Live (kind of) from Nieuw Statendam, Boston to Quebec and back, Aug. 27-Sept. 17

[Dr.Dobro]

I've never done a live report on a cruise, but I have enjoyed reading those by many others, so what the heck, DW and I will give this a try and see how it goes.

 

Probably going to be based on photos, and not too much on ship minutiae. Deep thoughts might creep in should I emerge from cruise coma and start doing some deep thinking.

 

I have no idea, by the way, how this will format on Cruise Critic, so bear with me if it looks a mess.

 

Boarding in Boston was late and chaotic. Zaandam also boarding. Hard to tell who was getting on or off. Lots of people seemed to run into vaxx and ArriveCan problems. Somehow we had done it all the paperwork right (well, DW did) and finally got shunted to a line that moved quickly. Whoo-hoo, got on board, and Nieuw Statendam really looks great.

 

First port is Portland, Maine. Lots of cutesy shopping in the Old Port, right next to the pier, and restaurants and bars in case the ship is insufficient. We walked about a mile to Portland Museum of Art, which we had heard was pretty impressive for a small city. True dat. Lots of names I recognize but know nothing about including Degas, Monet, Dali and a rather disappointing Picasso depicting a chicken decapitation. I don't know much about art but I like to look at the purty pictures.

 

 

 

Day was hot hot hot. Walked back to cuddly bosom of HALspitality and a nice cold one (beer) and a nice hot one (shower).

Sailaway delightful, passing old Casco Bay military fort and Portland Head lighthouse, very nice viewed from the water.

And we are off to the Bay of Fundy.

[quilty964]

Can't wait to hear more!  Enjoy!  We thought about an east coast cruise this fall, but the flight horrors made us think twice.  There are no easy ways to get to Boston from the Milwaukee/Chicago area...

[cwd79]

Looking forward to reading this we will be on the Quebec to Boston 10 day portion of this cruise. 

[bluesplayer]

Looking forward to following along on the NS in October..  Quebec City to Ft. Lauderdale 

[Dr.Dobro]

We pull into Saint John, New Brunswick on a warm and sunny day. We booked a guide, Rod Borden, through Tours By Locals, and we were off on schedule for an exploration of the historic downtown area, which the locals call "uptown" for some reason.

 

Saint John as a city was established in 1785, but before that was a long period of conflict between the French and English, and the harbor -- excuse me, *harbour* -- was the site of a key battle in the Acadian Civil War, which I am hearing of for the first time. Gotta read up.

 

The actual incorporation in 1785 was due to the swelling population of loyalists from New England, who wanted to remain subjects of the crown.

 

You know, I think "trader" is a misspelling here.

 

Saint John is known for its well-preserved old buildings, and it feels a little like Beacon Hill in Boston. After a disastrous fire in the 19th century, the city was rebuilt in that style, including some buildings which used architectural plans from Boston buildings.

 

The home on the right is newly constructed, blending in nicely with the neighborhood.

 

City Market is No. 1 on the tourist map, with lots of shopping -- not my thing -- and a section with fresh produce.

 

Axe-throwing and alcohol? What could go wrong?

 

The two-story gazebo in King Square features a fountain downstairs and a bandstand upstairs. (They bring in a portable staircase for performances.)

 

I was taken by this carving on a firefighter memorial in King Square, honoring the fire department's mission of saving people from drowning.

 

Right next to the pier is a market set up in shipping containers.

 

Loving the artwork on this ship, much of which has a musical theme. But I never knew Bob was once a colonel in the Argentine army.

 

Food is great. Tamarind still transcendent. Wifi is actually pretty good (with "premium" package, anyway). Staff, as always, pleasant and helpful. Music pretty good. Saw BBC Earth 2, that was great. Comedian not so. (By the way, how do you have an "Adults Only" comedy show at 9 p.m. in the BB King venue, when tender youth passing on Decks 2 and 3 can get an earful?)

 

Good to be home again on HAL -- this is our first cruise since March 2020, when the world went to hell while we were sailing from Hawaii to San Diego. We were so lucky to make it back home without incident. I have met two couples who were trapped for weeks on the Zaandam in South America.

 

That's it for now, amigos y amigas.

 

[jimbri]

Enjoying your review and photos.  That really does look like Dylan.

[SueMo]

Enjoying your review.  Going on NS next month.  The comedian wasn't, perchance, Dino Vigo?

[Sea42]

On 8/31/2022 at 3:09 PM, ktbraun said:

Can't wait to hear more!  Enjoy!  We thought about an east coast cruise this fall, but the flight horrors made us think twice.  There are no easy ways to get to Boston from the Milwaukee/Chicago area...

Delta has non-stops daily from MKE

[The-Inside-Cabin]

Great reports - thanks for sharing!

[LawDog61]

Looking forward to your reports.  Thanks for sharing with us.

[sansterre]

Interesting photos.  Thank you for doing this report on your cruise!

I have a friend on this cruise so enjoy following along.

[kazu]

On 9/2/2022 at 6:56 AM, Dr.Dobro said:

We pull into Saint John, New Brunswick on a warm and sunny day. We booked a guide, Rod Borden, through Tours By Locals, and we were off on schedule for an exploration of the historic downtown area, which the locals call "uptown" for some reason.

 

Enjoying your reports.

Thought I would explain the “uptown” and yes it’s called uptown.  Did you notice all the hills ??  And the hill from the harbour to the hub of “uptown”.

 

You have to walk uphill so it’s been called uptown for I think forever 😉 

 

 

[Dr.Dobro]

On 9/2/2022 at 7:58 AM, SueMo said:

  The comedian wasn't, perchance, Dino Vigo?

Mike Gaffney. It was a master class in bodily-function humor.

 

[arzz]

Hello Dr. Dobro and thank you for posting.  We truly enjoy vicarious cruising … next best thing to actual cruising. Are you playing trivia this trip?

[nimiq]

Following this and your doing a great job and love the pics. Will be sailing out of Quebec September 24th for 8 day cruise back to Boston. 
 

Thanks for doing this.

 

Sea Ya 

Eric 

[Dr.Dobro]

Next stop on our maritime tour is Halifax, capital of Nova Scotia. We've been here at least twice -- I recall a car trip and a cruise returning from Europe -- and it's a city with lots to see. But this time, with an evening sailing, we decided to rent a car and light out for the territories.

 

Lunenburg, down the coast to the southwest, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, described by UNESCO as "the best surviving example of a planned British colonial settlement in North America," established in 1753. The original settlement encompasses a tight hillside street grid, maybe 10x10. Many homes and buildings brightly colored, presumably through a rod-wielding zoning board of some kind.

 

 

 

St. John Anglican Church (1763) is the second oldest existing Protestant church in Canada.

 

 

 

Great tidbit, courtesy Wikipedia: "When King's Chapel in Boston was expanded, its new stone structure was built around its original wooden church, which continued to be used. Then, when that new stone building was completed in 1754, King's Chapel's old wooden frame was disassembled from inside, removed through the new building's windows, and shipped to Lunenburg."

 

 

On the hilltop overlooking the whole shebang is the lovely Lunenburg Academy, built in 1895. I'm thinking of others back home built around the same time, and I see echoes -- thinking Woodstock Academy (1901), and the old Putnam Town Hall (189?), originally the high school.

 

Did a little shopping, sipped a bit of fancy coffee and walked quite a lot. We had time to detour on the way back to Halifax to visit -- Tourist Must-Do! -- Peggy's Cove and the most photographed lighthouse in Canada.

 

It is 5:30 in the afternoon and electronic signs tell us  that 5 spaces are available in the lighthouse parking lot. We see only one and grab it.

 

The lighthouse sits grandly upon huge masses of granite. There's a viewing platform that gives you the postcard view (morning probably has the best light for a photo). 

 

 

And/or you can walk out and touch the fabled beacon on a reasonably maintained walkway. But do not venture off that walk if you're even a little uneasy on your feet. My clambering days are through, and I suspect that's true of most HAL shipmates. But not for some younger'uns way out on the rocks and undeterred by some very direct and pointed signs. For Canadians, anyway.

 

 

Vibe not weird enough? In 1998 a SwissAir flight crashed into St. Margaret's Cove five miles from here, claiming all 229 aboard. There's a dignified memorial just off the road to the lighthouse.

 

Having done our touristic duty, we drop the car back in Halifax. (Used Enterprise, super-easy location in Via Rail terminal at the port.) Nice day out in great weather.

 

TTYL

 

[Rahges]

Love Peggy’s Cove!  Nice you got out of Halifax in a vehicle.

[JustRambling]

Hey there Dr. Dobro,

Very much enjoying your trip report.  Can't wait to read more!  Thanks for posting.

Your former co-worker,

Diana 👋

[brnowl]

On 8/31/2022 at 4:15 PM, cwd79 said:

Looking forward to reading this we will be on the Quebec to Boston 10 day portion of this cruise. 

We are too, and following here.

 

[Dr.Dobro]

Today's stop is Corner Brook, on the west coast of Newfoundland, the second-largest urban area in the province with a whopping 19,300 people.

 

We've been here before -- twice on cruise stops, twice on car trips -- so we know there isn't much to keep you in Corner Brook, a quintessential lumber-mill town. But just to the north lies Gros Morne National Park, another of those UNESCO sites and a durned pretty one too.

 

Only problem is, this is Newfoundland, where rain is always lurking in the wings. Today it is at center stage. As we hit the Viking Trail north in our rented car, it is falling in great sheets. Just to add a little adenaline spice to the morning, a moose ambles out in front of us. I was too slow on the camera, unfortunately. Cayenne worked the brake pedal just fine.

 

By the time we got into the park, the rain had slackened enough to provide some nice views of Gros Morne, which means "solitary mountain." At 2,644 feet, it is the highest summit of the Long Range chain, the northernmost last gasp of the Appalachians.

 

 

The park also features Bonne Bay, a large ocean inlet that provides more pretty views.

 

 

We ducked out of the rain to visit the Bonne Bay Maritime Research Station and its modest aquarium, hosted by college students studying environmental science. The kids are earnestness personified.

 

I asked for the senior rate because "we're a couple of old farts," and the girl at the register cracked up. "You're WHAT?" Said the term is unknown to Newfoundlanders, so maybe we have spawned a linguistic transplantation.

 

 

Pre-cooked lobster? Nope, just a Club Orange-worthy mutation.

 

 

Creepy and camouflage-y, two sculpins hug the bottom. "Oh look," says one of the students, "he's extending his mandibular shelf for you!" Well, thanks, I guess.

 

 

Today's quiz: What critter left behind this skeleton? Answer below.

 

 

I don't know what the hell this is, but it belongs in science fiction. Is this one of those things that latches onto a fish and sucks out its innards? Any marine biologists, please weigh in.

 

 

Bonne Bay is a great setting for the park's boat tours, but maybe not on such a wet day. I think a HAL shore excursion took one, though.

 

 

Another great rainy-day spot in Gros Morne is the Lobster Point lighthouse, still functioning as a light but also as a little museum. We had a nice talk with the Newfies working for the park service about life on "The Rock."

 

 

The lighthouse b'ys also point us to Java Jack's in nearby Rocky Harbour, where we can get cod tongues. "Make sure he fries 'em crispy."

 

 

I don't usually do food porn, but given the novelty of this uniquely Newfie dish, here's a photo of our takeout. Flavor is quite good; sorta scallops, sorta whitefish, plus un peu de je ne sais quoi.

 

 

Visiting on a cruise ship, you can't see the crown jewel of Gros Morne. That's Western Brook Pond, a pristine fjord/lake at the base of the big mountain. It's a two-mile hike each way from the highway parking lot to the pond, where the park operates two tour boats. But constraints on both port time and the knee-hip complex will keep most HALies from making that trek.

 

As we head back down the coast to Corner Brook, the sun comes out. Of course. Well played, Newfoundland, ye bastard.

 

(Quiz answer: Baby seal. No, it had not been clubbed -- kind of a sensitive subject up here.)

 

More coming atcha later from Dr. Stoney Dobro and the lovely Cayenne.

 

[Dr.Dobro]

On 9/4/2022 at 11:07 AM, arzz said:

 Are you playing trivia this trip?

Roxy! We remember you fondly from our cruise together, but they all blur together, dunno which one it was -- South America maybe? Anyway, trivia hasn't been a priorty, not sure why -- people change, I guess.

[Dr.Dobro]

16 hours ago, JustRambling said:

Hey there Dr. Dobro,

Very much enjoying your trip report.  Can't wait to read more!  Thanks for posting.

Your former co-worker,

Diana 👋

Glad you're on here. Our former colleague, the chorus teacher, is also here (Rahges). Send me an e-mail and fill me on what school you're at, etc.

[sansterre]

• Thank you for putting a description, or at least a space between your wonderful and interesting photos.  Most posters run them all together which distracts from each and every photo IMO.

[Dr.Dobro]

A little news:
Current leg (Bos to Que) carrying 1,814 guests.
Leg back to Boston starting tomorrow will have over 2,400. NS capacity is 2,666.
Spoke to maitre d' of a specialty restaurant -- said they are getting heavily booked with pre-board online reservations. Might be a good idea not to wait until boarding to book yours.

 

[arzz]

Not sure which cruise either … remembering that you were in a forward facing cabin on a higher deck brings up memories of the Amsterdam, possibly a Christmas cruise just prior to her sailing a world cruise? (I think they were painting the world cruise logo on the bow)

 

Only times we were in South America (other than a Panama Canal transit which is really Central America) were in 2007 on the Prinsendam Antarctica and 2019 on a Seabourn Antarctica. 
 

Yes they do all blur together but in a wonderful magical way. We too have pretty much given up trivia … and due to Covid we are still unwilling to travel - especially unwilling to fly. We so envy and celebrate your willingness to do so. 
 

Keep up the trip blog.