#escapetothegreatwhitenorth

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From the Pop Culture Bunker 299

Escape to the Great White North—a two part travelogue (featuring a room and ship tour).

FTPCB 299

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Escape to the Great White North - Day 8

Reporting on route to home, I-78 New Jersey

Well, the storm raged on last night. We attempted to go to sleep early, but all the clanging of the balcony furniture made it very difficult. Here's a pic of said furniture this morning.

Fortunately, Mindy remembered that our travel jackets came with little ear plugs. We popped those in, and all was right with the world.

This resulted in us getting up very early--we were packed and down at the buffet by 6:30 or so. According to the disembarkation schedule, the group that was taking their own luggage off the boat (including us) would be able to do so starting around 8:15. So we decided to kill some time by walking around the decks-- not so fast! They had already blockaded the stairs on the floors that are used to disembark, which is basically where you'd want to walk. We also saw that the line was already getting pretty long--keep in mind this is still an hour and a half before we're supposed to be able to leave.

So we made our way back to the room, double checked everything, and headed out. It's a little complicated handling multiple rolling bags down narrow corridors, but we made it. We had planned to simply walk those bags down one flight of stairs, but again they were already blocked off. Over to the elevator, where we ended up having to go up to 16 (where everybody was heading for the buffet) and then back down to 7.

So we worked our way over to the back of the line where there were probably 100 or more people already there, with their many bags.  At that point, we started to check our phones, since we now had access again. But less than 10 minutes later, the line was moving and within 10 minutes we were off the boat. This was still 45 minutes or so earlier than we thought. The customs process was perfunctory at best--just a facial recognition screen and off you go.  We managed to find our way to the elevators to get to the parking deck--perhaps the cruise industry could invest in this newfangled technology called signage.

By 8:00, New York City was in our rear view mirror, and we were on our way. The trip across NJ and PA was uneventful, except for a family issue that forced us to be less leisurely.

And that's about it. We REALLY enjoyed the cruise. The service was exemplary, the food delicious, the ports of call very interesting--and we got some time without the internet.  I even read a book (on my phone, but baby steps).  There's things I want to change about my everyday life going forward, and we WILL cruise again—even considering the bout of COVID we experienced afterward (we’re much better now, thank you).

#escapetothegreatwhitenorth

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Escape to the Great White North - Day 7

Reporting from LAT 42.10, LON 67.35--The North Atlantic

We woke up pretty early--somehow skipping the "nightcap" paradoxically resulted in better sleep?  Back to the buffet...

Wandering back to the room for a shower, we stopped to get Mindy her "flattened penny". These are the old timey machines where normally you put in two quarters and a penny, and then turn a crank which embosses and design on a now oblong penny. You generally see them in touristy areas today. In this case, you tapped your room ID on it and then cranked. While it accepted her card, no amount of furious cranking generated a penny. So we had to get a technician to come over, who just handed her a penny in the design she wanted.

After a shower, we thought we'd sit out on the balcony but it was very windy out there. Not at all restful. So we went out on the waterfront where things were quite a bit calmer and found some chairs.

After a while, we heard an announcement from the captain that we're rolling into a storm and a gale warning this afternoon. So I doubt we'll be outside after lunch. We're actually okay with that--we've had wonderful weather almost the entire trip (warmer than anticipated), and if you're going to have bad weather, you want it the day you're at sea.

Lunch at Savor/Taste. We had salads--I had taquitos, while Mindy had her favorite, the Monte Cristo sammich. We also had some drinks—I got an Old Fashioned, while Mindy had a glass of wine. The drink package was included, and darn it, we were going to use it!

On the way back to our room, we saw packets of sickness bags by the stairs--they clearly think something is coming.

The ship is swaying a bit, but it's nothing like our first cruise, where you could see the horizon going up and down out the window. It's more like being rocked to sleep. The bigger issue is the wind--the dividers on our balcony are shaking like a leaf, and there's a hissing coming from the balcony door, due to pressure differences.

We spent some time packing--as always, we brought way too much stuff. You can choose to leave most of your bags in the hallway the night before disembarking, and they'll whisk them away to a collection area at the dock, but we think it would be far faster if we just roll them out ourselves (famous last words).

Things were still rocking and rolling, so we holed up in our room for awhile, watching random stuff on TV--an episode of Scrubs, Firefly, and a Frank Capra documentary.

Time for dinner, back to Savor/Taste.  Mindy had cheese soup and stuffed pepper, while I had scallops and shrimp fettuccine alfredo--plus dessert.

Onto a stage show--"The Choir of Men"--or at least we thought we were going to see that show. Bad weather and the shaking of the ship canceled it, so they replaced it with I guy who does a comedy juggling act (although I'm not actually sure I'd want to be a juggler when the ship is swaying back and forth). We had actually thought about seeing the juggler earlier in the week but were too tired that night. So it's good news/bad news. The juggler was good, if a little blue for an early show (not that we minded).

We finished off the evening with our first mojito.

That'll do it for the final full day of the cruise. Tomorrow--disembarkation and a long drive.

#escapetothegreatwhitenorth

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Escape to the Great White North - Day 6

Got up early so I could take some unimpeded video of the ship (which will be posted as an episode of “From the Pop Culture Bunker”).

Then we got dressed and went down for a smaller breakfast at the buffet, taking some pastries back with us and sat on the balcony. The ship doesn't dock at Halifax until mid morning. It is remarkably warm here--thanks climate change!  Early predictions had it in the high 40s at Halifax, and now it's saying more like 60.

It's absolutely gorgeous this morning--just some wispy clouds.

Around 10:30 or so, the cruisers were allowed to disembark, most of them scurrying to tours, but we just decided to walk around and have lunch.

While Halifax is definitely an industrial town, the boardwalk area is just fantastic.  It stretches for a mile or two, going past shops, restaurants, museums, and other businesses. 

Since Nova Scotia translates to "New Scotland", there's a number of businesses that sell tartans and kilts.  In the middle was an area called the Salt Yard, where there were various shacks and buildings selling food. We read about it on the Facebook group page.  We always endeavor to get food that we can't get at home, so we had the following:

Poutine, Canada's national food (apart from Tim Hortons donuts I guess).  French fries, cheese curds, gravy, and maybe meat if you'd like. Basically a lot of carbs and quite delicious.

A "Beaver Tail", similar in concept to an elephant ear except it has whole wheat pastry, with various stuff added to it. We had the Avalanche, which involved a cream and bits of Skor candy on it.  Messy but very good.

Finally, from a host of ice cream places we could have picked from, The Fog Company. They start with an ice cream cone, then dump all sorts of stuff on it both savory and sweet-- then add cotton candy in a ring at the top of the cone itself. The various add-ons end up getting snagged in that cotton candy ring. You almost need a shower after eating this, but wow!

During our time in Halifax, we kept seeing this bizarre cargo ship that we were convinced was run by Google. It turned out to be a n unrelated company that ship huge industrial equipment.

After walking up and down the boardwalk, and checking out some of the stores, we made it back to the ship before our sugar crash kicked in.  Time for a nap before dinner!

This was our second of two specialty restaurants which were included in our cruise package. We went to La Cucina, a fancy Italian spot. We stuck to our rule of eating stuff we normally wouldn't--I had calamari with a red snapper entree, which included clams and mussels. Mindy had antipasto and ravioli with beef tenderloin. It was all wonderful.

A walk around the deck later, ,we got the "sustainable cocktail of the day--a Bananaruma, which sounds promising but (at least to me) fell into the "cough syrup" category.

We sailed out into the foggy night. We're told the wind is really going to pick up and it appears to be doing so already. 

Tomorrow--a rough day at sea on our way back to the states...

#escapetothegreatwhitenorth

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Escape to the Great White North - Day 5

We got up promptly after an early night. This was tempered by the fact that we are now in the Atlantic time zone, so we lost an hour.  Off to the buffet for breakfast.  It's an enormous loop that takes you around about 2/3 of a deck. Tried a couple British items in addition to more traditional things-- a "banger" and baked beans.

We then checked in at the thermal spa. Mindy was intrigued after my session there, and so we decided to get another day together. They informed us that, because of people coming back onto the ship from St. John's (more about that in a minute), we should plan to go early and/or late.  That was our plan anyway!

We gathered our stuff and returned to the spa. Mindy did very much enjoy the place as I had. Now I'm trying to figure out how to shoehorn a sauna into the Pop Culture Bunker...

We had planned to go to one of the main dining rooms for lunch, but they were closed. So it was back to the buffet. I concentrated again on an anglophile meal-- Shepherd's pie, beef and ale, and a trifle (sans beef, sorry Joey).

We had already decided we were not going to get off the ship at St. John's. We had already come here five years ago as part of our trip to Prince Edward Island, and it didn't seem like there was a lot to do. The main attraction is the Bay of Fundy, which has the largest differential between high and low tides in the world. However, it's not exciting to watch in real time, kind of like watching paint dry. Just check it out now and in several hours.  The rest of St. John's seems very industrial.

So we sat out on the deck and did some reading. Mindy went over to pick up the day's sustainable cocktail, which turned out to include coffee grounds-- yuck!

Dinner was at Savor/Taste. I had the Chinese Pork, while Mindy had the Beef Ragu.

Then back for a late session at the thermal spa.

We stopped for a nightcap--another grasshopper for me, and a white Russian for Mindy.

Off to bed! Tomorrow is our final stop--Halifax!

#escapetothegreatwhitenorth

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Escape to the Great White North - Day 4

Mindy got up early and ventured out for coffee. She came back with croissants (small), and we sat out on the balcony before suiting up for the day.  Off to the buffet for something more substantial.

Then we headed down to the tender for the trip to Bar Harbor.  We came down earlier than last time, so we cooled our heels in the theater for a few minutes along with the others. We then were crammed into the clown car of boats.  It was foggy, but quickly burned off.

I came here as a kid, but only remember a) flimsy toy lobster traps and b) going out to the "beach" aka sharp rocks.  We wandered about the shops, then had lunch at the Side Street Diner--a haddock sammich and clam chowder.

More wandering, more purchasing--and then the official walking tour. There was a huge throng of people going on various tours, with guides running around holding up signs. You think they'd have this a little better organized. The guy took our paper ticket, then had to go find a manager to turn them in before we could go. If only everyone had a ship ID with a barcode on it, that could be easily read by a phone app...

Otherwise the guide was excellent, and had a wealth of information. In 1908, Mrs. Rockefeller, who was pregnant at the time, learned her doctor was summering in Maine. She and her family followed him there so he could deliver the child, who was Nelson Rockefeller. She cajoled the rest of the 400 to join her there.

After another line, back to the ship.  We ate at a pub for dinner (fish and chips, burger), while enjoying their "sail and sustain cocktails", which utilize leftover ingredients like fruit rinds, etc.  We also had dessert cocktails—a mudslide and a grasshopper. Essentially boozy milkshakes.

Back to the room for what was supposed to be a quick nap--we planned to go to a comedy show. Instead, we crashed for the night--hey, we're old!

Tomorrow--O, Canada!

#escapetothegreatwhitenorth

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Escape to the Great White North - Day 3

We woke up early, mostly due to crashing early last night.  We went to Taste (as opposed to Savor) for breakfast.  I splurged on sunny side up eggs (normally go for scrambled) and a cinnamon roll, while Mindy got a fancy breakfast sammich.  We heard a nearby lady ordering a VERY specific meal involving the use of toast solely to soak up water from poached eggs--with “eating” toast on the side.  Oh, and "real" Half-and-Half.

At this point, we split off for a couple hours, with Mindy hanging out on the balcony and me off to the "Thermal Spa". The spa folks tried to sell us on a week-long pass, but I don't see myself doing it enough times to make that financially responsible. So I just did the day pass.

The thermal spa includes the following:

A large warm pool with various jets--kind of like a big hot tub.  One area, semi-sectioned off from the rest, had jets powerful enough that you had to fight to not be plastered against the wall.

A set of lounge chairs, overlooking the bow of the ship. Some of them were made of stone and were heated, apparently to satisfy your ancient lizard need to sun yourself on a rock.

A traditional sauna (lots of heat, little humidity)

Another version of a sauna with less heat and more humidity

A traditional steam room, which I could only stay in for 2 minutes

A snow room-- basically a very cold room with a snow making machine attached. Moving directly from the sauna to the snow room was quite invigorating.  I couldn't stop myself from singing "Holly jolly Christmas" under my breath.

A salt bath--a room with heated salt that does some sort of health related thing. It's one of those "if you believe it works, it works" deal. On the ceiling was a set of jutting red crystals, assumedly made of salt.

After that, back to the room to get ready to check out Portland, ME. We didn't pay for any excursions here, instead we just walked about. Found a nice place off the beaten path of cruisers where I got my traditional Lobstah Roll.

Mindy found an online self-walking tour of the area. We found out that one of the founders of United Artists was born there. In the early days of cinema, you could go from being the local movie distributor to running a studio.  We also ran into a guy who gave us some colorful information about the area--he's not a fan of change.

Back to the relative safety of the ship, and another spa session.  Then it's time for dinner.  We went to the third "complimentary" restaurant, the Manhattan Room.  Mindy had the steak with peppercorn sauce, while I tried the Boom-Boom Chicken.  Both were very good.  It's fascinating to watch the army of wait staff move about like a Swiss watch.

A quick walk around the deck to wake us up, followed by watching the crew release the lines as we rode off.  We hoped to see a cruiser running toward the gangplank as it was pulled in, but no luck.

A bit later, we ventured out to a bar where the FB group had invited people celebrating events (we just passed our 30th anniversary).  Five minutes into the get together, a singer kicked off his act 5 feet away. Not conducive for conversation.

That's enough for one day--tomorrow, Bah Hahbah.

#escapetothegrwatwhitenorth

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Escape to the Great White North - Day 2

Port of Call - Newport, RI

We were awakened around 6:30 a.m. with what we thought was the anchor being dropped, but later realized it was the "tenders" being lowered. This means the ship doesn't dock-- you get on a much smaller boat and ride in. 

We ordered room service for 8:00 a.m., as we were hoping to get into Newport as early as possible. We almost gave up on room service around 8:30 and were getting ready to find food, which is of course when they showed up. We ate it on the balcony--a little scanty but good.

The tender process went smoothly--they really pack you in them.  It's the nautical equivalent of a clown car.

A meandering ride later, we landed in Newport, RI.  It's basically split into historic (pretty and vibrant) and touristy (loud and crowded).

The former included a well maintained historic museum--they manage a number of local buildings.

Off to the bus for a tour of historic mansions--The Breakers and Marble House, both built during the "Gilded Age" by the Vanderbilts.  Obscene excess?  You got it.

We had a very entertaining guide on the bus named "Huw"-- a proper British gentleman. His only problem was that he didn't enforce the "we're leaving without you if you are late" bit. So we had to wait quite a while in line to get back on the tender.  They did hand out hot towels and hot chocolate though. An enterprising guy rolled up with a lobstah roll truck.

We managed to make it to the ship before it headed out. A quick shower later, we went to one of the "specialty" (aka not complimentary) restaurants. Our cruise package included two of them, one of which was Moderna--a Brazilian steakhouse.  You start with a high-end salad bar (caperberries, lobster bisque, etc).  Then it's time for meat, in multiple varieties, brought on long sticks to your table, until you tell them to stop.  One of the options: roasted pineapple, something I would normally avoid.  I had two helpings.

Other options: filet mignon, flank steak, top sirloin, parmesan crusted chicken drumettes, lamb top sirloin, pork loin, Brazilian pork sausage, pork belly, and one we did not try, bacon-wrapped chicken breast.

And then dessert, which is putting a hat on a hat.

We also had the signature cocktail, which was the caipirinha, plus a glass of wine.  It was two more drinks than I would normally have.

We had planned to do more activities that night, but between the drinks and the meat coma, we were bushed. Not even a walk on the outside deck could stop the yawning.  Off to our room to crash!

Tomorrow--Portland (the Maine version).

#escapetothegrwatwhitenorth

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Escape to the Great White North - Day 0

Reporting from Allentown, PA

Back in the 'aughts, we were "cruise people". Two tours of the Caribbean in 2000 and 2003, with another run to Alaska in 2006.  Then we dropped off for some reason. Maybe the fact that cruise ships seemed to become petri dishes for awhile, or life got in the way. (Postscript—I did get the ol’ COVID after we returned from this cruise).

In any case, we're back at it to celebrate our 30th anniversary, setting off on the Norwegian Escape from NYC to New England and Canada--hence the hashtag below. We pushed the trip back a few weeks to hopefully coincide with peak foliage time.

(BTW--this is being dropped "post facto", as wifi on a ship hearkens back to the CompuServe days--you pay for a set number of minutes, and even that is limited.  Figure out what you want beforehand, log in, get what you need, and log off.)

But first, we had to get to The Big Apple. We're still avoiding planes if possible (the "joy of flying" is mostly an oxymoron), so it was a day of driving, with the majority of it on the PA turnpike.  It was a drizzly day which turned foggy, especially in a valley where they have special signs about it.  Just a lot of driving up and down hills and valleys.

We made it to the hotel, then found the Starlight Diner--more of a regular restaurant with a salad bar and full menu.  Had to try the open face turkey sammich, while Mindy had the gyro.  Since we're going to NY, we split cheesecake for dessert.

Back to the hotel to crash--big day tomorrow.

#escapetothegreatwhitenorth

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From the Pop Culture Bunker 298

Escape to the Great White North—a two part travelogue (wrapping up next time).

FTPCB 298