Fort Louisbourg from Sydney.

[edinburgher]

Doing some (very) early research for our Canada/N. England cruise later this year. "Searching" the forums here for info and ideas.

 

We dont want the ships tours as they dont give enough time at the Fort.

 

We prefer to try to get there and back independantly so we can be flexible with the amount of time we spend there. One problem. I am reading conflicting info re independant transfers from Sydney to Fort Louisbourg. There are not an awful lot of posts on either Sydney or Fort Louisbourg and a few are quite old and could be out of date.

 

Some posts refer to taxis dockside, some say there are so few it could be hard to get one.

 

Also found a mention of private tours, but dont feel its worth it. We only need to get to Ft. L. and back again.

 

And some refer to hiring a car for the day.

 

Can anyone give me recent info/advice?

[wwinfl91]

We did a Canada cruise on the Maasdam in 2004 and took a private tour to Fortress Louisbourg with 2 other couples. Here is what I wrote up about our experience. Our cruise was in May, 9th through the 24th and as you will read below the Fortress Louisbourg Canadian national park wasn't actually fully open when we visited it.

 

The ship docked in Sydney at a little before 8. We had our breakfast in the dining room as we were scheduled to go on a tour with Peter, Sandy, John and Peggy. We were all going to meet on the dock at around 10 AM, which we did. The temperature was supposed to be in the high 40's to the low 50's but the wind was blowing hard and it felt a lot colder. There were only the 6 of us scheduled for the tour and we were supposed to have a van but the guide had a mechanical problem and had substituted a much larger vehicle that would have probably handled 20 people. The driver said he had just gotten the call the night before at 10 PM that he was going to be working. Anyway we were planning on heading to the reconstruction of the Fortress of Louisburg and then lunch followed by a visit to a look out place where we would be able to take some pictures of Cape Breton.

 

The drive to the Fortress was uneventful with some nice scenery until we arrived at the welcome center for the Fortress. Here we got our first surprise for the day when it turned out the Fortress wasn't actually operating at full capacity and there were no buses available to take us from the welcome center to the Fortress. There were several other groups from the ship there with private guides or who had rented cars and after some discussions they decided to board as many people as they could on our bus and we would follow one of the guides out to the Fortress. A group of German tourists also from the ship elected to drive out in the Limo they had rented. We did get a

break on the fees for the park as there was a "family" rate that we decided John and Peggy would adopt the rest of us and so we all got in for $13.50. That worked out to $4.50 Canadian per couple. Looking at the brochure as we drove out to the Fortress I noticed that officially it wasn't supposed to open until June 1st. As it turned out we only got to see maybe 20% of what was available. None of the historical costumed characters were around and none of the restaurants or exhibits were operating. The Fortress, it's named that rather than Fort because it was both a fortification and a place for settlers to live in, is about 20 to 25% reconstructed. The British and their American Colonist allies destroyed the fortress after they took it for the second time in 1761 during the wars between the French and British over who was going to control Canada. By the way let me also say it was extremely windy and cold out by the ocean where the Fortress is. It felt like it was in the 20's although the temperature was actually in the low 40's and was relatively comfortable if you could get out of the wind. We got to see the museum, the King's Bastion including the Governor's quarters, the chapel and the soldiers barracks. We then walked down into some of the other areas

of the Fortress including the storehouse and prisoner building and saw the outside of the Engineer's house. I actually was able to get into the Engineer's house when one of the workers noticed me taking pictures and asked if I wanted to go inside. It wasn't totally set up for viewing and was supposed to be closed. But I did some pictures of the interior and appreciated his kindness. We spent about 2 hours at the Fortress and I really believe when everything is open and functioning that you could easily spend a full day there and not be bored in the least. After driving back by the welcome center we talked with our guide and decided to stop in the modern village of Louisburg and get some lunch at a local restaurant, the Station House. I had a scallop burger that was pretty good. The small restaurant also had some excellent clam chowder that one of our party had. We then took a drive up to a place we could get some lighthouse pictures and see across to Cape Breton. After that stop we made the journey back to Sydney and our ship. If

anything the wind was blowing even harder when we got back and it felt even colder so we checked out the tourist area right by the dock before returning to the ship. They had a local craft's market there for our visit and we picked up some hand knitted mittens that we wished we had earlier in the day at the Fortress. We got back on the ship and mainly wanted to get warm again. This was our night to dine in the Pinnacle Grill so we would be missing dinner with our friends.

 

Unfortunately I didn't arrange the tour so I'm not sure what company it was with. If I find it I will post it.

 

The Fortress is definitely worth seeing especially if it is fully open when you visit it.

 

Have a great next cruise.

[wwinfl91]

I haven't been able to find the name of the tour company that we used for the above trip but here are a couple of other links that may help you out.

 

http://www.louisbourg.ca/fort/

 

I think this was the company that we used.

 

http://molegatours.ca/index.php

 

If you check their vehicle charter link, you will see the big 28 passenger bus they sent because the van they were supposed to meet us with had mechanical problems.

 

Have a great next cruise.

[edinburgher]

WWINFL91

 

Thanks for the links and info. And your account of your trip to Ft. Louisbourg was very interesting to read. Looking forward to our day there. By all accounts it is a good day out when its fully up and running which it should be on our dates.

 

I hope we get better weather than you did. Have already read some reviews which indicated that we could get rain, wind, fog, sun, etc :confused: on this trip. We will need to think carefully about what to pack.

[Host Caroline]

When we were in Sydney in mid-Sept. 2 years ago it was 82 degrees!! Very foggy at Louisbourg in the a.m but cleared off nicely - we did ship tour and never again to there.. had only 1.5 hours actually "there".. the park ranger offered to take us back but not enough time to make the ship departure. I really don't think you'd have a problem arranging that there but if you can find a company ahead of time I would.. the re-enactors are wonderful and the aromas from the bakery that we didn' that have time for either were wonderful.. THere's a local "craft fair" at the dock that has some unique things.. local author had some children's books he was autographing and my nieces loved them..

[Capebreton]

transportation from sydney to louisbourg on an day that the ships are in port will be expensive from taxis on the wharf when the ships are in port they are there to DO TOURS ONLY not to provide you with other service. The cost of the taxi on the wharf to go to the fortresss will cost approx 150 to 200 cdn dollars for 4 hopurs of service to drive a distance of 40 kms one way you will have 3 hours in the fortress itself with no guide. I would my self pefer to pay for a tour company with a guide and other stops ect will be ava . with a tour company and not with a taxi or its up to you to rent a car in sydney. you have many choices while your in port its just up to you on what you would like to do . I hope this helps with what your looking for.:)

[musicmansmom]

Doing some (very) early research for our Canada/N. England cruise later this year. "Searching" the forums here for info and ideas.

 

We dont want the ships tours as they dont give enough time at the Fort.

 

We prefer to try to get there and back independantly so we can be flexible with the amount of time we spend there. One problem. I am reading conflicting info re independant transfers from Sydney to Fort Louisbourg. There are not an awful lot of posts on either Sydney or Fort Louisbourg and a few are quite old and could be out of date.

 

Some posts refer to taxis dockside, some say there are so few it could be hard to get one.

 

Also found a mention of private tours, but dont feel its worth it. We only need to get to Ft. L. and back again.

 

And some refer to hiring a car for the day.

 

Can anyone give me recent info/advice?

 

if you are on the carnival spirit check their site and make sure you are still going to sydney. i am cruising there sept 9-16 and sydney is being replaced with st.john bay. i would make sure about sydney before doing any booking there. have a great trip.

[edinburgher]

Thanks everyone for all the info.

 

It looks as if either a private tour or a hire car could be the best options. Hopefully there will be others on our Roll Call...if we have one....who might be interested in sharing.

 

We are on Sea Princess so hopefully the itinerary will not change.

[musicmansmom]

i just found out there are two st.john's in canada. the carnival vicotry has changed from sydney to saint john, new brunswick. it is still going to be a great port to visit. i have read they give each lady a red rose when they come off the ship. how wonderful :) .

[edinburgher]

We are also calling into St John, New Brunswick .

 

 

 

The other is St JOHN'S Newfoundland.

 

 

Similar names could cause confusion for some.

[Allis154]

Actually, the 'correct" spelling is:

 

Saint John, New Brunswick

St. John's, Newfoundland

[musicmansmom]

Actually, the 'correct" spelling is:

 

Saint John, New Brunswick

St. John's, Newfoundland

 

oh, thank you for the grammer lesson. we dont want any more confusion over the two ports than there aleady is ;) .

[edinburgher]

OOPS!!!:o

 

So sorry about the spelling.

 

I am only part way through my trip research!!!:)

 

 

Actually I know exactly how irritating it can be. EDINBURGH is VERY often mistakenly written as EDINBOROUGH. A complete mystery as to why this should be, but there you go.....:confused: