Bar Harbor, Boston, Newport excursion choices

[dcrichard]

We are going on the Grand on 10/3 and I am prereserving my excursions. I would appreciate any pros and cons on my choices.

Bar Harbor - Whale watching 8:30 - 12:00

Acadia Park & Rinehart Pavillion 1:30 - 4:30

 

Boston - City sights & duck tour 8:30 - 11:00

Fenway Park 1:00 - 4:30

 

Newport - Doris Duke's Rough Point 9:00 - 11:00

Vanderbilt's Newport 12:45 - 4:15

( Marble House & Breakers)

I should add that we are looking for relaxing and light activity excursions.

 

Thanks all

 

Dawn Princess Alaska

[Nitemare]

Without knowing your alternatives, I'd have to give two thumbs up to your Boston choices.

 

You won't get the most thorough tour of Boston on a Duck tour (although you will pass my office windows), but this is the most fun of the city tours.

 

I've done the Fenway tour 3 times now, and thoroughly enjoyed it each time.

 

In Newport you've chosen light activity excursions for sure. I'm not a fan of the big houses myself, but they do draw crowds and those are two of the biggest included. I'm not familiar with Rough Point.

 

And I know nothing about Bar Harbor, although whale watching boats can be a bit bouncy, it's always fun to see those big animals!

[dcrichard]

Thank you Nite

Glad to hear you enjoyed the Fenway tour. My husband works on the ground crew for our local stadium and I know he will enjoy that. We are a very small town with a very beautiful baseball stadium that our high school and American Legion teams use. We have hosted the American Legion World Series 3 times since 1982. So we are definitely baseball people.

 

As far as Newport not much but the Mansions to do but since we are doing baseball in Boston this town is for me and I love seeing Mansions.

 

Bar Harbor - We loved the whale watch we did in Alaska last summer and we both are really looking forward to that.

 

Thanks for your input and I will wave as we go by your office. ha ha ha

 

Dawn Princess Alaska

[dcrichard]

bump!

Looking for all the opinions I can get!

Please!!!!!!!!!

 

Dawn Princess Alaska

[HPINE1]

If you like ball feilds, when you get off the tender and standing on the sidewalk look north past the redlight and you will see one of the oldest ball feild in the country if its not the oldest. It is painted green They still play baseball there. It is called Cardines Feild. As for the mansion you have picked some good ones.

[dcrichard]

Thank you for the info Hpine. We will definitely look for that ballfield. We took a picture of a ballfield in Ketchikan, Alaska last summer that was macadamed because of all the rain they get. Very interesting.

Now to the mansions. Rough Point was not my first choice but it was the only way to fit in 2 excursions. I wanted to do the 10 mile Ocean Drive w/mansion excursion but I had to chose between that or the Breakers and I chose the Breakers. Did I make the right choice?

 

Dawn Princess Alaska

[Lisa63]

The Breakers are magnificent. I haven't been to Rough Point, although I hear the art collection is fabulous. Sounds to me like you made a good choice.

 

 

Lisa63

Looking forward to Maasdam Canada/New England 2004

[Krazy Kruizers]

Tours

 

Bar Harbor - we have done Arcadia National Park and loved it.

 

Newport - also went to the Breakers - another good choice.

 

Duck tours - I wouldn't sign up for one.

 

[dcrichard]

Krazy,

What is wrong with the duck tours? In order to form my own opinion I need to know what you did or didnt like about it. Please elaborate.

Thanks

 

Dawn Princess Alaska

[Nitemare]

I'm not Krazy (ok, maybe I am), but the only negative I can think of about the Duck tours is it isn't the best way to really get a good historical view of the city. It's more fun than the traditional tour buses, but the Ducks don't go to many of the historic parts of the city that the other buses do hit.

[mirrajay]

Is there a better tour that anyone knows of in Boston? We are planning on the Duck Tour also and have heard nothing but great things about it. D

 

Carnival Victory, here I come!

[Nitemare]

Not knowing your alternatives, nor your tastes, I'm hesitant to reply.

 

Ducks are a blast. The other trolley tours are more informative (and give you hop on/hop off opportunities).

 

I'd be happy to tell you more about your choices if you list them here.

[mirrajay]

The reason we didnt even think about anything other than the Duck is b/c we will be in Boston during the late afernoon/evening and it really wont be worth it to hop off of a trolly tour or something similar b/c nothing is open. Although now I dont even know if the Duck Tour is going to run as late as we need it to. Our ship docks at 3:00pm, so I imagine we wouldnt make it to the Prudential Center before 5:00 and it says the last Duck Tour leave "one hour before sun down", but I cant get an answer from them what time that actually is. We are taking a trolly tour in Portland, so I think we'll stick with the Duck tour in Boston and if we cant make it, I have no idea what we'll do!!!

 

 

Carnival Victory, here I come!

[Nitemare]

You should have no problem reaching the Pru by 5, assuming your cruise isn't during the Democratic Convention week (end of July, when I'll be as far from Boston as possible).

 

If you've got the duck booked privately, you should reach it easily. Sundown now is about 8:30PM, so depending on when you get here you might be able to figure out when sunset is then.

[BoysSkiMom]

Duck tours look like a blast. I've taken the one in Salem twice and loved it. I've never done the Boston one but I have waved to the crowds of rowdy tourists having a lot of laughs on them many times.

 

You will love the fenway tour! I've done that once and it was more than I expected.

 

Enjoy!

 

BoysSkiMom

 

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[dcrichard]

Thanks all!!!!!!!!!

We really appreciate all your opinions. Keep them coming. Can use all the advice we can get.

Our other options for Boston are Princess excursions: Scenic Boston Motorcoach tour or Scenic Boston and Harbor Cruise.

 

Dawn Princess Alaska

[Nitemare]

You'll be seeing the harbor from your ship, so although I *love* to take harbor cruises, all you'll be adding to your siteseeing that way would be the USS Constitution, and there's a good chance your bus trip would take you over there anyway.

 

I'd vote for the Motorcoach tour of those two, although I'm personally not a big fan of bus tours of cities.

[mirrajay]

Nitemare - thanks for the advice. About how long of a cab ride is it from the Pier to the Prudential center?

Good news is we are NOT there in July during the DNC, but we are there in October when sunset will be much earlier than it is during the summer. I'm guessing like 6:00pm or so...Those darn Duck Tour folks dont answer email very well, so I guess I'll have to give them a call to find out when the last tour leaves in October.

 

Oh and just my two cents on other possible tours to take in Boston, I would personally not go with ones the cruiseline is offering. They tend to be far over priced. Here is one you may want to look into - it looks more fun that a bus and it looks like you can hop on and off if you choose to.

http://www.brushhilltours.com/tours/beantown.html

[Nitemare]

Pier to Prudential could be as little as a fifteen minute ride, if it's not during rush hour and your taxi driver does a good job. Shouldn't ever be more than 30-45 minutes at worst, unless there's something very odd going on.

 

Pier to the edge of the city (I consider this to be the line from the Federal Courthouse to South Station) is 5-7 minutes. Edge of the city to the Pru should be 10-20 minutes. It'll all be on city streets, so traffic can vary wildly.

[Host Caroline]

[quote name=Oh and just my two cents on other possible tours to take in Boston, I would personally not go with ones the cruiseline is offering. They tend to be far over priced. Here is one you may want to look into - it looks more fun that a bus and it looks like you can hop on and off if you choose to.

http://www.brushhilltours.com/tours/beantown.html

My only comment on that is a friendly "beware" if you are on the Carnival Victory. The ship was late on at least 3 of her 7-nighters last September in Boston and ruined ship and private tours. With stores and attractions around Fanueil Hall area closing at 5:30-6 by the time most folks got into town from the ship it was 4:00! We did a ship tour and they held the President Adams home open for us. I personally found the Kennedy/Adams tour to be very good and IF the ship had arrived anywhere near on time, well worth the money. IMHO in Boston I would not plan anything ahead unless it was for 3:00 or later.

[mirrajay]

They have FINALLY officially changed the time to get into Boston from 1:30 - 3:00pm on the itinerary. I guess they actually realized that they were messing up everyone's plans by coming in late. I really wish it wasnt so late in such a great city especially on a Sunday when everything closes so early, but you take what you can get :)

[kitty1]

The Cliff Walk and the mansion tours are great in Newport.... Or just walk around... Newport is a wonderful town. Lots of shops, restaurants, etc.

 

Enjoy Fenway park... Make sure you take a look inside the green monster and the scoreboard. Really interesting tour.

[TheWog]

Duck tours are a lot of fun. LIke said above, not the most informing tour, but none the less you will have a great time. There is so much to see and do if you miss it you could still be ok. The Fenway tour you will love. If you love baseball you will love Fenway Park - Reverse the Curse. Have a great time.

[sdf89]

You have begged for opinions, so here is another:

 

How much walking do you like to do? I am a big walker and the hop on/ hop off trolley is great, as you go at your own pace and can even walk part of the Freedom trail on own, and pick up the trolley in another place.

 

If, on the other hand, you are not big on self touring/walking, and like point to point transportation, I would give the nod to Duck.

 

An aside: if your ship does arrive sooner, that will make your reaching Prudential or any city center smoother and more reliable... no chance of rush hour.

[Joy2Day]

The tour around Acadia is fine, altho' we did joke all week about the big fire. We heard a lot about that during our tour.

 

Rinehart Pavilion is NOT a big deal. It is a local restaurant. They herd you in to serve you blueberry pie and coffee (good luck getting anything else, including ice tea or water). You can see the ship from the restaurant, but there is just nothing else there. And we were at the stop for 45 minutes.