Voyage of the Vikings Redux - Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada

Cruise Day 4

Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Today we are in Sydney, Nova Scotia in Canada.  

We were here in 2016 (link) and rented a car and explored Cape Breton Island, but today we took a ship excursion called “Baddeck on Your Own”.  Baddeck is a small town on Cape Breton Island, where we were taken by bus and then given a few hours to wander around and explore on our own.

Today's port is Sydney, Nova Scotia (red marker upper right).

Today we'll travel from Sydney (red marker on right) to Baddeck on Cape Breton Island (red marker on left).

The weather forecast was for an unusually warm day in the area with temperatures reaching the high eighties.  We were up at 7:30 and could already feel the heat.  This is highly unusual for this area; the last time we were here it was cool and foggy.  After getting ready and getting a quick breakfast in the Neptune Lounge, we were off the ship and on our bus.

We sale into Sydney.

It was a large bus, and every seat was filled, almost every tour on this cruise is sold out.  We had hoped it would be a small group, but that was not the case.  The drive to Baddeck took over an hour due to some road construction, but we were entertained by our local guide who had many interesting stories to tell as well as a knowledge of the local history.

The bus made one stop for us to get out and get a view of St. Ann's Bay; the other side is Cape Breton Island.  The strip of land running across the bay is a road, but it doesn't actually go all the way across and to get across you have to take a short ferry ride on the Englishtown Ferry.  Val and I did that in 2016 as we wanted to visit the north end of the of the island, but today we are going further inland and the bus will be crossing the bay via bridge.

Baddeck is a very small, picturesque town and we found out that Alexander Graham Bell lived here during his retirement years.  He may have been retired, but he was still very busy coming up with new ideas and projects.  There is a museum dedicated to him in the town and that’s where the bus dropped us off.  Baddeck is located on Bras d'Or Lake, a large lake that is actually connected by inlets to the ocean.

Val and I decided to visit the museum and found it very interesting.  We didn’t realize it, but Bell designed airplanes while he was there rivaling the Wright Brothers and they had several of his primitive (by our current standards) planes on display.  What was more surprising was that he designed hydrofoil boats and tested them in the bay.  He didn’t actually test them himself, but his wife, Mabel, did, which surprised us.  They also had several of his old hydrofoil boats on display.  We really enjoyed our visit to the museum but had to cut it short as, because of the highway construction, our time in Baddeck was going to be a little shorter.

One of the hydrofoils that Bell designed and tested on Bras d'Or Lake.  Surprisingly, he never drove the hydrofoil, his wife Mabel did.

One of the airplanes Bell designed and built while living in Baddeck.

On the right is another of the hydrofoils Bell designed and built.

After we finished we walked down into the town.  This is the museum looking up from the main road.

From the museum we walked down into town and along the bay on a boardwalk they have.  As I said, it is very picturesque, but it was quite warm with more humidity than we were used to (but nothing like our visits to Africa or South America though).  It was getting near lunch time, and we were hungry and anxious to get out of the sun, so it was time to look for a place to eat.

There were nice views of the harbor from the boardwalk.

 

Val and I took turns getting our picture taken with the Bells.

 

Val had read about a restaurant with very good reviews online called The Freight Shed and it was right on the water, so we decided to eat there.  It’s a small town so it didn’t take us long to find it, but it looked like a lot of other people had read the reviews and it took us a while to be seated.

The Freight Shed Restaurant where we had lunch.

We got some good seats on the patio with views of the harbor, and we had an excellent lunch.  Val had some fresh salmon and bagels, and I had a plate of scallops with a bowl of seafood chowder.  They were both very good.

We had a nice table on the patio with great views of the harbor.

Unfortunately, due to the long time it took to get seated and served, by the time we had finished it was time to head back to the bus.  We would have liked to stay longer and explore the town more, but because of the construction delays getting here and the same one getting back, we had to go.

The Zuiderdam looks a lot larger from the dock than it does when you're on board.

Newfoundland and particularly Cape Breton Island is known for it's Celtic traditional music and this iconic giant fiddle at the terminal honors that tradition.

The ride back was equally interesting as our guide had many more stories to tell about life here and his own experiences.  When we got back to the ship we wandered through the shops that were on the pier before boarding the ship.  It was mid-afternoon and we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing.

We were due to sail away around 5:00 PM so I went up on the rear Lido Deck for that and found that it was still quite hot.  Standing out on deck in the sun got a little uncomfortable, but when we actually started moving, there was a little breeze blowing that helped a lot.  Val was smarter and stayed in the shade of our balcony.

We sail away from Sydney.

One last look at Sydney as we head out to sea.

We did our usual dinner and casino routine, but we didn’t get back to the room until almost 10:30 as we spent quite a bit of time in the casino.  Tonight, we will have the unusual experience of the clocks being moved forward thirty minutes as we will be in Newfoundland tomorrow and they are a half hour ahead of Nova Scotia.

Voyage of the Vikings Redux - Sea Day

Cruise Day 3

Monday, July 24, 2023

Since we had lost an hour of sleep last night due to the time change we slept in, but were awakened by the periodic blowing of the ship’s horn.  When we got up, we could see that it was very foggy, which explained the horn blowing.

We got cleaned up and had some breakfast and then headed off to the Crow’s Nest for our Cruise Critic Roll Call Meet and Greet.  It was very well attended with around 240 people there and I have to say, it was very well organized.  I don’t know the lady’s name who facilitated it, but she did a wonderful job; it was probably the best organized Meet and Greet we have been to.

After that we returned to our room, Val retired to the balcony to read while I caught up on the blog from yesterday.  We went to lunch around one and then went to the World Theater to attend a port talk on our upcoming port of Corner Brook, Newfoundland.  It was interesting, but not what we’d hoped for.  The lecturers mainly talked about the history of the area which, as I said, was interesting, but we were more interested in things to do in the area as we are on our own for that port.  Normally that is part of the port talks, but evidently not on this cruise.

After we left the lecture, we couldn’t resist a quick stop in the casino where I had a little more luck this time.  Because of our previous casino play on other cruises, we got a substantial discount on this cruise, so we are justifying our play by thinking we’ll get it back when we book another cruise.  😉

We spent the rest of our afternoon reading and relaxing until it was time to get ready for dinner.  Tonight is our first dressy night of the cruise so it took a little longer for us to get ready.  After dinner and the casino, it was back to our room to call it a night.  We have an early excursion tomorrow, so we have to get up early.

Voyage of the Vikings Redux - Bar Harbor, Maine

Cruise Day 2

Sunday, July 23, 2023

We slept in a little this morning, but were up and ready to go a little after nine and had our breakfast in the Neptune Lounge.  We had a customs form to fill out for our upcoming visit to Canada, so I took care of that and by then we were sailing into Bar Harbor.  It had been quite foggy, but by the time we arrived, it had cleared and was a beautiful day.

The town of Bar Harbor. It's not very big, but bigger than can be seen in the picture.

Bar Harbor is a small town on Mount Desert Island on the Maine coast.  We visited here back in 2016 and I’ll link to that here.  Bar Harbor is very picturesque and that, along with its proximity to Acadia National Park, makes it a very popular tourist destination.  The large number of tourists, which of course makes the local businesses very happy, is not so popular with the local population because of all the traffic and congestion, so they recently voted to restrict the number of cruise ships visiting which I believe goes into effect next year, but I’m not really sure where that stands right now.

We sailed overnight from Boston (bottom) to Bar Harbor, Maine.

Bar Harbor (red marker) is located on Mount Desert Island which is connected to the mainland by a bridge.

Bar Harbor is a tender port which means we won’t be docking but ferried to shore in tenders (some of the ship’s lifeboats).  Val and I had no plans for the morning, so we waited until around noon to tender ashore.

The larger lifeboats serve as tenders.  Here is one waiting to take its place at the ship's tender platform to take on passengers to be ferried into Bar Harbor.

We wandered around town for a bit looking in some of the shops and then started looking for a place to eat lunch.  Val had read about a place called Geddy’s which was supposed to have good food, so we looked around until we found it.  It was very crowded, but we were seated right away despite that.

We had lunch at Geddy's.

Geddy’s is a kind of funky, casual, friendly seafood restaurant, with a varied menu serving pizzas, sandwiches and of course lobster (we are in Maine after all).  I chose a lobster roll and Val had a lobster stew and they were both very good.  For desert Val had the "Classic Maine Blueberry Pie" with ice cream and I had the "Blueberry Whoopie Pie Sundae" that was very chocolaty and huge.  They were both very good, but but mine was huge and I couldn’t finish it.

Val is enjoying her lobster stew.

Val's blueberry pie.

After lunch, we continued our walk around town and found a bench in the shade to sit on with a nice view of the harbor.  The day had gotten quite warm with a temperature in the high seventies, so the shade was nice.

We had a ship excursion planned for 4:00 PM so after relaxing a bit, we made our way back to the tender dock where we joined our tour.   

The tender dock is directly behind where I'm taking this picture from.

Our tour is called the Victorian Homes of Mount Desert Island and will mostly be a bus tour.  Mount Desert Island is the island that Bar Harbor is on.  Mount Desert Island was and is the home and/or summer home to many wealthy people and they have built very large homes or “cottages” as they like to call them.  The Rockefellers were one of the very rich who lived here, and they did a lot for the island and the establishment of Acadia National Park.  We also learned that Martha Stewart has a 35,000 square foot “vacation” home here.

As we drove out of town, we could see our ship in the harbor.

One of the contributions of the Rockefellers was the carriage roads.  From 1913 to 1940 John Rockefeller Jr. had 45 miles of carriage roads built that allowed carriages and horses to get around the island without being bothered by automobile noise or traffic.  They are now used mainly for hiking and bicycling, but I think they are still also used by horses.  The bridge in the picture allows the carriage road to pass over the highway rather than having to cross it.

Besides driving past some of the beautiful large “cottages”, we also drove through Acadia National Park.  Val and I had toured the park when we were here in 2016 so we were already familiar with it.  We ended up touring around most of the island stopping at some scenic sports along the way.  One of the stops was the small village of Southwest Harbor where we had some time to walk around a bit.  Our driver recommended a bakery that had blueberry doughnuts so Val and I each got one and I have to admit, they were delicious.

This was a short tour as we had to be back to the ship before 6:30, but we really enjoyed it.  Besides visiting many scenic spots, our guide was very knowledgeable about the history and life on Mount Desert Island and entertaining to listen to.  Val and I really enjoyed this tour.

We got back just in time for the last tender back to the ship and were in our cabin just after 6:30.

The inside of the tender as we head back to the ship.  It was the last tender so there is hardly anyone on it, but at the peak times they are filled up and quite crowded.

We went out on the balcony to watch us sail out of Bar Harbor, but that was cut short as it was time to get ready for dinner.

Dinner was again quite good and then it was time for our first visit to the casino for the cruise.  Val had a very good night, but me, not so much.  We called it a night around ten and went back to our room and relaxed until it was time for bed.  We’ll have a time change tonight so the clocks will be set forward one hour meaning we’ll lose an hour of sleep.  Tomorrow is a sea day, so we be able to sleep in and make up for it.

Voyage of the Vikings Redux - Embarkation Day

 Cruise Day 1

Saturday, July 22, 2023

We slept in this morning, but not too late as were up and around by 9:00 AM.  A friend of Val’s recommended we eat breakfast at a place called The Friendly Toast and it turned out it was quite close to our hotel.  It looked like a few other people had the same idea as there was a long line of people and the wait was over an hour.  That was too long for us, so we walked down the street to a place called The Flour Bakery + Café.  I had wanted to check it out yesterday as I saw some very tasty looking pastries in their window, but we hadn’t had time, so, as luck would have it, we ended up there today.

It was also very popular and there was a short line to order, but it moved quickly and we were soon sitting outside in the balmy morning weather enjoying a pretty unhealthy, but delicious breakfast.  Val had a piece of banana bread, and I had a large (too large) cinnamon roll and they both hit the spot.

Speaking of the balmy morning today, I forgot to mention that we had thunderstorms and heavy rain last night.  It started around nine and lasted until just past midnight.  It was somewhat entertaining as we could see flashes of lightning outside our window and crashes of thunder, but the rain came down so heavy the streets started to flood.  There was a baseball game going on at Fenway Park and I guess it really disrupted things and they had to cancel the game.  We were glad we were safely in our hotel room.

We spent the rest of the morning relaxing in our room waiting for the time we could leave.  Val started reading some posts from our Cruise Critic Voyage of the Viking Roll Call group and people were reporting that they had gone to the cruise terminal and were able to check in.  They weren’t boarding yet, but at least they were processing people.  Val and I wondered whether we should go now, but decided to be cautious and wait.  Later, Val read that they had started boarding at noon which was way earlier than expected so we decided to just go.

Our bags were already packed so all we had to do was check out and get a taxi to the cruise port.  A taxi arrived just as we walked out the door so we were on our way just a little past noon.  It was only about a twenty minute drive to the cruise port and interestingly, our driver was from Ghana.  When we told him we had been to Ghana just last year, he got all excited and we spent the rest of our ride talking about life in Ghana, what a coincidence, and it made for an enjoyable ride for us.

There was little traffic at the cruise port and although there was a short line waiting to get in, it moved quickly, and we were soon inside the terminal.  There was a pretty long line through security, but it moved pretty fast also, and we quickly had our boarding passes and were boarding the ship.

We ended up being in our cabin a little after 1:00 PM so it all worked out very well.  Much to our surprise when we walked into our room, our two pieces of shipped luggage were there waiting for us; that was a first.  As we started unpacking our two room stewards came by and introduced themselves.  They are Mus and Annus and both were very friendly and seemed very nice.

We got everything put away and decided to explore the ship.  This ship is quite a bit bigger than we are used to as it holds almost 2000 passengers.  The ship we took to Africa had a capacity of only 1400 and there was just over 1000 on board, so quite a change.  The size ship we took to Africa was the type we almost always sail on, so this ship seemed huge.  It was also laid out a little differently, so we were a bit disoriented.

After exploring a bit, we went to our muster (lifeboat) station and did the mandatory check-in and returned to our cabin.  Val’s checked bag had arrived, so she finished putting her things away while I worked on unpacking my carry-ons.  My checked bag arrived shortly after that, and by three we were all unpacked and settled in.  We had a few things to take care of, but we mostly just relaxed wishing it was time for dinner as we were very hungry.   

As we always do, we booked a Neptune Suite that is a bigger cabin and comes with some perks including the Neptune Lounge (just for suite guests) where food and beverages are available, and most importantly, there is a concierge there that takes care of any problems you have. They can book excursions or dinner reservations at a specialty restaurant, or just about anything you need done.  This is the real reason we book a Neptune Suite; more space is nice, but having the concierge available makes shipboard life so much easier.  We did go down to the Neptune Lounge to get some snacks and meet the concierge Alexa who seems very nice.  We had to eat lightly though as we didn’t want to dull our appetites for dinner.

I decided to update the blog and then relaxed until it was time to get ready for dinner.  We prefer the fixed late seating (8:00 PM) in the main dining room as we enjoy getting to know our dining stewards during the course of the cruise.  Our waiters are Supri who is from Indonesia and Al who is from the Philippines.  They are both very nice and we had a good dinner.

We were looking forward to visiting the casino after dinner but realized it wouldn’t be open as we weren’t sailing away from Boston until 11:00 PM so we returned to our cabin and relaxed for a while.  At 10:45 we heard the ship’s horn blow and realized we were sailing away early.  Val and I went out on our balcony to watch us sail out of Boston Harbor and then called it a night and went to bed.  All things considered; it had been a very good embarkation day.  Tomorrow we will be in Bar Harbor, Maine, but won’t be arriving until 10:00 AM.