The official Quebec, Saguenay and Baie-Comeau cruise ports thread!

[cruiser21]

There is a good restaurant inside the Square Phillips Hotel. It's a little italian called Trattoria Zia. You're less than a 10 minutes walk from the Old Port of Montreal. The 747 bus from the airport stops from very close from your hotel and 2 subway stations (less than 5 minutes) if you leave from Square Victoria Station to Berri-Uqam and then about 5 min walk to the Gare d'autocar where you'll take the bus from Quebec.

As for activities you can go, tell me what you like and I'll give you suggestions.

Whatever you do, avoid Musée Grévin at a costs. It is filled with wax statues of French Canadian personnalities you have never heard of. Don't waste your money.

My teens like science and animals. We plan on going to Olympic park, Biodome, insectarium, planetarium, and science museum. My husband likes to walk around cities and take pictures of everything. I'm a runner. I love running in new cities, I tend to get lost though. I've learned to take a cash or cc in case I need to jump in a cab back to the hotel. I also like to drink Canadian beer, and eat Poutine.

The hotel looks great I booked a 1100 sq foot room with 2 queens, sofa couch two bathrooms and full kitchen. The hotel has full gym pool and laundry room. Way more space then we need, but it was 500.00 USD total for two nights. An amazing deal I think for what we're getting. It gets great reviews on trip advisor. It's going to be hard to move to a tiny stateroom on the ship. It took me hours and hours of looking just to find a room in Barcelona that would gaurrantee me two beds for just me and my son. Canada is a little more family friendly. I found many options that would work for a family of four.

I went back and forth on paying the extra to fly into Quebec and spend a couple of nights there, but I think Montreal has a lot of interesting things to see. The ship overnights in Quebec giving us a couple of days to explore Quebec. I'm assuming after the muster drill will be able to go back into town if we choose. I don't know if I'll get back to Eastern Canada so might as well see both cities.


Were not planning on any Disney excursions. We never do. I think they're overpriced for what you get. Our table mates paid 2500 on excursions on our last cruise if I did that I wouldn't be doing this cruise. I'm not really sure what were going to do in the ports, but I've gotten pretty good at winging it.

My youngest son turns 14 while were there. His favorite food is Pizza any suggestions?

Thanks for your help. I'm sure I'll have more questions down the road.

 

[mevelandry]

My teens like science and animals. We plan on going to Olympic park, Biodome, insectarium, planetarium, and science museum. My husband likes to walk around cities and take pictures of everything. I'm a runner. I love running in new cities, I tend to get lost though. I've learned to take a cash or cc in case I need to jump in a cab back to the hotel. I also like to drink Canadian beer, and eat Poutine.

The hotel looks great I booked a 1100 sq foot room with 2 queens, sofa couch two bathrooms and full kitchen. The hotel has full gym pool and laundry room. Way more space then we need, but it was 500.00 USD total for two nights. An amazing deal I think for what we're getting. It gets great reviews on trip advisor. It's going to be hard to move to a tiny stateroom on the ship. It took me hours and hours of looking just to find a room in Barcelona that would gaurrantee me two beds for just me and my son. Canada is a little more family friendly. I found many options that would work for a family of four.

I went back and forth on paying the extra to fly into Quebec and spend a couple of nights there, but I think Montreal has a lot of interesting things to see. The ship overnights in Quebec giving us a couple of days to explore Quebec. I'm assuming after the muster drill will be able to go back into town if we choose. I don't know if I'll get back to Eastern Canada so might as well see both cities.


Were not planning on any Disney excursions. We never do. I think they're overpriced for what you get. Our table mates paid 2500 on excursions on our last cruise if I did that I wouldn't be doing this cruise. I'm not really sure what were going to do in the ports, but I've gotten pretty good at winging it.

My youngest son turns 14 while were there. His favorite food is Pizza any suggestions?

Thanks for your help. I'm sure I'll have more questions down the road.

I think you nailed it with the activities you picked. I would check with the Biodôme though because I heard they are closing for refurbishments for a few months. Not sure when they reopen.

If you love running, check the Parc du Mont-Royal. A lot of people like to run near the piers at the Old Port too.

Good deal for the hotel. The location is excellent. Which days are you going to be here? Downtown can be a ghost town during the week at night. Metro McGill (near your hotel) tends to fill up with homeless people sometimes (it's not Skid Row but I'm sometimes surprised... They usually won't bother you but it could make you uncomfortable.)

In my opinion, the best pizza is at Restaurant Bevo in the Old Port.

My favorite poutine is at "Frites, alors!" (There's one in the Old Port right besides the "Centre des Sciences"). And there are "Queues de Castor" (Beaver Tails) pâtisserie near if you like it.

The province of Québec is very safe so not picking an excursion can be an option. However, I'm not sure there's much to see near the cruise terminal/port in Saguenay and Baie-Comeau.

 

[cruiser21]

I think you nailed it with the activities you picked. I would check with the Biodôme though because I heard they are closing for refurbishments for a few months. Not sure when they reopen.

If you love running, check the Parc du Mont-Royal. A lot of people like to run near the piers at the Old Port too.

Good deal for the hotel. The location is excellent. Which days are you going to be here? Downtown can be a ghost town during the week at night. Metro McGill (near your hotel) tends to fill up with homeless people sometimes (it's not Skid Row but I'm sometimes surprised... They usually won't bother you but it could make you uncomfortable.)

In my opinion, the best pizza is at Restaurant Bevo in the Old Port.

My favorite poutine is at "Frites, alors!" (There's one in the Old Port right besides the "Centre des Sciences"). And there are "Queues de Castor" (Beaver Tails) pâtisserie near if you like it.

The province of Québec is very safe so not picking an excursion can be an option. However, I'm not sure there's much to see near the cruise terminal/port in Saguenay and Baie-Comeau.

 

[cruiser21]

I think you nailed it with the activities you picked. I would check with the Biodôme though because I heard they are closing for refurbishments for a few months. Not sure when they reopen.

If you love running, check the Parc du Mont-Royal. A lot of people like to run near the piers at the Old Port too.

Good deal for the hotel. The location is excellent. Which days are you going to be here? Downtown can be a ghost town during the week at night. Metro McGill (near your hotel) tends to fill up with homeless people sometimes (it's not Skid Row but I'm sometimes surprised... They usually won't bother you but it could make you uncomfortable.)

In my opinion, the best pizza is at Restaurant Bevo in the Old Port.

My favorite poutine is at "Frites, alors!" (There's one in the Old Port right besides the "Centre des Sciences"). And there are "Queues de Castor" (Beaver Tails) pâtisserie near if you like it.

The province of Québec is very safe so not picking an excursion can be an option. However, I'm not sure there's much to see near the cruise terminal/port in Saguenay and Baie-Comeau.

Wow the disboards is doing crazy stuff tonight. Anyway I'll research the ports. Coming off an Arizona Summer just being in cooler weather and seeing trees, greenery and beautiful scenery will be exciting. It's like the people from Canada doing the Caribbean cruises in February that are just happy to see the sun. Montreal, Quebec City and Halifax will be the highlights. I'm thinking of booking a Segway tour in Halifax. We did that in Spain and it was so much fun. I will take a peek at the excursions and see if there's anything that looks worth the cost.

We will be in Monteal on a Tuesday and Wednesday night. the homeless wont bother me. Every city/state has them. If you ever go Disneyland you'll see them all around the area. Thanks for the heads up on the Biodome. Disappointing, but it's closed until next year.

 

[Pens Fan]

Just chiming in here on excursions in Saguenay. We are not fans of cruise line excursions - at all. In our experience they are overpriced and a less than wonderful experience. However - I have spent a lot of time researching the port of Saguenay and listened to the great advice from @mevelandry , and the non-cruise ship options weren't great - which is a shame as there seems to be a lot to explore there. There is one company that offers tours https://www.saguenayguidedtours.com/english/private-saguenay-guided-tours/, but it's still a mini-bus tour and the itinerary didn't really interest us.

We aren't sailing with DCL, so I don't know what they offer. But we actually found several tours that our cruise line offered that interested us. Our booking included a $100 per port credit for shore excursions so we ended up booking through the cruise line. At the end of the day, I wouldn't rule out a cruise line excursion at this port, no matter which ship you are on.

I will also add that Halifax is just a delightful port. We did a private tour there (http://opentoptours.ca) two years ago on a DCL cruise that included Peggy's Cove and Lunenburg among many other lovely sights. I'd encourage anyone to get out of the city itself a bit. While the city itself is lovely, there is so much to see if you venture out a little. On our upcoming cruise, we are exploring the Evangeline Trail and wine country.

 

[mevelandry]

Wow the disboards is doing crazy stuff tonight. Anyway I'll research the ports. Coming off an Arizona Summer just being in cooler weather and seeing trees, greenery and beautiful scenery will be exciting. It's like the people from Canada doing the Caribbean cruises in February that are just happy to see the sun. Montreal, Quebec City and Halifax will be the highlights. I'm thinking of booking a Segway tour in Halifax. We did that in Spain and it was so much fun. I will take a peek at the excursions and see if there's anything that looks worth the cost.

We will be in Monteal on a Tuesday and Wednesday night. the homeless wont bother me. Every city/state has them. If you ever go Disneyland you'll see them all around the area. Thanks for the heads up on the Biodome. Disappointing, but it's closed until next year.

Disappointing indeed. I just can't believe they chose that time of the year (the most popular time) to do the work when it's more quiet during winter. Oh well...

There are still a lot of construction happening right now in Montreal, hopefully they'll be done/almost done when you come here. At least they seem to be done with the Old Port.

 

[Anisum]

Does anyone know if they will be doing a Pirate night on these cruises? I am doing back-to-back cruises and wanted to book Palo dinner on one of the Pirate's night.

I would think anyone who is Platinum may be able to tell you with more certainty if Pirate Night is listed on the itinerary. My initial guess would have been that they would replace it with Frozen since that's a better cooler weather itinerary show BUT it seems like past years have had Pirate Night according to the navigators so I would say that based on past experiences Pirate Night is more likely.

 

[vakamalua]

I would think anyone who is Platinum may be able to tell you with more certainty if Pirate Night is listed on the itinerary. My initial guess would have been that they would replace it with Frozen since that's a better cooler weather itinerary show BUT it seems like past years have had Pirate Night according to the navigators so I would say that based on past experiences Pirate Night is more likely.

We did the DCL 5 night Canada itinerary in 2012 and there was a Pirate Night.

For the 9/27 Quebec-NYC cruise, Pirate Night is not listed as an activity but the Pirate BBB packages are listed to reserve on Day 6--Halifax port day, so I assume that's Pirate night. FYI--as of now, there are no listings for a Character Breakfast, a Princess Tea, or for Meet & Greet Character Tickets.

 

[Anisum]

We did the DCL 5 night Canada itinerary in 2012 and there was a Pirate Night.

For the 9/27 Quebec-NYC cruise, Pirate Night is not listed as an activity but the Pirate BBB packages are listed to reserve on Day 6--Halifax port day, so I assume that's Pirate night. FYI--as of now, there are no listings for a Character Breakfast, a Princess Tea, or for Meet & Greet Character Tickets.

According to the personal navigators from last year they also did Pirate night the same day as Halifax port day so that would make sense.

Also, I could be mistaken but I don't think the Princess Tea is generally offered on the Magic/Wonder unless that's different from the Royal Court Tea that they have on the Dream/Fantasy. Meet and Greets and Character Breakfast usually are however so hopefully they will be added at some point.

 

[SyracuseWolvrine]

I'm thinking of booking a Segway tour in Halifax. We did that in Spain and it was so much fun. I will take a peek at the excursions and see if there's anything that looks worth the cost.

That sounds fun. Does DCL offer a Segway tour, or were you going to book independently? If independent, do you have a specific company you're looking at?

 

[cruiser21]

That sounds fun. Does DCL offer a Segway tour, or were you going to book independently? If independent, do you have a specific company you're looking at?

Book independently. If you google Segway Halifax a couple of companies will pop up. I haven't had time to research it fully, but I will soon. It was a lot of fun. If you have kids that get bored on tours they will enjoy touring this way.http://www.segwayns.com/segway-tours

 

[cruiser21]

https://www.saguenayguidedtours.com/new-page/english/

Found this off of cruise critic. If anyone looking for tours not through the cruise ship.

 

[cruiser21]

I was going to rent a car in the ports, but the car rental companies are closed on the weekends. I think the only negative to this cruise is the lack of things to do in the ports without paying a ridiculous amount of money. 250 pp to Kayak? 170.00 to hike in the park? Seriously? Were a family of four so do the math. I have too many necessary things to spend money on like..... getting our house painted tomorrow.

Is there a bus to the park? There's got to be way to go hiking in the Saguenay park for less then the 750.00 dollars it would cost with DCL. Just typing 750 dollars to go hiking makes me laugh especially when one of my teens thinks hiking is a form of torture.

 

[mevelandry]

I was going to rent a car in the ports, but the car rental companies are closed on the weekends. I think the only negative to this cruise is the lack of things to do in the ports without paying a ridiculous amount of money. 250 pp to Kayak? 170.00 to hike in the park? Seriously? Were a family of four so do the math. I have too many necessary things to spend money on like..... getting our house painted tomorrow.

Is there a bus to the park? There's got to be way to go hiking in the Saguenay park for less then the 750.00 dollars it would cost with DCL. Just typing 750 dollars to go hiking makes me laugh especially when one of my teens thinks hiking is a form of torture.

There's a way to save money: rent a car and go hiking in the Park. The park itself is a 40 minutes ride from the terminal.

That was one of the problems when I was living in that region: you need to have a car.

IMO that's the reason why excursions are so expensive. Plus english speaking guides are hard to find so $$$$$.

 

[mevelandry]

I was going to rent a car in the ports, but the car rental companies are closed on the weekends. I think the only negative to this cruise is the lack of things to do in the ports without paying a ridiculous amount of money. 250 pp to Kayak? 170.00 to hike in the park? Seriously? Were a family of four so do the math. I have too many necessary things to spend money on like..... getting our house painted tomorrow.

Is there a bus to the park? There's got to be way to go hiking in the Saguenay park for less then the 750.00 dollars it would cost with DCL. Just typing 750 dollars to go hiking makes me laugh especially when one of my teens thinks hiking is a form of torture.

Side note here: if you are at least 6 you can rent a mini-bus that will serve as a shuttle...


http://organisaction.com/transfert-de-vehicule-et-navettes

The downside is it is expensive. But maybe less expensive than the excursion price?

 

[cruiser21]

There's a way to save money: rent a car and go hiking in the Park. The park itself is a 40 minutes ride from the terminal.

That was one of the problems when I was living in that region: you need to have a car.

IMO that's the reason why excursions are so expensive. Plus english speaking guides are hard to find so $$$$$.

That was plan but the rental company's are closed on Saturday. On or Hawaii cruise we rented a car in every port and saved a ton of money.

 

[mevelandry]

That was plan but the rental company's are closed on Saturday. On or Hawaii cruise we rented a car in every port and saved a ton of money.

Have you tried with these two? The websites say they are open on saturday (Enterprise only in the AM, National all day).

Sometimes car rental companies will deliver cars to you at the airport/port.

 

[cruiser21]

View attachment 327521 View attachment 327519


Have you tried with these two? The websites say they are open on saturday (Enterprise only in the AM, National all day).

Sometimes car rental companies will deliver cars to you at the airport/port.

It's possible to get a car at the airport. How far is the airport from the port?

 

[mevelandry]

It's possible to get a car at the airport. How far is the airport from the port?

I would say... more or less 20 minutes from Bagotville Airport. :/

Look, I could be wrong but I think this could be some kind of watertaxi or offer excursions too...

https://www.navettesdufjord.com/en


Another idea: Not sure if the port offers some kind of bike rental but there's "La véloroute des Bleuets" (translation: Blueberries' bike path). Which offers great scenery and could be a good way to get to the National Park.

 

[mevelandry]

*Oyez, oyez!*

At the end of next week I'll go to Quebec City. Please, let me know if I can find answers to some of your questions while I am there!