Anthem of the Seas: New England and Canada

Reversing Falls Bridge After a sea day filled with eating and napping and eating and watching baseball from the comfort of our stateroom, we arrived in St John, New Brunswick.  St John is home to the Bay of Fundy and Reversing Falls.  Did I book an excursion to see this event?  No, mostly because I had no idea if the tide would be in our favor.  Instead, we found the nice lady at the Tourist Information kiosk, grabbed a map, and made our way to the Reversing Rapids and Falls.  To get there we followed the Harbor Passage, a waterfront path that ducks under the St John Throughway.  It's a little over 2 miles to the rapids, but the day was cool and sunny and perfect for exploration.   Market Square Turning left from the wharf, we first passed Market Square, a small shopping mall which included shops, a museum, restaurants and Tim Horton's.  I'll see you later, Tim! St John Throughway  Point St John Harbor Bridge and the Anthem of the Seas Rev

Source: novascotia.com It's my habit to get up early, go out to the balcony and snap a couple of photos of our arrive to whatever port is next on the itinerary.  This particular morning I did no such thing and have to resort to plucking a photo for the internet. What you see above is Citadel Hill, which we visited on our stay in Halifax. As before, we walked off the ship and went directly to the Tourist Information Kiosk at the pier.  The nice lady unfolded a map and pointed out items of interest on our walk. Halifax is home to the Fairview Lawn Cemetery where Titanic passengers are buried.  With my interest in all things graveyard, you'd have thought I'd have made sure to get us there.  Unfortunately, it's a daunting walk from the pier and I had no cell service to look up another form of transportation (Canadian Uber?), so it was off our list of things-to-do. Instead, we simply followed the map toward the Public Gardens and on to the Citadel, which was a perf

Wonderland   After our day in Portland, we enjoyed (?) dinner at Wonderland, an up charge restaurant on the ship specializing in unusual menu items.  It was seafood heavy and, frankly, not my cup of tea.  The service was fantastic and atmosphere delightful.  I'll never go again. Appetizer focusing on root vegetables. Our server made a big deal of lifting the cloche to reveal......two deviled eggs. This turned out to be tuna tartar.  If anything is going to get me drinking again, this is it. This is chicken and wasn't bad.  It was actually the only thing on the menu I liked. Thanks to the inability to upload any videos, even 10 second ones, I can't show you dessert, which comes with it's own demonstration and is quite fun. Suffice it to say it's very chocolate-y. If you've noticed a lack of evening entertainment in this report, that's because the L.A. Dodgers made it to the play-offs and were battling the Chicago Cubs each

While researching this cruise I tried to come up with ways of exploring each port without spending a whole lot of money.  Cruise excursions involving busses aren't ideal in that passengers are herded on and off a bus with minimal time (and sometimes no time at all) spent at each location. Private tours might be a better choice, but they're also pricier. As Portland didn't seem to offer a whole lot locally, we decided it best to debark, find the local Tourist Information kiosk in the cruise terminal, and get a map. Anthem of the Seas is HUGE! Parked at Ocean Gateway Terminal, Portland, ME. Yes, it was chilly out, but we were both dressed for it. We first walked west along Commercial Street.  I'd heard of Holy Donut, a local donut shop famous for selling out by 10 a.m. each morning.  I wasn't sure where exactly the shop was located, so I activated Google Maps on my phone and asked Google where to go.  She brought us through the Old Port section of

The next morning found us pulling into Bar Harbor, Maine.  This was a tender port and I'd read that tendering off a huge ship like the Anthem could take hours.  Prior to taking the cruise, we'd decided to explore each port on our own, meaning no excursions booked and no priority tendering status.  I'd missed the line-up the day before for obtaining a tender ticket, so Grant and I found ourselves in one of the lounges with the rest of the unwashed masses looking for a tender ticket with the lowest number.  We were assigned tender ticket number twenty-two.  Surprisingly, the wait didn't extend into the afternoon and we were motoring our way shoreward by a little after 9:00 a.m. Let me back up for a sec and mention just how beautiful this area is and how much Grant and I would like to visit it again. I like to get up early as we pull into port and see the town in the early morning light.  This day did not disappoint. The tenders were provided by local wate