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Photo Tour of Canada New England Ports


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Shared this earlier on the New England Ports & Royal Caribbean boards. Thought it might help someone planning trips to Montreal, Quebec, Saint John, Halifax, PEI and more. It's fairly long and detailed but you can skip to specific ports or pictures you might find interesting.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1790059

 

 

 

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Shared this earlier on the New England Ports & Royal Caribbean boards. Thought it might help someone planning trips to Montreal, Quebec, Saint John, Halifax, PEI and more. It's fairly long and detailed but you can skip to specific ports or pictures you might find interesting.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1790059

 

 

 

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Thank you so much for this!! I have a few questions and I am in the process of planning my NE trip for this summer:

 

What made you decide to rent a car at the various ports and how was the process? I keep reading that a lot of people do that and while I've been looking over and over for tours, I'm starting to think I should look into this. Was it hard to do? Did you have any troubles? I saw you write that one cost $28/day at one of the ports. Is that the average price? Any details you have on the car rental experience would be appreciated! Thanks!

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Renting the cars couldn't have been easier. I made all my reservations online thru Budget and prepaid to get the best rates. At two ports we walked to the rental locations in less than 10 minutes & planned to walk the other but they were there waiting to pick us up when we got off the ship.

 

We used the following locations and got the following rates in Oct/Nov 2012:

 

Budget 902-566-5525

215 University Ave

Charlottetown, PEI

$39.75 prepaid rate

 

Budget 902-564-2610

224 Welton St

Sydney, NS

$29.47 prepaid rate

 

Budget 902-492-7542

1554 Hollis St

Halifax, NS

$29.47 prepaid rate

 

 

p><p><img src=[/img]

 

p><p>It took about 15 minutes to pick up our rentals and we were on our way. Each location had maps and places to see. I already had mapped out our itineraries in advance. Our favorite drive was the Cabot Trail (partial, you don

 

The most scenic was Peggy's Cove and the drive to Lunenberg. We used to be too afraid to DIY for fear of missing the ship. However the more we have traveled the more comfortable We have become. You just need to allow yourself enough time to return the car and have time to walk back to the ship. We normally try to get back in port at least 1 to 2 hours early to turn in our car. This gives us time to walk around the port area and do a little shopping before getting back on the ship.

 

Just the idea of doing things on our own is what appeals most to us. Being able to stop when we want to stop, take pictures, stay as long or as short a period of time we want. Not having to wait on other people to get loaded on the bus and wasting our time. Those are just some of the reasons we like to do things on around. Plus the major reason is the cost. It's much cheaper for us to take excursions on our own and that through the cruise ship.

 

Our second option would be to do a private tour that we book ourselves either for just ourselves or we invite people from our rollcall to help share the expense to make it cheaper. We also did this in a couple of ports on this trip. However for these ports I didn't find any private tours that I thought would cover areas we wanted to see for cheaper than we could do it on our own.

 

If you have any other questions feel free to ask and I will try to answer.

 

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Budget (Charlottetown - University Ave location) will pick you up via shuttle if you let them know you are arriving at the port. We've booked a compact car with them for our upcoming port day later this month $43 CAD all included. For Halifax, we have booked with Thrifty in the Westin Hotel right across from the port $51 CAD all included for the day.

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Thank you both so much for the replies. I meant to reply earlier but came down with a cold. This information has made the daunting thought of having to rent a car into what seems a very viable option. I would pretty much never take a ship excursion and usually do whatever I want in port after researching from home (guide books and online). Last cruise, I was able to go on two really good tours (Costa Rica and Cartegena, Columbia) arranged by fellow roll callers but this time the roll call is really quiet and doing a tour with just two people is very expensive. Also feels much easier to rent a car in my home country than a foreign one. Thanks again for the info.

 

Ace1Zoe2 would you mind sharing your driving route or location highlights in the three you mentioned? I am contemplating driving to see Fort Louiebourg from Sydney, Peggy's Cove and beyond (haven't researched that part yet) and some sort of circular route in PEI hitting Cavendish on the way. Thanks.

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Ace1Zoe2 would you mind sharing your driving route or location highlights in the three you mentioned? I am contemplating driving to see Fort Louiebourg from Sydney, Peggy's Cove and beyond (haven't researched that part yet) and some sort of circular route in PEI hitting Cavendish on the way. Thanks.

 

 

I would be happy to give you that information. I'm at work now, so when I get home tonight I will try to find my notes and post for you. We had planned to do Fort Louiebourg from Sydney but decided to drive the Cabot Trail at the last minute... best decision we made... but it was fall and the colors were gorgeous.

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Thanks! What's the Cabot Trail like? I was thinking to do Fortress Louiebourg but I just looked it up on their website and now I"m less interested. Are there amazing stops along the way with the Cabot Trail? My brief read about it was that it's just the highway surrounding the island? There's got to be more to it as it's one of the names that comes up most when I look into Sydney port stop.

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Thank you very much for posting this here. We are going on Celebrity Summit this October, visiting most of the same ports, except for St. John's and Montreal. Like you, DH and I enjoy old churches and we try to see as many as possible on our cruises. Also like you, I am addicted to Christmas ornaments. Could you please post locations of the various Christmas stores you visited, especially in Quebec and Portland?

 

Thanks again for the beautiful photos.

 

Kathy

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Thank you very much for posting this here. We are going on Celebrity Summit this October, visiting most of the same ports, except for St. John's and Montreal. Like you, DH and I enjoy old churches and we try to see as many as possible on our cruises. Also like you, I am addicted to Christmas ornaments. Could you please post locations of the various Christmas stores you visited, especially in Quebec and Portland?

 

Thanks again for the beautiful photos.

 

Kathy

 

Kathy,

 

I tried to find information on where I purchased my ornaments, and this is what I came up with:

 

In Quebec the store was called Le Boutique de Noel and here is a walking map from the port, it will be on your left hand side:

 

 

 

In Sydney I purchased the wooden ornaments at a craft fair in the terminal building at the port...however the next day we went to the shopping area (we had an unexpected overnight because of Hurricane Sandy). To get there you walk out of the terminal, take a left and walk down the side walk to the shopping area (nearby there is a lighthouse and some photo spots) if you walk in the building on the left i think the shop was to the left. You can also go upstairs and go across the overhead enclosed walkway which will take you to another indoor mall area for other shopping.

 

In Halifax I also purchased my ornament in the terminal building. As you walk thru the main hallway on your way out look to your left directly before the doors. There is a shop there that has a lot of ornaments that are either hand painted or hand made.

 

In Portland I think the name of the shop was Country Noel Christmas, Etc. and I believe this is a map on how to walk from the port to the store:

 

In Gaspe it is very small town with only one main street of shopping. The artist boutique that I bought my hand painted ornament was Marie Gaudet and it is about half way up the street o the left:

 

In Charlottetown PEI I purchased the ornaments at a shop downtown across the street from the Anne of Green Gables Chocolate Shop but i could not find the name of the shop.

 

Hopefully this will help you locate some extra special ornaments for your collection.

 

Cindy

 

Sorry... i can't get my links to work... i'll try again tomorrow :)

 

 

 

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Thanks for the shopping info. We have an overnight in Quebec, and plan to walk the lower Old Town one day and the upper Old Town the next. In the other ports, we have morning tours scheduled, leaving the afternoons free for shopping. I have a small table-top tree for ornaments from my travels. I nearly filled it last year, even though I couldn't find my Mexico ornaments, so I may have to get a larger one soon.

 

Kathy

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Gaspe Walking Map to Les Creations Marie Gaudet Artist's Shop:

 

p><p><img src=[/img]

 

 

Quebec City Walking Map to Boutique de Noel Christmas Shop:

 

<a href=image_zpse1bac42e.jpg' alt='image_zpse1b

 

Hopefully the links work this time. These are all walking maps with the time and distance shown thru iphone maps.

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