Carnival Glory to Canada, July 21-26: A Review

[amcjeep4life]

Thanks every one for sticking with me. Real life is a bit crazy, derby seems to be consuming my life right now. Thanks for the kind words about my pictures. I have a simple point and shoot, I'm just happy when they aren;t blurry! lol So, a friend of mine yelled at me to get cracking on this, since she has nothing to read tomorrow at work, so here we go Jess, this is just for you! LOL

 

We woke up this morning around 0830, and headed up to the Lido for breakfast. We had our normal fare. Today was quite ugly out, and rain was scheduled for the day.

 

Yea, not much chance of a cooperating sky today. Damn it.

 

There was a pretty lighthouse just across from us tho.

 

 

We headed down to deck 3 to get off the ship, and walked around outside for a few minutes to see the sights.

 

 

 

 

I had scheduled a Whale and Nature Watch for us here, and had high hopes of seeing some good stuff. Unfortunately, because of the weather, my hopes were about to be dashed. I hadn't told William what we were doing today, so he was pretty excited trying to figure it out. We walked over to meet our group, and William was talking to Matt, the guide for a while, so it did make the waiting part easier. While they were talking, I managed to take my mandatory police picture.

 

 

It's sort of a running joke at this point that I need to get a picture of a police vehicle in every port. The guys I work with all find it somewhat amusing.

 

I also managed to snap this pic of the whale tail reflected in the glass building down the street from the port. Sometimes I scare myself with my artsy tendencies.

 

[amcjeep4life]

So, after our group was gathered, we walked about 10 minutes down the road and onto the boardwalk area.

 

 

Thankfully, my private yacht was waiting for us.

 

 

I WISH!!! LOL. This was a private yacht, and I was quite jealous. We boarded the Haligonian III, of which I have absolutely no pictures. I don;t know why, except that I must have known deep down inside how wretchedly awful this day was about to become.

 

We went up to the open deck of the boat, and William picked out what he said was a prime whale watching spot.

 

 

Once every one was on board, we started motoring out to attempt to see some whales. This was the only whale tail we will end up seeing.

 

 

So, the water was rough, it was rainy, cold, windy, and I was getting sick to my stomach. I popped a Dramamine, but didn't want to risk taking 2 because I was afraid I was going to curl up somewhere and either die (my most fervent wish at this point), or fall asleep, leaving poor William unattended. I did manage to listen to some of the cool stuff the guide talked about. Halifax has the 2nd largest NATURAL harbor (I think Perth Australia is biggest). Two of the largest cranes currently reside in Halifax.

 

 

This is the lighthouse on George's Island. Named for King George (remember, Cananda is still a British territory). There is also a large fort on the island, and it was used to keep the harbour safe way back when.

 

[amcjeep4life]

 

I know the water doesn't look that rough, but I'm pretty sure we had 20 or 30 foot swells at this point. Hey, you weren't there with a ruler, were you? I moved down to the bottom deck at the recommendation of Matt, who graciously offered to keep an eye on William for me so I could curl up in the corner and die. I think he was mostly concerned that I was going to throw up on the boat, so keeping an eye on the 8 year old was probably much easier than cleaning up after me. lol. They did talk about what animals lived in the area, and of course went on to say that they had seen whales nearly every single day leading up to today, but that the weather was so yucky that even the animals were laying low. As we started heading back in, they pulled up a lobster pot, which was empty, of course, because that's just how awful this trip has been. Luckily, they had a lobster in a tank on the boat and they were able to get it out for people to handle. I did manage to pick up my head long enough to get a picture.

 

 

Poor William kept coming over to me and tapping me on the shoulder, asking if I was OK. Poor kid. When we got a little farther into the harbour, the water started being not so rough, probably only 10-15 foot swells. At this point, I was feeling a little better, I don't know if it was the calmer waters or if the Dramamine was finally kicking in. William did manage to see a Harbour seal in the water at one point, but that was literally it for the trip. I feel bad, because he was really looking forward to seeing a whale. Guess I'll have to plan something else, maybe a little closer to home. The crew did bring out a big bucket of stale bread to get the gulls to come in closer. For someone who doesn't live on the water, and see gulls every frickin' day, this may have been more fun. But evidently, if you're 8, it's still fun.

 

 

The crew said that if you stood still with bread in your hand, the gulls would often swoop down and grab the bread. I tried to catch it a few times, but all I got was this neat picture of a bird looking like it's giving the whale tail a big hug.

 

 

As windy as it was, do you think I could get the stupid Canadian flag to blow out so I could get a picture of it? Just sort of put the cap on this wretched darn day.

 

 

As horrible as I felt, the trip wasn't bad. The crew did keep William entertained, they had coloring books and answered all of his questions. I can;t blame them for the weather, it's just my luck that we got stuck on a rainy, crappy day. I'm sort of used to it by now.

 

Once we got back on shore, my plans to just walk around and enjoy the day had to be changed up a bit, since it was raining pretty well at this point. The boat gave us a choice of 2 different places to get off, so we stayed on until the far end of the pier, which was closer to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. Remember me saying how William is just entranced by boats? I figured that this would be a good way to enjoy the day without just going back to the ship. As we walked to the museum, I saw these awesome garbage and recycling cans. They take their recycling very seriously here in Halifax!

 

 

[amcjeep4life]

The museum has a corvette (the ship, not the car, lol) outside that you can normally walk around on, but of course it had closed early because of the miserable weather. The inside of the museum was still pretty cool, and they have an interesting section about the Titanic. Outside of Halifax there are 120ish people buried, and most of the ships that were stationed here ended up going out to try and rescue people. William has heard all the stories from his jaja about the Titanic, so it was cool to be able to actually show him some real history. Now me, I've only seen the last 20 minutes of the movie (hey, the ending is the most important part. I don't care about the lovey dovey crap, I just wanted to watch the boat sink). But I still enjoyed walking around and checking all the models out. I am just amazed at the amount of time it takes to make one of these models, and some of them were just HUGE.

 

This is a corvette, by the way.

 

 

This is not a corvette, but still pretty cool.

 

 

No, I'm not going to bore you with pictures of all the boats. Honestly, I only took a few, because I wasn't super interested either, just not bored out of my skull. However, here is another one that was pretty cool.

 

 

And now, here is the Titanic!

 

 

This is the only remaining intact deck chair from the Titanic in existence.

 

 

This is a replica of the chair, and William declared it to be "The most uncomfortable cruise chair I've ever sat in!" Considering his vast experience with cruise chairs, I thought it was pretty funny!

 

[Winnigirl]

So, after our group was gathered, we walked about 10 minutes down the road and onto the boardwalk area.

 

 

Thankfully, my private yacht was waiting for us.

 

 

I WISH!!! LOL. This was a private yacht, and I was quite jealous. We boarded the Haligonian III, of which I have absolutely no pictures. I don;t know why, except that I must have known deep down inside how wretchedly awful this day was about to become.

 

We went up to the open deck of the boat, and William picked out what he said was a prime whale watching spot.

 

 

Once every one was on board, we started motoring out to attempt to see some whales. This was the only whale tail we will end up seeing.

 

 

So, the water was rough, it was rainy, cold, windy, and I was getting sick to my stomach. I popped a Dramamine, but didn't want to risk taking 2 because I was afraid I was going to curl up somewhere and either die (my most fervent wish at this point), or fall asleep, leaving poor William unattended. I did manage to listen to some of the cool stuff the guide talked about. Halifax has the 2nd largest NATURAL harbor (I think Perth Australia is biggest). Two of the largest cranes currently reside in Halifax.

 

 

This is the lighthouse on George's Island. Named for King George (remember, Cananda is still a British territory). There is also a large fort on the island, and it was used to keep the harbour safe way back when.

 

 

I am enjoying your report - your nephew is a dear little boy - but I must correct you on one thing - Canada is most definitely not a British territory. We are a solely independant country who chooses to be a member of the Commonweath, with the Queen as Head of State. (I don't think you'd like it if we called the American flag "stupid").

[amcjeep4life]

I am enjoying your report - your nephew is a dear little boy - but I must correct you on one thing - Canada is most definitely not a British territory. We are a solely independant country who chooses to be a member of the Commonweath, with the Queen as Head of State. (I don't think you'd like it if we called the American flag "stupid").

 

 

My mistake. I thought I understood the guide saying that Canada was considered a British territory. Kind of like Puerto Rico is a US territory. And in no way was I calling THE Canadian flag stupid. Just that one particular one. As crappy a day as I had had, if it was an American flag being difficult, it would have been a stupid US flag too. Apologies, no offense meant!

[jrmende63]

Hi! I am enjoying your review! I think I was supposed to sail with you one time and either you or I changed sailings.

I am thrilled with your review and pictures. I am going to Canada/NE on the Glory in June 2013 for my 50th birthday. I was so happy to see the tents still outside of Saint John, NB. We bought a specific souvenir from there in 2007, which has since broken. I am ( fingers crossed) hoping they still have my souvenir:)

Your nephew is soo cute! I think one day we will take our Granddaughter with us to sail. She would love it.

[amcjeep4life]

There was a lot to see, including a fine feathered friend.

 

 

This is Merlin. He's the resident Macaw at the museum. I guess anywhere there might be pirates, there needs to be a parrot! lol

 

Here is William by a missile tube. I told him if he didn't behave, he was going to get stuffed in there and shot back home. He just laughed.

 

 

There is a section where there is a computer to look at different ship wrecks across the world. William thought it was cool, but was seriously distracted by his new friend. I think he's watched 10,000 Leagues Under the Sea one too many times. LOL

 

 

I have to say I actually enjoyed the Museum, and I'm glad we went. I'm bummed that we didn't get to see other stuff due to the poor and miserable weather, but if you have people who are into boats, I would definitely recommend a visit. It took us about 2 hours, but you could stretch it out to take longer if you wanted. They do have a movie about the Titanic, but we passed on that. We decided to head back to the port and get our shopping done. It was still a little wet and yucky out, so we didn't really get a chance to enjoy the walk back to the ship. We did however, pass this monument to Norwegian sailors, which William wanted a picture of for his jaja.

 

 

We walked around the shopping area at the port, William bought his last few souvenirs, including a really beautiful carved stone box with polar bears on it for his step-dad. When we went to get back on the ship, they pulled us aside because William doesn't have photo ID (read: passport). William was scared that he was going to be left behind, so I was trying to keep him calm. They asked him his room number, which of course he didn't know. Then they asked him his birth-date, which he DID know, so we were heading onto the ship. Saint John couldn't have cared less about this, but the last port of the trip scares the poor kid to death. Go figure. We zipped up to the room, dropped off our stuff, and headed up to the Lido for lunch. We both had hot dogs, chicken tenders and fries for lunch before William said he was tired and was ready to go back to the room. We both ended up crashing for a while, which was fine with me, because he wanted to go to the late night party at Camp tonite. When we finally woke up (yep, missed sail-away again), we headed up to the Lido for dinner. I had beef stroganoff, some yummy broccoli (William was NOT happy, lol), and an orzo salad with peas and pesto. William had a pepperoni pizza. I also had some of the diet coconut cake, one of m favorite desserts. William was ready for Camp, and the drop off was at the Green Room. It's on Deck 4, and I honestly can't figure out what it does otherwise. With no kid to entertain for a few hours, I headed off to see some of the entertainment. I saw the 60 seconds show, which is sort of like Minute To Win It. It was pretty entertaining, but not something William would have sat still thru. There was no "show" tonite, instead they use the Love and Marriage Game as the entertainment. I guess it's just a sign of the cutbacks. I found it pretty funny, but I was bummed that there wasn't an actual show. After the show, I headed up to the Mexican Buffet with my tablet and did some reading and writing while I ate. The salmon quesadillas were quite yummy, but the potato sopas were really not. At 1 am, I headed up to Camp to pick up William. We headed back to the room and found our nightly friend.

 

[amcjeep4life]

Of course, William had some more schwag from Camp.

 

 

Here is what was inside.

 

 

There is a flashlight, an insulated lunch sack, and a pen. The pen was really cool, and I was quite jealous and tried to steal it he rest of the trip. When you pressed a button, it projected a picture of the Camp owl on the wall. It was awesome. I sent William on to take a shower, then headed in myself. When I came out, I found a comatose kid sound asleep, S&S card clutched tight in his hand!

 

[ibcnusoon]

Cute review, William has a very special Aunt!!

[nybumpkin]

There is a section where there is a computer to look at different ship wrecks across the world. William thought it was cool, but was seriously distracted by his new friend. I think he's watched 10,000 Leagues Under the Sea one too many times. LOL

 

 

I have to say I actually enjoyed the Museum, and I'm glad we went. I'm bummed that we didn't get to see other stuff due to the poor and miserable weather, but if you have people who are into boats, I would definitely recommend a visit. It took us about 2 hours, but you could stretch it out to take longer if you wanted. They do have a movie about the Titanic, but we passed on that.

The Kraken! I have a photo of our youngest with him. My dad's WWII submarine was named Kraken, so this guy holds a special place in our hearts.:) I love the museum, and so do our kids.