Day Three - Saint John - 07/01/2009

Up relatively early and headed to the Lido for coffee. Weather was overcast, a little foggy and cooler, but it was supposed to warm up to about 70 with a little humidity. We were scheduled to dock at Saint John at 8:00 and we were already in the Bay of Fundy. We hit the Lido buffet for breakfast (eggs, sausage, little hash brown patties, grits (I was a grit virgin up until this point) and the bacon police were out). Took the tray up to the second level to eat where it isn't as crowded and you can always get a window seat.

Saint John sign - like Hollywood with fog!

Saint John houses

Friendly hint: the Capers listed the buffet as being open at 7:30 for breakfast, but at 7:00 for coffee and danish. It was fully open at 7:00 which kinda made sense considering that we were scheduled to start disembarking at 8:00.

Definition: "Bacon Police" refers to the Carnival employee who is stationed at a chafing dish full of bacon, handing it out to cruisers to prevent someone from taking a whole plate-ful and not leaving any for others. All other breakfast meats are self-serve. It's not as bad as it seemed. The Bacon Police on this cruise just kept piling it on our plates until we told them to stop. The first morning, Jeff had about 7 or 8 pieces of bacon before he realized this.


We went back up to the balcony to watch the ship dock in Saint John and saw the official Saint John Greeters in their little Canada Day hats waiting for us. The ships lines were thrown and tied and an announcement was made that we could disembark pretty much right on time.

official Saint John ship greeters in their Canada Day hats

No problems getting off the ship at that early hour. Went down to the Lobby deck and walked right off. No ID needed getting off the ship except your Sign and Sail card, despite being told that we would need photo ID at the other end of the gangway. The ship's photographer was there with a little life preserver on a stick reading "Saint John, New Brunswick" to hold in front of you. We let him take our photo (another bad one that we didn't buy later) and moved on.

The terminal in Saint John is brand new ... maybe a month old at this point. Nothing much to write about inside, just another ship terminal. There were a man and woman handing out flowers to the women getting off the ship and little Saint John lapel pins to the men. There was a young Canuck at the door to the street manning an info booth, handing out maps and pointing people to the Canda Day festivities about 3 blocks away.


Just outside the terminal there was a very large tent set up with booths inside filled with craft and souvenier vendors, all happy to take American dollars on a one-to-one basis (which worked out slightly in their favor!) We cruised through quickly and headed out to the street. The Canada Day stuff was straight ahead a few blocks and we walked that way. We were looking forward to the big flea market and craft fair and know that you have to be there early to get the good stuff. We did encounter our first sign of moose (meese?) just a block from the ship.



Heading the few blocks up Water Street parallel to the river was nice and flat, but once we got to King Street where the festivities were it was uphill. Tables were set up on both sides of the street. Mostly the same old flea market type stuff: people cleaning out the attics, etc. But we did find an artist selling her work who had a little trio of street scenes that we purchased for $12. (We recently started collecting small colorful paintings of the different places we visit.)

spoiled Canadian dog at flea market

Walked all the way up the hill (3 blocks), down some of the side streets and back to King Street. Ended up at the top of the street in King Square, a formal park where there was an art exhibit going on. Nice work, but nothing really our tastes. Walked around the perimiter of the park and looked at the various monuments, including this one to the firefighters who died in the great fire of 1877.

Across the street is the grand wrought iron gates of the Loyalist Burial Ground. Saint John was home to a large number of British loyalists who left the US after the Revolutionary War. The cemetary dates back to the 1780's. Burials stopped in the 1840's and it fell into disrepair until a local philanthopist restored in in the 1990s. It is truly a gorgeous, quiet shaded place to walk in the middle of the city. Right in the middle is the Beaver Fountain, a tribute to the hard working, enterprising and tenacious founders of Saint John.





Today was Canada Day (think Canadian version of July 4) and there was going to be a parade. Well, sort of a parade. OK, let's just call it "we're going to have our six police officers walk down the street carrying flags and invite all the citizens to join us. Luckily there's a cruise ship in town to provide an audience." Actually, there were what I imagine were the town officials, followed by a bagpipe player, an Asian group playing Asian musical instruments and (drumroll please) the Maritime Greyhound Adoption Program of Canada! All the greyhounds were dressed up in their finest maple leaf costumes and were very happy for the American attention they got from us.







We headed into Market Square and walked around the Inside Connection (an indoor walkway connecting several different buildings, malls, etc - similar to the Pru Center in Boston). We were going to head to the New Brunswick Museum, but got sidetracked by a coffee slurpee at Tim Horton's. Made the appropriate "oooohh" and "aaahhh" noises at the giant Canada Day Cake before heading back outside for a couple photos and to watch some of the beach volleyball competition.




It was probably 1:30 or so at this point and we had been out for about 5 hours and decided to head back to the ship for lunch. Stopped at the craft / souvenier tent in the terminal parking lot to pick up a Christmas ornament (a Canadian moose wearing fisherman's yellow overalls holding a lobster) and a pair of earrings for Mom then flashed the passports and got back on board.

Dropped the stuff in the room (balcony had been nicely cleaned) and headed to the Coney Island Grill for lunch (burger, hot dog, fries - typical stuff. The restaurant across from the pier had a Lobster mascot out front with a Canadian flag enticing people (or scaring them) into eating there. Must have worked because the restaurant and outdoor patio were full!



Jeff decided that we needed to eat dinner earlier this evening so that I wouldn't fall asleep during the show that night and I wasn't going to complain, so we took a nap, wandered around for a bit, and went back to the balcony to watch the sail away. We were scheduled to leave at 4:00 pm and everyone was supposed to be back onboard at 3:30. A bagpipe player in full kilt-garb showed up at 3;45 or so and stood just outside the cruise terminal playing a sendoff. It was actually kinda moving.

As he was playing a light rain started, then it got a bit heavier. Showers really, but enough that he had to move under the tented entrance to the terminal and you couldn't really see him. Around 4:15 when we still hadn't sailed, he stopped playing and just stood there. Turns out one of the scheduled excursions hadn't made it back yet and we had to wait for them. Their bus showed up around 4:45 and we sailed around 5:00 pm.

Pilot Boat to escort us out of Saint John

Dinner that evening was at the buffet. We discovered that the buffet menu was pretty much the same as the main dining room menu.

DINNER:

Seafood Newberg (very good - shrimp, mussels, scallops, nice sauce)
Rice Pilaf or Cous Cous
Herbed Roasted Potatoes
Farfalle with Turkey in Cream Sauce (with peas!)


Don't remember what we had for dessert. I wasn't really impressed with the buffet desserts. They all struck me as kind of tasteless.


We went to the Magic Show that evening in the Rome Lounge. Had read some reviews of it being corny, but we found it to be very entertaining. Along the lines of comedians Penn & Teller with the Caruso who is the illusionist who never speaks and Kevin being the comedian / magician who interacts with the audience. Dancing girls were in the show as well. Lasted about an hour. They said that a new adults only burlesque type show would be premiering that evening at midnight in Club Rio, but we knew we wouldn't make it to that.


We walked around on deck for a bit (foghorn was sounding at this point if I recall correctly), had a drink and heade to bed around 11.

Towel Animal #3 - Bunny