marys350

Zephyr17 and Mapleleaves,

Thank you for the information and your quick replies. We will probably book Hyatt Place, which is less expensive and includes breakfast and a free shuttle to places within a mile radius of the hotel, which is on 6th Avenue near the Space Needle. A $10-$15 taxi ride to the train station sounds reasonable.

Thanks,

Mary

Have a choice between staying at the Hampton Inn & Suites, Downtown and the Hyatt Place Downtown, both Seattle. Both have free breakfast.

Appreciate comments on the two...planning for NEXT late July for a few days precruise and want to see the sights.

 

thank you in advance for your advise

I am also looking at staying either at Hampton Inn & Suites or the Hyatt Place Downtown in Seattle for one night before taking the Amtrak train to Vancouver next September and would appreciate advice.

Thanks in advance,

Mary

OP

How long ago was your last Celebrity cruise? I have read on cruise critic that the sea day brunch has been eliminated.

The answers to your questions are in the posts on the thread about Sandcastle or Rainbow beach, which one would you choose? on page one of the St.Croix port of call section. We enjoyed our day there several years ago. We went there around 9:30 or 10:00 and it wasn't crowded. There were toilets and a shower available.

You are correct. Explorer has never been stretched. She must be thinking of Enchantment, which has been stretched.

Hi,

I've found that Tom's Port Guides have been invaluable in planning my days in various cruise ports. There are port guides for Boston, Bar Harbor, Newport, Saint John New Brunswick and many other ports. Here is a link to the website:

http://www.tomsportguides.com/index.html

Enjoy your cruise.

Mary

We are cruising with twin babies in October. Can we walk to town from the ports or do we need to take cabs?? Thank you!

Bar Harbor and Newport both require tendering to get into the port. Once you get off the tender in Bar Harbor, you will be able to walk around town without needing to take a cab. In Newport, there are shops etc. in the immediate port area that you can walk to. You would need to take a bus or cab if you want to visit some of the mansions, etc.

Our cruise ship will be in Saint Johns, NB on Oct. 9 from 10am-6pm. We are renting a car and are interested in seeing the Bay of Fundy. What would you recommend to see in the time we have (7hrs.-need to be back by 5pm) of the three choices below:

 

1-Drive to Saint Martins Sea Caves & Fundy Parkway

2-Drive to Alma,NB & Alma Lobster Shack

3-Drive to Hopewell Rocks

 

Thanks

Hi,

I'd highly recommend choice #1. My husband and I rented a car when we were on a cruise last fall and drove to Saint Martins and the Fundy Trail Parkway. We had considered driving to Hopewell Rocks but decided against it because it's a long drive and we didn't want to take a chance of not getting back to the ship in time. We had a wonderful day and the scenery along the parkway was beautiful. Since we weren't sure how long it would take to visit the trailway, we stopped at the Interpretive Center first, drove to the furthest point in the park, and then stopped at all the scenic overlooks as we worked our way back to the entrance.

We stopped briefly at the Sea Caves before driving along the Fundy Parkway and then stopped back at the Sea Caves and had lunch at the Caves Restaurant before driving back to Saint John.

According to the tide charts for Saint Martins on October 9, low tide will be at approximately 7:00 a.m. and 7:25 p.m. and high tide will be at approximately 1:10 p.m. I would not hesitate to do this day trip even though you won't see the tide at it's lowest. We weren't able to see low tide and still had a great day!

Here's a link to the Fundy Trail Parkway with maps and pictures:

http://www.fundytrailparkway.com/

Mary

Check out Brilliance of the Seas, which leaves from Tampa. There are some 5 night itineraries in 2015, which have stops in Key West and Cozumel and the prices are reasonable. This might make a nice land/cruise combination vacation with a few days pre- or post-cruise in the Tampa/ Gulf Coast/Orlando area. I enjoyed my cruise on the Brilliance of the Seas and love the Radiance class ships for a number of reasons including the number of passengers/size of the ship; adult solarium pool area; beautiful glass views of the ocean everywhere; availability of open air dining in the windjammer café, etc. She might feel comfortable getting off the ship and exploring Key West. Celebrity Constellation also has some similar 5 day itineraries from Tampa.

Good luck!

You may want to check out this thread about Le Galion Beach, aka Baby Beach. We visited there on our last cruise and enjoyed it. The water is calm and we saw families with young children playing in the water and sand.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2063348

I also recommend booking a tour with "My Sister Tours" operated by Helen Alcendor. We visited Dominica on a cruise in April, 2014 and our party of four had a wonderful customized private tour with her, which included: historic city highlights, Soufriere Scotts Head view (beyond Champagne snorkel site), Morne Bruce viewpoint, Botanical Garden, and several other sights. One member of our party has mobility challenges and uses a walker.

Helen is very friendly and an excellent safe driver. Her van is air conditioned, very clean, and only a few years old. She provided a cooler filled with complimentary water, beer, and shandy.

Helen responds to her e-mails very quickly and will work with you to design a customized tour to meet your needs. She has a website http://www.mysistertours.com and her e-mail address is mysistertours@hotmail.com

Mary

jeditden, good suggestion about checking to see how many ships will be in port when we're there. I'll check the website.

 

So far it looks like we're going with Calabaza to swim with the turtles in Barbados. The catamaran to Nevis, from St. Kitts. And a tour with Bernard's in St. Maarten. Martinique and St. Thomas are still up in the air. 2 from our group will probably be doing the dolphin swim. My husband and I may go diving in St. Thomas. I'm still not sure. I've done the dolphin swim in the Bahamas, so I don't feel the need to do it again. And if we dive, we should still have a few hours to see some of St. Thomas.

Have you already contacted Gina at Calabaza and made your reservation? If not, I suggest that you do it soon as they sell out far in advance. Our party of 12 thoroughly enjoyed our day with Gina.

Hi,

Check out this review that Cruise Critic member "ace1zoe2" did of her Canada/New England cruise on a Royal Caribbean ship. It stopped at some of the ports that you mentioned and contains many photos and wonderful suggestions. Reading this review convinced my husband and I to take a Canada/New England cruise in September, 2013 and we thoroughly enjoyed our cruise.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1769976

Mary

We enjoyed our Land and Sea combination tour through Portland Discovery Tours. It included a trolley tour and a cruise and featured a number of lighthouses. Here is a link to their website:

http://www.portlanddiscovery.com

Let me know if you have any questions.

Mary

I wouldn't be comfortable doing it on my own with a rental car either. It is at least two hours each way plus time for picking up and returning the rental car. The North Conway/Bretton Woods area is a very busy tourist area so there could be traffic delays.

Have you checked the website for the train? It looks like the train ride is three hours and you must get to the station at least 30 minutes (forget exact amount of time) before boarding train.

There are some good options in the Portland, Maine area.

Good luck with whatever you decide. We enjoyed our Canada/New England cruise and our day in Portland.

It would be helpful to know the date of your cruise and the length of time that the ship will be in port.

We stayed in an outside cabin 4554 on Brilliance of the Seas, which is a sister ship to Radiance. Deck 4 was a convenient location. Our cabin was on the starboard side, 4 cabins away from the Centrum. We never heard any noise from the promenade deck, but we did hear the music from the entertainment in the Centrum at night, which ended before midnight. We wouldn't hesitate to book an outside cabin on deck 4 again in the future, but would probably pick a cabin at least a few doors further away from the Centrum.

Just booked Portland Discovery Land & Sea tour for September. Thanks so much for the information, Mary!

You're welcome. Enjoy!

Mary

We will be in San Juan in Sept on the Freedom. We have a group of 7 - and would like to see San Juan as some type of tour. My DH however, is limited with his walking. We will have a wheel chair with us on the cruise, and could certainly take it with us for the tour. Knees are very bad - so can't do the climbing and extended walking. He is certainly willing to wait while we do some of the walking but I want him to be able to see as much as possible -

 

So far, I've not found anything on the ship tours that looks like it will work - so I'm wondering about local tour companies. Any thoughts? We are in port from 9AM to 5PM

I highly recommend "Charlie's Custom Tours Puerto Rico", which is operated by Carlos Medina and his son.They use very comfortable vans that can accommodate up to 8 people. Our party of 5 enjoyed our tour of Old and New San Juan and were able to see a lot in air conditioned comfort without having to do extensive walking. Carlos was great to correspond to through e-mail and answered all of our questions promptly when we booked our tour. I'm sure that he could customize a tour to meet the needs of your party. There are many excellent reviews for Charlie's Custom Tours Puerto Rico on Trip Advisor. You can also check out his website for further information:

http://www.customtourspr.com

Mary

Has anyone used Frank? We just booked with him and i cant find much about him.

We enjoyed our tour with Frank, but it was at least 5 years ago. Did you see the reviews, including pictures, on Tripadvisor- St. Lucia page?

Warmer? Are we talking like summer like? Or in between cool and cold?

 

 

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Weather can fluctuate a lot in September and October in New England and Canada. Bringing clothes that you can layer works well. During our September cruise, there were times when I wore capris and short sleeve shirts and my husband wore shorts and polo shirts; however, there were times when we wore long pants and long-sleeve shirts or 3/4 length sleeve shirts, and a sweatshirt, sweater, or light jacket. As New Englanders, the weather felt warm to chilly to us; however, we saw people from Florida or Southern states who felt that it was cold and wore warmer jackets.

We recently stayed in this cabin on Jewel of this Seas for our April, 2014 cruise. We loved the huge balcony which had 2 chairs, 2 chaise lounges and a small table. We spent more time on the balcony than usual. The nice part was that it had a combination of sun and shade so it was never too hot on the balcony. It was convenient to the elevators and we didn't think that it was noisy due to passengers in the hallways or coming off the elevators. We did hear noise from the performances at night in the Centrum; however, the music in the Centrum usually stopped around 11:00 at night. We were spoiled by the large balcony and hope to book similar oversized cabins near the hump for future RCCL cruises. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos to share.

Oh :(

 

Would it still be a great experience? Or should I wait until I can go during peak time?

 

Thanks

 

 

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It all depends upon how important it is to you to see peak foliage. We did a Canada/New England cruise September 18-25, 2013 and thoroughly enjoyed it. The scenery is spectacular no matter what color the leaves are, and many trees are evergreens. The weather is warmer in September than in October, which was a bonus, too! It turned out to be one of our favorite cruises.

Mary

We did a Canada/New England Cruise on Brilliance of the Seas in September, 2013.

Portland, Maine- We booked the Portland Discovery Land & Sea Combination Tour online and picked the trolley tour at 9:30 and the harbor cruise at 1:30. That gave us time to have lunch and check out a few of the shops nearby between the two tours. It was a 15 minute walk from the cruise terminal to the Portland Discovery office on the waterfront.

Check out their website for a few different tours that they offer: http://www.portlanddiscovery.com

St. John, New Brunswick- We rented a car through Enterprise and went to St. Martin. We drove through the Fundy Trail Parkway, saw the St. Martin Caves, and ate at the restaurant right at the St. Martin Caves. You can find further information about the Fundy Trail Parkway at their website: http://www.fundytrailparkway.com

It was great to rent the car and travel at our leisure. We made arrangements for Enterprise to pick us up and drop us off right near the cruise ship.

Enjoy your cruise,

Mary

Thanks for all your responses. I have went ahead and put Cabin 7108 on hold while we make our decision. From the deck plans, it appears that this cabin has a larger balcony.

 

Schmenge: We are not looking for a lot of activities, so I am beginning to think we are making the right choice.

We stayed in cabin 7108 on our recent Jewel of the Seas cruise and enjoyed the huge balcony.