they end?

2) The frequency of boats?

3) If it's possible/necessary to book online in advance, and if so, with whom?

 

Thanks!

You've now got all the info, and it looks like this. All the best, Tony

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Thank you so much Tony!

 

I've been killing myself trying to figure out these plan. @_@

I guess this is a better question for my roll call, but I'll need to start find people to share a cab with.

 

Did you think three hours was enough for all these places? (Super random question, though... When did you start and end your tour? I'm not 100% sure if we can get back to the Citadel in time for the noon gun.)

I am doing this from memory and can't recall if it was exactly 3 hours. You agree the 3 hours at the start and if it drifted 10-15 minutes due to traffic or whatever our man didn't care. I am sure he thought it would be (3 hours), no doubt having done it a million times as we began with a sedate drive up to and around the Citadel and then through the town before heading to PC.

I'm not sure either about the gun unless you can leave at 8 am-ish. We were not trying to hit a deadline like that, so getting back anytime in the afternoon was fine by us. I think we left at 10 ish, back around 1.30 pm. Looking back, I should have asked to be dropped off at the Citadel for a real look round there and at other things but I was hungry and no-one else wanted to come with me so a ship full of free food and a swim in the warm pool got the vote :D

I think the roll call thing is the way to go, and if you have no luck there, depending on how deep into the cruise the Halifax day is you must have a good chance of finding others who want to do what you do. The lighthouse/cemetery combo is surely a popular one.

Good luck, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Links to the videos from all of that cruise are in the Atlantic Canada & New England link below.