Dawn, Oct 3 - Plastered in Nova Scotia

Sometimes I do short reviews, and sometimes long. I've been busy since returning from this cruise, and thought I should get some thoughts down before it gets too old.

This was definitely NOT my favorite cruise. Fault? Nobody's and everybody's. The good was great, the bad was awful. It reminded me of the 'little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead, and when she was good she was very very good, but when she was bad she was awful' poem.

I suppose I should start at the beginning.

We flew to Quebec via air Canada. The only bad part was having to go not only through customs in Toronto, (which I expected), but also security all over again. Don't quite get that, but just an fyi if planning a cruise out of Canada, give ample time for that stuff on a transfer.

We stayed at a wonderful old hotel in Quebec, I'll have to find the name and post later. It was inside the walls, close to everything, and a room in back, (no views there), but had 3 sleeping areas to make it easy for dh, myself, sis and son to share. At some time in the future, I would like to post a few picts to supplement, but the time is not now.

Quebec was wonderful. I would love to go back and spend a week there. We purchased walking tours which I would give the link to, except my puter died while we were gone, and all my bookmarks are gone. Still in recovery on that issue. Again, maybe I'll update this thing later.

Day 1 of cruise we left the hotel early and did a quick walk up to the Citadel and did that tour. Afterwards we collected luggage and walked down to the port.

Embarkation was bumpy, but not awful. The gal handling platinum was new and SLLLOOOOwwwww. Both sis and son ended up waiting on us from the other latitude line. Even when she did get us processed, she did it wrong. Later in the day I discovered she had dh's pict on my card. :eek: Oh well. No biggie, just had to get it fixed.

The other issue I had was minor but irritating. They sent everyone over to chairs in a haphazard fashion with no boarding cards. We were in a hurry and I had anticipated, (foolishly perhaps), a more fair boarding process. At any rate, once they started boarding it went quite rapidly, just we ended at the end of the lines they randomly assigned.

They had the rooms still closed for cleaning, but since we couldn't find the luggage dropoff, and feeling rather flustered and pressured at this point, we went ahead and dropped our luggage in the rooms anyway. Never done that before, but boarding the ship was the most confusing embarkation I've ever encountered. There was NOONE directing folks once they boarded and a LOT of confused faces!!! I mentioned it later to a crew member while waiting on an elevator and she seemed QUITE concerned and was going to look into it.

This was all little stuff, it just seemed like the whole cruise was loaded with little stuff. NCL doesn't control the port issues. I get that. And as I said at the beginning, the bad taste in my mouth from this cruise was nobody and everybody's fault. Little stuff that just added up.

We got ourselves some lunch at the buffet and headed back up to the old town via the escalier for our other walking tour. Of the two we took, we all preferred the food tour to the historical tour. The historical tour just felt dry. I think it was the guide we had. Both were interesting, and glad we took them.

After the tour, we stopped at the drugstore for some supplies and followed with gelato. Next it was time to work our way back to the ship and decompress. Two and a half days, (including airports), of heavy walking and we were BEAT!

On ship we had made reservations for a 5:30 at the Venetian. Great, except ALL LINES were one regardless of reservations. So, after standing in the lengthy line, we were seated and what followed that was a 2 and 1/2 hour meal, I kid you NOT! I checked my watch before leaving.

The food was great. No complaints. The service was HORRID! We complained and got apologies and wine and the like, (I got more free wine than I needed on this trip, :eek:), but again, it was symptomatic of the entire trip. One bad thing I can handle, but the entire trip was full of this kind of frustration.

After a long day it was time for a nice hot soak in the whirlpool. BRRRRRRRR!!!!! I was shivering IN the water!!!! I've never shivered in the 'hot' tub before! A worker came around and said he had upped the temp on the other tubs and had us move. Trouble was we had to get out in the cold temps from the cold water and move to a barely lukewarm tub to attempt to warm up. *sigh*

This cruise did not start out well, and I must say, it didn't get any better. But before I go on, let me say, in some ways I've never seen a crew try harder to MAKE it good. They just kept falling short.

My steward for instance. Hardest worker I've ever met. Polite, patient, and industrius. I tipped her at the end for all her efforts. That said, she did things like taking dh's smelly, (and it STUNK!), shirt from floor or chair or somewhere, (don't know where he left it), folded it neatly and placed it on top of my lace sweater I use in the dining rooms. UGH!!! Time for a hand wash!!!!

We kept our things WELL picked up after that experience! *L*

Another thing that drove me nuts. Our chocolate strawberries had a fruit fly or something in with them. Our steward took them a way and called for a replacement. It never came. We stopped at the service desk after dinner the first day and asked about why our replacement never came. They said they'd send them up right away. It was after the whirlpool and when I was in bed that they finally arrived. *sigh*

Little stuff. Not big, just a LOT of it!

I need breakfast. For those who are interested, I 'll get back to this later. I just wanted to get a start while time was here to do so. For those who like to down anyone with anything bad to say, just stay away. It doesn't get any better.

I'm considering doing this cruise, looking forward to hearing more-----good as well as bad.

Tell us about the ports.

"We flew to Quebec via air Canada. The only bad part was having to go not only through customs in Toronto, (which I expected), but also security all over again. Don't quite get that, but just an fyi if planning a cruise out of Canada, give ample time for that stuff on a transfer."

==========

Toronto-Pearson is this country's worst airport. I'm sorry for your experience. I wish I could tell you it was atypical. It's not.

As I live in Nova Scotia, the title of your thread has more than piqued my interest. I wish I could claim that getting plastered here is atypical. It's not...

Back at it here.

Notes. Quebec tours were with toursvoirquebec. Taxi airport to hotel was 34.25 +tip, Canadian. Paid by credit card. Ate dinner at Le Chicshack, a student style eatery with fantastic poutine, $11-12 per poutine. Shakes were $6 each and $5 extra if you wanted Bailey's added. Hotel was Hôtel Terrasse Dufferin It was a great location, price, and when paid in cash had a reasonable continental breakfast included.

Other notes, dinner was 2 1/2 with the wait, closer to 2 after we got in. Thought that deserved clarification. And I think I may have nights one and two mixed up a bit on the whirlpool and other small details. Another reason I need to get at this.

So... We had two GREAT days in Quebec. Embarkation was fair to middling overall. Next day was sea day, the only sea day of the cruise.

My sis declared it to be the best sea day she has ever enjoyed. It wasn't a bad day for sure. They had a 3pm show with an Irishman that was my favorite show of the week. The only bad thing was he took you from highs to lows and back again, and I don't rebound as quickly as he did in the show. He was funny, the music lovely and the performance quite entertaining. I wish ALL sea days had a nice matinee like that!!!!

We made reservation this day for La Cucina, using our Platinum benefit. We used both certificates, including ds and sis, but took the extra bottle of wine back to the cabin for future use. La Cucina was fantastic in both food and atmosphere. I filled up on appetizers alone, never ordering an entrée. Dh had a fantastic steak. Best looking one of the week.

On our way out a Celtic band was playing outside Gatsby's. Now, here is where ANYONE on that cruise can now identify me....I danced, and danced....and danced. My feet wouldn't stay still. I sooooo enjoyed their music!!! My knees....not so much. :rolleyes:

After a rollicking good ole time we headed upstairs and to the whirlpool to soak off my most recent set of aches. I really need to learn to slow down some days. I guess I haven't grown age wise yet. *L*

And here is where our trip REALLY turned bad. *ugh* Dh slipped coming out from the whirlpool. OUCH!!!!! His wrist looked BAD, as in, not natural. Down to the medical center we go. :(

It was after hours, and took about 20 or 30 minutes to get someone there. In fairness, there was ANOTHER emergency, and she looked in much worse condition, though my first concern at the time was dh being on blood thinners and bleeding out.

I can't say enough good about the medical staff. Patient. Understanding. Human. Helpful. Empathetic.

They took an xray, determined that dh needed to go to the hospital in Sydney the next day, splinted the wrist and gave him some morphine. They would not permit him to walk back to the cabin. We discovered just how bad a design the halls on deck 8 are for a wheelchair. Very convoluted to get to the cabin from midship elevators.

Next morning they arranged a wheelchair from cabin to an awaiting car that drove us to the hospital there. They did their best there, but as it turns out, best on a port day, wasn't quite good enough. Since returning we have discovered why we were told to get to an orthopedic as soon as possible on our return. Dh needs surgery, pins and plate. I think they just patched him up as best as they could given the circumstances of the time, ie, trying to get us back on ship the same day. This was not a simple fracture. :(

We were given a # to call to return us to ship when we finished. The ship covered all ship portions because it was a slip on the deck. The Canadian portion is currently on our credit card until we get through the nightmare of billing and insurance. Glad we bought some though!!!

And that was how dh got plastered in Nova Scotia. Not exactly how we planned to spend our day in Sydney.

The ship allowed us to cancel our excursions to Fortress of Louisbourg without cancellation fees. Sis and ds went without us. They found the guide quite interesting, but said they needed at LEAST another hour to spend in the fort. They were very disappointed in the lack of time spent in the fort. They beat us back from the hospital it was so short. Good, but short.

So now dh is plastered and in pain what do we do? Go get some frozen grasshoppers and dance to the Celtic music some more!!! *L* Oh my poor knees......

Dinner that night, main dining room again. Service was better, not spectacular mind you, but reasonable that night. Food was good. No complaints.

Another discovery this day was the severe lack of afternoon entertainment on all days except the lone sea day. They even cleared board games after the first 1/2 hour or so. If you weren't there during the beginning of those first 2 open hours, give it up. They were gone. The afternoon from St John's found me playing backgammon with my 29 year old son. THAT is SAD!!!!! I've never been on a ship with such a lack of afternoon activities.

Ok, so my review is starting to dance around from here to there now. Let's see....

The next day was Halifax.

Time to whine again.

We were ported at 8am. It took around 40 minutes to clear customs. I get the impression there were too many ships in port. We were redirected at one point to a different gangplank than originally located. We reformed the line, and they finally started letting folks off....

BUT>>>>ONLY THOSE WITH EXCURSIONS THROUGH THE SHIP!!!!!!!!

Now, those that had previous excursions with the ship used old stubs, but having been cancelled out of ours, we didn't have any to flip at these people.

I admit it. I raised cane! I was FURIOUS! I could live with mingling the lines. They still had two machines, use one for the excursions and one for the rest of us, but to tell us that our private tour that was waiting on us was not important made me feel THIRD CLASS. I have NEVER felt third class on a cruise before. I hope never to have that feeling again. UNACCEPTABLE. This was the one thing I was MOST upset with on the entire cruise. It left a bitter taste in my mouth, and still does.

The gal finally let us out, but closed it off again after she let us through. Too bad if you had made private arrangements. Not their problem!

And ya'll can shout all you want that we should have booked through the ship, but the ship owes it to ALL their customers to provide a fair service. TWO lines moving consecutively would have accomplished that.

Nuff of that.....

We arranged a private taxi tour here in Halifax. FANTASTIC!!!! He drove us all around Halifax and gave us all sorts of interesting histories. I even enjoyed the Titanic cemetery, which I did not expect. So much fascinating info from this guy.

And the scenic stops he made on the way to Peggy's Cove! Forget Peggy's Cove! My favorite stop of the day was down a gravel road, ruts and all, to the middle of nowhere, with the shore down off one side, and granite rocks and huckleberry as far as the eye could see, and not a soul around but us. Absolutely fantastic!!!!!

And the best part was dh was able to enjoy the day, despite his arm.

Enjoying your review, looking forward to more.

Ah... THAT kind of plastered. So glad you enjoyed the tour of Halifax.

Inquiring minds want to know

1) What was the bill for the Sydney hospital?

2) Has anyone else had this appalling experience of not being let off the ship because they had booked excursions on their own? I haven't heard of this before and it's shocking.

"We flew to Quebec via air Canada. The only bad part was having to go not only through customs in Toronto, (which I expected), but also security all over again. Don't quite get that, but just an fyi if planning a cruise out of Canada, give ample time for that stuff on a transfer."

==========

 

Toronto-Pearson is this country's worst airport. I'm sorry for your experience. I wish I could tell you it was atypical. It's not.

 

As I live in Nova Scotia, the title of your thread has more than piqued my interest. I wish I could claim that getting plastered here is atypical. It's not...

Fly through Pearson quite a bit and never had a problem there, certainly better than Montreal. As for going through customs and then security again, I've had to do the same thing at Logan in Boston so I don't think it is unique to Toronto.

OP, just read your first post so far but our experiences on the Dawn this past July were similar. It was our first cruise with NCL and I'm not sure if we would use them again.

Fly through Pearson quite a bit and never had a problem there, certainly better than Montreal. As for going through customs and then security again, I've had to do the same thing at Logan in Boston so I don't think it is unique to Toronto.

I've seen this happen to far less famous people at Pearson multiple times:

http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/03/31/itzhak-perlman-disabled-violin-virtuoso-says-pearson-airport-staff-abandoned-him/

Ah... THAT kind of plastered. So glad you enjoyed the tour of Halifax.

 

Inquiring minds want to know

1) What was the bill for the Sydney hospital?

2) Has anyone else had this appalling experience of not being let off the ship because they had booked excursions on their own? I haven't heard of this before and it's shocking.

That's was my thinking too. Lots of great places to get 'plastered' in Nova Scotia, especially Halifax.:D

I've seen this happen to far less famous people at Pearson multiple times:

 

http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/03/31/itzhak-perlman-disabled-violin-virtuoso-says-pearson-airport-staff-abandoned-him/

I guess we have had different experiences. Even Mr Perlman says this was a new experience for him in Toronto.

"We were ported at 8am. It took around 40 minutes to clear customs. "

If your cruise started in Quebec City and your next port is Halifax you would not be clearing customs as you are still in Canada.

Perhaps you meant to say ship's security screening as you disembark.

Also it is quite common to have those on ship's excursions use a different lineup and exit gang plank than those going ashore for private tours etc.

"but to tell us that our private tour that was waiting on us was not important made me feel THIRD CLASS" - were you the only private excursion among all the other none ship excursion people wanted to get off. Whether it is one line or two it takes time to get upwards of 2200 people off of a cruise ship

"I get the impression there were too many ships in port" Don't see how this would impact you getting off the ship as it is only NCL staff and not port staff that disembark you.

Glad you did find Halifax an interesting port of call - I was there for the first time last fall and was very pleasantly surprised with the area - be it Peggy's Cove, the Citadel or just walking the boardwalk.

Cheers!

Dennis

Thanks for your review.

It sounds like you had a cruise with a LOT of problems.

I will be cruising in that region (on the Dawn) next year, so I was especially interested.

I just cruised NCL on the Sun from Vancouver to Alaska, and I also noticed a severe lack of activities on board during the afternoon. Fortunately, there was only one full sea day and two partial sea days, so it wasn't a lot of time to pass. But I'll tell ya... I was BORED during those afternoons, and I couldn't figure out why they didn't plan more activities.

Your embarkation issues sound weird. I believe your description of them, but the whole thing sounded odd. Did you try to make a big deal about it to someone in charge? I would have.

Don't know what the "Venetian" is (aside from a casino in Vegas), but if it's a Main Dining Room, I understand why your service was so awful. I stay away from the MDRs and eat specialties every night. It's worth it.

I am also curious about your Canadian medical bill. How much was it? If you claimed that you couldn't afford care but needed it, would they have turned you away? I ask this because you're just asking for trouble when you pay first on your credit card, and then attempt to sort out the insurance and other billing issues later. You have much more "billing power" when you haven't paid yet.

I also experienced the BS with the ship excursions getting priority. This didn't happen on my last cruise (Alaska), but it did on my Caribbean cruise in Belize for the tendering. Got me really frustrated, especially because the tenders were also late in general, so I was stuck on the ship for 2 extra hours. The shore excursion people got the first tenders. I should have complained about this, but I didn't. You're right that people who set up their own shore excursions should have just as much right to get off the ship first as those who bought ship-based ones.

Regarding the steward: I have found that some stewards are nice/hardworking but a bit inexperienced, especially with sanitary practices of westerners. This isn't a slam on them, but just a fact. The approach I take with them is just to request them not to repeat something they did wrong. So, if I was in your situation, I would have asked the steward, "When you see clothes around the room, can you please leave them where they are? And if they're on the floor, maybe just put them on the chair or in the corner? Please don't stack them on other clothes, because you end up mixing my clean and dirty clothes." Usually they will listen and not repeat the mistake.

Regarding the hot tubs: Weird how they were cold. Did you ever find out why this happened? Plumbing/heating issues? I've never seen this before.

Regarding the room service: Not surprising. Every experience of mine with NCL room service has been lousy. I barely use it for that reason.

Sorry to hear about your husband. Sounds like an awful (and unlucky) situation. I got injured in January during a trip to Vegas when I broke 3 ribs, so I can relate. Hope he gets better soon.

Just one comment. There can never be everyone gets off first. Every cruise I have been on with NCL works this way, Suites and Vips get priority disembarkation, ships excursions have a private/separate disembarkation area and general disembarkation has another. If you get in the ships excursion line and do not have a ticket in hand when you reach the tender, they will not let you off with that group and redirect you to where you should be. If NCL ever said "we have a special place for suites or ships excursions, but we won't check your credentials" do you think anyone would go to that line? Of course they would. It is geared toward what you paid for. If you paid a premium for a suite or for a ships tour, you get a special disembarkation point. If not, you go with the general disembarkation. Same thing happens at the end of the cruise. Suites and VIP's have the option to leave the ship before anyone else.

In response to questions and comments.

As regards our disembarkation in Halifax. I already knew some would disagree with me. This was not a tender port. Yes, they usually take shore excursions from the front, and the rest out the middle. They only had the ONE gangplank open for whatever reason. Fine. They had TWO machines. Use them to feed BOTH lines, not leave the rest of us standing on ship while those who paid for inferior excursions are permitted off! I get the suites. I'm accustomed to that already. No biggie. Not that many of them anyway. It is when you have all those excursions taking priority that it becomes unfair to the rest, (and some were using old ticket stubs to get off, and yes I saw it personally). Yes. There were a LOT of folks waiting to get off. ALL OF THEM MATTER! Not just those who purchased through the ship. You are entitled to your own opinions on the matter and I am entitled to mine. Nuf said.

Bills in Halifax.

I don't know if they would have processed us without a credit card or not. Perhaps yes for life threating situations like a hear attack. I don't know about broken bones. We didn't fight them. DH needed treatment. I am COUNTING on the insurance eventually reimbursing us. If they don't, it is time for a new insurance company and the news will be wherever I can post on the net as to why. Not good practice these days to turn down valid claims. I spent good money for that travel policy. I expect service in return.

The admitting fee in Sydney was $675 and the doctor's fee $350. The xrays will be billed via mail. Interesting note, the doctor couldn't run the credit machine! It is so rare to have patients that aren't auto insured, he didn't have the experience on the machine, and doc's do their own billing when off the Canadian health system.

As for Toronto, to clarify, no biggie, just a time issue. I felt our connection was tighter than I liked given the extra security line I didn't allow for. In the end it didn't matter as our connection was late, just like our flight to Toronto was late. When everything is late, I guess it all works out. :rolleyes:

declansdad

We discussed many times, that had this been our first cruise, I doubt seriously we would be cruising again. We are seasoned cruisers and I am hoping this was an anomaly. And as I've said, parts were great, parts horrid, and some was NCL's fault, some the port agents, or simply circumstance. It was the whole of the experience that came out sour, and MANY factors contributed to that, not all in NCL's court.

To all..... getting "plastered", (ie Wisconsin style), WOULD have been a bit more fun and the hangover a bit shorter. ;)

Hot tubs

I have seen the hot tubs cool before, but never to the point where I was shivering. There was a good cold breeze that night. I suspect they didn't have them turned high enough to compensate for the environment lowering the temps of the water. I don't know for certain. I saw another couple give up and leave.

In response to questions and comments.

 

As regards our disembarkation in Halifax. I already knew some would disagree with me. This was not a tender port. Yes, they usually take shore excursions from the front, and the rest out the middle. They only had the ONE gangplank open for whatever reason. Fine. They had TWO machines. Use them to feed BOTH lines, not leave the rest of us standing on ship while those who paid for inferior excursions are permitted off! I get the suites. I'm accustomed to that already. No biggie. Not that many of them anyway. It is when you have all those excursions taking priority that it becomes unfair to the rest, (and some were using old ticket stubs to get off, and yes I saw it personally). Yes. There were a LOT of folks waiting to get off. ALL OF THEM MATTER! Not just those who purchased through the ship. You are entitled to your own opinions on the matter and I am entitled to mine. Nuf said.

 

Bills in Halifax.

I don't know if they would have processed us without a credit card or not. Perhaps yes for life threating situations like a hear attack. I don't know about broken bones. We didn't fight them. DH needed treatment. I am COUNTING on the insurance eventually reimbursing us. If they don't, it is time for a new insurance company and the news will be wherever I can post on the net as to why. Not good practice these days to turn down valid claims. I spent good money for that travel policy. I expect service in return.

 

The admitting fee in Sydney was $675 and the doctor's fee $350. The xrays will be billed via mail. Interesting note, the doctor couldn't run the credit machine! It is so rare to have patients that aren't auto insured, he didn't have the experience on the machine, and doc's do their own billing when off the Canadian health system.

 

As for Toronto, to clarify, no biggie, just a time issue. I felt our connection was tighter than I liked given the extra security line I didn't allow for. In the end it didn't matter as our connection was late, just like our flight to Toronto was late. When everything is late, I guess it all works out. :rolleyes:

 

declansdad

We discussed many times, that had this been our first cruise, I doubt seriously we would be cruising again. We are seasoned cruisers and I am hoping this was an anomaly. And as I've said, parts were great, parts horrid, and some was NCL's fault, some the port agents, or simply circumstance. It was the whole of the experience that came out sour, and MANY factors contributed to that, not all in NCL's court.

 

To all..... getting "plastered", (ie Wisconsin style), WOULD have been a bit more fun and the hangover a bit shorter. ;)

 

Hot tubs

I have seen the hot tubs cool before, but never to the point where I was shivering. There was a good cold breeze that night. I suspect they didn't have them turned high enough to compensate for the environment lowering the temps of the water. I don't know for certain. I saw another couple give up and leave.

Thanks for the update.

If you are at a doctor's office in Canada, the office does handle the billing and that would be to medicare, not a private insurer. The doctor's also wouldn't be doing the billing at a hospital as they are run by the Province.

It was also our first cruise with NCL and we did enjoy ourselves but just had issues with how NCL did things. We had a fantastic cabin steward, some good wait staff and some that were horrid. We may cruise with NCL again but it would only be if that was the only option for a particular itinerary.

The admitting fee in Sydney was $675 and the doctor's fee $350. The xrays will be billed via mail. Interesting note, the doctor couldn't run the credit machine! It is so rare to have patients that aren't auto insured, he didn't have the experience on the machine, and doc's do their own billing when off the Canadian health system.

That would be funny to see the doctor fumbling with the credit card machine. Every waiter and waitress in the country knows how to use those things but a Dr. with years and years of higher education cannot. :D Did you at least tip him? ;)

To all..... getting "plastered", (ie Wisconsin style), WOULD have been a bit more fun and the hangover a bit shorter. ;)

:D:D Brilliantly Funny!

I can't speak for any other hospital in any other town on any other night but I know a foreign student here who overstayed her visa (yes, yes...) and was thus uninsured when she fell and broke her ankle. When she got to hospital she had no methods of payment on her. She was operated on and billed.

I am perhaps infamous on these boards for decrying what I perceive to be the bad value of travel insurance. Putting that aside, I'm surprised that where the accident happened aboard, and NCL was covering ship portion of care, that NCL was not covering shoreside care.

So, our Halifax day was wonderful. I don't recall if that was the night we went to the show or not. I'm pretty sure I did more Celtic dancing that night. ;)

Our next port was St John's. It was a very WET day. I did say circumstance played into our meh feelings, did I not? Dh stayed on ship. He was in pain and didn't want to fight keeping the cast dry in the elements.

We walked into port, through the market, (fun for a short while), and stopped in at Celestial Treasures for some psychic readings. Sis was pretty well convinced with accuracy of stuff that came up. I was wishy-washy and still am. It was fun regardless and we have had a LOT to discuss since. At the least, it left us thinking about life in general. No regrets.

We were scheduled to do a lot of walking this day. After hitting up 2 churches we gave in to the elements and headed back to the ship. I'm sure on a drier day, this would have been a great port, but not on the day we were there.

And so there we were, back on ship with nothing to do in the afternoon. Again, a SERIOUS lack of activities that time of day.

Other small side note here, the Dawn, since they moved the Spinnaker, has no real good place for inside cabin folks to hang out with windows. Sitting on window seats in the atrium area, hanging in the cafeteria, and dh spent some time in the library despite the lack of windows there,...just nowhere to hang. The pool area was too cold on this trip for hanging.

Our last port was Bar Harbor. We booked through the ship on this one. I question the value of a priority tender ticket here as well.

Because this was the first port in the states, we had to go through immigration. Of course it ran late. Priority for this was , VIPS, those with excursions, and then called by floor.

Now, we had an excursion through the ship, so it didn't really effect us, but what good is a priority tender ticket if we were to be the LAST to be called for immigration??????

I don't know. Just another irritant, like a bit of sand in one's shoe.

We finally got through immigration after the long delay. The line moved quite quickly once it began. We headed to the theater and waited for our excursion. Dh cancelled his the day before because of his arm and again remained on ship alone. :(

We booked the lighthouse and harbor tour. I do NOT, I repeat NOT recommend this tour to anyone. The boat is overpacked, and not enough seats to go around. 2 of the 3 levels are in open elements. The third level had an interior, but only good for sitting in, not viewing.

Being towards the end of the line, we were forced up and up until we arrived at the top deck, where still no seats were to be had. One guy offered sis his seat. I stood at the very front and a gal was rather huffy about me standing in front of her 'fantastic' view. I kindly offered to trade places but she refused. *shrug*

I stood up there in a very cold wind for I don't know how long. Sis gave up eventually and headed down trying to find someplace she could get warmer. I wish I had been so smart! By the time I went down in search of some relief from the cold I was beyond frigid.

Notes here. YES, I had a jacket, gloves and scarf! I had anticipated a boat more similar to the boat tours we had in Alaska when I booked this. I saw no mention of a potential for hypothermia in the description. They need to add it!!! And I live in WISCONSIN and have walked to work in 20 below F with wind chills below 40 below. This tour was BAD!

The boat drove around at high speeds and then would stop for 3-5 minutes for a lighthouse pict, rev up and go again. 2 hours of that. UGH!

By the time we got off, I was frozen. I couldn't stop shivering. Sis headed into town and ds accompanied me back to ship. I was still shivering when we got back on board. I grabbed the bottle of wine we still had from La Cucina and headed to the blue Lagoon, where I downed half that bottle, 3 cups of tea and hot soup before the shivers subsided eventually. I have never been so cold in all my life!!! Not tto the point where I couldn't warm up after coming in from the cold.

So, another dull afternoon followed. Sis, at least, enjoyed her afternoon walking the streets of Bar Harbor

I'll come back later to summarize bits and pieces. Again, not ALL the cruise was bad. The entertainment, when it was there, was great. The medical staff great. Just a lot of stuff that didn't go well. I was ready to be home. I was chomping at the bit to be home. No, not ANY day on a ship is better than a day at work. *sigh*

I think you mean to say you stopped in Saint John not St. John's. Saint John is in New Brunswick while St. John's is in Newfoundland. Neither city likes it much when you confuse their names.;)

I think you mean to say you stopped in Saint John not St. John's. Saint John is in New Brunswick while St. John's is in Newfoundland. Neither city likes it much when you confuse their names.;)

Ooops! :D

Random thoughts in conclusion

Demographics - OLD - There were 17 kids under the age of 21. I'm mid fifties and felt like a baby in this crowd. 29s said he never saw such a pathetic white hot party.

Smoke from the smoking lounge was leaking badly into Gatsby's area. Drove sis and I up above to listen to Celtic music as she was coughing badly. Son had to retreat outside to clear lungs out. One night it even drifted all the way to the atrium area. They need ventilation badly for that room and a buffer zone of some sort around that door,(double doors, suction fans, something????)

High points - Evening entertainment, including around the ship. Food was good to great. La Cucina was fantastic. Staff tried hard to please. Medical staff was terrific. We loved our time in Quebec and Halifax. Sea day matinee was great as well.

Low points - More lines than we've ever stood in before. Some of this was NCL, some immigration and some the port authorities. Regardless, I've never stood around in line so much on a cruise before. Slow service in the dining room. DULL afternoons. Cold whirlpools. Bar Harbor tour was by far and away the worst tour I've ever experienced. St John weather didn't help the overall depressed mood of the cruise.

First experience as Platinum - meh

priority check-in was a joke.

I loved the dinner and wine.

Laundry was slow, but still a nice perk.

Priority tender was a joke on this cruise.

Strawberries were a pain to get squared out.

Latitudes parties were fine.

Lots of free alcohol. ;)

Glad we made Platinum, I wish it had given me a warmer experience....(time for the Caribbean again???? ;))

No more Canadian cruises for us, at least not on NCL. I wouldn't mind a week in Quebec, and if dh should lose his job prematurely to retirement, will seriously look at job opportunities in and around Halifax.

Someday I plan on being able to laugh at this cruise. I'm just not there yet.

Once dh's surgery is over, and life is a bit more normal, I might consider coming back to this thread and posting a few picts. I got quite a few decent ones. :)

Thanks for bearing with me. This was a bit more convoluted than my usual. I really need to get some time to add a few picts. *sigh*

I wish your husband a quick recovery from his injury. Keep us posted.