HAL or Carnival Glory for Canada

[Diane In TN]

Not sure the best place to post, but will give it a try here. My husband and I got hooked on cruising two summers ago -- first with a HAL cruise to Alaska and then with a Carnival Cruise to the western Caribbean. Both of those cruises were great, but were with children (all 5 last summer!)

 

We're now thinking of a third cruise this summer to celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary (yes, it's a second marriage for both of us.) Best choice timewise is either 7-day HAL Maasdam or 5-day Carnival Glory out of Boston in June or July. Carnival is considerably cheaper (half the price) but the two stops don't look as interesting. We love the pace of HAL and its itinerary (Quebec City and Montreal plus the St. Lawrence waterway) but figure that we'd need/want a balcony for this one. On the Glory, we can afford the balcony .. on the Maasdam, we couldn't.

 

Do we opt for the Glory and its balcony, and save the Maasdam for a later trip? Or is the Massdam so superior, that we should just get an Oceanview and head for the decks? We loved our balcony last summer, and are now, I'm afraid, a bit spoiled .. An aft balcony on the Glory?

 

Thoughts and advice appreciated!

[Carnival_Brides]

The Glory is hands-down my favorite ship in the Carnival fleet--so I'm a bit biased. I've never been on the Massdam, but I can tell you the ship is gorgeous and the two ports are fun to visit. I'd recommend booking an excursion for St. John, but Halifax you could easily do on your own and the Lunenburg excursion is amazing.

[Diane In TN]

Good to hear ... I'm definitely leaning toward the Glory. About 95% there, actually, now that I'm reading more about the Maasdam. Tell me more about the Lunenburg excursion ... is that out of Halifax or St. John's? Any suggestion on the St. John's excursion?

 

Also, what balcony and deck do you prefer on the Glory? Debating an aft balcony and a regular balcony ...

[Lipz]

I can't compare the two either, but we were on the Glory this past August to Saint John & Halifax. Both are very walkable with things to see in the area of the port. Since we had just come off our wedding cruise a week earlier, we used this as a cool down trip and didn't plan any excursions.

In Saint John there are restaurants, a mall, library, museum, farmer's market and an old school general store. We actually ventured away from the port and found the local college. Seeing the students going to and from, and sitting around the campus was great. Here there are also excursions to see waterfalls and there's Big Pink tour bus.

Halifax was more so a water front walkabout. After walking along the pier we visited the Maritime Museum which houses the 'Titantic' exhibit. It was very interesting and we also enjoyed the 'Hello Sailor'

I say book the Glory and use that extra money saved for not doing the Maasdam on some fun excursions.

[Carnival_Brides]

Good to hear ... I'm definitely leaning toward the Glory. About 95% there, actually, now that I'm reading more about the Maasdam. Tell me more about the Lunenburg excursion ... is that out of Halifax or St. John's? Any suggestion on the St. John's excursion?

 

Also, what balcony and deck do you prefer on the Glory? Debating an aft balcony and a regular balcony ...

 

 

We cheated when we were on the Glory--we booked a 4J (9201) instead of a balcony. I am from New England and know that being crazy cold, we'd only be able to use our balcony 1 or 2 days for the whole trip, so I couldn't justify it for that trip--however, I've been dying to try an aft wrap, so I suggest going that way. The decks are apparently massive.

 

Lunenburg is a gorgeous historic port town/ UNESCO World Heritage Site in Nova Scotia. It's very much an old boating town, but it has been preserved really well. Carnival doesn't have it listed as one of their excursions anymore (did it two years ago), so you might want to call your PVP or TA to find out if it's still offered. It is a bit of a drive (an hour and a bit each way), but totally worth it.

 

This is the official Lunenburg website-- http://www.explorelunenburg.ca/