City Access : CNE on Carnival Triumph

Hi Everyone,

I'll be sailing soon aboard Carnival Triumph to Canada & New England. I'd like to know the port access situation for each of the ports as to if it is feasible to walk from the ship into the heart of town, etc :

Boston, MA

Portland, ME

Halifax, NS

Sydney, NS

I noticed that my first choice for shore excursions is already sold out so it is prompting me to think about doing an independent tour, etc. by finding one in town.

If anyone is able to specify the "walkability" of the above ports, it would be great!

You will need to take a taxi to get into Boston from the pier, but there are many different parts to the city. Some cruise lines run a shuttle for a smiall fee to the Quincy Market area.

In Halifax, you can walk to the boardwalk on the harbor and the main shopping district in town. I believe there is also a free shuttle ("Fred") that you can use to get around to other parts of the town. http://www.halifax.ca/metrotransit/fred.html I really enjoyed our visit to Peggy's Cove while in Halifax. If you enjoy beautiful scenery, try not to miss this trip!

Just got back from the 4 night Triumph to Halifax. It was my second time to that port. First time, we left ship walked around the town, went to the casino and shopped -- it was about 3 weeks after hurricane Juan so some stuff was closed, but the city is lovely.

This last time, we booked with yourcab taxi and a terrific driver named Glenn took four of us on a tour of the city, to Peggy's Cove and a lunch stop. A total of about 5 hour tour -- we could stop whenever and wherever we wanted to and Glenn was very informative. I don't remember how much it wsa -- but I am thinking it was about 1/2 the cost of the ship's tour, it lasted longer and we were free to direct it how we wanted to. I highly recommend it!

They met us at 8:30 ship's time (Halifax is one hour ahead of the eastern US but Carnival stays on US time) and dropped us off at the Maritime museum around 1:30 or so. We then walked to the casino (5 minutes) where we won some money in about an hour, then shopped our way back to the ship, arriving back to the mall at the pier around 5PM. Spent all the Canadian money we'd won (most places take US funds as well and we didn't see anyone that didn't take credit!)

Halifax is a really beautiful place and very easy to walk to with the exception of the citadel -- a heck of a hike! You can get from the casino (one end of the walking route) back to the ship in about 15 minutes if you don't stop along the way!

Thanks for your current report, doctor! Any further feedback regarding the Triumph herself?

Triumph was in good condition -- nice ship, but confusing to get around! One dining room is mid-ship and you cannot get through it, so if you are going forward on decks 3-5 (I think it's all three of them), you cannot do it through the London dining room! Made all of us nuts -- after 4 days on the ship, only one of the four of us could navigate, and he helped lots of other passengers find their way as well.

Staff in DR and all over ship were very friendly and nice and responsive. Never had a single problem with anyone -- not in the slightest. Food was good -- not the best I've had on a cruise, but certainly a nice variety and well prepared.

Shows were good, but the comic was awful from what I heard about him. I didn't attend any of his shows, but some in my group did and thought it poor, and so did everyone else we spoke with.

Cruise director and those running games and such were all very good. We enjoy trivia a lot so we went to most of those -- and 1-2 of the bingo sessions (much less pricey than on RCCL!).

Didn't swim at all -- buffets were good although the lines were sometimes a little long.

Overall, I prefer RCCL to Carnival -- been on 3 RCCLs and 2 Carnival -- but the cruise was a great deal of fun and overall very very good.