USA & Canada cruise ports

[Susan Watt]

Hubby & I are on Aurora R315 and wondered if anyone had any tips on what the ports are like for someone with walking problems (not wheelchair bound). Not sure whether it will be necessary to book trips.

[Manoverboard]

It may help if you list the Ports in question ...

[Susan Watt]

New York, Newport-Rhode Island, Portland-Maine, St. John-New Brunswick, Halifax, Quebec and Charlottetown. We have Boston sorted as hubby has a radio amateur friend who he is really looking forwarding to meeting. He is going to pick us up at the port and take us out for the day.

[wolfie]

We did most of these ports on a similar cruise a few years ago.

Portland; we did the tour to Kennebunkport as there was no way to get there DIY. Maybe others will know different. This was just a morning tour and very enjoyable though, as always, we could have done with more time in this delightful town. In the afternoon I went for a wander around Portland itself and it's a pleasant enough place. I remmebr purchasing quite a few momentos and gifts in some of the shops there.

Newport RI: it's a tender port, so get up early for the tender tickets. At the Visitor Centre, very close to the tender disembarkation point, you can purchae tickets for the Viking Tours trolley bus. This stops off at numerous mansions, or you can do the round tour. We gotnoff to view the Vanderbilts place and were then picked up by another trolley bus back to town. Lunch in town and some delightful shops made for a perfect day.

Halifax NS; we took a tour to Peggy's Cove which was not the best tour that we had ever done. We have better/comparible scenery in our part of the British Isles.

Quebec; what a wondeful place!! The lower town is very picturesque, flowers everywhere and music playing at every twist and turn. There is a funicular to the upper old town and a very pleasant panorama from Dufferin Terrace onto the St. Lawrence itself. A visit to Chateux Frontenac is a must, for lunch or a drink. We had an overnight here and took a tour into the Quebec countryside the following day which took in Lake Beaufort and Montmorency Falls. You can see the falls on approach and departure, from a distance, but up close they are spectacular.

[wolfie]

Will do NY next but I expect you will have quite a few responses before mine.

[Susan Watt]

Thanks very much for the insight Wolfie. Really looking forward to the cruise. Never been across the pond before.

[elainew]

We did the USA/Canada cruise in 2010. At the time I was waiting for a knee replacement so my mobility was limitedand this did affect what we did in the different ports. In New York on the first day we took a cab to Ground Zero. The cabs are lined up just outside the cruise terminal. We took another cab back to the Times Square area and had a steady walk around with several rests. We returned to the ship mid afternoon for a rest before we went on an evening excursion. The second day we took a cab to Central Park and I managed to walk back to the ship via Times Square. Once again we walked at a steady pace and had plenty of rest stops.
Boston we took the shuttle bus from the ship to Quincy Market, from there we had a walk around up to the memorial plaques for the victims of the Irish famine. It was quite comfortable to walk around, the pavements appeared reasonably level.
At Newport we walked along to the tourist information place and then up to the shopping area. This is a very relaxing port to walk around.Unfortunately on return trip on the tender a crew member had left the fuel hatch open on the floor and as I took my seat my leg went down it, which did not help with the pain in my knee.
At Portland we took a bus out to the Maine shopping mall and had a little retail therapy.
St. Johns New Brunswick-we had a walk along to the city centre, when we came off the ship it was level ground but some of the side roads are quite steep.
Quebec the main prob;em I found was that the gangplank was very steep, so I had some discomfort getting on and off the ship. We had a walk around but returned to the ship because of the heavy rain. The following day we went on a full day excursion which took in St Anne du Pre basilisca and the Montmorency falls , I was not sure about sitting on a coach for so long because sitting aggraveted my condition sometimed more than being on the move, but it was well worth it.
Halifax- we setout to walk to the museum but half way there I realised that it was going to be too much for me so we returned to the ship. It was a shame because it was a lovely walk along a board walk. There were places available on an excursion to Peggy's Cove but decided against it. Later I was talking to a lady who went on this trip and she found it difficult to walk from the coach to the lighthouse owing to the uneven ground.
Despite not making the most of the ports we thoroughly enjoyed this cruise and booked to go again in 2012. Unfortunatley my knee replacement developed a fault and had to be replaced last July so we had to cancel. Any way we have booked again for this year, hope we meet up with you on board. I hope this has been of some use to you.

[Susan Watt]

Hi Elaine, Thank you for the info. Well that's at least 3 couples on the cruise. I'm on with my husband Keith and our friends Linda & Dai (from the P&O Forum) will also be on board. Dai normally arranges the Forum meets. See you in September.

[lioness]

We did this cruise on Arcadia in 2011. We did every port DIY. Most of them have marquees on shore or the terminal building where you can get information. We did a couple of trolley tours, one in Boston, the stop for which was quite near the port.

Bar Harbour - another trolley tour, again tender in and not far too walk to the stop for the trolley.