Live (at the time) Review 12 night Canada/New England on Brilliance 10/22/12-11/3/12

[happyiam]

Thank you for taking time to do this review. Your pictures are terrific. Fall would be my favourite time of year to do this cruise also. It may not be sunny and warm like a Caribbean cruise, but the colours of the foliage make such a beautiful backdrop for the unique architecture of Quebec and the east coast.

[ace1zoe2]

Hi Cindy, thanks SO much for this review.

Photos like these made me sure that I have to take a NE cruise one day (soon, I hope ;))

My husband isn't keen, but maybe I could convince my Mom to come with me... it's beautiful beyond words.

 

Thanks again!

 

Sinny,

 

Thanks for following along. We absolutely loved the foliage and the architecture of this cruise. If you can't talk your husband in to the trip I'm sure you and your mom would have a wonderful time.

[ace1zoe2]

Thank you so much for your wonderful review and your spectacular pictures!

 

I have always wanted to take a Canada and New England cruise, and now I can't wait to do it!

 

We were on the Brilliance for a transatlantic in 2008 and know what a beautiful ship she is.

 

Seeing your pictures of the various areas onboard brought back fond memories.

 

Thanks for the compliments. It's taking a lot longer to do the review than I had expected. I am hoping to finish up today. Thanks for taking time to read and to comment.

[ace1zoe2]

Thank you for taking time to do this review. Your pictures are terrific. Fall would be my favourite time of year to do this cruise also. It may not be sunny and warm like a Caribbean cruise, but the colours of the foliage make such a beautiful backdrop for the unique architecture of Quebec and the east coast.

 

 

Thanks for taking time to comment... it really helps me keep going to get the review completed. I'm hoping to get NYC pictures and review posted today and do a final wrap up tonight.

[ace1zoe2]

Day 15

Friday, November 2, 2012

Port Liberty NJ, New York City

 

Early morning shots as we were coming in to Port Liberty

 

 

We got up about 6:30 and went down to Lattitudes to use our last BOGO free coupon for this trip. We both got hot chocolate and hubby had a donut and we each had a sticky bun. We just hung out there in the seating area to eat, then headed back to our cabin to get our carry on bags and go to the Colony Club to wait our turn to leave the ship.

 

We arrived in our waiting area about 7:50 and by 8am they were calling groups 1 & 2 to leave the ship. We were probably the 2nd couple off in this groups, headed off the ship, grabbed our bags without problem, in line for customs and immigration, handed in our declarations form. I didn't have my passports out because I thought we would be seeing another agent a few feet away for that. I started unzipping my wallet and the agent asked "do you have a US passport?" To which I replied "yes" and he said "that's fine, go on thru". He didn't even want to see it, I never even got as far as getting my wallet all the way unzipped. We were out the door in less than 10 minutes. We made a quick stop at the restrooms and called Dial 7 car service to see if the could pick us up earlier than planned and they said they would be there in 15 minutes, and they were.

 

Our driver was pretty nice considering everything going on because of Sandy. He told us he had sat in line for gas for an hour and a half, was 10 cars back and they ran out of gas. 3 of the 4 tunnels were closed going in to NYC. He got us to midtown Manhattan in a little more than 30 minutes.

 

This is a golf course we saw along the way that my hubby said he'd love to play

 

 

Traffic was very heavy in certain areas because of the tunnel closures and the subway was closed. We saw cars lined up for blocks waiting for gas. Blocks and blocks without electric. Our driver said everything north of 28th street was without electric. We ended up having to drive several blocks out of the way as police were directing traffic and had certain roads closed to traffic. After the second time passing our hotel, which was mid block on Lexington between 47th & 48th street we told him we'd just get out at the corner and walk. The policeman this time allowed him to turn & we finally got out at the Marriott Eastside entrance.

 

It was around 10am when we arrived and we had planned to ask to store our luggage until a room was available. We ere pleasantly surprised to find they had a room available already! Yay! We took the elevator up to the 30th floor and took a few minutes to freshen up, get our jackets and and make our plan for the day.

 

 

We were in NYC for our first time and only had a day and a half to take in as much as possible. I had pre purchased tickets to go up to the observation deck at the Empire State Building which could be used at anytime. I had also pre purchased online tickets for a Harbor Cruise with Circle Line which was for a 2pm tour and was for 2 hours. We grabbed the camera and were out the door with our iPad GPS to direct our way.

 

Let me just say, I have NEVER walked so far, so fast in my entire life! There was so much to take in that we were overwhelmed. I had a list of places/buildings that I wanted to see during our short stay - who knew if we would ever have the opportunity to return. We stopped in a Five Guy's Burgers for a quick lunch which was quiet delish for around $20. We then walked to Times Square taking pictures along the way...

 

 

Until I figured out that my memory card was full and that I had left the camera bag with all the cards back at the hotel! Now this presented a dilemma for us... Our 2 hr circle cruise was scheduled for 2pm and we were walking to the pier which was a long ways from where we were... And the hotel was pretty far back there in the total opposite direction. If we went back to the hotel we would have to take another taxi or possibly miss our harbor cruise which was already paid for. So we decided to just bite the bullet and purchase another memory card. Now the problem was finding one. We tried a couple of street vendors, Walgreens and another drug store who all had SD cards but not the square compact flash CF cards that I needed, all the while we are wasting valuable sight-seeing time! Finally we found a small hole in the wall camera/electronics store that had one, albeit a generic brand. So we spent $78 for a 16gig CF card so we wouldn't run out of room again... Mind you the one in the camera was a 16gig also that I had already filled up. Anyway, crisis averted, and we were on our way to the pier.

 

Stood in line for a bit, then loaded on the boat with about what seemed like a thousand or so other folks. Hurriedly made our way up to the top deck to claim some of the last few seats on the outside... You know, prime photography location. I'd never seen the Statue of Liberty in person and I was darn well making sure that I got some good pictures.

 

The Statue had just reopened in the past week or so from her interior updates, but because of Sandy Ellis Island was closed to visitors. The Harbor cruise was a great

Tour that provided lots of narrative and information on the buildings, history, bridges, etc. it also provided upclose views of the SOL and I got some great shots.

 

 

 

I will say that up top it was COLD and misting rain. Luckily we had our rain jackets with hoods, but it was cccccold!

[Sinppu]

 

 

 

What a shot!!! Wow. :eek:

[ace1zoe2]

Ellis Island

 

 

This pier was the one where they port the survivors of the Titanic to NYC. Now it's a three level gold driving range

 

 

Finally on the return trip about half way back we went down to the enclosed portion and warmed up a little. We were able to see the progress of the rebuilding of the WTC tower being rebuilt.

 

 

Pier 17 is normally a bustling shopping & dining area but was closed due to Hurricane Sandy knocking out electricity

 

 

Here they are pumping water out of the subway tunnels

 

[ace1zoe2]

Some of the last of the fall colors

 

 

A view of the skyline around WTC

 

 

Following the harbor tour we hiked (walked) our way over to the Empire State Building

 

 

 

and went up to the observation deck. It is amazing looking out from up there at all the buildings, bridges and landscape beyond.

 

[ace1zoe2]

More views from the top of the ESB

 

 

The Flat Iron building

 

 

One of the many bridges, I don't recall which

 

 

We stopped for the obligatory picture on our way in and ended up being suckers and buying it for around $20 on the way out. It was a good picture and when your traveling alone its hard to get pictures of the two of us together.

 

The electric was out north of 28th St and we saw several store further up that had set up tables outside their stores with extension cords and multi outlets so that people could charge their cell phones and ipads etc. We spent the remainder of the afternoon visiting Grand Central Station

 

 

[ace1zoe2]

Inside Grand Central Station it was surreal to see folks tethered to the floors in the large halls having plugged in their phones and computers to the floor plugs and just sat in the floor waiting.

 

 

New York Public Library

 

 

 

Some lovely colors inside Battery Park

 

 

As we headed back to our hotel the sidewalks were so overcrowded it was unbelievable. People were line up on the street for blocks, wrapped around corners, line zigzagging everywhere with police about every half block. We finally figured out that all of these poor people were waiting to get bus transportation back to NJ because the subway and tunnels were closed because of Sandy.

 

On the way back to the hotel we stopped in a neighborhood deli and had a slice of pizza for dinner for around $5 per slice.

 

When we finally arrived back at the hotel we decided to go to the bar area for a glass of wine and a little down time before going to bed. The place was pretty crowded with lots of people in town for the NYC marathon, many at our hotel had traveled from France to participate only to have it cancelled (which was the right thing to do). However I felt really bad for those folks who obviously spent so much money on flights, hotels, food, etc to get here and have it all go down the drain. Anyways after 15 or so minutes we finally got handed a drink menu and another 10 or so minutes the guy comes back to take our order and I order a Cab which was the cheapest red by the glass at $14 per glass he asks if we would like food and we say no. Few minutes later he's back to let me know that wine is not available because of Sandy they haven't gotten their deliveries. Ok, I say, let us have 2 glasses of the Shiraz for $16 per glass and we'll go ahead and look at the appetizer menu. Here come the drinks and menu, I just want something salty to go with my drink so I'm being cheap too and I say I'll just take the snack mix ($3). Couple minutes later he's back... Guess what else they are out of? He says sorry, how bout I bring you some nice chips? Is any that will be fine. I didn't stop to think (I'm in Manhattan, at the Marriott, stupid me!). Waiter returns washout 10-15 minutes later with a tray of fresh made chips with a dipping sauce. We have our chips and wine and the bill comes... $50 later I'm telling my husband "see you should have let me stop in that liquor store we passed and bought a $12 bottle of wine and a cork screw!"

 

Oh well, live and learn We're off to bed for an early final day of vacation tomorrow.

[ace1zoe2]

Saturday, November 3

Our last day of vacation

NYC

 

We were up early our final morning, packed and stored our luggage and were off to see some more of NYC. We stopped in a Starbucks for a hot tea and scone for me and a hot chocolate and pastry for DH. Then we made our way to St Patrick's Cathedral, FAO Schwartz and Central Park where we took a carriage ride the the park.

 

Early Saturday morning... Doesn't this just say NEW YORK CITY,

 

 

Sights along our walk

 

 

Gearing up for the election coverage

 

 

The map we all saw on tv that was colored in red or blue depending on which party won the state

 

 

I think this was in the financial district:

 

[ace1zoe2]

 

Then we headed back towards the hotel stopping for lunch at Baja Fresh which we don't have in Texas. We shared a fajita plate for $12 with drinks and it was really good.

 

NYC art

 

 

 

 

[retiring soon]

HI all!

 

Just had to stop by again & say how much I'm LOVING your review. I almost have tears in my eyes! I'm going to NYC for a Bermuda cruise in May so this is getting me excited for that.

 

Thanks so much for this amazing trip report.

 

~ Jo ~ :)

[ace1zoe2]

Our carriage ride thru Central Park

 

 

 

 

We had reservations with Dial 7 car service back to La Guardia for around 3 but we called and asked if they could pick us up an hour earlier and they were there in no time at all. This taxi ride was what I had imagined a NYC taxi ride would be like... I had to just close my eyes and hold on tight on more than one occasion. After several loops around the different terminals we finally arrived American Airlines. The terminal was deserted. There were at most 100 folks in portion of the the airport that we saw. When our flight boarded there were 42 people counting crew on a 200+ passenger plane. It was heaven! The flight was uneventful other than the one screaming child onboard. He finally settled down after an hour or so. I ordered a wine from the cart, handed to male attendant my credit card to pay the $6 charge and he just handed it back and said have a nice day... He didn't even charge me! Later when the meal was served I ordered another and handed my card over and he did it again! I couldn't believe my luck... Guess that kind of evened out my bad luck at the Marriott the night before.

 

We arrived back at DFW where our daughter and 2 granddaughters (1 and 4) were waiting to pick us up. We had a wonderful trip. Saw some amazing places. Absolutely LOVED the New England coast. We decided that some day we'd like to go back and travel north out of Boston (another place we've never been) and see Bar Harbor which we missed due to Sandy as well as a few other Canadian ports.

 

Next up... Southbound Alaska Cruise Tour from Seward to Vancouver with 6 nights on land tour before starting the 7 night cruise. Time to start making plans!

[ace1zoe2]

What a shot!!! Wow. :eek:

 

It helped that I had a long zoom lens. I was very proud of this one. Thanks for commenting.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[ace1zoe2]

HI all!

 

Just had to stop by again & say how much I'm LOVING your review. I almost have tears in my eyes! I'm going to NYC for a Bermuda cruise in May so this is getting me excited for that.

 

Thanks so much for this amazing trip report.

 

~ Jo ~ :)

 

Thanks for continuing to follow along on my LONG review. I'm finally finished. Hope everyone enjoyed.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Just The 3 Of Us]

Cindy - one word "FANTASTIC" ;)...

 

Barb

[luvscruising2007]

Great review. Thanks for sharing your wonderful vacation with all of us.

[ace1zoe2]

Cindy - one word "FANTASTIC" ;)...

 

Barb

 

 

Thanks Barb! Glad that you enjoyed my review.

[ace1zoe2]

Great review. Thanks for sharing your wonderful vacation with all of us.

 

Thank you so much for your comments. Makes all the time and effort worthwhile!

[deeceedub]

Thanks for your amazing review. I enjoyed the photography- you've motivated me to pick up a longer lens before we cruse from Boston in July on Carnival's Glory.

 

We could've been 'neighbors' a few years ago- we used to live in Alvarado but have since moved to west Texas. Our cruise will be an attempt to escape another miserable Texas summer's heat. :)

[LiftLockCouple]

excellent, excellent review. great job with great insight for each port. I have been to each port via road but never by cruise. I grew up on PEI and have visted the other cities as well. PEI in general, Quebec City, Halifax and on the west coast, Victoria are personal favourites. Thanks for your hard work and great photography.

[ace1zoe2]

Thanks for your amazing review. I enjoyed the photography- you've motivated me to pick up a longer lens before we cruse from Boston in July on Carnival's Glory.

 

We could've been 'neighbors' a few years ago- we used to live in Alvarado but have since moved to west Texas. Our cruise will be an attempt to escape another miserable Texas summer's heat. :)

 

Thanks so much for the compliments. Yes, I'd definitely take a long lens if you can. I mostly used my 28-135 but i have a longer one that goes out to 300 that i switch out sometimes to get really close.

 

I'm looking forward to some great photo opportunities when we go back to Alaska this summer.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

Edited January 30, 2013 by ace1zoe2

[ace1zoe2]

excellent, excellent review. great job with great insight for each port. I have been to each port via road but never by cruise. I grew up on PEI and have visted the other cities as well. PEI in general, Quebec City, Halifax and on the west coast, Victoria are personal favourites. Thanks for your hard work and great photography.

 

Thanks for taking time to read my review and comment. We LOVED Canada! We did notice while driving the scenic roads that there was a ton of property for sale up there. It's a beautiful place and I hope to visit your part of the world again.

[cruzinlady1947]

This has been a great review with awesome pictures. Thanks so much for taking the time to do this. Enjoy your next cruise and hopefully you will do another review. You are so good at it......:D

 

Thanks again.

 

Gwen :)