Vision of the Seas Review

Just perfect 12 day cruise

Review for Canada & New England Cruise on Vision of the Seas
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10+ Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Oct 2017
Cabin: Interior Stateroom
My cabin
Seating in my cabin
The Solarium.  Probably my favourite place on the ship
I was told it's Lemon Meringue Pie.  It was delicious

Vision of the Seas

Considered these days a “small” ship of about 2,400 passengers, overall I liked Vision of the Seas and my 12 day Canada/New England cruise

Cabin

Cabin Review

Interior Stateroom

Cabin M

I was on Deck 2 inside cabin. No complaints. My cabin steward was awesome. TV sucked. They kept repeating the same programs. I’m not a night owl and wanted to watch TV and read my Connect newsletter before going to sleep. I asked why the TV re-ashes the same shows, I was told because it’s an old ship, poor satellite. Really?

Port Reviews

Quebec City

It was the start of the cruise. I stayed two nights before and explore Old Quebec City on my own

Corner Brook

Cute town. Ship provided a free shuttle. After exploring the small town, I went to Corner Brook Stream Trail, not far from the centre of town. It was mid-October to enjoy some Fall colours, brooks, streams and peacefulness of the area.

Sydney (Nova Scotia)

I stayed in the town, visiting a couple of museums. Jost Heritage House ($3) has a collection of ships and medicines used by early 20th century apothecary.

Cossit House ($2) is Sydney’s oldest house and learn what life was like in early days of settlement in Sydney.

I quickly looked at the oldest catholic church in Cape Breton called St. Patrick’s Church.

The morning got very windy. I just walked around town headed to the library to use the free WIFI. I walked along the board walk. Before heading back to the ship I stopped at Old Triangle Alehouse for a beer.

Halifax

We docked at Pier 22. Beside us is Pier 21 which contains Canadian Museum of Immigration. Unfortunately I didn’t think I had enough time to see the inside to experience what it was like to immigrate to Canada between 1928 and 1971.

From our pier, you can catch the hop on/off bus but I passed and walked along the boardwalk into town which took between 20 to 30 min. I stopped at one of the Information places and he recommended I walk up George St. toward the Citadel mid-way I stopped at St. Pauls’ Church and City Hall.

It’s free to get into the Citadel since my Canada celebrated 150th this year and parks are free to get in for just this year.

Saint John (New Brunswick)

If you download a PDF file (Google “Saint John three historic walking tours” then you ought to get “Loyalist Trail”, “Victorian Stroll” & “Prince William Walk”). Now I didn’t follow the walking tours to a T but I studied my map trying to figure out what site was near another site and just followed my own route. I didn’t get to see everything but I did see most places in this historic city.

Portland (Maine)

Another great town to explore, saw a lot of historic sites including the Victorian Mansion (did not take the time to go inside). I wanted to see the Neal Dow Memorial but when I got there discovered I needed to make an appointment.

Boston

You can purchase a hop on/off bus ticket (but where my ship docked we had a very long walk to do that so I decided to get the ships shuttle (U.S.$18 return) which the bus dropped us off near Quincy Market.

I did a lot of walking, including getting to Boston Public Library (what a fantastic building). I visited a few churches, Beacon Hill, making my way back to Quincy Market.

Bar Harbor

I’m sorry I didn’t book at home the 2.5 hour trolley to Acadia. They only had 1:45 pm time left but I didn’t want to take a chance because I didn’t feel an hour cushion was enough any case something happened (last tender was 5:15 to ship). I’m sure it would have been fine but …

I just enjoyed exploring the town which has lots of inns/B&Bs. I also walked along the Shore Path, beautiful scenery. Before I headed back to the ship I stopped at Paddy’s, an Irish pub for a delicious blueberry pie.

Rockland

I took the ships tour to Mount Battie (beautiful scenic view and we were blessed with a sunny morning) then off to a cute town of Camden where we were left for 2.5 hours to enjoy the town. If you are a shopper (not me) there is lots of shops. Personally I didn’t need that amount of time here but I went to sit at their harbour front and just relaxed.

Newport

I’m a huge tennis fan so I headed to the International Tennis Museum and Hall of Fame. I was in the museum for about an hour. Lots of stuff to see here including history of tennis to lot of donations by the athletes including tennis shoes Andy Murray wore when he won his first Wimbledon, Novak Djokavic’s shirt, Bjorn Borg’s outfit and so much more. Plus they have different videos of parts of matches.

I stopped at St. Mary’s church where John and Jackie Kennedy got married.

Day was unusually warm for late October so the harbour front was very busy.

5 Helpful Votes
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