(An)other Newbie Question on Shore Excursions

[Meliador]

Greetings Cunard Community!

 

DH and I are taking our first ever Cunard cruise in September 2024, after several COVID-related postponements. We booked a Q5 for the New-England Canada cruise in Sept 2024. We are beyond excited! So here’s my question: according to MyCunard, I can book excursions in about 2 weeks time. Where do I find details about available excursions? I researched the site and was unsuccessful.

 

thank you in advance for your insights/guidance! 
 

Louise 

 

[TowandaUK]

When available the shore excursions will show up in My Cunard. There may only be a limited offering initially but this will be added to as you near sailing. 

[BklynBoy8]

1 hour ago, Meliador said:

Greetings Cunard Community!

 

DH and I are taking our first ever Cunard cruise in September 2024, after several COVID-related postponements. We booked a Q5 for the New-England Canada cruise in Sept 2024. We are beyond excited! So here’s my question: according to MyCunard, I can book excursions in about 2 weeks time. Where do I find details about available excursions? I researched the site and was unsuccessful.

 

thank you in advance for your insights/guidance! 
 

Louise 

 

 

 

Louise,

Welcome to Cunard and the QM2.

 

We did this sailing in 2022 and loved it! Previously we did it on the QE2 which attracted us back to return 30+ years later.

 

You will love the QM2 and all she offers. 

 

If you are new to the Cunard Booking Site, the excursions can be found once you enter the MyCunard site with your Booking Number. You should find the tours in the My Calendar area and also the Shore Excursion tab. They are added over a period of time. You will visiting some of the same ports we did. Quebec was the highlight for us.

 

You will be able to book tours you maybe interested earlier but would off a personal credit card. It can not be booked to your on board account. That can only be done while on board. If you cancel, you would need to personally handle that.

 

You will get a full description of the tours with prices, stress level, amount of time tour takes etc...

Off that page you will be able to book and select the tours for those days.

 

You will love the sailing the USA ports and Canadian Waters including the St Lawrence Seaway...

[TheOldBear]

The personalizer may present some oddities for shore excursions - for example for my sailing is presenting New York City excursions that are not applicable for folks boarding in Brooklyn [only for in transit passengers continuing on to the eastbound crossing]. 

 

[Meliador]

@TowandaUK @BklynBoy8 @TheOldBear my heartfelt thanks for your replies! As a newbie, I am so grateful that I get to read about your personal experiences and benefit from the collective knowledge of this community! 
 

So based on what I read, Cunard may add some other excusions over time? Would CruiseCritic somewhere post reviews of excursions (like they do for ships’ reviews)? Or go to TripAdvisor? I’m trying to figure out which excursions might be interesting in both Halifax and Sept-Iles. 
 

thank you again!! 
 

Louise 

[exlondoner]

Halifax is a fascinating and walkable city. I wouldn’t contemplate an excursion.

[seasickphil]

When we were in Halifax we took an excursion to Peggy’s Cove,( not on Cunard ) this is one of the most popular excursion’s from Halifax and in our opinion well worth doing.

[BklynBoy8]

2 hours ago, Meliador said:

@TowandaUK @BklynBoy8 @TheOldBear my heartfelt thanks for your replies! As a newbie, I am so grateful that I get to read about your personal experiences and benefit from the collective knowledge of this community! 
So based on what I read, Cunard may add some other excusions over time? Would CruiseCritic somewhere post reviews of excursions (like they do for ships’ reviews)? Or go to TripAdvisor? I’m trying to figure out which excursions might be interesting in both Halifax and Sept-Iles. 
thank you again!! 
Louise 

 

Louise,

I too respect Tripadvisor and the personal opinions of the travelers. I always use it in all my travels.

 

But you should also research the different parts of these forums about your thoughts with the excursions. 

 

We took an ship tour in Sept-lies which was a basic one. But Halifax is a favorite when part of a voyage. Now we develop our own self stroll of locations, meal in a local seafood restaurant with the freshest seafood and relaxed shopping...

[alc13]

The Ports forum on Cruise Critic is helpful for learning about ports that are mostly served by cruise ships.  And then the usual online sites like Lonely Planet, TripAdvisor, and so on, for larger ports, will help you sort out what you'll want to see.  The tour aggregator site Viator will probably have information about tours in your ports that would be very similar to the ship's excursions, and those have customer reviews.  

[shippmates]

Halifax is a great city to DIY.  If you are interested in the Titanic make a visit to the Museum that is on Boardwalk.  The history in that museum is so interesting.  There is also a trip to the Titanic cemetery.

Halifax is one of my favorite ports.

[Pushpit]

8 hours ago, shippmates said:

Halifax is a great city to DIY.  If you are interested in the Titanic make a visit to the Museum that is on Boardwalk.  The history in that museum is so interesting.  There is also a trip to the Titanic cemetery.

Halifax is one of my favorite ports.

That sounds like the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, which is indeed on the Boardwalk of Halifax city centre. There is also the Canadian Museum of Immigration nearby. As the home of Cunard, this museum has a lot of Cunard and White Star material, much of it exploring the tragedy of the Titanic where by unfortunate irony Halifax was the main rescue port. But there is a lot more Cunard memorabilia in there such as place settings and menus from a previous era. This is lunch on Cunard's  RMS Aquitania on 19 October 1949 (note: less choice than today, but a lot more of it!).

 

 

I would certainly say that if none of the shore excursions for Halifax were appealing, then there is a lot to see and do on your own. It's relatively small, despite being the provincial capital of Nova Scotia, with the old part of the city from the bridge to the Museum of Immigration being about 2 km long, with a wide variety of shops, bars and restaurants along that Boardwalk strip or nearby. The city goes quite stiffly uphill away from the quay side though.

[Meliador]

@exlondoner @seasickphil @BklynBoy8 @alc13 @shippmates @Pushpit thank you for taking the time to share your insights! Based on what I read about Halifax, there is plenty to do in town, nearby. I think this is what we’ll do. We recently saw a documentary about the 2 ships collision in 1917 that triggered a huge explosion/fire in the Harbor and its vicinity, and that makes us even more interested in walking around! As for Sept Iles, I will do a bit more research. I know it’s still a year away, but I’ve been waiting for over 5 years to go onboard QM2 (we booked in 2018 a crossing for 2020 that we postponed twice), so 1 year is just around the corner! Very excited and grateful that I get to experience this Grande Dame of ocean crossing!! 😀

Edited September 10, 2023 by Meliador

[BklynBoy8]

4 hours ago, Meliador said:

@exlondoner @seasickphil @BklynBoy8 @alc13 @shippmates @Pushpit thank you for taking the time to share your insights! Based on what I read about Halifax, there is plenty to do in town, nearby. I think this is what we’ll do. We recently saw a documentary about the 2 ships collision in 1917 that triggered a huge explosion/fire in the Harbor and its vicinity, and that makes us even more interested in walking around! As for Sept Iles, I will do a bit more research. I know it’s still a year away, but I’ve been waiting for over 5 years to go onboard QM2 (we booked in 2018 a crossing for 2020 that we postponed twice), so 1 year is just around the corner! Very excited and grateful that I get to experience this Grande Dame of ocean crossing!! 😀

 

Louise,

Thank you for the thanks....... Yes, you will figure out what you should do.

 

About the Halifax explosion, there is a church in the central part of the town that actually if I remember actually has a timber embedded in the wall from the explosion. We saw it on a ship tour.

 

Lots of shops to stroll thru and restaurants to nosh at...ours Salty's.

 

Sept was very simple and we picked if I remember the excursion the involved a traders post. Another part was cancelled due to a pipe burst. And other part I can't remember.

 

At the pier there was a large tent that locals sold local items like jewelry, food, decorations etc..

The town was too too far to go to and when passed and didn't attract us to venture too.

 

We too are about 550+ days till our next Caribbean and we too are already thinking and slowly researching. Enjoy your research and dream your dream, one day it will come through. We too are counting the days...