Cruise recommendations

[PalmHarborCruiser]

Hello everyone,

 

I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday season and Happy New Year.

 

Sorry if this is a lengthy post but I want to get all my points made so I receive focused replies which are on point.

 

My wife and I are in the beginning phases of booking a Canada/New England cruise for fall 2016. As most of you know these will be filling up fast so we'll need to book pretty soon.

 

Most importantly we'd like recommendations on a line. I'm a seasoned cruiser who got out of cruising for quite some time. My wife took her first cruise last year. It was a short 5 day cruise mostly to test the waters, so to speak, and see if my wife Sue liked cruising. We did a fall Caribbean cruise on the Emerald Princess. I have to say I started my cruising in what I'll call the "glory days" of cruising so I'm a little spoiled and my expectations are somewhat high. This Princess cruise fell far short of meeting my expectations. The ship was beautiful, however the service and food were mediocre at best.

 

We don't want to take out a second mortgage on a "designer cruise" but I'm sure the mainstream cruising can be much better than our latest experience. We are considering 7 days. Sue says she still needs to "work up" to 14 days.

 

As most of you may have guessed our kids are grown and we now have time to enjoy a "kid free" life. A "family friendly" cruise is not high on the priority list and would in fact be undesirable.

 

So I know everyone here has lots of opinions and I'd love to hear them. If I plop down a good chunk of my hard earned cash I'd really like to be dazzled, so please fire away.

 

Thanks,

Tracy

 

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Edited January 9, 2016 by PalmHarborCruiser

[bonvoyagie]

As you can see I am also in the planning stages of a Canada and New England cruise - this will be our 5th cruise (all on NCL) so we are doing a 14 day Boston to Quebec and back. Cruising in Sept, the kids are back in school and for the most part these cruises are mostly for those of us whose kids are grown. :D

 

I started cruising in 2002 - well past the "glory days" but I have also seen more cost cutting measures on recent cruises - even from 02.

 

I am not sure exactly you are looking for in your cruise experience - I like NCL for many reasons including the freestyle dining where you don't have to dress up and can dine whenever and with whomever you want.

 

If you want a little more structure in your cruise, perhaps HAL is your ticket. They have smaller ships that are more formal than Princess. They run 7 day one ways between Boston and Montreal

[PalmHarborCruiser]

As you can see I am also in the planning stages of a Canada and New England cruise - this will be our 5th cruise (all on NCL) so we are doing a 14 day Boston to Quebec and back. Cruising in Sept, the kids are back in school and for the most part these cruises are mostly for those of us whose kids are grown. :D

 

I started cruising in 2002 - well past the "glory days" but I have also seen more cost cutting measures on recent cruises - even from 02.

 

I am not sure exactly you are looking for in your cruise experience - I like NCL for many reasons including the freestyle dining where you don't have to dress up and can dine whenever and with whomever you want.

 

If you want a little more structure in your cruise, perhaps HAL is your ticket. They have smaller ships that are more formal than Princess. They run 7 day one ways between Boston and Montreal

Bonvoyagie,

 

Thanks for your reply. The formality of the cruise isn't terribly important one way or the other but we do like having choices in how, with whom and when we dine. I guess our biggest disappointment in our latest cruise was the feeling that we were just part of the herd. We spend our lives waiting in line for this or that, we'd like to escape that on our vacation and be pampered a little. I expect the same service I would receive at a resort hotel. Being a life long Florida resident I know the difference between hospitality done right and wrong. What we experienced was far short of what I would expect to find in my own backyard.

 

Thanks,

Tracy

 

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[bonvoyagie]

I think your problem with the Emerald Princess was the size and over 3000 people - the Dawn is a smaller ship - only 2200 or so pax. You might really like the freestyle concept - you can dine when you want and with whom you want. The Dawn is going to have a multi week refirb this spring (May-June) so she should be real ship shape for Sept cruising.

 

The only times I have stood in lines on any cruise was to get off the ship for an NCL shorex. And that was only in Juneau - our first port stop in AK and everybody wanted off :D

 

I also brought up HAL not only because of their older style of cruising, but also the fact that they also have the most small ships - right around that 2000 pax mark.

 

If you plan on doing this cruise in 2016, I would start making reservations now.

[GradUT]

We decided to do a Canada/New England cruise in July 2014 and chose HAL for two main reasons:

 

1) The fares were less than other cruise lines in Canada/NE

2) The ship started out with an overnight stay in Quebec. Not only did we enjoy having 2 days in Quebec, but it also took the pressure off having to get to port a day early. If, for any reason, our flight were delayed, we knew we could still board the ship on the 2nd day in port.

 

This was our 1st cruise on HAL and we LOVED it! We generally sail on Princess, but our first experience on HAL convinced us to take subsequent HAL cruises. The staff and service on HAL were excellent--superior to Princess, I must say.

[maryann ns]

Check the itineraries carefully. They matter more than the ship.

 

Sydney is a port in which many ships spend too little time. Celebrity seems to do best there.

 

You definitely want an overnight and two days in Quebec City.

[sailingmickey]

We chose Celebrity for one main reason. The cruise begins and end in Cape Liberty, New Jersey. Which makes the flight reservations easier on my husband. In addition it has an overnight stay in Quebec City, Quebec. We are booked on the Summit which houses a little over 2,000 people. We have sailed with Celebrity quite a bit and have always been pleased with the ship and the service. The only down side is, it is a 14 day cruise.

 

Good luck and have fun!!!!

[PalmHarborCruiser]

So thanks for all the replies. I looked at both HAL and NCL. Maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

 

We prefer a stateroom with a private balcony. The only way I see to get this on the HAL Canada/New England cruises is to book a suite. I see balcony staterooms however it appears they open onto the promenade. Not exactly my idea of a balcony room if I have to share the balcony with 2000 other people. While I do like the suites, the price difference between a smaller suite on HAL and a stateroom with a private balcony on NCL is significant.

 

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Tracy

 

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[Cruise_More_Often]

When you see the term "Vista Suite" on HAL's Canada/New England itineraries, it's just a balcony cabin, similar to the size of mini-suites on some ships. It's definitely not a suite, however.

 

We like cruising from Montreal rather than Quebec City, so we chose a HAL cruise last year and are repeating it this year. Both ships doing the itinerary this year cruise between Montreal and Boston, and both are smaller ships.

 

I agree that HAL's prices for this itinerary are a little high, but I think they're worth it.

 

Good luck with your choice.

Edited January 12, 2016 by Cruise_More_Often

[galensgrl]

So thanks for all the replies. I looked at both HAL and NCL. Maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

 

We prefer a stateroom with a private balcony. The only way I see to get this on the HAL Canada/New England cruises is to book a suite. I see balcony staterooms however it appears they open onto the promenade. Not exactly my idea of a balcony room if I have to share the balcony with 2000 other people. While I do like the suites, the price difference between a smaller suite on HAL and a stateroom with a private balcony on NCL is significant.

 

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Tracy

 

Sent from my SM-G928T using Tapatalk

 

Hi Tracy. The staterooms that you see opening onto the promenade deck are the Lanai cabins. These cabins do not have a private balcony. There are also "true" balcony rooms that are called Vista "suites," but though they are nice they are really more of a simple balcony cabin. The Vista suites aren't as spacious and they don't have all of the amenities a true suite such as a Neptune suite offers, but the balconies in these cabins are private. That being said in our experience the balcony cabin or Vista suite on the HAL Veendam was a little more spacious then the balcony cabins we had on the NCL Dawn.

 

We have had 4 cruises with NCL previously, and our last cruise we wanted to compare NCL with HAL, and we had a Vista suite on the Veendam. We loved it. We really fell in love with the Veendam. Yes it's a smaller ship than the NCL Dawn, but we found the atmosphere (laid back and relaxed), cabin (slightly more spacious than on NCL), and food more to our liking. The service was impeccable on the Veendam. Though there are fewer dining venues on the smaller Veendam, we found the food to be excellent to good. Mostly it was excellent. Even the ultra casual Dive In burger place was excellent. We also really enjoyed the spa. We liked our Veendam experience so much that we booked an upcoming 9 night Atlantic Coast cruise in April/May on the Veendam.

 

I am not saying that the NCL Dawn was a bad experience by any means. We had a lot of fun with NCL and will probably cruise with them again sometime in the future. I would say the atmosphere on the Dawn is a little more lively and upbeat, and it does have a lot going on in terms of activities. HAL is more geared to adults and very low key. To be honest we weren't really thrilled with the food on our last NCL cruise, but other people seem to like it, it could be a matter of taste. Whatever line you choose, have fun!

 

Lorie

Edited January 22, 2016 by galensgrl

[tring]

I agree with Maryann that the itinerary is more important than the ship (though Sydney was not our favourite port). We did the St Lawrence ports on a ship sailing form the UK last summer, which I realise will not be your route. The less visited ports in the St Lawrence and Gulf of St Lawrence were great places to experience and to travel out from though.

 

Whatever you choose, or have chosen, enjoy the cruise.

 

Barbara

[maryann ns]

Sydney would more likely be a favorite port if you had enough time to go around the Cabot Trail or to see Louisbourg when it is fully animated with the pub and restaurant open or to take a leisurely drive to Baddeck and Iona with enough time to see the Alexander Graham Bell Museum and the Highland Village Museum and perhaps send a postcard or Christmas Card from Christmas Island.

[mskaufman]

We decided to do a Canada/New England cruise in July 2014 and chose HAL for two main reasons:

 

1) The fares were less than other cruise lines in Canada/NE

2) The ship started out with an overnight stay in Quebec. Not only did we enjoy having 2 days in Quebec, but it also took the pressure off having to get to port a day early. If, for any reason, our flight were delayed, we knew we could still board the ship on the 2nd day in port.

 

This was our 1st cruise on HAL and we LOVED it! We generally sail on Princess, but our first experience on HAL convinced us to take subsequent HAL cruises. The staff and service on HAL were excellent--superior to Princess, I must say.

 

We also did that cruise in July 2014 but did Bos to Quebec. Reasons were almost the same. Flying from the east coast we took an early morning flight to Boston.

 

Here is a link to some of my pictures.

 

https://markandkarencanadanewengland.shutterfly.com/pictures

[PalmHarborCruiser]

We did discover the importance of port itinerary on our last cruise. Going to the Caribbean when you live in Florida wasn't the wisest of choices. But that was more of a test to see how my wife liked cruising.

 

Thanks for everyone's input. I think we have plenty of ammo now to make an educated decision.

 

Thanks,

Tracy

[3dogmom]

I just booked the October 6th 9 night RCCL Anthem of the Seas New England/Canada cruise. I'm a regular on RCCL, but usually sail the smaller ships. Excited to try out all the features of a new ship, plus the dining venue rotation sounds interesting.

 

Best part is the direct flight from Tampa to Newark for less than $300!