All of the ports were thoroughly enjoyable. The ship is nice, but I’ve cruised most with Princess and found Norwegian a bit lacking.
Embarkation
4 out of 5
There didn’t seem to be a special line for previous cruisers. The queue was pretty long, but since my travel mate was in a wheelchair we were expedited.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
Not very impressed with the food quality compared to Princess ships. It was okay, but no prime rib, beef Wellington, or lobster offered in the main dining room. We ate most meals in the Summer Palace, which was a nice main dining room venue with excellent service. No International Cafe or anywhere but the buffet to get food when you’re in a hurry. We ate a few meals at O’Sheehan’s Pub, which is open 24 hrs/day. Very good Reuben sandwich. Enjoyed Starbucks a couple of times and liked the ice cream choices in the buffet.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
Hard for me to rate because we didn’t participate in any onboard activities.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Very good service in the Summer Palace and O’Sheehan’s Pub. The hostess was very good about getting us seated since we came in the lower entrance due to my travel mate using a walker. Our room steward was very efficient.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
What a fabulous room! It was handicapped accessible and very roomy. We really enjoyed the aft balcony, but I don’t recommend the 11th deck. We were right under an area for eating and heard a lot of scraping as chairs were moved around.
Ship tip
It’s a nice ship, but if you’re used to Princess you might be disappointed.
Nice excursion. We went to an indigenous peoples center and museum first. Houses in Sydney are almost all frame houses, large ones where the industrialists and professionals lived, down to very small ones where the coal and steel workers lived. Our second stop in Sydney was a museum in the little village of Whitney Pier. Very interesting and the locals were so hospitable. They served us homemade oat cakes and a beverage.
Had a fabulous tour here with wonderful guide named Linda. She had beautiful English with a lovely French accent. First stop was the Musee du Fjord, an aquarium and museum about the Saguenay Fjord. Our second stop was a goat farm where they explained the difference between wool and mohair. They shear the goats twice a year and produce and hand dye yarn. The last stop was a very interesting museum of a local artist, Arthur Villeneuve. His paintings are rather primitive in style, but the most interesting thing was his entire house is housed in the museum (a large building that was a former pulpwood business) and the walls and ceilings of his house are entirely covered in paintings of the city and area. He worked with oil paint and then shellacked the paintings. No photos allowed inside. There was a lot of fall color here on Oct 5.
I love Boston and fortunately have been there 5 times. Our late arrival precluded us being able to do anything here but eat a late dinner, spend the night, and head to the port the next morning. However from previous visits I highly recommend going to the North End where there are many authentic Italian restaurants. It’s a compact walkable city to enjoy. Very Historic.
There wasn’t an excursion to the House of Green Gables available through the cruise line, but we booked one with Shipmate and thoroughly enjoyed it. As with all “secondary vendor” excursions it required walking a greater distance to the bus, which was challenging for someone with a walker. We also went to the Prince Edward Island Preserve Co.
Nice tour of the city with stops at the Public Gardens, which was beautiful, and the Fairview Lawn Cemetery where casualties of the Titanic disaster are buried. We had a great guide.
We took a hop on-hop off bus here and really enjoyed seeing the old city and the new. Quebec City is very hilly and would be fun to walk around if you’re able.
Seemed a bit chaotic in the place we waited for people who required wheelchair assistance. They selected a very hard to find area for this group. Several people were quite concerned about missing flights, but we were staying in Quebec City overnight so we didn’t have that concern.
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