St Martins tour and Bay of Fundy

Doing New England crusie on Enchantment 6-16-2011. I had planned to do the St Martins and Bay of Fundy tour from RCI. I have since read a number of post in different threats that said it was a waste of money. You either see the enpty area or can come back several hours later and see it full. Is it worth $81.00 ea RCI price to do this. Has anyone had a great tour or excursion they enjoyed. Many thanks.

You may have better success if you posted your question to the Canada forum of the Ports of Call board: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=39

SBtS

You may have better success if you posted your question to the Canada forum of the Ports of Call board: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=39

 

 

SBtS

Wow aren't you a lot of help: I put this under the New England/ Canada thread , which I am doing/

This forum is the New England forum of the Ports of Call board; the excursions & ports you are asking about are in Canada. My original answer stands.

Check a geography map :rolleyes:.

SBtS

Yes, this request should be on the Canada forum. But, I will give an answer anyway. For Saint John you can get a private tour with Freedom Tours for about the same price as that ship tour. See what they offer. The only thing is I think they want minimum of 4 on a tour. The vans hold 6. We have been to St. Martins and the Fundy coast with Freedom and the driver also shows you much more. I don't think you would go wrong with any of their tours.

I'm going to ask Michele what tour we took (memory escapes me right now) but they were good. Knew the tides so got us there before it filled up and did the tour in reverse so we would see the caves, etc. We were there and having chowder and the caves were filled by the time the Carnival excursion buses arrived.

Yes, this request should be on the Canada forum. But, I will give an answer anyway. For Saint John you can get a private tour with Freedom Tours for about the same price as that ship tour. See what they offer. The only thing is I think they want minimum of 4 on a tour. The vans hold 6. We have been to St. Martins and the Fundy coast with Freedom and the driver also shows you much more. I don't think you would go wrong with any of their tours.

I'm going to ask Michele what tour we took (memory escapes me right now) but they were good. Knew the tides so got us there before it filled up and did the tour in reverse so we would see the caves, etc. We were there and having chowder and the caves were filled by the time the Carnival excursion buses arrived.

This is exactly what we did Pat - WONDERFUL people - Freedom Tours. Since we were traveling with others, we divided up and I took my kids in one van, Pat went with the adults and they catered the tour to us. They took Pat with the big people...lol...to do adult things like shopping after seeing the Sea Caves. They took me and the kids to a miniature pony farm. Our tour guide was a retire history teacher. He knew so much about the area. We went to the sea caves, to have some chowder (my kids are still convinced to this day it was the world's best), to see the lighthouse, to the pony farm, to see where the water flows backwards up river, to see the covered bridges and then to do a little shopping (not much because the kids didn't have the patience for it).

The tour guide with my kids heading to the sea caves (long before Carnival got there and then the caves were under water)...

Our guide and it was the world's best chowder....

One lighthouse we toured...

Our driver and tour guide with my kids at the mini horse farm...

My youngest was thrilled with Chicken Little -- the chicken that would talk to her...

See, boats and no water -- when we came back around, they were floating in water again....

Thanks for the information. I didn't know to put it on Canada tread. . Many thanks for your information. The pictures were great cruisinmama96. I think it was your live Enchantment thread I just read. It was great.

Thanks for the information. I didn't know to put it on Canada tread. . Many thanks for your information. The pictures were great cruisinmama96. I think it was your live Enchantment thread I just read. It was great.

Yep, St. Martins and the Bay of Fundy would be in Canada :D But that's ok, I saw it and posted my pictures anyway. ;) And yes, we just got back from Enchantment (Bermuda) -- very different world from the Bay of Fundy :)

And to really answer your original question - YES - doing the cruise line excursion is a HUGE waste of money. Get a local guide (be it Freedom Tours) or whoever.

The cruise line buses have to wait for EVERYONE on the excursion to get off the ship. EVERYONE has to meet at a specific time in a specific lounge. We knew what time those tide were coming in. We knew what time we had to make it to the caves and how long it took to get there by car. So those in our group were waiting at the gangway for the ship to clear and we were racing to get to the cars to meet our tour. ;)

The first thing the tour guide said to me was "Well, we need to head straight to the caves - that ok with you?"

YEP! Let's go!

The kids were happily chowing down on their chowder when the Carnival buses pulled into the caves. And everything was already under water. TOTAL waste of money for those people.

Contact a tour guide, ask about the tide schedule for YOUR cruise. It may not work at all. Who knows? Then go try something else. But I wouldn't do a ship excursion.

 

The first thing the tour guide said to me was "Well, we need to head straight to the caves - that ok with you?"

 

YEP! Let's go!

 

Was your guide's name Peter? He looks like the guide we had (Peter).

As soon as I saw this I emailed Michele to tell her to answer because I could not remember the name of the tour company. Our guide and driver was Sharon and Trina. We didn't go to the pony farm but ours took us to a general store that sold this stuff they were eating like snacks and it is seaweed or something. It was god awful nasty. They told us they eat it like potato chips at night. My friend Lorraine took it home and told everyone at the fraternal organization we belong to that Pat found this great snack and she passed it around and watched the people's faces. LOL

Was your guide's name Peter? He looks like the guide we had (Peter).

YES! Good memory! That's him....Peter! I went and looked at the blog I wrote when I got back (because I could never have remembered it any other way) and that's his name.

Here's what I wrote when we got back from the tour if you want to take a look....

http://cruisingwithchildren.blogspot.com/2009/07/saint-john-new-brunswick-fundy-coast-to.html

YES! Good memory! That's him....Peter! I went and looked at the blog I wrote when I got back (because I could never have remembered it any other way) and that's his name.

 

Here's what I wrote when we got back from the tour if you want to take a look....

http://cruisingwithchildren.blogspot.com/2009/07/saint-john-new-brunswick-fundy-coast-to.html

Peter was great. Couldn't do enough to ensure we saw everything and had a good time. I had mentioned to him that I wanted to stop at a store and get some Canadian chocolate too. He didn't forget and worked the stop into the tour. Great guy! Great tour! I'm glad you and your kids had a good time too. :)