Cruise Update (Days 4-9)

Our cruise is over.


:~(

But we had a wonderful time. And it was a very nice break from all the driving. The following is a day-by-day chronology of the final six days of the cruise. If you missed it, scroll down for a description of the first three days.

Cruise: Day 4 (Sunday)

This was our day in Bar Harbor…excuse me, that’s Bah Hahbah, Maine.

We did an excursion into Acadia National Park. It’s one of the nation’s oldest and most visited national parks, and the scenery is spectacular. We were fortunate to have a beautiful day for our visit. We were told that fog and low clouds are common this time of year. Our bus tour took us along the coastline, where the top photo was taken.
   

From there, we drove to the top of Cadillac Mountain, which is the highest point (some 1,500 feet) on the east coast, making it the first place in the U.S. to see the sun rise each morning. The area reminded me of the San Juan Islands in Puget Sound. After our tour, we walked around Bar Harbor, which is a quaint and very busy community. It was also an opportunity to have perhaps the best blueberry muffin I’ve ever had. It was right out of the oven and had that crunchy kind of muffin top that is soooo good. 
 
 
 
Cruise: Day 5 (Monday)
 

On this day, we reached the Canadian portion of our travel, docking in Saint John, New Brunswick. Saint John is the home of the Reversing Falls in the Saint John River. That’s actually a misnomer; it’s really a rapids – not a waterfall – that reverses direction. This area of New Brunswick has a very high tide. During high tide, the water from the ocean pushes into the river, actually causing the river – and the rapids – to flow backward. Unfortunately, we were there during low tide, so this photo shows the river flowing in the normal direction. So, to summarize – you’re looking at a photo of a river flowing in the direction it usually flows. Pretty exciting, huh?  OK, I guess you had to be there.
 
Cruise: Day 6 (Tuesday)
 

Halifax, Nova Scotia, was our fourth port in four days. We took a bus trip to see Peggy’s Cove, which is an old fishing village about an hour away from Halifax. Here we are standing in front of the lighthouse at Peggy's Cove. It was a very beautiful trip, though it would have been nicer without the clouds, rain and fog. 
 
 

By the time we returned to Halifax early in the afternoon, the sun was out, and we decided to walk to the Halifax Public Gardens, which we had driven past that morning on the bus. This photo shows just a few of the thousands of flowers in the garden.


Cruise: Day 7 (Wednesday)

After four straight days of port visits, this was a day at sea (on our way to Boston), so we kind of took it easy. Since I have no photos from a port to show you, I’ll share a couple of our cabin. 
We booked just a basic, inside cabin. While it would have been nice to have a window or, even better, a balcony, we couldn’t justify the additional cost. As I recall, upgrading to a balcony (and a slightly larger cabin) would have cost us an extra thousand dollars, if not more. We figured there were better ways to spend that money.

The first photo looks into the cabin from the doorway. Yup, it’s small, though I think this photo may make it look smaller than it actually was. I think it was around 175 square feet.

The second photo is from the bed looking back toward the entrance. The bathroom is on the right, and you can see the closet, desk and TV on the left. Even though it’s small, it’s usually fine. But we did end up stepping over each other when we’re getting ready to go to dinner.


Cruise: Day 8 (Thursday)
We had our final port of call today – Boston. The problem with such a stop is that Boston requires far more time than the few hours available on a cruise excursion. Still, we were able to see some significant historical sites. And have a very good slice of pizza at the Quincy Market.

One of our stops was to see the USS Constitution, (above) perhaps better known as "Old Ironsides."  It's actually possible to board the ship and walk around the main deck.  There are also guided tours that take you below, but the limited amount of time we had in Boston precluded that.

The second photo shows the Old North Church in the background and a statue of Paul Revere in the foreground. If you remember your high school American history, you’ll know that’s the church where lanterns were hung to signal whether the British were coming by land or by sea, sending Paul Revere on his famous “midnight ride.”
 

This was a special day for us as we celebrated our 38th anniversary! In the photo on the left, we’re being serenaded by the cruise staff with their version of “Happy Anniversary.” That’s the head waiter on the left, the waiter for our table in the middle and the assistant waiter on the right. What they lacked in singing ability, they made up for with enthusiasm.


Cruise: Day 9 (Friday)
When we began this cruise, we were wondering whether a nine-day cruise would be too long. We can say without any hesitation that it is not!  We enjoyed a relaxing day at sea on this, our final day of the cruise.

Probably our favorite part of each day on the cruise was in the evening, beginning with dinner. Of course, the food was part of it, but so was the good company at our table and our excellent wait staff. We were assigned to a table with three other couples, and they made our cruise even more delightful than it otherwise would have been. This photo was taken at our table on the final night of the cruise. From left to right (standing next to me): Our assistant waiter, Damaciano from India, our waiter Ashton from Guyana, and Ed and Kathie from Virginia. Seated next to Steph are Clare and Kevin from Toronto. The fourth couple was not with us on the final night of the cruise.

Each night when we’d return from dinner to our cabin, we were greeted with an animal that our cabin attendant (Patricia from the Bahamas) had shaped from a bath towel. We had a swan, a dog, an elephant and others. But our favorite was this monkey hanging from a clothes hangar and wearing my sunglasses.


We would then head to the Orpheum Theatre for that night’s entertainment. Two of the nights featured productions by the Royal Caribbean singers and dancers, and the other seven nights featured “headliners,” including comedians, singers, a magician and a juggler. While there was only one act we had actually heard of, all of the performers were excellent.

As for the group we had heard of, if you were a teenager in the late 60’s as we were, you’ll probably remember songs like See You in September, I’ve Got Rhythm, and Go Away Little Girl. The group was The Happenings, and they performed on the next to last night of the cruise.

Well, that concludes the update on our cruise. We’re sorry to see it end, but we’re looking forward to the rest of our trip and to getting to our new home in Tacoma about a month from now.


We’ll close with a photo of ourgranddaughter, Chloe, who we have not seen for about a month and a half.  Which is MUCH too long!  She's cheering on the Tacoma Raniers baseball team.