New England Getaway: Planning

Saint Greg

21 hours ago

Booking

I have been looking a New England/Canada itinerary for years. When Carnival took Boston off, I stopped looking. Now that I’ve started cruising with Norwegian and Princess, I’ve started looking again because they both cruise out of Boston.

I originally was looking at Princess out of Boston. That cruise was three times as much as Norwegian. I didn’t really want to do Norwegian out of Boston because Jewel is there and I was on Jewel the past two years in Alaska. I wanted to try a different ship. I decided to book the Getaway out of New York and save Boston for another year.

Itinerary Change

On March 13th our Itinerary was changed. Newport was changed to a Sea day. Portland was changed to a 12-hour day in Boston. Saint John and Halifax were flip-flopped. It looks like I’m going to Boston afterall.

Flights

I’m a Spirit flyer and know I can get flights in/out of Newark or LaGuardia with Spirit. I’m hooked on the Go Big which is basically first class for the price of a regular ticket on another airline. It includes a first class style seat on the first two rows of the plane, priority security (where available), priority boarding, one checked bag (up to 50lbs), one carry-on, one personal item, streaming WiFi, drinks and snacks.

I’ve been finding the reasonable pricing around June for August flights but I start looking right when the flights are released which is about six months out for Spirit.

Initially the price to Newark was reasonable with a $69 base price and a $110 upgrade to Go Big. But the return flight was going to bring the total cost up over $700. I’ve been paying $375-425 round trip so that’s my target.

Finally in early May the base price of the flight to Newark dropped to $50, making the flight there just $160 for Go Big. That’s about as cheap as it’s going to get. Round-trip was still high around $600. I decided to lock in the flight to Newark and continue to wait on the return flight price. I had enough points to cover that flight so it cost me 12,000 points and $5.

In Mid-May the return flight got down to $308 for Go Big. That’s the equivalent of a $473 total price. It’s getting close to where I want to be but not quite there yet. The next week I get an email about a sale and check the price again. Now it’s $268. That’s the equivalent of a $428 total price if I didn’t use any points. I decided to go ahead and lock it in. I actually could have done better if I waited until Memorial Day. On the Memorial Day sale it went down to $208. I could’ve the equivalent of a $368 total price if I waited another week.

In the end it cost me $273 and 12,000 points for the round trip Go Big ticket. I’m pretty happy with that. Over the summer I noticed they changed Go Big to Spirit First which is probably what they should’ve called it to begin with. Go Savvy is now Premium Economy which I think more people will be able to relate to.

Spirit gave me a birthday gift in June changing my EWR>DFW flight to EWR>MIA>DFW now getting in at 10:30pm instead of 4:30pm. Also I didn’t get a change notice on my DFW>EWR flight but it magically became DFW>MIA.

I found suitable replacement flights. I’ll just have to fly into LGA about a half hour later than I had planned on arriving at EWR. That’s not too big of a deal. But then I have to fly out of EWR earlier than I wanted to get home at a reasonable time. I’ll have to leave on an 8am flight to get me home at 10:30am. I made the change through a chat with a Spirit representative.

“I have rebooked your departure flight to DFW-LGA at 8:40am-1:06pm and the return flight from EWR-DFW at 7:59am-10:37am. You can view your updated flight information under your reservation at www.spirit.com or via our Spirit mobile app. Select “My Trips” tab and enter your last name and confirmation code.”

I noticed Spirt has quietly rebranded Go Big and Go Savvy to Spirit First and Premium Economy. I think that’s smart. I know I get tired of constantly explaining what Go Big means. This is terminology that more travelers will be able to relate to.

New York Hotel

In New York I’m generally tying to get a room for under $300/night. I normally end up finding a place for $250/night. This time I found a good price on Hotwire for the Sheraton Times Square. I booked it both pre and post-cruise.

For my pre-cruise stay I paid $175. There’s supposed to be a $30 resort fee due at the hotel, bringing it to a total cost of $205.

Post-cruise I got it for $221. The resort fee would bring it to $251. I wanted to stay close to the port at least pre-cruise this time, but it was going to be more than double the price for a lesser hotel.

I booked my hotel about four months out and I’m glad I did. A month out prices had nearly doubled.

New York Plans

The first thing I look at when going to New York is the Mets schedule. The Mets are on the road the weekend I get to New York, but they’re at home when I get back. I got a ticket behind the Mets dugout for the Sunday afternoon game on debarkation day.

I also would like to take advantage of having a hotel near the theater district and see a couple of Broadway shows. Last time I caught an afternoon showing of Hamilton. This time with my flight change, they will have to be evening shows.

AI said Wicked, Hamilton, The Lion King, and Moulin Rouge were the best shows to see. I’ve already seen Wicked and Hamilton–along with Phantom of the Opera, Chicago, and Mr. Saturday Night. I’m targeting The Lion King and Moulin Rouge.

I love to find a good value seat at these shows. I did it with Phantom and Chicago. I think I’ve done it again with Moulin Rouge.

I look for front row and along the sides for cheaper seats. You have to read the seat reviews though. I didn’t take that value seat at Hamilton because I was going to miss too much of the show.

In this case I found some side seats with nothing but great reviews. I wanted to be on the end and was torn between the front row and the second row.

The reviews on the front row talked about how great it was having the performers right there and interacting with them. But the end seat said they didn’t have legroom with the stage right there. One of the reviews said if you’re over 5’4” you may not be comfortable. I’m 5’10” and I like to be comfortable.

The second row end has no seat in front of it and a ton of legroom. It ended up being a moot point because I went with the Sunday night show and the front row wasn’t available but second row on the end was. That ticket cost $68.36 on Broadway.com. Two seats down from me the ticket is $234.49.

Apparently The Lion King is one of the more expensive shows. I think the cheapest seat was $135 for rear balcony.

Some tips I picked up from people who have been to the show: It’s best to be on the lower level outside of the first five rows and on the aisle if you can get it. Apparently the animals come down the aisles in the opening act.

Looking for my value seats, I found that most of the lower level is $200+. The aisles are $217+. I did find seats under the overhang (non-aisle) for $176. The first row of that the overhang really doesn’t impact you and you have unlimited legroom with an aisle in front of you. I remember wishing I had one of those seats at Wicked.

I was also looking at the first row of the balcony on the side. That balcony seat has a pretty good view and is $184. People in that first row of the balcony on the side loved it because during the opening act one of the actors is right there in front of them. But online reviews said you really want to be on the lower level with all of the animals coming down the aisles so I went with my $176 ticket.

My $176 ticket went to $203 on Sunday night so I booked The Lion King for Saturday night and Moulin Rouge for Sunday night which is what ultimately made my Moulin Rouge seat decision for me since fewer seats were available for Sunday night. I’m guessing the higher Sunday price is because of Labor Day. I expected Saturday to be more expensive.

Two years ago I advised people to use Ticketmaster instead of Broadway.com. Now I say use both because they have different seats available and different prices. In this case I got my Moulin Rouge ticket at Broadway.com and my Lion King ticket on Ticketmaster. Broadway.com has changed to all-in pricing which is much better than two years ago when they added ridiculous fees onto my ticket price.

My plane gets in to LaGuardia at 1pm. My hope is to get checked into my hotel and have time to see the 9/11 museum and Oculus before the 8pm show. I probably don’t have time but I’m going to try.

On Sunday I have a noon arrival time. My plan is to drop my bags with a porter around 10:30 and tour Intrepid before boarding. I got an 11am entry ticket for Intrepid. Intrepid tickets are free for veterans.

Then on debarkation day I have the Mets game at 12:40 and Moulin Rouge at 7:30. I don’t think I’ll have time for anything else that day.

Ports

Boston

I am doing Freedom Trail on my own and I’m touring Fenway Park. Ideally I would like to get all of Freedom Trail done before I go to Fenway. Doing it at my own pace allows me to come back and finish in the afternoon if I need to. I booked the latest Fenway tour they had which was noon. That cost $27.

Bar Harbor

Acadian National Park seems to be the thing to do in Bar Harbor. There are a ton of tours for it through the cruise line. I booked Oli’s Trolley due to recommendations and reviews. They have a 2.5-hour tour and a 4-hour tour.

I didn’t feel like the 4-hour tour was an option since it left at 11am and got back at 3pm. This is a tender port and we have 7-4 port time so I’m expecting a 3:30 back on board. That makes it a bit risky.

I probably would’ve opted for the 2.5 hour tour either way. It leaves at 10 am and gets me back at 12:30 which should be perfect to have a nice lunch at a restaurant in town. The longer tour would be just a box lunch on the tour.

From what I’ve read the difference is an additional 15 minutes at each stop and one other full 30-minute stop which one of the reviews I read called “underwhelming.”

St. John

I booked the Trolley ‘Round Saint John excursion through Norwegian. It’s a $49 excursion which is free with my $50 excursion credit. It’s an hour and 15-minute tour around Saint John.

Halifax

I’ve been to Halifax once before. That was on my Venezia Transatlantic in 2023. That time I walked to Citadel and did pretty much everything you can do there. Then I walked back along the boardwalk.

This time I’m going to get some food on the boardwalk. There’s a beavertails there I need to try. I’ll probably do that then tour the Maritime museum and get something to eat on the boardwalk. It looks like the museum costs about 10 bucks or whatever they call it up there.