Live from the Volendam - New England & Canada (May 25 to June 1)

[Rubyfisch]

This seems far too soon ....

 

 

[Rubyfisch]

So, we decided at pretty much the last minute to do a shore excursion today. We booked it on Saturday afternoon, as my partner pointed out with no plans on any day we'd drive each other crazy. There weren't a ton of options, so we settled on a morning excursion to Peggy's Cove.

 

Here is the full description:

 

 

 

 

[Rubyfisch]

We had a 9:30 port call, and our meeting time was 9:15 ashore ... Which seemed like something wasn't quite correct. We got the all clear at maybe 9:20, and exited the ship, found our bus, and were off.

 

Well .... Off as far as the rotary we broke down at ....

[Rubyfisch]

We spent about half an hour sitting on the side of the rotary, waiting for a new bus. Once it came, we were off again.

 

It's about 45 minutes to Peggy's Cove. There was arguably an excessive amount of narration on the drive.

 

Some terrible bus window pictures:

 

 

 

 

[Rubyfisch]

We had about 45 minutes at Peggy's Cove, which was plenty of time to see the light house, take some pictures, look in a couple of shops, and get back on the bus:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RuthC]

Were you docked at the long wharf area, or further away (I never knew which direction, or how far the wharf area was from where the Nieuw Statendam docked)? 
The wharf is a fun area all by itself, with a good museum right there.  

Personally, I think it's a shame that the bus doesn't drive in, and perhaps take 5 minutes for pictures, at the memorial to the plane that crashed into the sea in 1998. 
HAL's Veendam was sailing to Halifax, but was sent to the search & rescue, later the search & recovery, area to help with retrieval of debris. 

[Rubyfisch]

23 minutes ago, RuthC said:

Were you docked at the long wharf area, or further away (I never knew which direction, or how far the wharf area was from where the Nieuw Statendam docked)? 
The wharf is a fun area all by itself, with a good museum right there.  

Personally, I think it's a shame that the bus doesn't drive in, and perhaps take 5 minutes for pictures, at the memorial to the plane that crashed into the sea in 1998. 
HAL's Veendam was sailing to Halifax, but was sent to the search & rescue, later the search & recovery, area to help with retrieval of debris. 

We were in Pier 22, next to the Immigration Museum. We were in the pier with the little shopping area. So three back from the start of the boardwalk?

[Rubyfisch]

I definitely fell asleep at 9:30 last night ... Let me try to catch up ....

[Rubyfisch]

We picked up these cute fellows at Peggy's Cove from the pewter shop there:

 

 

 

 

 

[Rubyfisch]

On the way back from Peggy's Cove, there was more endless narration. I'm not saying it wasn't interesting, but it was a lot. From the moment we stepped into the bus until the moment we left. And for me, the speakers were both painfully loud and lacked fidelity.

 

All that being said, I think this a great, relatively inexpensive excursion if you want to get out to Peggy's Cove. I have no idea why it's marked as Moderate - if you can get on and off a bus, you can do this. Sure, we walked on the rocks, which takes some degree of effort, but you don't have to do that to see Peggy's Cove.

[Rubyfisch]

We got back around 1:00 pm, and were quite hungry. We went over to Garrison's, the brewery across from the port. It does not actually serve food (despite what we were told at the port talk), but you can bring food in. There is a pizza place next door, so we ordered a pizza to go, walked around a bit, and then had fantastic pizza and beer:

 

 

 

 

We had planned to walk around the boardwalk at that point, but ran into some folks we had met. We ended having a fantastic time (and a couple of more drinks) chatting with them. I don't day drink (which might be why I fell asleep at 9:30 ...)

[Rubyfisch]

After that, we did make our way down the boardwalk - I didn't end up taking a ton of pictures, in part because we were getting kind of tired as it was about 4 pm at this point.

 

 

 

 

But I did manage to get some ice cream at Cows. No, I did not realize it was blue when I ordered it. Yes, it was good. No, I regret nothing.

 

[Rubyfisch]

Menus:

 

 

 

 

 

[Rubyfisch]

We went to music trivia, and then dinner.

 

I had the French onion soup (which I forgot to take a picture of, but you'll be seeing again), which was good.

 

For the main, I had the beef stroganoff - the flavor was good, but some of the meat couple have been more tender. It was also massively large compared to the other mains we have had.

 

 

And red velvet cake and ice cream:

 

[Rubyfisch]

I went up this morning for some pastries and tea. The water on this ship is not hot enough to brew tea - I should just give up .... But no on the pastries.

 

[Rubyfisch]

At 8:00, the captain announced that the winds were at 20 knots, and increasing, and that he did not feel well could safely make the approach into (or more importantly, out of) Sydney. So he cancelled the port.

 

It's funny, I've had cancelled port calls before, and usually there is a audible groan. Here, it was more of a "oh."

[Rubyfisch]

Some pictures of the coast of Nova Scotia - it's a little unclear what is a fog bank and what is land ....

 

 

 

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Can I ask a favor ? Could you please take some pictures of the explorer lounge and the connecting room.

I want to use that space on the 2026 World Cruise for project Linus on sea days 

Thanks 

Marty 

martygottlieb13@gmail.com

 

Edited May 28 by Gail & Marty sailing away

[Rubyfisch]

29 minutes ago, Gail & Marty sailing away said:

Can I ask a favor ? Could you please take some pictures of the explorer lounge and the connecting room.

I want to use that space on the 2026 World Cruise for project Linus on sea days 

Thanks 

Marty 

martygottlieb13@gmail.com

 

Sure - will do 

[Rubyfisch]

Deck 3 wanderings ... Careful, it gets slippery...

 

 

[puppycanducruise]

Yum!  Cow's ice cream is great.

[Rubyfisch]

The captain did an impromptu Ask the Captain with some slides about the route into the ports:

 

 

 

 

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

1 hour ago, Rubyfisch said:

Sure - will do 

Thanks ..

[Rubyfisch]

The staff captain just came on to say that we were experiencing 50 knot winds and considerable listing and to use the hand rails. It's not particularly rough, but the list is very noticeable.

 

[Rubyfisch]

Lido lunch: