Photos of Baltimore, Maryland Cruise Ship Terminal

Once you past security at the entrance, this may be your first stop i.e. parking your car at the terminal. There are lots on either side of the terminal and, you pay before you drop off your luggage and enter the terminal. The area is locked up when there aren't any ships at the terminal.

This will be either your first or second stop depending on whether your leaving your car at the terminal. If you're not, you should get whoever is driving you to bring you over to this part of the terminal so, you can easily drop off your luggage. I believe they later transfer the luggage from these containers to the ones the ship uses.

This part is pretty obvious i.e. you go in through the front entrance. When you disembark the ship, you'll come out the side of the building.

This picture shows the security scanners you'll have to pass through. I found security tough and no nonsense.

This picture shows the different lines boarding passengers will go through depending on their level of membership with Royal Caribbean's Crown & Anchor Society (frequent cruiser program) or lack of. Also, it shows some of the seating in the waiting area. Depending on when you arrive (I arrived earlier than expected), you may not have a wait.

This picture shows the entrance to a special lounge for those who are staying in suites and or are Pinnacle level members with Royal Caribbean's Crown & Anchor Society. Presumably, they got to board first once boarding started. There is a separate seating area in this area for Diamond and Diamond Plus members who are the second ones to board. They did offer water and maybe something else here. I don't remember seeing any soda or snack machines.

This last picture is of the standard mobile gangway you'll take to get on the ship. You'll walk out of the terminal building and zig zag up the gangway to where it connects to Grandeur of the Seas.

Overall, I feel Baltimore does a good job of getting you on and off the boat during your cruise. They claim they'll have you on the boat within an hour of arrival though this depends on when you arrive. I arrived around 10 a.m. and, they were still busy getting people off the boat so, I had to wait. I forget when they finished getting all the departing passengers off. For those who didn't bring their car or arranged to have someone pick them up, there are taxis outside the front of the terminal though I wasn't wowed by the one I took. I'd recommend you take Uber or Lyft as I think you'll get a better vehicle and maybe a better price. If nothing else, you should be able to get a decent quote from them on what it'll cost you.

I hope you find this post useful. I'll be cruising again out of Baltimore on Grandeur in January 2019 on a slightly different itinerary i.e. 1 day in Nassau, Bahamas and 1 day at Coco Cay, Bahamas. Royal Caribbean does offer cruises out of Baltimore on Grandeur of the Seas to Maine/Canada, Bermuda, Southern United States of America & the Bahamas and the Caribbean. I hope to do a Caribbean cruise in 2020 with my favorite aunt and uncle. One big down side to the ship's Caribbean cruises (in my opinion) is how much time you'll spend at sea getting down there and back (3 days each way).

The other major (in my opinion) cruise line that cruises out of Baltimore regularly is Carnival (Royal Caribbean's great rival). Their ship is called Pride and does 7 day cruises that leave and arrive every Sunday (as far as I know). As I've only cruised with Royal Caribbean, I don't know how that ship's cruises stack up. I have heard Carnival is the party line where Royal Caribbean tries to offer something for everyone.

That's all for now. Happy Travels and Happy Cruising!

Update: November 9, 2020 The Baltimore Cruise Ship Terminal is closed due to the coronavirus at the time of this update and, I don't have any idea when it'll reopen and cruising will start back up again. As I understand, cases of the virus in Maryland are going back up making it very unlikely they'll start offering cruises out of the terminal again any time soon.

Update: August 4, 2021 The Baltimore Cruise Ship Terminal has reopened HOWEVER no cruise ships are sailing as far as I know. I am keeping an eye on when Royal Caribbean plans to start cruising out of Baltimore again but, I haven't seen a date so far. I suspect Royal Caribbean is going to go with the bigger ships first as they would make more money for them. Also, there is the issue of having to do a trial cruise first on the ship to test their virus procedures.

Update: September 3, 2021 Royal Caribbean announced Enchantment of the Seas will start sailing out of Baltimore on December 23, 2021. Before it does that cruise, I believe it has to do a trial cruise to show the Center for Disease Control (CDC) that the ship has its procedures in place to their satisfaction. I haven't heard when the the trial cruise will be.

Update: October 31, 2021 Carnival started sailing again out of Baltimore on September 12, 2021 with a 7 night cruise to the Bahamas.

Saint John New Brunswick Cruise Ship Terminals

Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada has 3 places cruise ships can dock at. The one most used is the Marco Polo Cruise Ship Terminal in my top photo. This terminal has free Wi-Fi and shops. This was the one I used when I arrived in Saint John. The second most used terminal is the Diamond Jubilee (named after Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee) Cruise Ship Terminal pictured in the 2nd photo down. I can't tell you much about this one though my tour bus did drive by it. Lastly, cruise ships can use an area called the Long Wharf (bottom photo). According to the Beyond Ships webpage (http://www.beyondships3.com/st-john-guide-2.html), this is normally used for cargo but, when necessary, a tent city can be set up for security and for shops. Because of these 2 terminals and the wharf, Saint John can handle 4 cruise ships at one (according to the tour guide on my tour). The Beyond Ships website states that cruise ships alone have brought in $25 million into the city's economy. The Cruise Saint John website (www.cruisesaintjohn.com) states that in 2013, over 165,000 visited Saint John by cruise ship. It is a popular cruise ship port.

Peggy's Cove Photos

During an excursion in Nova Scotia while on my Maine/Canada cruise this past September on Royal Caribbean's Legend of the Seas, I got to visit Peggy's Cove. It's a touristy small scenic cove with a pretty lighthouse which can be seen in the first photo. For me, the real highlight of this visit is what you can get in the combination gift shop/restaurant you see in the second photo. On the second floor of the building, you can get a free special passport stamp that shows the lighthouse and the location Peggy's Cove. In my opinion, it's a neat souvenir of the trip that reminds me of the equally cool passport stamp I got at Machu Picchu, Peru.

Toronto Pearson International Airport

I made it to Toronto. I arrived at Toronto's Pearson International Airport around 3:45 p.m. My flight was on Air Canada Jazz. The plane was a Bombardier Dash 8-100. It was a nice little plane. Once I arrived in Toronto, I had a long walk to customs. Apparently, if you're changing flights internationally, you can't go from one flight to another. I arrived at gate F85 got to a point where you would descend down escalators to get to customs where I saw a different customs section if you were going to E gates. As I was going to gate E70, I was a bit confused by this. I got in the line for the E gate customs folks and, it turned out that was the way to go. I discovered one BIG plus to the airport. They offer free WiFi. I was delighted. Some airports charge for it which creates a bit of a hassle. Overall, Toronto's Pearson International Airport seems like a nice airport. Stay tuned for more travel posts. Tomorrow, I arrive in Tel Aviv, Israel. Happy travels all!

My 2011 Visit to Vancover, Canada

I made it to Vancouver, Canada. It was a long day getting here. I managed to get just 4 hours sleep after driving back from Michigan. The Big Blue Van airport shuttle folks picked me up at 3:15 in the morning and got me to Reagan National Airport in good time. From there, I had a nearly 3 hour flight to Houston, a 1 hour layover and a 5 hour flight to Vancouver. My travel agent arranged for a driver to pick me up at the airport and, he was waiting once I finished customs and immigration. The drive into Vancouver was just 30 minutes.

The Listel Hotel has lived up to its reputation for being artsy. It is filled with art. The hotel staff are nice and helpful. The location ISN'T the best if you're going to do a cruise out of Vancouver. My friend Harvey and I walked to to the cruise ship terminal and, we realized real quick we weren't going to do that lugging our suitcases. The taxi fare supposedly won't be more than $15 Canadian. We'll find out for sure when we take the taxi this morning.

The Vancouver cruise ship terminal is impressive. It can reportedly handle 4 cruise ships at 1 time. I think the most I've seen here was 3. I spoke with a person named Brett who told Harvey and I what we had to do upon arrival at the terminal. I'll post that procedure after I've gone through it myself so other travellers will know what to do and what to expect.

Yesterday, I used the Big Bus Hop On Hop Off service to sightsee Vancouver. It worked out well. I rode the bus through its entire route so I could hear all the narrative then, I decided what particular sights I wanted to see. I decided on Stanley Park and the Sun Yat Sen Chinese gardens. Stanley Park was really neat. It has a collection of 7 totem poles representing the various Indian nations. It also has dense forest and stunning trees. Lastly, it gives some great views of the Vancouver skyline at certain points. I was really glad I checked out this park. The Chinese garden was a nice quiet oasis in the city. There are 2 Chinese gardens you can visit. The larger classical garden has an admission charge but includes a guided tour of the garden while the smaller garden is free.

During my stay in Vancouver, I've eaten at 3 places - The Irish Heather, The Top of Vancouver and O'Doul's. The Irish Heather is a fantastic Irish pub with an astounding choice of single malt whiskies (over 100 I believe). I particularly enjoyed the steak and Guinness pot pie I had there. The Top of Vancouver restaurant is located at the top of a tower that rotates and looks over Vancouver. It offers great views of the city. The restaurant rotates completely around once every 60 minutes. Service was outstanding at this restaurant. The restaurant isn't cheap but, the food is very good. I had some excellent calimari and escargot for starters. My seafood melody main entree was very good. I was very pleased to dine at this restaurant as it made a nice finish to my day of sightseeing in Vancouver. O'Doul's is the restaurant attached to the Listel Hotel. This makes it very easy to get to for those staying there. I had breakfast at this restaurant as well as a couple nightcaps. The breakfast was very good though pricey. Service was excellent. The bartender at the bar where I had my nightcaps was really nice. They do have some affordable brews. Surprisingly, they don't offer Molson Canadian lager on draft there. Molson has a large brewery in the city which I passed by during my tour of the city.

Overall, I've enjoyed my stay at Vancouver though it isn't a place I would've visited for just itself. It isn't that interesting to me. If you are going to do an Alaskan cruise out of here, it is worth spending an extra day checking the place out. The city has a number of the big cruise lines stop here including Royal Caribbean, Holland America, Princess Lines and Silversea (I saw their Silver Shadow ship at the cruise ship terminal yesterday). A tour guide on the hop on hop off bus I rode told me the city receives over 1 million visitors a year during the cruise season. I can understand why. The cruise ship terminal itself is located in the center of the city making it an ideal base to see the city from and, it looks like it's easy to board the ships there (I'll know for certain on that later today).

That's all for this installment. Stay tuned for blogs on the renovated Radiance of the Seas and how my Alaska cruise goes. Happy travels all.

Royal Caribbean Alaska Cruise

As any readers I have can see, I'm playing catch up on my blogging today. I've been meaning to post some stuff but, I just didn't give off my procrastinating butt and post. This post concerns my upcoming 7 day Alaska cruise with Royal Caribbean.

I think it was last winter that I started trying to figure out what I wanted to do travel wise for this summer. I wanted to return to Iceland and finish all the sightseeing I'd like to do there but, it turned out I didn't see any reasonably affordable package deals I liked. My friend Harvey was interested in doing an Alaska cruise. My travel agent Joel raved about it saying the sights were stunning. I decided to look into it and to my surprise, I found a nice deal with Royal Caribbean for a cruise in late May. I subsequently booked it then, Royal Caribbean decided to put the ship in dry dock for some renovations during the month of May. They offered me a deal where they would give me a $400 ship board credit, a more expensive date in June 2011 and pay the fee to change my airplane tickets. I readily agreed to the offer. So, next month, I'll fly out to Vancouver, Canada and board the Radiance of the Seas for a 7 day Alaska cruise.

The cruise will stop in Ketchikan, Icy Strait Point, Juneau and Skagway. I should get to do a number of Alaska type things like salmon fishing, see a glacier and hopefully see some whales. The ship itself will be a new one to me as I've never cruised on a Radiance class ship before. The ship is smaller than the Adventure or Navigator of the Seas. It holds a max of 2,500 passengers. Still, it should be a nice ship and, I look forward to exploring it when I board for my cruise. This will be my third cruise with Royal Caribbean. This time, I should definitely know all the ropes with them. I've already got my boarding paperwork done and my cruise luggage tags are en-route to my home. They should arrive in plenty of time so I'll be able to attach them to my 1 bag. Also, I've booked in advance all my shore excursions and prepaid for their unlimited soda refills. I know I have to drink a lot of soda to make that worth-whiled but, I prefer that to Royal Caribbean charging $2 to my ship account for every soda I drink. Another nice thing about prepaying on the sodas is that the icon they put on your ship pass is made into the pass vice them attaching a sticker to it. Stickers can come off and, I prefer the icon being part of my ship pass.

I plan to use Royal Caribbean's WiFi again. I was impressed with it last time. One nice difference Internet wise on this cruise is I should be able to post stuff while at the various ports in Alaska. My Sprint USB modem should work in those towns. We'll see on that.

That's all for now. Stay tune for some interesting travel posts coming in the future. Soon, I'll get to play the world traveler again. I can't wait. It seems like ages since I traveled to Peru. Good travels to you all.

Research

In preparation for my upcoming cruises, I've been buying various books on ports of call and what there is to do at them. For example, The island of Cozumel apparently offers some very good scuba diving and an excursion to the Mayan city of Tulum which is on the mainland. The island of Grand Cayman doesn't apparently have a lot of history but, it does have excursions where you can feed stingrays and learn about sea turtles. A friend of mine wants to visit Jamaica during a cruise and, I found out Royal Caribbean has been working with the Jamaican government to create another cruise ship port at Falmouth. This port will be able to accomodate Royal Caribbean's largest cruise ships the Oasis of the Seas and the soon to be launched Allure of the Seas. Jamaica is on my list of Caribbean islands I'd like to visit and, it would be great if I could do a cruise on either the Oasis or Allure of the Seas ships. As far as I know, they are the largest cruise ships in the world. They are literally floating cities as they can accomodate 5,400 passengers and 2,000 crew. I haven't seen the Oasis yet but, it must be HUGE. Concerning Alaska, I've heard those cruises are incredibly scenic. However, I have no idea what you do sightseeing wise at the ports of call during the cruise. I've been reading up on Vancouver. I found out they a nice museum that tells of some of the history of the Pacific Northwest indian tribes. They even have some totem poles carved by them. Vancouver also has a space needle like tower that soars over 440 feet up and gives good views of the city. I confess after doing the CN Tower (1,800 feet) in Toronto, the tower in Vancouver isn't going to be as impressive. Lastly, I've been checking into Internet access. I'd like to be able to post updates on here during my trips but, I don't care to break the bank doing it. I found out Royal Caribbean has somewhat cheaper pre-paid WiFi rates. The cheapest gets down to 30 cents a minute which is better than their flat rate of a whopping 65 cents a minute. However, I would like to know what happens with any unused minutes with the pre-paid charge. Can I carry them over to my next cruise? I'll have to wait on an answer for that one till I do my November cruise. Overall, the next year promises to be pretty exciting travel wise with 2 trips to the Caribbean, 1 to Alaska and 1 to Peru. Stay tuned for some interesting future travel blog entries. Cheers all!

Home Again

I made it home last night. The Globus Canada tour I was on finished Sunday. Globus had the tour finish with a bang by having the group go to Niagara Falls and a farewell dinner at the CN tower. Niagara Falls were very impressive. They are the biggest falls I've ever seen. Globus included a ride of the Maid of the Mist boat which takes you right up to the falls. The boat ride was a lot of fun. After the boat ride, I made my quickest trip to the U.S. when I dashed across the border so I could get a Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt from the U.S. Niagara Falls Hard Rock Cafe. Then, I dashed back to Canada to get the Canada shirt. The dinner at the CN tower was top knotch. However, I was saddened as the tour was over. We had a nice group.

Monday, I made my way home. I'd heard flights were being delayed into and out of New York. To my relief, I got out of Toronto all right. However, I got stuck in New York JFK Airport for 4 hours! When our plane arrived at Baltimore Washington Airport (BWIA), we got stuck on the tarmac for 40 minutes. Another plane had taken our spot and, they had to move the other plane so we could park. I ended getting home around 11 p.m. Aargh!

Thankfully, I gave myself a couple days to recover and catch up on stuff. I need to buy groceries, pay various bills and hand out presents I bought on the trip. However, I've already contacted my travel agent Joel Mills to see about my next tour. That one will be a while as there isn't any place I'm real anxious to see during the winter. A cruise would be nice but, I absolutely want my own cabin and, they charge double for that. I may do a trip home during the winter. I promised my Dad I would try to make it home more often. Come summer, I'm determined to see Ireland. That trip would be a 2 weeker. There is lots to see there. One nice thing about Ireland is it's not super far flying wise. Joel said Globus should release its summer Ireland tour dates soon so, I should be able to figure when I want to go and put a deposit down. Once I do that, I'll counting the days till I get to go to Ireland. Cheers all!

Documents

I received my travel documents for my upcoming tours with Globus. It was something to look at them. The tours are really going to happen. I'll get to play the world traveller again. It should be a blast. Plus, it'll be great to get away from the Post Office. I've been working lots of hours and, it's taking its toll. I earned overtime this week and, I'll do it again next week. The money will be nice but, I'm going to enjoy more the travel it pays for.

I'll be curious to see what kind of groups we get on these tours. All the tours I've taken previously were 12 or 13 days. The U.S. tour will be just 7 days. Globus markets it for people who have never done an escorted tour before so, I may get to see a bunch of newbies. That'll be interesting. The U.S. tour should still be good. It has lots of neat things to see and experience. Colonial Williamsburg is great and, Richmond is nice. It'll be something to see the Gettysburg battlefield. I read Michael Shaara's novel The Killer Angels. Plus, I watched the movie Gods and Generals. During the tour, the group will get to see a famous Lincoln re-enactor perform. Presumbly, he'll do the Gettysburg Address. That should be good. Lincoln's speech is outstanding.

The Canada tour should be equally good. I'll finally get to see Niagara Falls and, it'll be something to wander the streets of Old Quebec City. I'll get to see plenty of historic Canada during the trip. At the end of the tour, we have our farewell dinner at the CN Tower which should be pretty cool. The Canada tour will be interesting also in that it's sold out. We should have the largest group I've ever travelled with (something like 50 people). I hope the seats on the bus are decently spaced. I hate having my knees pressed into the seat ahead (I have long legs). We'll see. Stay tuned for more travel updates. Cheers all!

Travel Update

Slowly (all too slowly) but surely, the tours I signed up for are getting here. I found out last week that the Globus Canada tour I'll be taking is sold out. That means there will likely be 50 people on the tour. WO! That may end up being the largest group I'll have ever done with Globus. Hopefully, it'll be a nice one. We'll see. In a couple weeks, I should get my travel documents. I can't wait to get those. They make the tour seem more real. Stay tuned for more travel updates. Cheers all!

U.S. and Canada Tours

I paid off sort of my future Globus U.S. and Canada tours. By sort of, I still have to pay the credit card bill off. The tours themselves will be interesting in a number of ways. For starters, they're both short. The U.S. tour is only 7 days. It's intended as an introduction to escorted tours. It starts in Washington D.C. and finishes in Philadelphia. It stops in a number of sights that I've wanted to see but, I've never gotten around to seeing such as Yorktown, Jamestown and Gettysburg.

The Canadian tour starts the day after the U.S. tour ends. To my embarrassment, I've never seen much of Canada. While living in Detroit, I was able to look across the river and see Windsor, Canada. My Dad took our family over there for all of 5 minutes. We subsequently looked back at Detroit and stared at it. Also, I got to stop in Montreal on a flight home from England. It was near Christmas time and all you could see outside was snow. Lots of it! This tour will knock out Quebec City, Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Niagara Falls. I've seen more waterfalls in other countries than I've seen in my own. I'm looking forward to getting to see the famous Niagara Falls.

Lastly, I look forward to adding to my Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt. I found out there are 4 places where I'll be able to buy t-shirts on the Canada tour. I know it's kinda stupid but, I enjoy collecting them. They're a way for me to show off some of the places I've been. I'm looking forward to getting them and showing that I've been to Montreal and Toronto. They'll be cool.

Overall, the tours should be a lot of fun. I'm curious to see if the group develops the same camaraderie they develop on long tours. I hope it does as that is one of the things I really enjoy on the long tours. The only drawback I see is that the tours will be over in no time. If 2 weeks can really fly by, 1 week is going to be nothing. In that way, I'll be glad that I'll be doing back-to-back tours. The fun will last a little longer though it'll be with different groups. So any readers out there, stay tuned for some interesting posts in the future. I'll get to see some more interesting places and be able to post about some cool adventures. Also, there will be some nice pictures posted. Also, don't forget that the Egypt tour is coming up. It's less than a month and a half before that adventure begins. That should be an incredible adventure with lots of ancient things to see and experience. Stay tuned.