October 19, 2014

We are sailing for Halifax, Nova Scotia, arriving there in the morning at 7 a.m. their time (6 a.m. yours).  We will be in port for 8 hours, and Bonnie and I will be ashore for 6.5 hours of the time.  We have booked the “Best of Halifax & Peggy’s Cove” tour.  We will board a motor coach and be told entertaining, but little known facts about the city as we drive to picturesque Peggy’s Cove.  There we will either walk along the cove, or tour the rugged coast line at our leisure.  Then it’s back to the city for a lunch at Murphy’s Restaurant (I hope nothing goes wrong) on the Halifax waterfront, followed by a trip to the Maritime Museum (where more than 100 Titanic victims are buried), then the Citadel Fortress (where no Titanic victims are buried) and back to the Explorer of the Seas (no Titanic victims here either).  Photos tomorrow.  No word whether we will actually see Peggy.

To catch you up with our final (SADNESS) cruise for this time, we are at a good table for supper with Danielle and Jess (D brought J to celebrate J’s 21st birthday) and with a family of three from Savannah.  The wait staff at Table 346 cannot hold the menus for Anthony and Svetomir (from our last cruise) but at least they brought out our food in a correct, and timely manner.

We did lunch in the dining room today.  I am really tired of the Windjammer.  It’s okay for breakfast when I don’t have a lot of time – like this morning, getting ready for an 8:45 a.m. worship service – but the food never changes.  It’s good, but it’s the same from day to day.  We were the first to a table for 8 and were joined by Dave, Allen, Irene, Trisha, Sam, and Mama (Mama speaks no English, or at least did not join in the conversation).  The kids are all friends from New York, on their second cruise together.  They packed Friday night before boarding the ship on Saturday.  My kind of packing, but when you are 30 minutes from the port, you can do that easier than packing to leave from 233 Woodland Drive.

To compensate guests because of the diversion from Bermuda, and the damage sustained there from Hurricane Gonzalo, Royal Caribbean has credited each stateroom’s on board account with $250.  Because that channel has been constantly busy and because the line at Guest Services has been back across the bridge and past the elevators, we don’t know yet if we got it, too.  Chances are not, but since we don’t know yet, our fingers are still crossed.  Slim has not yet left town.

Well, my first talk is in one hour and 15 minutes in the Schooner Bar (I hope the patrons don’t become unruly when the football game is switched off).  I will rehearse once more, and then we will put on our formal clothes for this evening’s champagne reception with Captain James (free champagne is not worth drinking), supper and a production show (if we are still awake at 10:45). 

Below are pictures from Peggy's Cove:  Bonnie bundled up.  And Peggy's Cove, plus the Lighthouse.

TTFN!