Hello ! My wife & I just booked our 1st cruise out of Manhattan on the Norwegian Dawn. Any tips on parking at the pier? Whe are wondering about the excursions in Halifax, Saint John & Bar Harbor. Can anyone in the forums give us a heads-up on those ports? Thanks, RICK34

HALIFAX is a beautiful city, hilly, green, college town...with a lovely boardwork meandering the waterfront.. We hired a taxi for a tour and at first shocked with the suggestion we went to the graves of the victims of the Titanic... it is very moving and beautiful. We then went to the Citadel for the noon shotting of the cannon... Ånother time we took the Duck Tour (not as good as Boston) around the city.. lovely If you are determined to go to Peggys Cove and have never been to the ocean just be forwarned that it could be foggy and you won't see a darn thing.. St. John. there is a free shuttle to downtown and you can take a bus to see the Reversing Falls..and then take the ferry back to the city.. walk up to the City Market.. and back down...lots of cafes.. but we discovered on the way back to walking to the ship...walk back and on the left set back is a lobster shack.. fabulous.. Bar Harbor..gorgeous lttle city.. you can go to Arcadia National Park, a whale watch (you must go on at least one).. and.lol..another hidden jewel.. a lobster shack..When your at the bottom of the hills..head towards the left over the bridge...and there is a large lobster shack where you can go in and pick the size of the lobster, soft or hard shell, corn, steamers.. etc.. and then go up next door to the deck and sit under an umbrella.. This is where you will find most of the crews..

In Bar Harbor we booked with this company ahead of time http://www.acadiatours.com/ It was excellent and much cheaper than the tour the ship offered. A lot of passengers tried to book it when the ship docked (their office is close to the dock) but not all were able to get a spot so I highly recommend booking ahead of time. Highly recommend this company.

Actually in Halifax you will find a Titanic museum as well. Traveller69 have you done NE/Canada? We are cruising there in early Oct. with stops in Halifax, Boston, Portland, Maine and St. Johns I think.

Hi Larry - yes we have done that cruise. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that we did our own thing in Portland. It is an easy spot to do on your own - this ship docks right downtown. There was a little tour bus that you can pick up in town and it takes you around to anything of interest. Also there is a casual restaurant/bar right beside the cruise dock that had the best clams ever!!

Are you going to St Johns or St John? One is Newfoundland and the other New Brunswick. Its easy to do your own thing in either.

We did the Trolley tour on our own in Boston. We actually boarded the ship there so we had a few days beforehand and I want to go back - loved that city.

Have a great trip. I am in the process of booking a cruise that does England - Scotland and Ireland with a stop in LeHavre as well.

Actually its St. John in NB. Our ship arrives in Boston at 1400 and departs at 2200 so I'm not sure what we will do. Our dinner is early, at 1800 so we'll see. Maybe we'll go to Fanuel hall, walk a bit and go back. We've been in Boston B4 but its been a long time ago. Your upcoming cruise sounds pretty nice. How many days is it?

Hi again

Here is a website for St John to give you some ideas - I would plan something on your own rather than the ships tours here especially. Although we love traveling all over the world its always easier when everyone speaks english if you want to just tour on your own.

We are going on the Crown Princess on June 23. It is 12 nights and although we have been to London and most of Ireland it will be nice to do it from the ship. It is actually cheaper as well with the cost of hotels and restaurants taken into consideration. I hope our friend from the "Other" board sees that I do cruise on lines other than HAL!!! That was pretty nasty - don't know why some people carry such a chip on their shoulder.

Ricks34 you might want to check the St John website as well it is from Tripadvisor but has good ideas. Enjoy

Where is that website? We almost always do excursions on our own. Its much better that way I think. Yes, I agree about that "other" person. That act was a monument to small mindedness. Glad its not our problem. Anyway life goes on. And the Cubs are still losing. Now 6 in a row. Its a wonder that after nearly 50 yrs. of being a Cub fan I'm not on meds. At least not yet. But they are trying to get me. PS my ex-boss took a Carib. crusie on the Crown. He loved it though it was his 1st ever cruise. See ya later amigo. Larry

Sorry about that http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g...Vacations.html

No problems. Thanks for the link. St. John looks quaint. It'll be fun just walking around it seems.

Larry - I don't know what is going on with some posters on this board - I got into trouble just like you for a rather innocent thing. See the Norwegian Gem post. I thought the purpose of this board was to be helpful!

Whoops I mean Zaandam Hawaii

I looked at that. I think that poster was a wee bit overreactive. . We went to the Chicago air show today on the lakefront. We saw it from the comfort of a lunch cruise boat, the Odyssey. We also went last yr. and the difference is there were far fewer types of planes this yr. We saw basically F-15's and F-16's. Last yr. they had F-18's, F-4's, 15's and 16's as well as the F-117 stealth bomber, the B1 flying wing, some bi-planes and even a P-51 Mustang. That was awesome. Take care amigo. Cheers, Larry