The cruise departed from Boston. The ports of call were Portland, Maine, St John, New Brunswick, Canada; Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada; and two Fun Days at Sea.
Here's his review:
"We had a much needed break. The ship was nice and boarding was very easy. The cabin was laid out well and had plenty of room for our things so it didn't feel cramped. Margaret liked the fact that it was an inside cabin and she slept very well in the darkness. The location of the cabin was excellent. It was quiet and close to the lido deck, just one deck up which made it convenient. For food, we would recommend the Blue Iguana Café, which had tacos and burritos and an ample salsa bar, for both breakfast and lunch. We would not recommend the main dining room for breakfast or brunch, as they did not offer anything we couldn't get on the buffet, and the service was terrible so the food took too long to arrive and was not hot. The buffet was good, and the pizza restaurant was excellent. We tried Guys Burger Joint, and the fries were good but Margaret thinks either the burger or the mayo which was sitting out in a bowl at room temp made her a bit ill. I felt it too. Luckily we only tried it once. The steak house was unimpressive. Although everything was prepared well and tasted good, the quality of the meat was not as good as on the Magic. The steaks were tough and gristly. Margaret had the rib eye, and I had the cowboy rib eye, and we expected much better than we got. We had late seating in the golden dining room for dinner, and the wait staff was excellent and the food was very good.
We both had looked forward to sharing the spa and were disappointed that this class of ship only had a whirlpool that was shared, but it was in the middle of the gym so it seemed a little out of place and we did not use it. The adult sanctuary area was very nice though. Also, the rear deck had a pool and hot tubs that were adult use only. An additional nice feature was the retractable roof that was in use when it was cold or rainy.
We spent time every night at the Alchemy Bar, which is their signature martini bar. The drinks were excellent and we worked our way through the menu over the course of the week. We even took a private mixology class that was offered. Just up from it was a Tasting Bar, which offered small tastings from the specialty restaurants 4 nights.
We went to a few shows which were good. We heard the comedians were hit and miss. Also, seems the schedule didn't meet with our free time on most nights. The main dance club didn't open until 10 or 11, and it seemed empty, as if people got tired of waiting around for it to open and just found other things to do. Before 10, it was used by the kids clubs on a few nights. It looks like they had a lot of activities for kids, scavenger hunts, etc.
In Portland, we went to the Allagash Brewery. It was a really nice free tour, but the cab ride was $25 each way. Would recommend it for a group with shared transportation, otherwise kind of pricey. The Shipyard/Sea Dog Brewery is right up the street from where the ship docked. It is also free. It starts on the hour, you watch a 10 minute video then sample, sample, sample! Free beer, a bargain!
Saint John was nice, but we had been there before so we didn't do any excursions. We went to the city market place and stopped in for more beer at a place we had been before.
In Halifax we also did not do an excursion. We had planed to tour Alexander Keith's brewery. From the info on the website it appeared free, but when we arrived they wanted $20 per person which included the tour and 2 12 oz beer tastings. We thought they were ripping us off so we passed and went to an oyster bar that wanted $3-$4 per oyster and ended up passing and going to a pub, Durty Nellies. When we left the ship a lot off people were handing out coupons for the restaurants, which we used and seemed to get a good deal. We had chowder, but other folks from the ship had some delicious looking mussels. Prices were reasonable and staff was very friendly. The Victorian Botanical Garden across from the Citidal is worth the hick up the hill. 14 acres of manicured grounds which even included a tropical plant and cactus sections. At the waterfront there is a very nice sea walk area that has various tours and activities, shopping, bike and Segway rentals, museum.
There is nothing in Sydney, but they did build a new port terminal that houses a lot of craft type shopping, as well as a nice little museum showing the history of the area. There isn't much else in the town.
Leaving the ship was easier than boarding. We handed in our forms and grabbed our bags and sailed through. There was no searching or questioning going through customs. It took about 5 minutes from the time they called our deck to when we were out on the street waiting for our ride.
All in all we had a pretty good time and we thank you for helping us."
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