Me and my daughter decided instead of heading to Europe this summer, we would stay in the North America this year. We picked a cruise to an area we have never been.
The cruise left out of Bayonne, New Jersey. Headed to Boston, Portland, Bar Harbor, Saint John and Halifax. This was a 9 day cruise.
Boarding the ship
When taking a cruise, if you have to fly, plan to arrive the night before. This will alleviate any possible flight delays. We stayed at the Hilton Newark Airport, but you can stay at any hotel in the area. In Newark, you pick up the hotel shuttle from the P4 train stop.
Now we needed to decide if we would use a taxi or Uber. We were told a taxi would run around $70 to the port. The port is 10 miles from the airport. We choose to use Uber. Here was the problem. The Uber driver could not find the hotel. So we had to try 3 times. It took about 30 minutes for someone to arrive. The Uber cost to the port was $17. When we got to the port, we waited 45 minutes for the traffic in the port. We were not charged any additional money, but if you were in a taxi, they would charge you for waiting.
Bottom line, plan plenty of time to get to the port, since you don’t know how long it will take when you hit traffic.
Once we arrived at the port, checkin and boarding was complete in 5 – 10 minutes. Now we were headed to the ship.
As we were headed out of the port, we had a tour of NYC harbor. Great views of the city.
Day 1
Our first night we ate at Wonderland, fantastic food. We let the waiter pick what he server us.
Ifly on Royal Caribbean
Planning a trip on one of the Quantum class ships. You will have an opportunity to try ifly. It's an indoor skydiving experience.
What a great idea.
The experience is about one hour.
You check in, then watch a safety video that tells you wait you need to know.
Then you get your suits, earplugs, googles and helmet. After you are all suited up, you head upstairs to the ifly.
There are usually 10-12 people in each group.
Everyone will get 1 min to fly.
When everyone is complete, you all head down and return your items.
Things to be aware of.
Sign up before you board, if possible. If you plan on touring, don't make an appt for those days. Just realize that sea days appt fill up quickly. If everyone isn't planning on riding and you want to take there spot. Make an appt on another day.
Dinner tonight was in Jaime’s Italian. Great food.
Here are a few pictures of what is available.
Day 3 – Boston
Sunrise in Boston
In Boston we planned to walk from the ship/harbor into the city. Its about 2 miles from the port to Finuel Hall. Mild weather so walking was easy using our GPS on our phones.
Once we arrived at Faneuil hall we stopped to have lunch. Of course a lobster roll and clam chowder.
Realize when you start at Faneuil hall, you are in the middle of the Freedom trail, so you will have to back track.
We purchased a Freedom Trail ticket, which provided one ticket for Paul Revere House, the Old State House and the Old South Meeting House
Massachusetts's State House
Granary Cemetery, Samuel Adams and Paul Revere are buried here
Old South Meeting House
On our walk back to the ship, we stopped for Boston Cream Pie at Flour.
Sunset in Boston
Day 4 – Portland, Maine (Sunday)
I rented a car through Costco from Enterprise rent a car ($60). We got off the ship at 9 am and the Enterprise van was waiting. When we got to the rental agency, we were help immediately. Be aware, they will try and sell you insurance. I did not buy it. Also, since it was a Sunday, they closed at 3 pm, so I needed to have the car back before they left. Enterprise wants to find some reason to charge you for any dents, so in order to make sure I did not have an issue. I wanted to return the car when someone could inspect it while I was there. When I returned the car, there were no issues. They returned us back to the cruise port.
We had brunch in the city at 555, highly rated:
While we had the car, we stopped at 2 breweries, Allaghash Brewing and Bissell Brothers
If you are interested in a tour at Allashash, you need to schedule a tour in advance. It’s a 90 min tour. If not, you receive a flight of 4 beers to try, its free. There is no food for purchase here, only a small snack area. After the tasting, you can purchase several of the beers they produce. Many are not available in CA.
We also stopped at Bissell Brothers Brewery. At this location, you paid $2.50 per glass. There was food at this location.
If you are not interested in renting a car, but you want to take a beer tour. There are companies that will pick you up at the port and take you to several breweries in the area.
Day 5 - Bar Harbor, Maine
In Bar Harbor, the ship will tender. If you have a self-planned tour, you need to allow for plenty of time to tender of the ship and get to the tour location. This can take up to one hour.
We planned to take Oli’s Trolley Acadia National Park tour. If you plan to take the tour, call ahead and make a reservation. When ships come in to port, there are too many people trying to make last minute reservations.
You have a tour time and they ask you to be there at least 15 minutes before to confirm you are present. We had a full trolley.
Our trolley driver was Jim. He was great. A local, who grew up in Bar Harbor. He also was a volunteer rescue hiker in Acadia. The tour started in the city, which has an amazing history. Many wealthy families lived and are still living in Bar Harbor. We drove past some fabulous looking houses. The drive through Acadia National Park and up to Cadillac Mountain was spectacular, however there are many hiking trails in the area that since you are only in the city for such a short time, you cannot enjoy.
Walking distance from the port is a great seafood restaurant, Side Street Cafe. The lobster roll is fantastic, and the blueberry soda and pie were just as good.
Day 6 - Saint John Canada
Saint John Canada is known for the tide shift in the Bay of Fundy. It is up to 50 feet in some areas twice a day. The ship came in at 11 am, high tide. We were on a tour to the Bay of Fundy. That left the port at 1 pm. We were interested in seeing the sea caves, which at high tide are underwater. The tour took as past some highlights in the Bay of Fundy. We could see how low the water was and was getting further out.
The highlight was being able to walk out to the sea cave, which in 6 hours would be under water. Also at this stop, we had a seafood chowder bowl which was fantastic.
Bottom line, this tour cost us $139 each and was way too long. If I was doing this again, I would look at renting a car and driving to the locations I was interesting in seeing.
Day 7 – Sea Day
Day 8 – Halifax
In this port, we decided to rent a car. I had a car from Avis, who is in town about 1 mile from the port. It looks like in the port, you could rent from Hertz and also National Car rental. When I stopped to see what the cost was to rent a car, it was double what I had reserved.
We walked to the Avis location and I rented a Chrysler 300 with navigation. The total rental cost me $45.
We were headed to Peggy’s Cove to see the light house and rock formation. It was about a one hour drive from the port. You need to get to Peggy’s Cover early before all the tour buses arrive. Otherwise the area is very busy, Also, there are really no stops on the road from Halifax to Peggy’s Cove, so make sure you head to the bathroom before you leave. When you get to the visitors center, there are restrooms at that location.
We spent about 2 hours here, also had lunch at Sou' Wester , which was ok.
We headed to the Swiss air crash memorial site, which was up the road.
From there we went back into town, to the Titanic cemetery. There are 125 passenger who are buried at this location.
We were done touring for the day, we filled up gas and returned the car. We had enough time to spend walking along the docks. There are many nice shops for souvenir shopping. If you are interested in glass. They have a hand blown glass shop. We purchased a vase and a Christmas ornament to remember the trip.
Dinner was at Chops. We had a great meal, since the first visit we had issues with our meal.
Day 9 – Sea day
Dinner tonight was Wonderland. This dinner concept needs to be added to more ships. This is very different. Great dinner.