Live (at the time) Review 12 night Canada/New England on Brilliance 10/22/12-11/3/12

[ace1zoe2]

A couple of fishing boats when we went through in the morning at high tide

 

 

The same boats on our way back through several hours later at low tide

 

 

A closer shot showing the back of the buildings at high tide

 

 

And at low tide

 

Edited January 26, 2013 by ace1zoe2

[ace1zoe2]

We continued down the coast line having seen 3 covered bridges, this being the first one

 

 

The we saw the small fishing area & lighthouse and then we then stopped at The Caves Restaurant. I would say this was one of the few area to stop to eat. It was a large restaurant with outdoor covered seating as well as inside, located right on the water. Several tour buses were also stopped making it pretty crowded but service was great. It was a walk up counter where you placed your order then they delivered it to your table. Hubby and I shared a 3 piece fish & chips and a bowl of chowder for $23. The other couples had lobster rolls for $15 each and all agreed they were the best that they had had with huge chunks of lobster on a grilled roll, not shredded as others they had had.

 

These pictures were taken right outside the restaurant at high tide

 

 

And at low tide

 

 

The beach was small smooth rocks

 

 

 

This was low tide

 

Edited January 26, 2013 by ace1zoe2

[ace1zoe2]

Saint John continued...

 

The state park had closed for the season but Roy was able to stop by and get the keys to the park from a friend and he took us and one other van that he had arranged a tour for to the park. They folks in the other van were also from our roll call and said that their driver was also a hoot & they had a great time. We were able to see the flower pot rocks, a beautiful waterfall, walk across Big Salmon River on a suspension bridge and more. It was great! There were a total of 12 people in the entire park!

 

Flower pot rock

 

 

Fuller Falls

 

 

We reached the falls by walking down a rope stairway, which I had never seen before. It's a little shaky & you need to hold on to the rails and check your footing to keep from falling

 

 

A view from the top looking down at the platform we reached by the rope stairs

 

 

It is a steep climb and there was a warning sign at the beginning not to take the stairs if you have a heart condition or pacemaker.

 

The effort was worth the reward. The waterfall was lovely.

 

[ace1zoe2]

Saint John continued... What can I say... We saw a lot of cool stuff!

 

After the falls we went further into the park and stopped at the Fundy Trail Footpath where we were able to walk across a suspension bridge to the other side of Big Salmon River

 

 

It was a pretty good ways across the bridge but it felt really stable and didn't swing as much as ones we had been on before

 

 

We also made a stop at a cute little house where a lady had a bakery shop in one of her front room and operated a bed & breakfast out of the rest of the home. She was a painter and had things for sale... The entire house looked like this on the inside

 

 

 

The stop was basically to stretch our legs, give the woman a chance to make some money from the tours and a bathroom was available. I purchased a few cookies just because she was so nice.

 

This is a different house that we passed along the way that I think I could force myself to live in

 

 

On the way back in to town we went back by the fishing village and the boats were sitting on the ground as the tide had gone out. (Pictures were posted in a previous post)

 

We also stopped at the reversing falls and it was unbelievable how it had changed in just a couple of hours. I posted low tide and high tide pictures in a previous post so that you can see the huge difference. The Bay of Fundy has the biggest change of tides of anywhere in the world if I remember correctly. At times as much as 55 ft change in 12 hours.

 

I was so glad that we were able to go on the private tour so that we had had the extended time and were able to see low and high tide. We were also able to have the experience in the park that no one else on our ship were able to see. Cost was $300 for for the tour which could accommodate up to 6 persons. We invited people to join so that our cost would be $50 per person instead of $150 per person for just my husband & I.

 

You can find information on Roy's tours at www roystours dot webs dot com (without the spaces and with an actual period instead of the word dot). Roy is an older man and he smokes (outside only at the stops away from passengers) & his van isn't super clean or pretty but he is a nice man with a lot of information and packs your time in port with a ton of sights. You definitely get your money's worth on this tour. We left at 9:45 and got back to the ship at 5:30 - which was our dinner time! I would definitely go with him again if we were to come back here.

Edited January 26, 2013 by ace1zoe2

[ace1zoe2]

We hurried on, dropped our stuff in the room and rushed down to dinner, thankful that is was casual day! We were about 15 minutes late but Renold and Emre we right with us and we were in and out in less than an hour.

 

Hubby had Caesar salad and I had crab cake for starters. Hubby had pork tenderloin with scalloped potatoes and lentils. He ate the meat and left the rest as they weren't things he normally eats.

 

 

I had the pasta which was 4 large shell pastas filled with a spinach and cheese mixture topped with marinara and a pesto drizzle, it was very good but I could only eat 2 of them because they were so big.

 

 

Hubby had orange sherbet for dessert and I tried a Berri-miso that I ate a couple of bites and left the rest... Not my favorite.

 

 

 

A couple of night time pictures of the Centrum

 

 

 

 

Afterwards we headed back to the room hoping to enjoy the balcony for a while but it was too cold! We watched some tv and some updates on Hurricane Sandy who was due to hit landfall in the next few hours.

 

We have been told that we will be staying overnight in Saint John tonight which will give us a chance to see the actual downtown area of Saint John. We will miss our port in Bar Harbor (a tender port) tomorrow due to Sandy. The captain is taking precautions to make sure we're safe. There is much talk on the ship with everyone giving their opinions on what they think we should be doing. Some folks have already left the ship to return home to prepare for the storm.

[retiring soon]

Hi all!

 

Cindy ~ just had to say how much I'm loving your review.:D I was on a Canada New England cruise at the end of Sept for 14 days but we didn't have the fall colours you had. I've also recommended this thread to a friend going on a similar cruise next year to get her pumped for her cruise.

 

You're bringing back good memories, thanks so much.

 

~ Jo ~ :)

[clochette]

great reviews I love it, never thought I would be interested in a Canadian/New England cruise but you are really making it very interesting.

[ace1zoe2]

Hi all!

 

Cindy ~ just had to say how much I'm loving your review.:D I was on a Canada New England cruise at the end of Sept for 14 days but we didn't have the fall colours you had. I've also recommended this thread to a friend going on a similar cruise next year to get her pumped for her cruise.

 

You're bringing back good memories, thanks so much.

 

~ Jo ~ :)

 

Thanks so much for taking time to comment. I'm glad you are enjoying my rambling. I'm enjoying the memories myself as I go back thru what I wrote during the cruise & looking at my pics again.

[ace1zoe2]

great reviews I love it, never thought I would be interested in a Canadian/New England cruise but you are really making it very interesting.

 

Canada definitely isn't a fun in the sun, laying on the beach cruise but it is wonderful in a totally different way. So much history, architecture and scenic views. I'd love to do it again!

[ace1zoe2]

Today was our second day in Saint John, NB because of the storm. Hurricane Sandy made landfall last night in NY and we're still not sure when we will be leaving port. The plan is 4pm today if all goes well.

 

Hubby went to the WJ for breakfast and I just made not tea in the room while getting ready. He brought me back some fruit and pastry and I ate in the room. We decided to go in to shop around 11:00 and stayed at the Market Place for a couple of hours. I purchased 2 ornaments and we got some snacky stuff at a drugstore (like we can't find enough to eat on the ship!)

 

When we exited the ship we took a left and walked straight down the side walk which brought us to the shopping area. There is one building on the left which has some restaurants and a couple of souvenir type shops. There is an enclosed walkway that crosses over and across the street and enters another shopping mall. There are lots of stores there.

 

Some of the sites we saw while we were out:

 

 

Ok, so I have a thing about lighthouses also

 

A the entrance to the first shops

 

 

 

I just found these funny because of the flavors:

 

 

[ace1zoe2]

Some "art" we saw around town

 

 

 

Another lighthouse

 

 

My Christmas ornaments:

 

 

A sailboat and a Santa painted on a lobster claw.

 

Loved the architecture here also:

 

 

 

 

We were back onboard around 1:15, dropped our stuff in the room, then had lunch at the WJ. We also went by guest services and turned in our 2 free $7.50 worth of Internet coupons and logged on to check messages and purchase some additional data time on our iPad to get us thru the next few days until we are back in the states. Then we hung out (me journaling and hubby snoozing) in the solarium until departure time at 4pm. I also enjoyed my first cocktail of the trip (Lava Flow $8.05 with gratuity).

 

We received notice in our stateroom that US Immigration officials will be boarding the ship early in the morning. Each guest must appear in the dining room with their letter at the specified time (ours is 7:35am...ugh) and their passport. Every person in your party including children are REQUIRED to appear in person whether you plan to go ashore or not. If you do not attend you cannot go ashore, enter the US at debarkation and will be liable for fine from immigration.

 

We left Saint John, NB a few minutes late and the captain says we are in for a rough ride tonight. I've never been sea sick, except for one time in Alaska when we had 30foot waves. However, this time I'm going to be preemptive and took Dramamine just in case.

 

I also emailed and called Oli's Trolley in Bar Harbor to request a refund for our prepaid tour that was scheduled for this afternoon. It said you had to request a refund within 24 hours so hopefully it will get processed.

[ace1zoe2]

Tonight was "lobster" night in the dining room.. Hubby had the shrimp cocktail and I had a creamed mushroom puff pastry.

 

 

For dinner hubby chose a baked chicken dish and I had the fisherman's platter (garlic shrimp & lobster tail). Both were good. The tails were tiny but more than enough with everything else I had. They would bring you seconds or thirds if requested.

 

 

 

For dessert hubby had mango swirl cheesecakes and I had cherries jubilee, which was awesome.

 

We finished dinner in under an hour again so we headed to the theater for the early show which was the RC singers and dancers. It was entertaining.

 

After that we hung out in the centrum for a while & people watched then went back to the room. My goal tonight was to be asleep before the seas got too rough so hopefully my body wouldn't decide to protest all the waves. And luckily I succeeded. On the way up we noticed the barf bags were out in the stairwells.

 

Tomorrow we will be in Portland, Maine where we have two private excursions scheduled.

[ace1zoe2]

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Day 13 Portland, Maine

 

We arrived in Portland, Maine around 6am. All non-American citizens (around 500) had to meet in the theater at 6:45am for the immigration process. The officials would not begin the process until every single non-US passenger was there and accounted for. They made announcements the night before, placed a written reminder in cabins and it was also playing on the tv reminding everyone whether they we going onshore or not that they were required to attend this mandatory immigration process.

 

The rest of the US passengers received a notice in there stateroom giving them a specific time to come to the dining room for their face to face meeting with the immigration folks. Our time was at 7:35 am. We got up about 6:15, dressed and went to the windjammer for breakfast around 6:45. From there we went to get in line for the process. The line went from the left side of the dining room all the way back winding thru a service area in the back, all the way out the right side of the dining room, past the elevators, through all the gift shops and starting towards the theater. Even as long as it was, the line moved quickly and we were done in 20 minutes. They scanned our sea pass card & then placed a smiley face sticker on it, then we met face to face with the immigration officer, answered a couple of questions and were on our way by 7:55. All the time we were standing in line and even after we left they were paging one person to come to the theater.... That means an hour and a half after every other non-US passenger showed up in the theater and had been sitting patiently their process hadn't even started... I would have been so mad at that person... People were late for excursions etc because they couldn't get off the ship.

 

We ran back to the room, got our bag & camera and headed out about 8:30.

There was a hearse taking someone off the ship as we were leaving for town. I was so sad for the family. Not sure what happened, and didn't need to, but sure was sad.

 

We had pre-arranged tours thru Portland Discovery (dot com) if you'd like to find them on the Internet. We had a 9:30 trolley tour and a 2:00 lighthouse boat tour. We had been instructed to collect our tickets and pay for our reservations at the Long Wharf ticket office by 9:00 or they would be released for purchase to others. We arrived a little before 9am to find out the afternoon lighthouse tours had been cancelled due to the storms. All the boats had been stored in anticipation of Hurricane Sandy. So we paid $21 each for our Trolley Tour and waited at the wharf for about 25 minutes until the trolley came and we were allowed to board.

 

We had a great driver and tour guide who had lived in Portland his entire life and was retired from Coca Cola. He took us all around town for about 45 minutes showing us lots of interesting places and telling tales about Portland.

 

We saw the Victorian Mansion:

 

 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's home:

 

 

 

The Farmers Market

 

 

The Observatory

 

[ace1zoe2]

Portland continued...

 

Lots of beautiful turn of the century homes

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ace1zoe2]

Portland continued...

 

More gorgeous homes

 

 

 

Some lovely churches

 

 

 

Beautiful foliage:

 

[ace1zoe2]

Next we crossed the Bay of Cosco and went over to the Portland Head Lighthouse which is the oldest lighthouse in Maine and was commissioned by President George Washington. We were off the trolley for 15 minutes there to walk around and take pictures and then he picked us up again & brought us back to Long Wharf.

 

 

 

I don't remember what this was called but it was burned down and never rebuilt

 

 

Some building near the port area

 

 

[ace1zoe2]

Portland continued...

 

The area near Long Wharf

 

 

Shipyard Brewery

 

 

Instead of flying a flag, they fly a keg

 

 

I believe this was a memorial to the first soldier hat Portland lost in the Civil War

 

 

Firehouse & memorial

 

[ace1zoe2]

Portland continued...

 

Downtown area

 

 

 

There was a lobster place right where we were dropped off that a lot of folks went to. The 1 1/4 pound lobsters served on paper plates with plastic ware and you set in an enclosed room out back on picnic tables. I had planned for us to eat at the Old Port Tavern and we could see the sign just half a block up the street so we walked there instead.

 

 

It was a nice sit down restaurant with real forks and china. I had a 1 1/4 pound lobster, salad & French fries for $15, hubby had a fried haddock sandwich with onion rings and I had a glass of wine all for $31! Plus a $6 tip. It was awesome and I was so glad that we stuck to our original plans. You could also have a double lobster plate for $21! These were whole lobsters, not just the tail.

 

 

 

Afterwards we walked around, did some shopping for the 3 grand babies and went to the Noel Christmas store. Again I was in heaven! They had Old World lighthouses and lobsters of which I bought one of each. And a Christopher Radko world travels ornament and another Radko and they charged no sales tax since we were out of state and even shipped it home with insurance for only $9!

 

 

We stopped by a Starbucks and I got a tea & hubby a hot chocolate. While we were there we were able to Skype with our daughter who is in Rome waiting to get on the Mariner of the Seas on 11/2 to do a TransAtlantic back home to Galveston. She has been in London working for the last 3years as a social worker and is finally coming home to stay!

[ace1zoe2]

Portland continued...

 

Near the port area

 

 

It looked like the ship just pulled right in to town

 

 

The terminal

 

 

 

Views from the ship:

 

 

[ace1zoe2]

Portland continued...

 

 

 

We got back on the ship about 3:30, all aboard was 5:30. We saw more folks leaving by taxi with their suitcases. About 4:30 they made a last call announcement for anyone else wishing to leave the ship, that now was their last chance. Many folks left the cruise early to return home to take care of family or storm damages due to Hurricane Sandy. We just went back to the room and hung out on the balcony until about 4:45 when it started to rain. But we were rewarded with this:

 

 

Then it was time to get ready for dinner. At least it was casual/Halloween dress so we didn't have to do much. We were in & out in less than an hour. Hubby had minestrone soup as his starter and I was piggy and had scallop risotto and caprese salad. Tonight was Italian night. For our main course I had chicken Marsala and hubby had the alternate chicken selection. Hubby had orange sherbet and I had the low fat angel food cake.

 

 

 

We were finished before 6:30 which allowed us to hurry down to the theater in time to catch the first show which was a trio from Detroit called Horizon who did a tribute to Motown. We enjoyed the show and thought they did a pretty good job.

[The Big Booper]

Really enjoying your photos. We walked around Portland with an old friend who had moved here with her husband 20 some years ago. Had lunch at a place near the docks. This was our 4th time in Portland, last time we took a tour that passed the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport (sp?)

 

Living in the NY suburbs, a NE cruise is close, convenient and reasonably inexpensive.

[ace1zoe2]

Portland, continued

 

 

Afterward we went down to the Centrum and watched people dance and then around 9:15 or so we moved to the Colony Club for the 10PM Halloween party. We didn't dress up but wanted to see all the folks who did. There were some pretty cool costumes. Two couples dressed up a Spock, Captain Kirk and two of the girls. Hubby said if I bought him a cool costume like Captain Kirk he'd dress up next time

 

 

There was an Egyptian pharaoh family

 

 

the devil and his wife, a man dressed as a woman wearing 4 inch heels and his wife was dressed as a man

 

 

Medusa and lots more!

 

 

The 9 kids who were on board were also there and dressed up and the flash mob who had been practicing their dance all week performed. We had a fun time.

 

 

Finally about 11:45 we crawled in to bed, thankful that our last day tomorrow is a sea day and that we can sleep in!

[ace1zoe2]

Sea day 2

Thursday, Nov 1, 2013

 

Plans were to sleep in this morning after a late night (for us anyways) but we were both awake around 7:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. We just lounged around a while then hubby went to WJ for breakfast while I took a shower and did my hair. He brought me back a yogurt and croissant which I enjoyed with a hot tea that I had made in the room. I have thoroughly enjoyed having the hot pot in the room. I've had a couple of hot teas in the morning and then in the afternoon I brewed and made iced tea to last thru the evening... Saved lots of walking back and forth to the WJ.

 

At 10am we went to the theater and listened to a presentation by the guest lecturer about Collosas and the Statue of Liberty. It was pretty interesting & I learned much i ever knew.

 

We came back by the room, filled out our guest survey and luggage tags and then went by guest services to drop off the survey. Then had lunch in the main dining room. We both enjoyed the tuti salad bar and I had a barramundi fish with jasmine rice which was very good. Neither of us had dessert. Service was pretty slow again today.

 

We headed up to the Colony Club to use up our last few minutes of free Internet checking Facebook for a message from hubby's nieces. They called a couple of nights ago to let him know that his sister was transported by ambulance to the hospital and is in CCU on a ventilator and they believe she has a pulmonary embolism... But there was no news yet.

 

We decided to try our mad skills on the gyro pool tables. After figuring out you have to go to the Schooner Bar and leave your sea pass card in exchange for the pool balls we were able to play. We did the best 2 out of 3 and I lost! It was pretty neat playing, but it kind of messes with your mind because the table is constantly moving and tilting to keep itself level. While we were playing hubby's BNL called to let him know sister is awake and knows what is going on now but still on a vent.

 

We had noticed that Guest services set up a extra portable desk with 2 personnel that were helping guest with flight information due to all the airport closures and cancelled flights. We checked our flights and it was still scheduled for the same time on Saturday. I had called the Marriott Manhattan while we were in Portland yesterday to make sure that they were open and had electricity, which they were. I had also called the Dial 7 Limo service to make sure that they were still running service from NJ to NYC and the also verified that they were.

 

The captain has announced that due to limited taxi availability that RC is chartering more shuttles for people to purchase transfers to the airports, if interested you needed to do so by 4pm today.

 

Then we headed back to the room where hubby watched some tv and I stretched out on a lounger on the balcony in the sun and finished my next Stephanie Plum book. Off out in the far distance we can just make out another ship following in our wake. I stayed outside until the sun went behind the clouds then I came in to catch up on my journaling.

 

It's been a very lazy day which is a good thing! Now I have to stop and get some packing done before dinner. Hopefully dinner will be quick again tonight so that we can catch the early "Farewell Show" and head back to the room to finish up with the last minute packing and checking of the drawers and niches to make sure nothing is forgotten.

 

Dinner was in & out again tonight. I had a calzone & hubby had turkey or pork, I can't remember which, followed by dessert.

 

 

 

 

We said goodbye to our great waiters and headed off to the theater for the show. There was a comedian who was pretty funny without being vulgar, followed by the Singers & Dancers. Then they brought out representatives from every department on the ship for the captain to recognize. We had a great time and were sad that our cruise was coming to an end.

 

 

 

We had turned our form in on Monday requesting to get off the ship between 8:30-9:00 as we had a car service scheduled to pick us up at 10am to go into NYC for the next 2 days. However when luggage tags were delivered we had number 17 which wasn't schedule off until 9:00-9:30, which if they were running late would not give us time to get off the ship, shuttle to the terminal, collect our bags, go thru customs & immigration and be outside waiting on time. So we stopped by the guest services to request an earlier time. The gentleman told us we could carry off our bags, which we didn't want to do, we just wanted an earlier time. After about five minutes he finally said "hold on" then gave us the number 1 luggage tags so we could go off in the first group not doing self walk off.

 

So after that we headed back to the room to finish putting our last few things in the luggage, put the tags on & set them out in the hallway by 10pm. We turned in early (like we did most nights) knowing that tomorrow would be a long day.

[Sinppu]

Looking across the bay:

 

 

Hi Cindy, thanks SO much for this review.

Photos like these made me sure that I have to take a NE cruise one day (soon, I hope ;))

My husband isn't keen, but maybe I could convince my Mom to come with me... it's beautiful beyond words.

 

Thanks again!

Edited January 29, 2013 by Sinppu

[relaxatsea]

Thank you so much for your wonderful review and your spectacular pictures!

 

I have always wanted to take a Canada and New England cruise, and now I can't wait to do it!

 

We were on the Brilliance for a transatlantic in 2008 and know what a beautiful ship she is.

 

Seeing your pictures of the various areas onboard brought back fond memories.