I had wanted to do a Canada/New England cruise for a couple of years as a break from our normal warm weather cruises. In the late spring I had gotten a flyer from Princess with a Too-good-of-a-deal-to pass-up offer, and so I booked.
A little background on me; I am 48, my DH is 52. This was our 9th cruise together, all but one have been on a Princess ship. Rather than fly from the Washington DC area we drove the night before to the Baltimore Travel Center. There we stayed at the Best Western ($158 included parking for 1-week). Hotel was clean and comfortable. The next morning right on schedule the bus to take us to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal showed up. Cost was $168 round trip for the two of us, and took about 4 hours. The bus starts in DC, with stops in Baltimore, Wilmington, DE, Philadelphia, PA, and somewhere in NJ. Very convenient and cheaper than flying (No charge for luggage!).
First the Tricks; Mother Nature decided to throw a Nor'easter at us on our first full day. This caused the Captain to cancel Newport, RI. A disappointment for sure, but understandable. However, there was something about our unexpected "Fun Day at Sea" I found a little off putting. As soon as the Captain announced that we would not be anchoring in Newport it was followed by an announcement that a revised Platter (The daily guide of what's is happening on board) would be available at 9 AM. Shortly before 9 AM there was another announcement from the Cruise Director stating all the things we could do that day including; shopping, as the boutiques would be opening at 9, the fact that the casino was opened for our enjoyment, and that the spa was opened and accepting appointments for massages, facials, etc. Notice a trend? Every suggestion involved the spending of money. When the revised Platter came out I noticed very few additional activities. Mostly they just shuffled around what they already had planned. Thank God it was Sunday and I was able to watch football all afternoon as I would have gone out of my mind with boredom. All cruise lines should have BCP (Business Contingency Plans) in place for unexpected sea days, especially when passengers are forbidden on the open decks. The second trick was my DH's luggage. It went AWOL. It was with us when we got to the pier, but seemed to have vanished once we got on board. It did show up the morning we arrived in Boston with no explanation as to where it had been, but we were so happy to get it back intact we didn't care. And finally, in Halifax we were delayed in leaving the port because lobster lines had gotten tangled into the ships propeller.
The Treats; A beautiful, like new ship. Four great new ports to explore, the Thermal Suite in the Lotus Spa. The Caribbean Princess went through a major dry-dock about 8-months ago, and still gleams, although she might look a little worst for wear after our high seas adventure, as the ship did sustain some damage. This was the first cruise that my DH and I checked out the Thermal Suite in the Lotus Spa ($159 per couple-unlimited use for cruise duration). We decided to go ahead and book it. My DH LOVED the heated loungers, but never used the sauna or steam rooms after the first day. I was slightly less enthralled with the Thermal Suite, but it was something to do to while away the time on both sea days when we were banned from the open decks.
My favorite part of the cruise was the ports. We had booked shore excursions through the ship and found them all to be excellent.
Boston: We took the Boston Highlights, historical Marblehead, & Salem tour. At 7 1/2 hours this tour made for a long day. We had an excellent guide who kept us entertained throughout the day with stories about the sights we were seeing. The time spent in Salem was focused mainly on the witch trials of 1692. I had asked the guide if she could point out any houses designed by Samuel MacIntire, the famous architect and carver, and she had the bus driver drive down Federal Row.
Bar Harbor: This is a tender port, and the tenders bring you right to the edge of town. We walked about the town and did some shopping. We ate lunch at the Fish House Grill. DH had a mug of the NE Clam Chowder ($7.25), while I had the Corn Chowder w/Lobster ($9.99). We each had a piece of the warm homemade blueberry pie ($3.99 ea). DH washed his down with a local brew of Blueberry Ale, and I had tea. Very satisfying. After lunch we met up with the tour operator. We had signed up for a boat tour of the Cranberry Islands. This included a short stop on Little Cranberry Island. Once again we had a great guide who told stories from the Gilded Age, and talked about life on the Islands today. After the boat ride we took a bus to the top of Cadillac Mountain for wondrous panoramic views, including that of the Caribbean Princess in all of her majestic glory gleaming in the harbor. Even from the top of a mountain she looked huge.
St. John, New Brunswick: We had selected a tour that went to St. Martins, a fishing village about an hours drive away. First we stopped at the Reversing Falls to watch the St. John River flow it it's normal direction (It was low tide). On our way to St Martins our guide kept us entertained with stories about the area. Apparently St. Martins is considered a "haunted" area and our guide told several ghosts stories. We had a delicious cup of seafood chowder at a restaurant on the rocky shoreline of the Bay of Fundy, and then were given about an hour to explore the shoreline to look for Wishing Rocks. Then if was off to see 2 of New Brunswick's 69 Covered Bridges. Back in St John's we made a quick stop at the Old City Market, before we went back to the Reversing Falls at high tide to watch the water flow upstream. In order to really get a sense of the tides in the Bay of Fundy one has to see the difference between high tide and low.
Halifax, Nova Scotia: Our Historic Pub Tour wasn't scheduled until 3PM, so that gave us the morning to explore on our own. We walked down the Harbor Walk and looked at the sites. About half way down we came across the Harbor Hopper tour pavilion and decided to book the Duck tour. This tour is about an hour in length and spends 1/2 the time on land and the other 1/2 time on the water. To book the tour on the ship is $49 pp, by booking it ourselves the cost was $24.95 pp plus tax. FYI-The sales tax in Canada is 18%. It's how they pay for their health care.
The pub tour was a lot of fun. It's more of a pub crawl than a tour. There were about 50 of us led through the street of Halifax by kilted guides and a bagpiper. We made stops at three different pubs, where at each stop you are served a sample size (About 6 oz) of a local brew. I had thought you would get to sample different types of local brews, but each of the 3 pubs served the same thing; Alexander Keith's Ale. There were other types of beer available for purchase. It got a little silly at times, but it was all in fun. While I enjoyed the cruise I did find that the sheer size of the ship made it feel a bit impersonal most of the time. I also found that the level of service to be uneven. One night in the dining room (We had Anytime Dining) we were ignored by our waiter, who took the orders of tables seated long after ours. I went to the maitre'd and asked to be seated in a new section. I was promptly moved to another section where we received great service. Our room steward may have been overworked; one morning when he made the bed he forgot to put on the bedspread. Another day our bed wasn't turned down. Small stuff to be sure, but I did notice the lack of attention to the details.
Overall we had a good time, and I would cruise to Canada/New England again.
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