Comparing two NCL Canada and New England trips

[lilaclily]

THey are so similar, but not quite. Has anyone gone on both? Hard to tell which is the best one. They are both on the Dawn Ship.

 

0ne starts in Boston and the other on Quebec. That does not matter to me. However, here are the differences:

THe one that starts in Boston goes to: Portland Maine, the other Bar Harbor

 

one goes to Prince Edward. the other St. John bayfundy instead

. one goes to Gaspsie the other Quebec city :rolleyes:

Edited September 8, 2016 by lilaclily

[Mar56]

THey are so similar, but not quite. Has anyone gone on both? Hard to tell which is the best one. They are both on the Dawn Ship.

 

0ne starts in Boston and the other on Quebec. That does not matter to me. However, here are the differences:

THe one that starts in Boston goes to: Portland Maine, the other Bar Harbor

 

one goes to Prince Edward. the other St. John bayfundy instead

. one goes to Gaspsie the other Quebec city :rolleyes:

 

LOved Bar Harbor - just walked around the beautiful town. Prince Edward Island is beautiful. Dont waste time, IMO, on Anne of Greengables. We did a private tour to look at lighthouses. It was fabulous. and Quebec City for sure. Beautiful Old part of the city.

[BirdTravels]

We are sailing on the Northbound Dawn on Friday. We selected the itinerary because we did not want the first "day" of the cruise to be a day parked at the port in Quebec.

[bonvoyagie]

We are leaving in two weeks to do both - yes a 14 day B2B :)

 

I could not decide which way to go - so I waited a year (vacation time and $$) and am doing both.

 

Halifax is the only repeated port. So the NB is Boston, Portland, Halifax, PEI, Gaspe', Saguenay, Quebec

 

SB is Quebec, Sydney, Halifax, Saint John, Bar Harbor, Boston

 

We are doing mostly private tours using taxi services or renting cars, a bus tour in Saguenay, another bus tour in Quebec on Fri and we are probably going to use an NCL tour on Sat. Renting cars in Sydney and PEI. Oil's Trolley in Bar Harbor.

[pokerpro5]

I did the northbound one in 2015. I found its itinerary to be superior.

 

You end up in Quebec City which is interesting in itself, and deserves at least a 1-night stay in a hotel there.

 

You will want to rent cars. The NCL excursions are VERY expensive, and you can pretty much duplicate any NCL excursion on your own for better and way cheaper.

 

The link below is a guide I wrote to renting cars for all of the cities for this cruise. For St. John, scroll down and another poster added that one.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2261941

 

In Gaspe I would recommend the boat ride to around Perce Rock and then to the island nearby.

 

In Halifax I would recommend Peggy's Cove, with lots of extra time for a scenic drive in that general area.

 

Portland, Maine wasn't too interesting -- especially in the short time we had. Bar Harbor was probably superior.

[cdngooner]

Being from Eastern Canada myself, I've been to all these places and can tell you what is what:

* Portland Maine is a great small city, but Bar Harbor is a unique experience unlike anything else in the US. Tossup.

* Saint John New Brunswick is not worth a stop. Industrial port town with little to see within an hour's drive. Prince Edward Island, on the other hand, is a spectacular green island with red soil and lots of beaches, pastoral scenes and Canadian history. Go with PEI.

# Gaspesie is beautiful natural country, but Quebec City is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Tossup.

[biker@sea]

I like the southbound route best .

 

The cheap money grubber's at the tender port of Gaspe charged $5 for a ride across the bridge to downtown in a school bus.

 

J.M.H.O.

 

 

.

[lilaclily]

I am so glad that I found this site.

Thank you!

[DaisyGoldberg]

We are sailing on the Northbound Dawn on Friday. We selected the itinerary because we did not want the first "day" of the cruise to be a day parked at the port in Quebec.

 

Ah, but the Chateau Frontenac towers over the port in Quebec -- truly stunning. We were in a suite and it was perfectly framed outside our windows. Magnificent!

 

We did the round trip, but skipped Portland because we're from Massachusetts, and Bar Harbor because the Government shut down and our tour was cancelled, so we didn't get to go to Cadillac Mountain.

 

But both legs were beautiful and there's plenty of beauty in both.

[PhillyTravelBug]

I did a vacation in Quebec City at the Frontenac and absolutely love the city. Beautiful city...even if you just check out the Frontenac and walk along the waterfront outside the hotel.

 

Bar Harbor is equally as awesome.

 

In Boston I actually ended up doing a tour of Fenway and it was such an awesome experience.

 

All these places were visited on separate trips, but do want to do the cruise for 2018.