here are my shore plans for boston, newport, barharbor

We go on NCL Gem soon and will have 2 of our teenagers with us. I spent hours going over CC, plus Tom Port guides, reviewing the ship's tour offerings, and goggling top 10 things to do in each port. I had to balance what I wanted to do with what our kids would like with our budget, etc. Plus, like in Boston, I had to choose some things that might help them in school- like visiting concord and Lexington instead of hanging out at the JFK library or driving by Mitt Romney's home or whatever. I share these plans in an effort to help other cruisers with some details..

Needless to say I had to cut out some great things, balance what would work for us, and thought I would share it here...

Saturday 27 Check out of hotel 930, take cab to Port of NY 711 12th Ave, look for ship signs there. Turn in bags, about 10 am go to interped museum-maybe, 2pm board ship, 4pm sail. Sail away- Great outdoors in back, spinnakers in middle, deck above pool, or front. At guest services sign up to eat with one of the officers.

Sunday at SEA- sleep in, relax, religious observance

Monday Halifax- 8-5 Get off ship, take a private cab at the dock (mostly for the narration)($50 per hour)-brief city tour, then Peggy’s Cove and Swiss air memorial, then Titanic Cemetery, then back to town- drop off at Citadel ($7.80 each), Lobster Lunch in town, then Maritime Museum 930-530 ($8.75), then boardwalk (harbor walk) back to ship.

Tuesday Saint John. early morning getup and watch ship pull into Bay of Fundy In port: 10-6pm Take the free enclosed walkways (pedway system- see map) to New Brunswick Museum (about $8 per) walk around Brunswick square and city market. pm. Lunch back on ship. Walk 15 minutes to Forte Howe Lookout . The fort, perched high on a rocky cliff, is reached from Main Street via Metcalfe Street and Magazine Street. Then walk 30 minutes to Reversing rapids at Fallsview walk to viewpointlookout (on the map)

Wednesday Bar Harbor 8-6 Tender in (after ships tours tender) 900 am or so Walk to Bar island low tied, walk around short “shore path” other side, Free bus tour- walk 3 steep blocks to Village green- Take the Free “Down East” Island Shuttle bus- Rt1 up to visitor center- then Route 3 or 4.. check winter route times- if you get off at a stop to look around, you add about a half hour to your time since the bus doesn't wait, but just continues on its route. http://www.exploreacadia.com/ See Thunder Hole, Jordan Lake, Cadillac mountain all in arcadia

1pm- 3 pm Lulu’s Lobster boat tour (pre-book) Or 12-3 Whale Watch tour $45 each (* Make res)

Thursday Boston October 2nd 8 am to 6 pm. 8 am Call Enterprise 617-268-1411 to arrange pier pick up. Drive to Harvard Yard (read narrative) - try to find parking- 15 minutes here-then to Lexington (26 minutes) Then Concord (10)

Start at Lexington Visitor Center- get map, movie, etc. Stop at Minute Man National Historical Park Visitor Center and see “road to revolution movie” Free. Then North Bridge Visitor Center, then Concord Visitor Center and possibly Concord Museum. Possible guided walking tour

12 pm ish (about 40 minutes to) The Salem Witch Museum $9.50/6.50 Salem was the wealthiest city in the United States At the museum, using stage sets, life-size figures, lighting and narration, you’ll learn about the Witch Trials of 1692 and have time to visit the witch exhibit. You'll also see the Witch Memorial and the Point Burying Ground.

3pm ish Return car, driving by Boston Massacre site (a bronze plaque next to old state house), 1st Public School Site, Boston Common, then Cheers. and asked to be dropped off at USS Constitution (bring passports) free, then walk back to Old North Church ($3 donation) and photo of Paul revere statue there, then Faneuil Hall, then cab back to ship by 540 pm ( $10 for 4)

Friday- Newport- tender in-its maybe 15 mins, walk left a block or 2- buy ticket to the Breakers ($20), and take bus/trolley #67 for $2 each way pp exact cash to driver. Get off at stop 3 by the Breakers.. do tour, then walk left 2 blocks and up to join the cliff walk at about the “40 step” location. Then do the cliff walk back around past the breakers to the end, then walk to bus stop and take trolley/bus #67 back to town.. look around- try a bowl of local clam chowder, back to ship.

I'll wave high from the other side of the pier. I'll be boarding the Carnival Splendor that day.

The New Brunswick Museum sounds interesting. I had planned on staying mostly on ship that day, but now maybe I'll get off and check that out.

Your plans for Boston are overly ambitious--extremely so. (I just wrote a long list of suggestions that somehow didn't post, but ....) that schedule will not work. You have not taken rush hour traffic into consideration at all. (Starts at 2:30-3:00 on the highway and in town.) You have also miscalculated the interest of certain sights and left out others of more interest in the same area. Plus, note that the Constitution is in dry dock.

Your plans for Boston are overly ambitious--extremely so. (I just wrote a long list of suggestions that somehow didn't post, but ....) that schedule will not work. You have not taken rush hour traffic into consideration at all. (Starts at 2:30-3:00 on the highway and in town.) You have also miscalculated the interest of certain sights and left out others of more interest in the same area. Plus, note that the Constitution is in dry dock.

I totally agree! My eyes glazed over looking at the schedule. Your whole plan needs to be revamped. You are spending a lot money to rent a car to spend the day getting totally stressed out trying to negotiate the awful traffic of both downtown Boston and suburban Boston and run a serious risk of missing the ship if you miscalculate.

Lexington/Concord is my home turf and I spent years commuting to Boston and Cambridge by driving into the Alewife T station, into Harvard Square, or into Boston. Getting from the Concord area to Salem is awkward because Salem is well off route 128. And then getting back into Boston and trying to drive the narrow one way streets to find all the places you listed will be awful. As icing on the cake, your family will probably hate it if you try do do a tour day like this! Been there, done that with my kids in Europe.

So my advice is to scale it down and organize another plan. What's wrong with just staying in town - take the Red Line to Harvard and back and walk the Freedom trail?

I had a short port day in Boston in May and did the following. Took a cab to the Constitution for $16 incl tip. The museum opens at 9 am and the ship at 10 am. The Constitution is going into dry dock, but not until January. Other options in Charlestown include the Bunker Hill monument. Took the MBTA water taxi to Long Wharf for $3.25, which gave us a nice inexpensive inner harbor cruise. Could have taken the Harborwalk into the Italian North End to pick up the Freedom Trail past the Paul Revere House and the Old North Church back to Faneuil Hall, but we decided to skip that loop. Went to the NPS headquarters at Faneuil Hall and followed the Freedom Trail back to Boston Common, where we people watched in the park for a while. The Red Line Park St Station is right there, so we took the Red Line to South Station and transferred to the Silver Line SL 2 bus back to Black Falcon. The Red Line also goes out to Harvard Square.

I live in Lexington and work across the street from the Port in Boston. You will not be able to make that schedule work with Boston traffic. It's absolutely terrible. I'd say just stick with Lexington/Concord. Downtown Lexington is great and there is plenty to do in terms of historical info.

Thabks for input. I'll revise it a bit and practice honking the horn and using foul language and my middle finger while driving to facilitate getting around faster.

You have really tried to schedule a lot in every port and I really don't see how you are going to be able to enjoy any of your time. I live one town over from Lexington and I agree with the others, you are not going to be able to keep to that schedule with the traffic. You are only giving yourself time for drivebys at the visitor centers and no time to actually explore the area. You should really consider doing Lexington and Concord, Salem or the Freedom trail.

Your Halifax plan is doable but if you want to take a free guided tour at the Citadel and possibly see a firing of the cannons, you need to plan on at least 2 hours there.

When our son sailed with us, we always tried to keep planned events to a half day in port and then leave the rest of the time to just let stuff happen. He was a great traveler as a teen but over scheduling always made things stressful. You know your kids best but I would really adjust your schedule a bit.

@138east--thanks for the Old Ironsides correction. I guess I misunderstood a lot of the press saying the ship was going into dry dock "after" the recent sail around the harbor as being 'immediately after'.

@OP--

If you decide to do Lexington/Concord (which IMO would take most of the day) perhaps in addition to some Boston sights, consider walking into the National Park (along route 2A in Lincoln) on the Battle Road, to Hartwell Tavern.

http://www.nps.gov/mima/hartwell-tavern.htm

Also the cemetery in Concord with the authors' graves. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleepy_Hollow_Cemetery_(Concord,_Massachusetts)

If one of your kids is a girl, consider a visit to Louisa May Alcott's house. http://www.louisamayalcott.org

The Concord Museum might not be so interesting, esp. if time is limited.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concord_Museum

You could also visit the very pretty Walden Pond. http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dcr/massparks/region-north/walden-pond-state-reservation.html

Both Concord, and even more so Lexington, have a number of lunch restaurant options.

My personal opinion: If you are in Boston for just a short amount of time, why not explore Boston? Why give yourself the extra headache of having to rent a car and drive out?

@138east--thanks for the Old Ironsides correction. I guess I misunderstood a lot of the press saying the ship was going into dry dock "after" the recent sail around the harbor as being 'immediately after'.

 

@OP--

If you decide to do Lexington/Concord (which IMO would take most of the day) perhaps in addition to some Boston sights, consider walking into the National Park (along route 2A in Lincoln) on the Battle Road, to Hartwell Tavern.

http://www.nps.gov/mima/hartwell-tavern.htm

 

Also the cemetery in Concord with the authors' graves. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleepy_Hollow_Cemetery_(Concord,_Massachusetts)

 

If one of your kids is a girl, consider a visit to Louisa May Alcott's house. http://www.louisamayalcott.org

 

The Concord Museum might not be so interesting, esp. if time is limited.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concord_Museum

 

You could also visit the very pretty Walden Pond. http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dcr/massparks/region-north/walden-pond-state-reservation.html

 

Both Concord, and even more so Lexington, have a number of lunch restaurant options.

My personal opinion: If you are in Boston for just a short amount of time, why not explore Boston? Why give yourself the extra headache of having to rent a car and drive out?

I agree - do Boston. If the OP does decide they just have to rent a car, I'd like to hear a bit more about the logistics of that. The Enterprise closest to the pier is in South Boston over by i93, but there is a Enterprise near Government Center where the car might be able to be returned. Some sort of GPS would be required. My son does a lot of driving everywhere in the Boston area and he uses GPS and his local driving experience to select a route from point A to point B because the GPS often picks a bad route.

We have done this Canada cruise twice, and I fully agree with others about some of your itineraries in most every port. You are simply trying to do too much. I am not trying to deny all the work you have put into this, but you are just not allowing any time to even see what you are trying to see, if you get my gist.

Take Halifax, the drive to Peggy's Cove is about an hour each way. You just don't want to see the lighthouse, take a pix and move on. You have 2 teenagers. they will love to climb all over the rocks there, get up close and personal with the lighthouse, look in the shop there, walk into the town, and just take in where you are. In the Fortress they have many activities. If you want a free tour, they do it at certain times. At the Titanic cemetery, we also wanted to just see it, but we were simply fascinated at some of what the grave markers say and we spent close to 45 minutes here.

You even have the walking times down to a science. What happens if some one needs to use the rest rooms? (just joking)

In Newport, maybe you miss a trolley, maybe you want to spend some extra time in the Mansion. The cliff walk is an exciting thing. Your teens should love it. along the walk, there are several places to stop and take in where you are. There are other places that take you right down to the beach. Give your kids and yourself a chance to just relax and 'smell the roses' and remember what you did and where.

I can't speak for your itinerary in Boston, but others seem to feel the same as I do about your plans there.

We did a Baltic cruise a couple of years ago. In Stockholm, they have a museum called the Vasa Museum, where they found an old war ship, raised it and built a museum around it. It ids one of the most visited sights in all of Sweden. We planned on visiting it, spending maybe 1/2 an hour there as museums really aren't my thing. To make a long story short, WE were simply fascinated by this place. Truly fascinated. we ended up spending over 2 hours here, screwing up my best laid plans, but it is one of the best memories I have of that entire cruise.

have a great time anyway.

Cheers

Len

Len, back in the day, circa 1978, I visited the Vasa Museum so it's been around for a while. I also was fascinated by it and probably also spent a couple of hours there. Back then, they continually sprayed ocean salt water on it for preservation reasons. Don't know if they still do that.

Also, Stockholm is a beautiful city.

Thanks for all the input.. Will slightly revise... I am a bucket list kind of guy... knowing in 3 years we wont remember what was said but we have a photo of being there :)

Truly appreciate the input

Did a mid west history tour last month... brought a friend who is a college professor in the subject who had led groups before... I set the agenda and wore him out :) so I may slow down a bit here...

my 2 teenagers are boys ... hope they can get into smelling the roses...

the ship was sold out and we snagged the only available rooms- inside at least for now... so we will go hard all day and crash at night

again thanks

Len, back in the day, circa 1978, I visited the Vasa Museum so it's been around for a while. I also was fascinated by it and probably also spent a couple of hours there. Back then, they continually sprayed ocean salt water on it for preservation reasons. Don't know if they still do that.

Also, Stockholm is a beautiful city.

We were there about 4 years ago (at Vasa). I really don't remember them spraying the ship, but maybe they do that when there aren't people around. Just simply a fascinating place and ship. I was stunned when I learned that they built the museum around the ship because they were afraid to move it. It is all very low light and if you don't get there early in the day, you will probably stand on line to get in as they limit the number of people inside at any time. Truly a must see for anyone going to Stockholm. And, as far as cities go, Stockholm was our favorite port on the entire cruise and I credit the Vasa Museum with a good part of that.

Cheers

Len

We were there about 4 years ago (at Vasa). I really don't remember them spraying the ship, but maybe they do that when there aren't people around. Just simply a fascinating place and ship. I was stunned when I learned that they built the museum around the ship because they were afraid to move it. It is all very low light and if you don't get there early in the day, you will probably stand on line to get in as they limit the number of people inside at any time. Truly a must see for anyone going to Stockholm. And, as far as cities go, Stockholm was our favorite port on the entire cruise and I credit the Vasa Museum with a good part of that.

 

 

Cheers

 

Len

The Vasa's preservation was pretty much the first of its kind, but is now the standard procedure for preserving wooden artifacts from the sea. They spray it down with sea water mixed with polyethylene glycol, gradually decreasing the salt content and increasing the PEG content. This will take a couple of years, but the Vasa is long done with this.

I would agree that the Vasa museum is exceptionally well done.

We also enjoyed Skansen. It was interesting that the staff there mentioned knowing about the Boston area Plimouth Plantation and Sturbridge Village.

The Vasa's preservation was pretty much the first of its kind, but is now the standard procedure for preserving wooden artifacts from the sea. They spray it down with sea water mixed with polyethylene glycol, gradually decreasing the salt content and increasing the PEG content. This will take a couple of years, but the Vasa is long done with this.

LOL, goes to show you how long ago I was there.:D I think it was about 1978.

A note about GPS in Boston. Don't bother, especially in areas around the Freedom trail.

Boston is a series of one way streets, some semi circular, and when your GPS tells you "next right" and the next right is one way coming towards you, and the next right after that is a dead end with cars parked on both sides so that if you turn in you can't turn around, and the next right after that is really kind of straight ahead, and meanwhile pedestrians are crossing in front of your car and the car behind you is honking...

It is also quite common to take a right onto a main Boston thoroughfare and need to take an immediate left, which is three lanes across but only 30 feet away. By the time your GPS tells you to do this, you will not be able to. In fact, even when you know you have to, it takes a certain amount of skill and coordination to simultaneously turn a corner and shoot across three lanes without hitting cars or people or buildings.

Driving in Boston isn't difficult because people are crazy drivers, it's difficult because if you don't know ahead of time precisely what lane to be in at any given time, you are not going to get where you want to go (any time soon).

On the other hand, you can walk quite easily pretty much anywhere in a half an hour, yet spend hours exploring a 10 minute radius.

You can have a lovely day in Lexington/Concord, Salem or Boston. If you try to do all three, you're likely to only do two very poorly, and spend a third of the day in the car.

I don't believe your schedule for Bar Harbor will work with the time allotted. I have to go to work now, but I'll write later today with some suggestions etc. Enjoy your cruise Jan

Since we upgraded our cabin I am pulling back on the afternoon activities in bar harbor. It was going to be tight time wise but ever few hundred dollars will help toward the cost of the 2 bedroom Suite but honestly with 2 teenagers who don't really enjoy trees and views an hour bus ride around Arcadia was going to be enough.

It is understandable that you will be in Boston for a short time and want to see as much you can. However, you will be spending more time in a car than actually getting to see all the historical sights in Boston. Your plans sound like just getting a glimpse of everything and not really seeing and enjoying anything. There is plenty to do in Boston and you don't really need to leave the city. Your kids would probably enjoy walking in the North End, seeing Faneuil Hall marketplace or maybe a duck tour of Boston instead of going to visitor centers and staying 10 mins. at each stop.

Hmm. Duck tour good suggestion.just did one in Seattle and. I was actually thinking of squeezing in Plymouth rock it's only an hour south of where we pick up the rental car

To FSRoberts - I've been to St. John 3 times and toured the New Brunswick Museum. The first 2 times I didn't go the museum because the entrance doesn't look like much. But I went the 3rd time and it is well worth a visit. The museum is 3 levels and very large and very interesting. It will take some time to go through it. Also if you belong to AAA, they give a discount.

You are planning to go places too far out of Boston. You are not taking into account traffic, parking, and unexpected delays. You are also not familiar with the area. You would be better off staying in Boston, maybe taking a HOHO bus to see the sights and if you want to see Harvard Yard and Cambridge, take public transit. You can also take public transit to the Kennedy Library. You will be missing so much by bypassing all that Boston has to offer.

Hmm. Duck tour good suggestion.just did one in Seattle and. I was actually thinking of squeezing in Plymouth rock it's only an hour south of where we pick up the rental car

I can pretty much guarantee that Plymouth Rock will be underwhelming. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=J4OJ17SG7rQ. It is certainly not worth a trip just for that.

You might consider spending some time at Plimouth Plantation though, if you are interested in the history of that era. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc21h_adwfc.

A reproduction of the Mayflower is located on the waterfront near the rock, and can be toured if you wish.

And for a meal, if you want a bit of a change from NE style seafood, I recommend the nearby Brazilian restaurant Rios (on the free tourist map you can find all over town), a manifestation of the substantial Brazilian community in the area. Good all you can eat buffet with grilled meat carved off swords at the table.

NB: Traffic in and out of Boston in that direction, though, will limit your day to just those activities. An hour of travel is very optimistic on a weekday.

But I do agree with the majority here that you realistically should concentrate your very limited time in Boston in Boston itself, and maybe Cambridge by T. There is plenty to fill your time. If you and your family like it, come back to spend a few days or more devoted to car tripping in the wider Boston and New England area.