Glory Boston to Canada Review 7/7/12 - 7/12/12 with Pictures

[Crusin Karen]

Thanks for sharing your cruise with us. We have cruised to Canada twice. First time it was sunny and warm the whole time, 2nd it was drizzly, foggy and chilly the whole time! :eek:

[amcjeep4life]

Such a small world! We're in Whitehall. I do love the Farmer's Market as well and try to get there every so often!!

 

Thanks! I'll be doing some more every chance I have throughout the day!

 

I have cousins in Whitehall and Catty! My grandfather was the Fire Chief in Catty for eons back in the 70s and 80s. I have his old jacket, and I love wearing it up here because they butcher Catasauqua badly when they try and say it. My favorite. Ca-tas-ah-que-ah. LOL

 

Sorry for yet another interruption. Continue please!:rolleyes:

[nodogkisses]

Love your review and pics--thanks! Cruising to Canada from Boston on the Glory is a cruise I want to do badly, but nobody wants to go with me. My daughter (who is 22 and also on break from college in PA) says no way--she only wants Caribbean sun. I'm going to show her your review and hopefully change her mind. And, she makes nobody else want to do it either, such as my husband, son and their friends that always cruise with us. Thanks again for doing this review. Love your "to the point" writing style and pics. It's definitely a review to change her mind and get me on the Glory to Canada. Not ready to go solo.

[amdmsk]

Love your review and pics--thanks! Cruising to Canada from Boston on the Glory is a cruise I want to do badly, but nobody wants to go with me. My daughter (who is 22 and also on break from college in PA) says no way--she only wants Caribbean sun. I'm going to show her your review and hopefully change her mind. And, she makes nobody else want to do it either, such as my husband, son and their friends that always cruise with us. Thanks again for doing this review. Love your "to the point" writing style and pics. It's definitely a review to change her mind and get me on the Glory to Canada. Not ready to go solo.

 

It was a great cruise! Hopefully I can help you change their minds...the cruise is definitely worth a break from the Caribbean! I can't say enough good things about Canada and the people there as well as how beautiful it really is! I have to say I love the Caribbean, but this was a wonderful trip (except that the 5 days went by wayyy to quickly) and the weather was perfect! It was much better than the 90+ degrees it was here in PA all last week! The Caribbean is great in the winter when it's cold here, but I'm kind of into the cooler weather cruising in the summer :)

I hope you and your family get to go sometime very soon!!!

[amdmsk]

Saturday July 8- Woke up this morning to a beautiful day at sea! The sun was shining, there was no fog (amazingly!), and the sea was calm. All of the chairs were being set up on the Lido deck when I went out and it seemed like it was going to be a gorgeous day. If I didn't know any better, I'd say we were going to the Caribbean and not to Canada. There wasn't much wind either and so even in the shade, it was getting warm! :)

For most of this trip, the ship was sailing at a very slow speed. I'm not exactly sure why other than the distance between the ports and Boston was really not that great, but I also heard there is some kind of regulation that ships can't sail over a certain speed in the area due to the number of whales in the location. We sailed up to Saint John at a speed of about 7 knots and we sailed back at about 10. Between Saint John and Halifax was the only time we sailed faster than 20 and I think that night we were going about 22. Other than that, it was pretty slow sailing and I really enjoyed it!

 

This was my view when I was walking around in the morning:

 

Here's the calm water and miraculously clear skies in the morning:

 

We had breakfast on the Lido deck and then went back to our rooms for a while. Spent a few minutes on the balcony deciding what to do next and then went out to do a little shopping and roaming around the ship. We noticed on the outdoor promenade on deck 3 they had lounge chairs set out all the time, which we thought was nice. It was a nice shady spot to sit and relax away from the big crowds on Lido.

 

[laumicmah]

We loved Halifax as well! The first time we took this cruise, we had fog at sea a lot and the fog horn was blowing all the time. But, on this cruise, the only time we had fog was on the last sea day and it was just patchy fog, mostly in the morning. I heard the fog horn one time when we were in a pretty foggy area, but then it started to clear up and by night, it was perfectly clear! We lucked out!

I will say it was pretty cold sailing at night though. Not so much the first and last nights, but the rest of the nights it was cold out there at the seaside theatre. Carnival had blankets out at the towel hut thing for everyone to take...between wearing a sweatshirt and having a blanket, we managed to stay warm! :D

Yeah...I'd wrap in a blanket and drink coffee while my brave kiddos would take their version of the polar bear plunge and jump into the pool and then hop in the hot tub while watching a movie. Glad for those blankets!!

[jbhcw]

Thanks! I saw they are having a 7 day New England/Canada cruise next summer! We'll probably be looking into it since we enjoyed these ports so much this time around and it is always so easy to drive to the port. So who knows, maybe we will be cruising together!! :p

 

Sounds like a plan:):):).

[amdmsk]

Lunch was on Lido today at the buffet and after lunch, my sister and I went to change and sit up on deck to get some sun. It was super crowded all along deck 9 and 10, especially near the stage where they had the hairy chest contest and the ice carving demo going on in the afternoon, but we found some great spots up along deck 14 just outside the serenity area. It was the same deck as the entrance to the water slide but back far enough that everyone on the water slide doesn't pass by you on their way back up the stairs and make everything wet. It was a perfect afternoon!!! We came back in around 3:30, just in time to go to tea time, something we rarely miss on a sea day.

 

 

[amdmsk]

Tonight was the one and only elegant night of the cruise and so after tea time, we went to get ready for dinner. Again, dinner was in the Platinum dining room. After dinner, the show was called "Livin' in America." We had seen this show before on another cruise and so we went in and sat up at the top level, but left a while into the show since it was nothing new and it got to be a bit boring. Instead, we went up to Lido to sit at the seaside theatre and have some popcorn. Stayed out a while before calling it a night, knowing we would have to get up early for our day in St. John tomorrow. When I think back to the first day at sea, I can really say that we didn't do much at all. We didn't do any of the organized activities like trivia, lido activities, etc that are in the Fun Times even though we were planning on doing a few of them. The timing just didn't work out or we completely forgot about it when the time did come around. Oh well, we just spent the day doing whatever and relaxing.

 

We saw a lot of nice sunsets during this cruise and here are some pics of the sunset at the end of the first sea day.

 

 

 

 

 

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Thanks for the info ..

[amdmsk]

Monday July 9- Woke up this morning to once again, beautiful blue skies and lots of sunshine. Also woke up to see Saint John, New Brunswick outside. It was a bit cool in the morning, especially under the shade from the balcony, but it quickly warmed up and I would say it was in the upper 70s throughout the day. We brought sweatshirts with us in the morning, but I don't think any of us wore them as soon as we stepped off the ship and into the sun and we took them back to the ship in between the tours we were doing.

 

We arrived into St. John right on time and soon after we arrived, the ship was cleared and I saw people beginning to get off. We had booked our tours for both St. John and Halifax through Carnival, something we have always done and will continue to do. For the morning, we booked the Bay of Fundy Scenic Railway and in the afternoon, we had planned to do our own walking tour of some places of interest in downtown St. John, but I'll write about the railway first and then the walking tour.

 

Some photos of our arrival into St. John:

 

 

 

 

My family ordered room service for breakfast, but I am not a fan of the room service for breakfast, so I went up to Lido and brought my breakfast back down to eat in our room with everyone else. I figured it would probably be very crowded since the ship docked early, so I ended up being there about 5-10 minutes before they opened the buffet line. I just kind of got a drink and waited around for a few minutes and then when they opened the line, I just got in line. This worked out well because I noticed when I left that the line was super long already! We all had breakfast while we watched the ship dock then and as soon as we were all ready, headed out into St. John and got ready for the tour.

 

They had some nice shops set up right when you come off the ship and everything was well organized. The people in St. John were very friendly and welcoming and genuinely seemed happy. We didn't have time to walk around before so we went right to get on the bus for the tour. The tour first took us on a 10 minute or so bus ride to the train station. They then grouped us together based on the excursion we booked (several excursions included the train ride) and made sure we were in the right group. Each group then got their own train car. Once we got on the train, we headed off on the tour. I thought that overall, the train tour was okay. I would probably not do it again, but I am glad that I was able to do it once. It was a nice, relaxing ride, but there was really not much else to see other than the Bay of Fundy and the Reversing Rapids. The train pretty much went around and stopped at a few places for photo opportunities and viewing. The first stop was by far the best and most amazing stop the train made: the Bay of Fundy Reversing Falls bridge. The train traveled to a bridge that sits right over top of the bay and you got a bird's eye view of the reversing rapids, which we could see were just beginning to reverse. It is kind of amazing when you think about it and we were able to learn about the high and low tides in the bay. This is definitely the stop that made the train ride worthwhile and I think this is something that you should see if you are visiting St. John for the first time.

 

Here's some of the reversing falls photos:

 

[kathy884]

Thanks so much for all your pictures and your trip report. I'm looking forward to the rest of it too. We are doing the same itinary on the Glory, but out of NYC on August 6th. We need to go there to visit relatives anyway, so thought we'd try a cruise up to Canada after that. Our son is 16 almost 17, so love hearing what you and your sister enjoyed.

[CruiserCindy]

Tonight was the one and only elegant night of the cruise and so after tea time, we went to get ready for dinner. Again, dinner was in the Platinum dining room. After dinner, the show was called "Livin' in America." We had seen this show before on another cruise and so we went in and sat up at the top level, but left a while into the show since it was nothing new and it got to be a bit boring. Instead, we went up to Lido to sit at the seaside theatre and have some popcorn. Stayed out a while before calling it a night, knowing we would have to get up early for our day in St. John tomorrow. When I think back to the first day at sea, I can really say that we didn't do much at all. We didn't do any of the organized activities like trivia, lido activities, etc that are in the Fun Times even though we were planning on doing a few of them. The timing just didn't work out or we completely forgot about it when the time did come around. Oh well, we just spent the day doing whatever and relaxing.

 

We saw a lot of nice sunsets during this cruise and here are some pics of the sunset at the end of the first sea day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beautiful sunsets!!!!!!Mine never come out this good!!LOL

[amdmsk]

Thanks so much for all your pictures and your trip report. I'm looking forward to the rest of it too. We are doing the same itinary on the Glory, but out of NYC on August 6th. We need to go there to visit relatives anyway, so thought we'd try a cruise up to Canada after that. Our son is 16 almost 17, so love hearing what you and your sister enjoyed.

 

You'll have a great time, as I'm sure your son will too! There's lots to do on the ship and in the ports and with it still being summer in August, I'm sure there will be lots of other kids your son's age too! Enjoy your cruise and NYC! One of these days I'd love to get back on a cruise from NYC. Sailing out of NYC is my favorite, there's just something special about sailing past the Statue of Liberty and watching the city pass by :)

[amdmsk]

Beautiful sunsets!!!!!!Mine never come out this good!!LOL

 

haha, thanks! There's more (and better ones) coming, so stay tuned!! I actually remembered to use the sunset setting on my camera...I think that's what gave them the extra orange color. It's interesting because when you compare mine to my mom's, it's almost like we were watching two completely different sunsets because the colors ended up so different on the two different cameras!

[amdmsk]

So after visiting the reversing falls bridge, the train continued past a few factories and past the Moosehead brewery. Then it stopped at this strange kind of place that I'll do my best to describe. It was this place near one of the factories where big 18 wheeler tractor trailers would come to stop and drop off the wood bits that they were carrying, which would eventually be made into paper products like tissues and napkins at the nearby factory. At this place, the truck would pull onto a platform and then the platform would raise the truck up almost to a vertical angle, where the wood chips would fall out into a container. The train stopped so we could see a complete rotation of this process. It was very neat and something I haven't ever seen before.

 

Here's a picture of that as well as another pic of the reversing falls:

 

 

 

From there, the train circled around and ended up back at the second train station area where we were going to get off the train and back on the bus to take us back to the pier. We got back on the bus and got a quick city tour of St. John before ending up back at the pier. It was maybe about 20 minutes. After getting back, we decided to go back to the ship for a while to have lunch and leave some stuff we bought and were carrying behind for the rest of the day. We had a quick lunch from the deli and around noon, went back out to take our walking tour that we had planned before we left.

 

Here's a few more pictures from the rest of the train ride:

 

[amdmsk]

For our walking tour, we had done some research of historical places and areas of interest in St. John (mostly taken from Carnival's website and the St. John tourism website) and with my mom, I put together a list of places to visit. We then looked at maps of the city as well as the distance between everything we wanted to visit, and we laid out our own walking tour of the city. We had everything planned with the places highlighted and directions laid out on a typed document that we kept with us so that we didn't miss anything or take a wrong turn. It ended up working out very well and we all really enjoyed doing this off on our own for the afternoon. We didn't get lost either! :p We were able to take our time, see many different historical highlights in the city, explore a bit, and experience what the city is really like. We saw so many different things that I won't include pictures of all of them here, but I'll include a few pictures of some of the places we walked to. Everything in town is within walking distance of the ship, though the city is a little hilly. But, it was still really great and I would definitely do it again, even going back to walk around the same tour that we laid out for ourselves.

 

We saw things like the historical three lamps, King's Square, the City Market, the General Store, the harbor front, Queen's Square, the historical theatre, and the firefighter's museum, among many other things and neat buildings and historical places that we just happen to stumble upon. If anyone reading this is looking for something to do in St. John, I would definitely recommend doing your own walking tour. Also, if anyone is interested in doing the walking tour we did or visiting the places we did, just let me know. I'd be happy to give more information about anything we visited, answer any questions, or send anyone the full tour we came up with!

 

Here's a few pictures from the walking tour of some of the sites. Many of them were places we specifically were looking for, but some of them were just things I saw that looked neat or that were interesting which we happened to pass by.

 

 

 

 

 

[amdmsk]

Here's the rest of the walking tour photos I uploaded. They didn't fit in the last post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GottaLuvCruising]

Really enjoying your review and pictures. We are doing same cruise 6/25/13. You're making me think a little more about my excursions. How was the entertainment on board?

[amdmsk]

Before we knew it, the afternoon was winding down, we finished our walking tour, and decided to head on back to the ship, stopping along the way to do a bit of shopping. We made our way back about an hour before sailaway and got ready for the past guest party, which was tonight. We sailed away from St. John on time and made our way off to Halifax as we went down to the lounge for the past guest party, which was one of the first few weeks of Carnival running the new version of the party. We all really enjoyed the party. It was much smaller and a better atmosphere than the last couple cruises. There were more crew members present and the videos they showed were different than in the past. The music seemed to be better and they even created a big conga line throughout the lounge, which was fun! The free drinks were also full size drinks and you could order whatever you wanted from the bar!! I think the appetizers were the same. We enjoyed the new format much better than the old format and I can't wait for the next one! :D

 

After that, it was off to dinner in the dining room and then we went to the show, which was Justin Illusion, a show with a lot of magic and music. I really liked this show and thought the tricks/stunts were really awesome and the music made it feel so upbeat and exciting. This was definitely the best show of the cruise! Unfortunately, I think I heard he was leaving after this cruise, so I do not know what was coming in his place. From there, we went up to sit on Lido and did some stargazing (it was a really clear night again) before calling it a night for another busy day in Halifax tomorrow, which was probably my favorite day of the cruise!

 

Leaving St. John:

 

 

I'll pick up next with arriving in Halifax!!

[amdmsk]

Really enjoying your review and pictures. We are doing same cruise 6/25/13. You're making me think a little more about my excursions. How was the entertainment on board?

 

The entertainment was okay...but I have to say the only show we saw the entire thing of was the Justin Illusion show. We didn't see the entire performance of either of the main productions and what I saw of them was just okay. Josh, the cruise director, seemed like a really nice guy and very personable. I also didn't think his announcements were overbearing or anything. Now that I think about it, I didn't meet any of the other entertainment staff on board, but I do know that there was plenty to do during the day and at night depending on what your interests are. There always seemed to be something going on, whether activities during the day or many different types of music at night. It seemed like there was music and a band/singer everywhere you went at night. I actually thought many of the bands and singers in the lounges on board were pretty good, at least the ones that I saw! I do have all of the Fun Times, so if there is anything specific you want to know about, just let me know! :)

[Biff Cruizer]

I'm enjoying your review. We will be on the Glory on a cruise to nowhere in October. This is just something to hold us over until January.

 

I believe you are on the roll call for the Dream in January. We are friends with WDAZE. Between us and them, we will occupy 6 or 7 cabins. :D

 

BTW: I'm originally from Lower Nazareth Township. I will be up your way (Bethlehem & Walnutport) in August to visit aunts, uncles and cousins.

[amdmsk]

I'm enjoying your review. We will be on the Glory on a cruise to nowhere in October. This is just something to hold us over until January.

 

I believe you are on the roll call for the Dream in January. We are friends with WDAZE. Between us and them, we will occupy 6 or 7 cabins. :D

 

BTW: I'm originally from Lower Nazareth Township. I will be up your way (Bethlehem & Walnutport) in August to visit aunts, uncles and cousins.

 

Yup! We are on the roll call for January! I guess I'll see you on board! :)

 

Have a good trip up here in August!

[amdmsk]

We made it to Halifax in the morning and when we got up, we were still about an hour or two away from port. The harbor was just coming into view. We didn't have to be off the ship for our tour until 11:00, but we thought we'd get off early and walk along the harbor front or around town a little bit before the tour. We went to breakfast in the main dining room and by the time we finished, we were just about docked. We pulled in exactly at 9:00 and within a few minutes, people started getting off the ship. Once we saw people coming down the gangway, we packed up our things and off we went! It was another beautiful day! The sun was shining and there was not a cloud in the sky as we arrived. It was a bit cool in the shade in the morning, especially on the ship and near the water, but it quickly got warm and was about 75-80 degrees all day! Perfect weather!! The Disney Magic was already there when we pulled in.

 

Arriving in Halifax:

 

 

We spent this part of the morning walking along the harbor walk area that is right outside of the area where the ships docked. Halifax was a great city!! The locals were very friendly and I liked that the ship docked in town near the harbor front, where many locals as well as cruise passengers seemed to be all day long. It was a very nice area and I could definitely see myself returning to Halifax and spending a lot of time just hanging out in this area, as well as in the rest of the town. There were plenty of restaurants and shops and great views of the harbor. We walked pretty far down and stopped at a few places along the way, including at a neat local farmer's market and a few of the touristy shops. After a while we ventured further into town and walked through town to backtrack to the pier where we would meet our tour. We walked around town and stopped at a neat church and then we went out onto Spring Garden Road, which is supposed to be a very busy shopping street/area. Here we stopped at Bud the Spud for some french fries, which were delicious!! I heard about this truck on TripAdvisor as I was researching things in Halifax and it came up as a food truck serving french fries in this location since the 70s (I think it said they started in the 70s). Anyway, they were good and if you're in Halifax and pass by it, stop and have some! We then ventured back to the pier to meet our tour, which was the Lobster and Lighthouses tour, booked through Carnival.

 

 

 

 

I want to say here that in the ports of call, the local time is one hour ahead of the ship's time. But, the ship stays on ship's time throughout the cruise and DOES NOT change to be the same as the local time. I think this was likely confusing to some people, but they did reinforce not to change clocks many times on board the ship before disembarking in either of the ports.

[lovelabs2]

I am enjoying your cruise review. :) We will be booking the June 25, 2013 cruise tonight. Reading your review and seeing all the wonderful pictures makes me want to go now! Two of my sisters have already booked!! I can't wait!! Thank you for posting!!