New England and Eastern Canada

[4774Papa]

New England and Eastern Canada

Our trip started in Boston, which is where my Daughter and her family live. Ginny and I flew up two days early to spend a couple of days with the family. We had a nice visit and we had some time with my Grandchildren. They had already started school, but I was able to go to my grandson William’s karate class. We had a great lunch with my Daughter, Risa, and then I picked up five bottles of wine to take with us on the cruise starting on Saturday, November 14, 2018.

We were cruising on the Norwegian Dawn for a week that included the ports of Bar Harbor, Maine; Halifax, Nova Scotia; Sydney, Nova Scotia; Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island; Le Baie, Quebec and Quebec City, Quebec. We were joined on the cruise by my Son, Jack, his friend Jason, Jason’s Mom Marti as well as my Daughter, Risa. We had all cruises several times before on NCL and were platinum members.

NCL now prices its cruises with prices that include mandatory promotions, such as drink packages, internet use, dining in specialty restaurants and credit towards its excursions. We don’t prefer this, since we are moderate drinkers. We declined the drink packages, which came with a hefty 20% gratuity on the inflated value of that package. Instead, I purchased some wine and paid the $15 per bottle corkage fee. We did purchase a few drinks while on board, but including the corkage fee, our bottom line cost for alcohol was less than the gratuity for the package. We did choose the dining package, which gave us three free specialty dining meals each along with the two free dining meals we received as platinum members.

Our group of six arrived at different times. Marti and Jason arrived the night before, while Jack flew in the morning of the cruise. We all had agreed to meet at noon at the O’Sheehan’s restaurant for lunch. Risa, Ginny and I were a little late, but arrived shortly after noon and we all met at the restaurant. O’Sheehan’s is a fast food restaurant situated in the middle of the ship overlooking the atrium on deck 7 and 8. The appetizers were pretty good, the green salad is terrible, and the rest ranged from fair to very good. Later that evening we dined in Le Bistro, the French restaurant, which has always been my favorite on NCL ships. The rest of the week, we dined twice in one of the main dining rooms as well as at Cagney’s, La Cucina, Los Lobos and Teppanyaki. It was like the United Nations of dining. We enjoyed all our meals on board and found that NCL has improved its dining quality. Los Lobos was a new experience. It was a Mexican restaurant and we all enjoyed the food very much, however, I was disappointed with the enchiladas.

BAR HARBOR MAINE

The cruise only had one sea day and our first port was Bar Harbor, Maine. Risa had been there before, but the rest of us had not. We all booked a private tour with Oli’s Trolley called Bar Harbor-Acadia National Park Tour. The tour was $40 per person for a very nice 2.5 hour tour with the following highlights:

• View the historic mansions of the rich & famous on the way in and out of Acadia National Park. Learn about the area’s rich history, from discovery in 1604 to the great fire of 1947.
  
• Enjoy spectacular scenery, including Paradise Hill, Frenchman Bay, and the summit of Cadillac Mountain.
  
• Experience the biggest attractions of Acadia National Park, including Cadillac Mountain, the Jordan Pond Area, Thunder Hole on Ocean Drive, Sand Beach, and Otter Cliffs.
  
• The tour includes three 15-minute stops for walks and photos. The scheduled stops are Cadillac Mountain Summit, Thunder Hole on Ocean Drive, and the Jordan Pond Area.
  

The tour was excellent. The park was amazing. We climbed Cadillac Mountain for great views and the wonderful scenery of the entire area. Later, we made the rounds of the park with other great views. After the tour, we spend some time shopping in the town. Ginny and I had a lobster roll for lunch and I was not overly impressed. It was OK, but the lobster had no seasoning or flavor. After several visits to New England, I have come to the conclusion that most dining in the area involves bland tasting food. Yes, the clam chowder and live lobster is great and you can get good Italian food, but don’t expect much spice or seasoning on the rest.

Bar Harbor was a tender port (we had a total of three tender ports on the cruise) and getting NCL to explain their policy on the need for tender tickets was confusing. Also, we thought that as platinum members, we had some priority, but that was not the case. Still, we managed to tender without any problems, since the ship was always close to the dock.

HALIFAX

Our second port was Halifax, Nova Scotia. We took a private excursion with a company called shore excursions group (shoreexcurisongroup.com). It was a company like Viator, which used local tour companies. We used them for Halifax and Charlottetown. The Halifax tour was called Best of Halifax and Peggy’s Cove, The tour cost was $65 per person. Our tour was on a tour bus and took us through the city of Halifax for a windshield tour, then on to Peggy’s Cove and the amazing lighthouse about 1.5 hours from Halifax. The tour was about 5 hours and excellent. We had walked around Halifax for about an hour and a half prior to joining the tour. Peggy’s Cove was great. The lighthouse was perched on a large exposed rock formation that was adjacent to a quant fishing village on the coast. Also, the trip to Peggy’s Cove was somewhat scenic.

We learned that most of the original settlers to Nova Scotia came from Scotland. Later immigration added many Irish people to the province.

SYDNEY

Our next port was Sydney, Nova Scotia at the other end of the province. We had not booked a tour from Sydney and the community did not have much prepared for our arrival. Sydney was added to the itinerary a few months before the cruise and the locals seemed surprised at our arrival. We walked around the small town and then returned to the ship after a couple of hours. Looking back, I think we missed an opportunity to take visit Cape Breton, as was suggested by Risa. The ship didn’t have any good excursions, but we could have looked harder for private tours.

CHARLOTTETOWN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

We had booked the Shore Excursions Group tour, The Island Drive & Anne of Grey Gables. Having seen the series about Anne as well as the new series Anne with an “e” on TV, we were looking forward to this tour. The tour included a nice drive through the attractive landscape with its notable red clay soil, rolling hills, ocean coves and quaint villages. Also, we visited the Anne of Green Gables House. The author, Montgomery drew upon her own childhood experiences in rural Prince Edward Island. We visited the Green Gables farmhouse where she visited her relatives. At he end of the tour, we visited a place that sold amazing jams and jellies. The samples were great, but prices were quite high.

The tour was great, despite the rain that we had that day. The tour was $62 per person.

LA BAIE (SAGUENAY RIVER)

The last port prior to Quebec City was La Baie. The port is rather close to Quebec City and with the ship sailing up the Saguenay River with its beautiful gorges was one of the highlights of visiting this port.

We decided to take an NCL excursion, Saguenay Village Highlights for $55. It was about a 2 1/2 hour bus tour that took us from La Baie to Saguenay a larger city where the local industry was primarily pulp and paper. We visited a small house situated at the top of a dam that had survived a huge flood taking place around 1996. Also, we visited the site of a former pulp and paper mill. The tour was nothing to get excited about, but probably better than staying on the ship. Still, I think just the views of the river gorge was worth our ship stopping at La Baie.

ENTERTAINMENT

We did not go to the theater shows every night. We saw two excellent shows. The best was “Elements,” which we had seen before on another NCL cruise, but it had changed somewhat. The show combined a magic show, music, dance and a cir soleil feature. We very much enjoyed the show. Also, our group did go to the Bliss Lounge for some after dinner fun. We had a lot of laughs for a couple of nights. One night it was the battle of the sexes, the other was a dance competition that included a member of the crew paired with a passenger. The later had us howling all evening. NCL does excel at this type of lounge entertainment that frequently includes passengers.

SHIP LAYOUT

Some of our party had sailed on the Dawn before and all had sailed on several NCL ships. The Dawn had been refurbished about a year ago and the interior was like new all over the ship. However, some of the changes we didn’t like. First, we all enjoy using the aft bar, just outside the buffet to sit outside and take in the ocean or scenic places. NCL had eliminated that and filled it with a spa and fitness center. Also, the scenic bar at the bow of the ship was converted into cabins. NCL reduced the ability of passengers to congregate at places were we could view outside the ship. We found this problem on the NCL Star as well as the Sun.

NCL DAWN CRUISE

Overall, the cruise was a good one, especially with the family traveling with us. Dining was excellent as well as entertainment. Our cabin seemed a bit smaller than we have had before and the ship design is not our favorite. The price of the cruise was high for a one week cruise. NCL price bundling has further increased prices for promos that we don’t want. The ports were fair to excellent.

QUEBEC CITY

Our cruise ended at Quebec City. We were told that Quebec means narrowing of the river in the native language of the area. This city is in the province of Quebec, which has a French heritage that its people strive to preserve, being surrounded by a large English speaking population. A referendum to secede from Canada some decades ago failed by a fraction of a percent. We found the people of the city friendly and hospitable. It was raining upon our disembarkation from the ship and the taxi line was long, with about an 1 1/2 wait. Fortunately, the port had a very large tent in place where we lined up with our luggage.

Our hotel in the old city was the Hotel Le Priori at 15 rue Sault au Matelot. It was close to the port, but walking in the rain with all our luggage was not a great idea. It was a small hotel, about 28 rooms. The rooms were spacious, staff helpful and friendly and location excellent. Jack had found this hotel for us to book. That day, we were able to store our luggage, since we had a walking tour of the city at 2pm. Ginny and I were able to move into our room prior to leaving for the tour.

This hotel for us was probably rated as a four star, due to its size and lack of a restaurant. We loved the hotel and prefer it to a five star hotel twice the cost. The people at the hotel were wonderful. They were always helpful, friendly and went out of their way to please. Kim at the front desk was a huge help to me. The hotel is at a great location close to the cruise port and historic district. Great restaurants are near and many in number. The rates for the hotel are very reasonable. The rooms are spacious and modern. Breakfast is included and a full American breakfast. We highly recommend this hotel.

Our 2.5 hour walking tour of the city (Private Guide Quebec City Waling Tour) was booked with Viator. It was with HQ Services Touristiques, Inc. Our guide was Harry Hunkin and he was excellent. He was very familiar with the local history and culture. Also, his tour was very well planned and covered the key sites. It did rain during part of the tour, but we had large umbrellas provided us by the hotel. The tour took us to the lower and upper city. Our hotel was situated in the lower city and the upper city was the top of the hill with the scenic overlook of the river as well as the famous LE CHÂTEAU FRONTENAC Hotel and the citadel. We did not visit the citadel that day, but did so on Sunday. The city is still walled and still has many of its historical buildings. The tour was a bargain at $23 each.

The next day, we took another Viator tour, Half-Day Trip to Montmorency Falls and Ste-Anne-Set-Anne-de Beaupre. The tour was with Grey Line Tours and described as follows:

Follow Avenue Royale through the traditional villages and farms of the Beaupre Coast, approximately 15 minutes north of Quebec City. Visit Montmorency Falls, an 83-meter-high waterfall on the Montmorency River (it’s 30 meters higher than Niagara Falls), and the legendary Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, where many a miracle has occurred. Additional stops include the Chocolaterie de l'Ile d'Orléans, with 24 flavors of ice cream during the summer season and a wide variety of chocolates made from only the finest ingredients imported from Belgium. At the Cuivres D'Art Albert Gilles, learn about the art of embossing copper, visit two museums and stop by the gift shop for a souvenir.

The tour was nice going out into the countryside. The falls and the huge Basilica were the highlights. Jack, Jason, Ginny and I hiked up the 400+ steps that ran up the side of the hill near the falls. We had a great view of the falls and area. Risa and Marti took the cable car to the top to view the falls better. The Basilica was huge and its architecture and art were notable.

Risa’s flight was on Sunday, but she called from the airport to tell us that her flight was cancelled, so she rented a car to drive back to the USA. We did visit the citadel, but the weather turned cold and Ginny wasn’t feeling well, so we went back to the hotel for the rest of the afternoon.

Restaurants in Quebec City

We had good dining while in the city. Our first night, we dined at the Cafe St. Malo. It had local cuisine. Our party of six enjoyed this restaurant. Two ordered Ravioli and loved it. My salad was great. My main dish was cassoulet, which was OK, but with little spice or flavor. The sausage was tasteless. The beans and chicken were good, but I would not order this dish in the future.

The second night, we dined at Chez Boulay Bistro Boreal, which was probably the best meal we had in the city. We all found the food to be excellent and there were many great choices. Prices were reasonable and service was great.

The last night, we dined at Il Matto, just across the street from our hotel. Our group dined there and very much enjoyed our meals. I had a great salad and spaghetti. Service was excellent.

 

Our trip home was uneventful, but we had to pay for our luggage on Westjet even though we booked through Delta. With our Delta Skymiles AmEx card, we get free luggage.

[Norway97]

We leave in 10 days on same trip, also returning to Boston on Btb. We did same twice before. I was surprised to see you say there were 3 tender ports as I thought Bar Harbor was the only one. Which used tenders?

 

 

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[shof515]

We leave in 10 days on same trip, also returning to Boston on Btb. We did same twice before. I was surprised to see you say there were 3 tender ports as I thought Bar Harbor was the only one. Which used tenders?

 

 

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According to the NCL website, these are the tender ports:

The following are tender ports:

Alaska, Canada, U.S. Pacific Coast & New England

 

 

• Icy Strait Point, Alaska*
  
• Sitka, Alaska*
  
• Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island*
  
• GaspÈsie, Quebec
  
• Saguenay (La Baie), Quebec*
  
• Newport, Rhode Island
  
• Sydney, Nova Scotia*
  
• Bar Harbor, Maine
  

* Indicates a port where ship can dock or anchor, varies by call.

 

[hlsess]

how may does this ship hold- looking at this cruise vs Holland America next June for a girls Birthday trip- 10 of us age 55- plan to read whole review later- was food decent ?

[LHT28]

. We had a great lunch with my Daughter, Risa, and then I picked up five bottles of wine to take with us on the cruise starting on Saturday, November 14, 2018.

How did you get to the future :evilsmile:

[4774Papa]

how may does this ship hold- looking at this cruise vs Holland America next June for a girls Birthday trip- 10 of us age 55- plan to read whole review later- was food decent ?

Ship holds 2350 passengers

Food was excellent, NCL has improved dining on our last two NCL cruises.

[4774Papa]

How did you get to the future :evilsmile:

That is one I missed on the proof read.