Scary, ghostly, voodoo magic filled cruise ports

Trick or Treat or are the ghosts all year round? It appears the latter whether you aim at Boston or New Orleans. There was so much conflict creating America, that the ghosts still rumble on. Autumn is the time of year for spooky stories and Halloween cakes on the ships. The cinemas and television are filled with horror films and the nights this side of the globe get longer and darker. The podcast is here - https://play.acast.com/s/doris-visits/halloween

Halloween Cakes on the Azura

https://youtu.be/GwS1lOXUOPE

Podcast 3 is live and Stuart and Jean talk through what seems to be an endless list of ghost stories in Boston, which make up much of the tourist fodder. Stuart thinks that Boston is a spooky cruise port and with good reason. The ghost tours are normally at night, and cruisers have left, but as he joined the ship at Boston early (ships fly acts out a day early just in case) he considered a ghost tour, but he went to Cheers and then to Joe's instead.

https://youtu.be/AzySPeDMo88

The Boston bar that inspired the TV series “Cheers” was originally named the Bull and Finch Pub and was established in 1969. The Boston pub that inspired the fictional bar in the NBC sitcom, Cheers, is a bar in the Beacon Hill area. You go down below street level into the bar, then take the stairs up to a bar that looks more like the one in the TV series. Jean went there rather than complete all the spooky cemeteries on the trail available from the tourist office (mentioned in film).

Jean chose New Orleans as her spooky voodoo cruise stop. On the podcast, you will hear her and comedy magician Manuel Martinez going into the cigar factory. In the film, they saw far more. New Orleans has many stories from the Witch Queen to the contemporary Nicholas Cage who has bought his plot ready in cemetery number 1.

Who sang - The Witch Queen of New Orleans? Answer- Redbone.

https://youtu.be/ItrpcF1dJ14

For fireworks, Stuart chose Sydney Bridge as the one he thinks is the most spectacular. He and Jean climbed the tower to the top, had a spectacular view, and filmed those climbing over the bridge who are not allowed a camera and are alcohol tested before they climb. They were there on a leg of a world cruise which was weather struck and the ship sheltered in Sydney for three days. They have a few films made in Sydney from the beach to shops.

https://youtu.be/d-T9KhRd8oE

Finally, Stuart reads Chapter 3 from his cruise novel Cruise Ship Heist. For the audible trial click here

Boston. A historic and spooky city.

 Boston. A historic and spooky city.

Boston Massachusetts has a lot to offer. It is the subject of our Halloween podcast because it appears to have endless ghost stories.

Cruisers are likely to be dropped off at Quincy Market by the shuttle bus. Everything is nearby. The market is great for fast food, and there is a tribute bar to Cheers. The real one Jean takes you to later in the film.

Faneuil Hall, the Freedom Trail museum and lecture centre is through the market in the next building. The wharf is in the other direction. In our video guide, Jean eventually goes both ways, along the Wharf to the Tea Party Museum, and she starts the Freedom Trail before being distracted with finding the real Cheers bar.

0:00 Introduction by Jean

0:15 Quincey Market & Faneuil Hall

1:54 Paul Revere House

2:35 Clough House

2:46 Captain Jackson's Historic Chocolate shop

3:37 Edes & Gill Printing Office

5:33 Boston Common

5:40 Massachusetts State House

5:51 Cheers

6:32 Long Wharf

7:50 Boston Tea Party Museum

8:47 Joes

Jean takes you to the visitor's centre in Faneuil Hall run by The National Park Service. She then starts you on the Freedom Trail which is a 2.5-mile-long walk that passes by 16 locations. It is marked out largely with a winding brick line. It was the idea of local journalist William Schofield in 1951, and by 1953, 40,000 people were walking the trail annually. She dives off and finds Cheers then takes you along the Wharf for a very rounded film of Boston. Note, Boston is the subject of our Halloween Podcast (S1E03) because it is famous for its ghosts and ghoulies!

1. Boston Common
2. Massachusetts State House
3. Park Street Church
4. Granary Burying Ground
5. King's Chapel and Burying Ground
6. Benjamin Franklin statue and the former site of Boston Latin School
7. Old Corner Bookstore
8. Old South Meeting House
9. Old State House
10. Site of the Boston Massacre
11. Faneuil Hall
12. Paul Revere House
13. Old North Church and Clough House.
14. Copp's Hill Burying Ground
15. USS Constitution
16. Bunker Hill Monument

Boston

Boston Common

Bunker Hill Monument

Cheers

Faneuil Hall

Freedom Trail

Granary Burying Ground

Long Wharf

Massachusetts

Paul Revere

A cruisers guide to Boston, Massachusetts

Boston harbour was a mess a generation ago, and the docks like all docks have changed from the warehouses to containers. That means the old warehouses are now offices and apartments and the seafront is totally different, the water cleaned up. In order to save public access, the Boston Harbour Walk was developed and is 43 miles of a 12 foot wide boardwalk along the seafront. It links parks, harbours, working boat and dock areas, ferry and parks, amenities and toilets, bars and restaurants. Boston has become a fun young city with much to offer. Inland there is another path, a brick line as Dorothy might follow in the Wizard or Freedom, because it is the Freedom Trail with many stops of interest from the Boston Massacre, to the Tea Party. From the real Cheers bar to the one at Quincy Market, from Museums to lectures and information by Park Rangers, Boston is a city you can walk around, will walk around, the question that remains is which way? That is where Doris Visits comes in. Here is our overview film. The guide to Boston.

Check out some of the great Cruise Routes, our concise films of what a ship offers when it takes a specific route. These are typical routes but we do have films to help cruisers on every popular cruise destination in the world.           

Baltic Route - Canary Islands Cruise - New England Cruise - Caribbean Cruise (from Barbados) - Norwegian Fjords - Mediterranean Routes

If you are new to Doris Visits Cruise TV then welcome, we invite you to comment at the end of our blogs, and ask you for follow us on here on www.DorisVisits.com and like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and subscribe to our YouTube Channel to get the best from us. We are always looking for presenters and social media activists to help us expand so drop us a line anytime with ideas at press@DorisVisits.co.uk  PLEASE SHARE

SEE THE CRUISE BEFORE YOU CRUISE THE SEA. Worldwide destination films for cruisers; New York to Barbados, Rome to Stavanger, Bora Bora to Tallinn, Tenerife to Cork.

The Last Flag Flying, a road movie in a train, paralleled by us in a cruise ship. New York to Boston

If you are an Academy or BAFTA voting member you will know that the 'awards season' has started in ernest. Not ignoring that we are invited to screenings and events all year round to encourage and solicit our votes, but now the invites come thick and fast as the film awards first round of voting accelerates towards us.
Recently I attended a screening of The Last Flag Flyingat the private screening room of the Mayfair Hotel, a favourite of mine for these events. It was with guests, director Richard Linklater (Before Sunset etc) and actor Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad). I like it when I see a film that 'sets the bar', that gives me a clear base for best film, best actor, best supporting actor and makes me say to others, as good a s you are, you are not in that league. It is like watching any talent show, like X Factor where you go, she or he is good, but not in the league of Grace Davies who just stands out as one to beat. Or like Ashton on Strictly. That is talent that sets a bar, even if they don't win.

I really liked The Last Flag. I don't think that it was just that I had been in Boston and been in New York, this movie, which is a road movie, or a car movie, certainly a journey movie is easily understated by such labels. It is without doubt an acting masterclass from three guys at the very top of their game, Cranston supports an amazingly understated performance by Steve Carell worthy of Best Actor. It is a crime that Laurence Fishburne is likely to be overlooked because his performance is a master class too. That is by no means ignoring the rest of the class including J Quinton Johnson who is like a fantastic young footballer who has just got the opportunity to kick a ball around with three legends, both in story terms and working life. These three guys get together in an unexpected union, and they end up moving a body from New York to Boston. In what could become a farce in lesser hands is a moving drama that never over steps, not even when the players perform what is the iconic scene in the train. I am giving less away than the film's description, but you will discover all in this must see drama.

I am always amazed at some of the daft questions the honoured guests are asked at the end of such a film so I often hold back in case mine is just as stupid and I hadn't noticed. However, I wish I had asked Linklater about his choice or railway station in New York. I had just been in New York with my wife, Jean Heard who presents the travel show Doris Visits and wondered around Grand Central Station while she was filming. My question would have been to Richard, if the station he used was not Grand Central, and it didn't look like it, nor did he expose it as such, did he consider using it, or if he did, did he consider the more iconic views of it, or was it too loud and too much of a statement to impose on such a drama? But then I think I know the answer so the question is not worth asking. The film is better for those choices. It would have been wrong, it is not a Sleepless in Seattle moment at the top of the Empire State Building. This is about three lives and one that has past and a truly emotional film that did not need to be upstaged by a location. Our journey was made by ship, so is totally different but by all means take a look.

The links I have made are to Jean's travel films for you to have a look round New York and Boston before you see The Last Flag Flying because this is a travel site. As we help people enjoy cruises we also feature the entertainers, the shows and we have just started a section to mention the films on the on board sea screens or in the cinemas.  New York Library where Ghostbusters shot a scene, Empire State building where Tom Hanks did turn up, Boston Guide and the Cheers Bar. I saw so many places that feature daily in film and TV; maybe that had an effect on me, but I would like to think my judgement as a film maker was not ambushed. I did make a film in New York, one remembering my jump of the State of Liberty for American Werewolf in Paris....

Judge for yourself as to whether Grand Central is just too loud a character for The Last Flag!