THE BAD PENNIES
 

CRUISE TO CANADA AND NEW ENGLAND

Barbara Vaseleck

We had a very pleasant bus trip from Union Station in DC to the Brooklyn wharf where our ship, the Caribbean Princess, was docked.  This is my second cruise on a Princess line and the size of this boat was overwhelming!  After going aboard and finding our stateroom, my “roomie” Betty Canoles and I started getting acquainted with the boat.  I truly feel that, even though we took a guided tour of the boat the next morning, we were still trying to find our way around on the day we disembarked!

 I chose to eat at the “Sailaway Buffet” that evening featuring the magnificent Chilled Seafood Extravaganza including Shrimp Cocktail, Lobster Claws and Smoked Salmon and much, much more.  This was just the beginning of many wonderful meals served on the ship.  I did eat in the Island Dining Room once with the Bad Pennies group but actually preferred to try different spots and being able to eat when I wanted. Sunday evening, Betty and I went to the Movies Under the Stars and saw “The Bucket List” complete with popcorn!

 We spent the following day, Monday, at sea and arrived in Halifax at 8:00am on Tuesday. We had beautiful weather for our walk in Halifax which turned out to be a very  special place to visit with plenty of interesting spots for pictures. 

 Wednesday we arrived in Saint John, New Brunswick at 10:15am.  I chose not to walk with the group there but did venture into town for shopping.  There were three cruise ships in town (we happened to be the largest ship in port that day with over 3000 passengers) and it was almost impossible to move through the shops and markets.  One of the clerks in town told me that approximately 8000 visitors had the same idea as me!  Believe me, I was glad to get back on board the Caribbean Princess.  That evening the Café Caribe served a Bavarian Bierfest Dinner Buffet which was excellent.

 We arrived at our next port, Bar Harbor, Maine, at 7:00am the next day.  Passengers had to be tendered from the ship.  I did not go ashore but decided to roam the ship.  I feel I got just as much exercise as anyone by walking around the deck and up and down the stairs.

 Next day, Boston!   We had our choice of doing a 6k or an 11k on the Boston Freedom Trail Volkswalk.  I think that we actually did a 15k by the time we got to the start point and back to the ship.  It was extremely interesting seeing the historical points on this heritage trail, i.e., Bunker Hill, the Old North Church, Paul Revere’s house (the oldest house in Boston), the USS Constitution and Old Ironsides.   I believe that it took us 5 hours to get back to the ship and needless to say, because it was hot and humid, we were all happy to see the Caribbean Princess looming big over high-rise buildings at the dock!

 Because of bad weather (Hurricane Hannah), the commodore of the ship decided to skip Newport, RI and sail on to New York on Friday evening.  We had a substantial delay in leaving port that evening due to the death of one of the passengers aboard our ship.  I remember hearing the ship’s fog horn often that night and when we woke up in New York on Saturday morning, I understood why.   I did manage to get some pictures of the Statue of Liberty and the New York skyline in the fog.  Because of the weather, I believe that most of the passengers stayed on board the docked ship on Saturday and we all disembarked on Sunday morning. 

 I had a very enjoyable trip and was most fascinated with the goings-on of the ship’s crew.  I also attended a few briefings presented by a local Canadian historian, took a tour of the ship’s galley, attended some variety shows in the Princess Theater, and ate, ate, ate.   I was pleasantly surprised that, because of all of the walking and climbing stairs, I only gained 1 ½ pounds!!