A Magical voyage across the pond LIVE UPDATE 9/30 About This Page:

[Cam22]

Lots of great options! Can't wait to see what makes the short list.

[Colexis Mom]

Just getting caught up again. It sounds like it’s all coming together. I don’t blame you for not wanting to fly into NYC! Crazy. How great Mari and Raleigh can join your u! You’ve really done your research on the ports of call.

[SuperDave]

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

Just getting caught up again. It sounds like it’s all coming together. I don’t blame you for not wanting to fly into NYC! Crazy. How great Mari and Raleigh can join your u! You’ve really done your research on the ports of call.

Flying into NYC is fine as long as it's not LaGuardia. Absolutely, one of the worst airports in the entire USA and I know this from experience and Cheryl will vouch this on her experience! I've flown many times in/out from JFK and generally fine. I have no problems with that airport as it's LGA I avoid when I can! Just hate it!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by SuperDave

You certainly have a lot of options for excursions! I think Kinsale has a number of castles, estates and old fortifications that may be worth doing especially from someone like you and Mark who have the lifetime membership for the Trusts in England! I think it's a good idea to stay on the ship in Dover to just enjoy the amenities on the ship such as the spa and perhaps some good meals as well!

Well, we're only boarding at Dover, so there are no shore excursions to enjoy there.

I won't leave you in complete suspense regarding my comment but won't give it completely away but you should get it with a fairly big hint. One word....Coconuts!

That's pretty much what we'd guessed...

[chezp]

Originally Posted by purplegal

I love the Cabot trail, its one of the prettiest drives in Canada, I have visited Fort Louisbourg twice and really enjoyed it. You are right there is so much to do in Halifax, wonderful museums, the duck tour is quite well done. I personally liked Lunenberg much more than Peggy’s cove. What ever you choose I am sure you will enjoy it, and the people in that area are so friendly and warm.

All good to know. I think I'm looking forward most to Halifax, certainly on the Transatlantic itinerary, as it sounds wonderful.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by MayraLR

So many options!! How in the world are you ever going to choose!?

I know... Disney don't make things easy...

[chezp]

Originally Posted by SuperDave

Flying into NYC is fine as long as it's not LaGuardia. Absolutely, one of the worst airports in the entire USA and I know this from experience and Cheryl will vouch this on her experience! I've flown many times in/out from JFK and generally fine. I have no problems with that airport as it's LGA I avoid when I can! Just hate it!

Well, so long as nothing's as bad as that, then we'll be fine.

[chezp]

Pre-trip report – part five: what might be the options for Disney’s new ports of call?

You re-join me thinking through what shore excursions we might take on our first cruise, the eastbound transatlantic from Dover to New York City. We’ve made it as far as St. John in Nova Scotia, which seems to be the place to take excursions to the Bay of Fundy. The coastal photography one particularly piqued my interest, although I suspect someone else in my household will be more intrigued by the whale and wildlife watching one.

There are also options staying within St. John itself including the hop on, hop off buses that seem to be in just about every port so far in these stops in Canada along with walking tours (with one focusing on art and architecture), and a trolley tour.

Then it’s on to a day at sea, before we arrive in New York City. While the vast majority of our fellow passengers will be disembarking, we’ll be getting off to get back on board as quickly as we can! We’ve never done back to back cruises, so I have no idea how this will work. I have read some accounts, but they all relate to Port Canaveral, which I suspect will be very different to here, mainly because of course New York City won’t be Disney’s own terminal.

If it’s similar, I would imagine we’ll be off the ship, but back on fairly quickly, which is good. The bit I’m not quite sure about is how it works with our stateroom. We’re swapping staterooms, which is a bit of a pain, but that’s how it’s worked out, so I don’t know if ours will be ready by the time we re-board or not. I have read various accounts that, even if you switch rooms, they will do everything to get your rooms ready first, and well ahead of the usual 1:30pm deadline for most people boarding. At this stage, I’m not holding my breath, as I don’t want to be disappointed.

If we can get into our room early, then great. I have no idea if we can then disembark again (so many questions), but if we can, we might take the opportunity. I can see that the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum is located close by, so if we’re allowed and we have the time, we might make our way over there. If not, it’s no biggie. We’ve done a lot of New York City, and have certainly seen all the big sights during our many visits to the city, so the fact we’re not necessarily getting off to explore really doesn’t bother us that much. As I say, anything is a bonus at this stage…

So now we’re off on our second cruise of the two, setting off from New York City to Quebec City, and the first day is spent at sea. Then we’re back to Halifax in Nova Scotia, which we’ll have already visited a few days earlier, so whatever shore excursion we liked the look of that made the top two, and we didn’t pick for our first visit, well that will be our choice for today!

We then have another day at sea, before making our way into Quebec, the region, rather than the city. Now this is where things do get tricky, as this is the inaugural cruise that Disney is making to Quebec City, so all the ports of call are new to the cruise line. That means no information about what the shore excursions are likely to be, from Disney anyway….

Our next stop is Saguenay. Now if I hadn’t heard of our earlier ports of call, my goodness, I was completely and utterly in the dark with this one. Wow. My trusty Dorling Kindersley guidebook doesn’t even cover it as a place. It’s down as the Sagueney River. However, when I looked it up on Google Maps, I think it’s one and the same thing, so that’s a start…

Apparently the Sagueney River flows through the world’s southernmost natural fjord. Ok, now that sounds very neat. The fjord runs for almost 100 miles beneath cliffs that average 1,500 feet. I bet that’s going to be truly spectacular to see. I’m getting the feeling it’s going to be a bit like Alaska, and heck, if it is, then I’ll be one very happy bunny, as that is a truly stunning part of the world!

As for potential shore excursions, well my guidebook’s not helping much. It does talk about beautiful views of the fjord being available at Cap Trinite, a cliff over the channel rising up to 1,000 feet, with a well known statue of the Virgin Mary, so I’d be surprised if that didn’t show up somewhere along the line…

Undeterred, I did a bit more research, finding out that Saguenay is a “picturesque town”, and learning that a place called Chicoutimi is a National Historic Site. It gained fame as pulp and paper manufacturing town. Another National Historic Site is Arvida, which was one of Canada’s first pre-planned model towns, dating back to the 1920s. The Little White House also sounds intriguing, as apparently it survived the flooding that hit the region in 1996. It’s been preserved as a historical park, so obviously there’s a lot of history round about here…

Some of the cruise excursions I found on another cruise line website that appealed included tours that show you the best of Saguenay, a tour that shows you Saguenay by land and sea, and a guided walk through the Saguenay National Park.

Our next stop is Baie-Comeau, which does get a reference in my trusty guidebook, so that’s a step forward at least! Apparently, the town owes its existence to the Chicago Tribune. Why? Because it built a mill at the mouth of the Manicougan River to supply its newspaper presses with paper. Baie-Comeau has a historic district, with homes and a hotel dating from the 1930s. Ok, that’s a possibility then…

I’m not sure that the next instalment about this place will make a shore excursion. My guidebook tells me it’s most important today as the gateway to the enormous Manic-Outardes hydro-electric power complex, although I am told that the most spectacular example is Manic-5, which has a dam holding back water in a reservoir that geophysicists believe was formed by a meteorite hit several million years ago. As it’s located almost 120 miles from the town, a good couple of hours on a bus, I’d want to know this is seriously spectacular before heading that way, as right now, my guidebook is really not selling it to me as a potential shore excursion…

I did manage to find some more information about Baie-Comeau, ironically on the DIS boards, and there was a suggestion that a place called the Garden of Glaciers might be one of the big attractions, but when I checked out their website, it appears it was only open until late August 2017, so I’m not sure that will be an option after all.

Other suggestions were that the wildlife might be the biggest attraction here, which sounds good to me. There was talk about whale watching cruises, and beluga watching cruises, which if they do have that, sounds like an amazing option. I’d love to do that, so if that was available, that could be a shoe-in. Then again, there was talk of an excursion involving reindeer, which also sounded quite cool. Ok, so maybe there are some neat things to see at this port of call after all…

Next: what to do during that time?

[cubfancolleen]

The Intrepid was one berth over when we were docked in NYC, so definitely close enough to check out.
I’m sure the sail thru the fjord will be gorgeous!

[lindawdw]

Your possible excursions sound wonderful!!! I've been to St. John's and Halifax on a Carnival Cruise that we did back in 2000. We visited Peggys Cove where we learned about the Swiss Air Flight 111 plane crash that happened there in 1998. It was a very somber excursion. The whale watching/wildlife excursions sound like they'd be fun to do.

[purplegal]

You sure have some options to pick from, I am sure Disney will have some good excursions for you to pick from.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by cubfancolleen

The Intrepid was one berth over when we were docked in NYC, so definitely close enough to check out.

Cool!

I’m sure the sail thru the fjord will be gorgeous!

I'm hoping so!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by lindawdw

Your possible excursions sound wonderful!!! I've been to St. John's and Halifax on a Carnival Cruise that we did back in 2000. We visited Peggys Cove where we learned about the Swiss Air Flight 111 plane crash that happened there in 1998. It was a very somber excursion.

Oh wow, I feel terrible that this isn't even ringing a bell for me, as I'm sure it would've been all over the news at the time - and back then, I'd probably have been reading that news, as I was working in radio at that point.

[pamcarey]

Originally Posted by chezp

It looks as if there’s a fair bit to do in Cork itself, and nearby Cobh – at first I thought they were one and the same thing, but apparently not… Kinsale is somewhere else my guidebook recommended, and I saw some tours that incorporated two of the three. Some tours seemed to take in Cork and a distillery, which is another option, but to be honest, there was nothing that immediately jumped out at me, so it’ll be interesting to see what Disney offerings there are in due course…

Kinsale is a very pretty little waterside town. I enjoyed it a lot!

Originally Posted by chezp

I learnt quickly that Sydney is obviously somewhere associated with Alexander Graham Bell, given one of the options is that you can visit the Alexander Graham Bell Museum. Other options allow you to explore the Cabot trail, one of North America’s most scenic drives, visit Fortress Louisbourg, a restored 18th-century French settlement recognized as a Canadian National Historic Site, or see the Highland Village, a 50-acre living-history museum overlooking the Bras d’Or Lakes. Then again, we could go on the lobster 101 excursion, where you sit down to a fresh meal of lobster, ½ pound of mussels, potato salad and coleslaw or you can take a puffin tour by boat. Of course, you can always just explore Sydney as well… or take an underground coal mine experience. Decisions, decisions…

The Cabot Trail is beautiful!

Originally Posted by chezp

The next day, we head for Halifax in Nova Scotia, and thankfully we get two bites of the cherry here, as we also make a stop here when we head out of New York City and over to Quebec City, and frankly, it’s probably just as well, judging by how many excursions take my fancy. There are nearly 20 on the “long list” (what I start with before making a short list ).

Options here seem to revolve around Peggys Cove (no apostrophe apparently ) with one option also taking you to the Fairview Lawn Cemetery, the final resting place for 121 passengers of the Titanic. I’m not sure I’d feel about that. Actually, I do. As I write this, I’m getting chills down my spine, so I guess I’d be a bit creeped out… The lobster lunch and maple sounds good as well. You get to sample lobster (if we plan these excursions right, we could end up with a daily dose of lobster ) and then see the processing of Acadian maple syrup. That sounds interesting…

There’s obviously a fair amount to see in Halifax itself, with various options including a hop on, hop off bus tour, a duck tour (that’s going to be a winner with Mark, I can tell you now… ), a pub tour and even a top 10 tour.

Halifax is great! Their waterfront boardwalk area is a lot of fun. We did the duck tour, which was great! We also went to Peggys Cove, which is very pretty in the lighthouse area. I also enjoyed the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. We did not go to the Citadel, but I wish we did.

[pamcarey]

Sailing through the fjord sounds amazing!