# The Maiden Voyage of the Nova Star



## Anderson (May 18, 2014)

As I mentioned to one or two members (and may well have posted; I cannot recall right now), I booked a passage on the first trip of the Nova Star from Portland, ME to Yarmouth, NS. As someone who is really not a cruise person, it was interesting...it was the first time I had been on any sort of sea-based trip since the fall of 2002. With that in mind, I am comparing this not to a normal cruise but to Amtrak and/or VIA Rail.

I want to start by saying that the trip was an excellent experience. Whomever is running this operation in the back room has their act together and made what I expect will be a number of wise decisions in setting the operation up. The playbook they seem to have gone to is something out of the 1950s, by and large, which was very strange to see in some ways. I will expand upon that towards the end.

The MV Nova Star is a brand new ship (and I do believe it qualifies as a ship, not a boat, but such is a bit outside of my expertise), and this voyage was in fact the maiden voyage of the ship as well as the service. There are a few obvious bugs still being worked out, the most meaningful being the lack of US-compatible plugs on board. The main desk had adapters available upon request, but you would be well-advised to bring your own in the event that they run out. There were a few other signs of the scramble to get the ship into service, including at least one map of the ship (posted in the aft staircase) which had a number of facilities listed in different locations than they were located. Similarly, credit card processing issues abounded and there were a few computer crashes on the return voyage.

With all of this being said, a great deal of the "bugs" seem to be down to the speed with which the operation was assembled. Given a few weeks' time, I expect most of this to work itself out...first trips for any operation are going to have a few things go wrong.

The cabins are not terribly large. I would say that each one can comfortably fit two if you expect to occupy it for much of your voyage, though it can sleep four via fold-down bunks. Do bear in mind that each passage is about ten hours, so this is definitely a case of form following function: More space would be desirable in the case of a multiple day trip, but at the same time I've done well with less space on the Canadian, California Zephyr, and many other trains. There is an en suite restroom and shower, nicely separated from the cabin area(1).

The food on board is, however, more than sufficient, though it is a bit on the expensive side. Breakfast this morning was about $13, though it was all-you-can-eat and quite on par with the breakfast I had at the Hilton Bonaventure (salmon with capers and cream cheese, salami, oatmeal, etc.). Dinner last night in the sit-down "Currents" restaurant was expensive as well (about USD110 if I am not mistaken), but that was for a four-course meal (appetizer, salad, entree, dessert) for two with tenderloin steak for both of us, a glass of wine/port apiece, and with included gratuity. The steak was excellent, the mashed potatoes probably had a stick of butter in them, and the after-dinner glass of port was awesome. I actually rather regretted having had lunch that afternoon, and will not be making that mistake again.

The lounges onboard are very nice, and fill up most of one deck. There is also an outdoor deck area on the cabin deck, a duty-free shopping area, and a small casino among other amenities.

One issue that the trip encountered was "schedule slip": We were more or less on time out of Portland (at 9PM) and into Yarmouth, but I believe we lost an hour leaving Yarmouth due to trouble getting everyone off the boat to clear Customs (which may just be first day issues, given that like half of Yarmouth turned out for the ferry's arrival...it felt oddly like the arrival of a major new ocean liner a century ago). We were about an hour late back into Portland (arriving at 8PM as opposed to 7PM), and it will be interesting to see if the ship gets back out closer to 9PM than to 11PM. If the former happens, they should be in good shape; if the latter happens...Yarmouth, we have a problem.

The pricing model is something that I promised to comment on. As things stand, the fares are quite fixed, with limited seasonal variation (peak, shoulder, and off-season periods). The prices are the same either way (i.e. north/night vs. south/day). More stunning after a fashion is the fact that you pay a given amount to board ($79 one-way in the off-season period). You can then get an inside cabin for 1-4 people for another $79 vs. a reclining seat for $39 (again, off-season, but the pricing model is almost the same at peak season), or upgrade to a nicer cabin for very little more. In other words, if you are traveling in a group, it can actually be cheaper to pay for a cabin than to pay for the reclining seats. The most expensive cabins run only about $200 one-way in the off-season period.

The business model for the ferry appears quite sound, though I expect some substantial revisions to it:
-The fancy restaurant, Currents, is only open for dinner. I suspect that, at least in peak season, this will change and it will be open for lunch. Having a space like that sitting empty and unused for almost all of one direction of a trip does not seem to be particularly efficient, especially since the staff are still on-board.
-The pricing structure is going to get "straightened out" in due course. In particular, I expect prices for the "outside" cabins to go up somewhat for the overnight leg. I also expect a general bump in cabin prices on the overnight leg, to be offset by a reduction in cabin prices for the daytime leg (when less people have a need for a cabin for obvious reasons). The round-trip price would presumably stay stable.
--Take-away: If you want a window room, go this year.
-I do expect some effort to sync the ferry schedule with some sort of transport connections, at least on the Portland side. Right now, connecting to the overnight ferry from Portland on the same day is easy; you have three Downeasters and a thick list of buses that make the connection. Connecting the other way (heading to Boston) is simply impossible without an overnight stay in Portland. Whether this involves moving a Downeaster schedule around or getting Concord Coach to add a connecting frequency of some sort, I do expect an effort on this front. Though there is an assumption that most folks will be driving, there were a significant number of non-driving passengers (some who were on for the 22-hour round trip, some who weren't).
--Doing this will require actually keeping something close to a timetable. If due to Customs and whatnot the ship cannot keep to the planned timetable, there may be bigger issues at hand.
--If timetable issues start cropping up, I could see the company building in one or two "recovery legs" in the middle of the week (i.e. the ferry skips two one-way trips on adjacent days to allow for recovery time) or "reversing" the daytime/overnight scheduling on a periodic basis to build in recovery time.

(1) The fact that I am saying this probably means I've taken the Meteor one too many times.


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## NS VIA Fan (May 19, 2014)

Thanks for this great Trip Report!!......I'm planning on taking the Nova Star myself this summer.

Hopefully that was just a first-day glitch in the schedule. The Nova Star's schedule allows for 2 hours in each port.......the old Scotia Prince could do a one-hour turn-around.

.....and thanks for the tip on the lack of US/Canadian plugs as I plan to take my laptop. This ship was originally built for a European crossing so hopefully the plugs will be changed-out shortly. We used to run into the same problem in cabins on Marine Atlantic to Newfoundland when they would lease a Ferry from Europe to increase capacity.

(PS....post a link to this in the Trip Reports forum.....it is rail related as you connect with the Downeaster....at least one-way!)


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## Palmetto (May 19, 2014)

Thanks for the report! How did you arrive in Portland? If it was by train, how inconvenient was the transfer?


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## jamesontheroad (May 26, 2014)

Anderson said:


> There are a few obvious bugs still being worked out, the most meaningful being the lack of US-compatible plugs on board. The main desk had adapters available upon request, but you would be well-advised to bring your own in the event that they run out.


Out of interest, because this ship was built for LD Lines service across the English Channel, are the electrical plugs 3-pin UK and 2-pin continental EU?


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## NS VIA Fan (May 29, 2014)

Besides Tourists.......It looks like the new ferry is getting just what it needs to sustain the service: Trucks

http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1210723-nova-star-keeps-on-truckin


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