We had another pleasant day for our stop in Charlottetown. Unfortunately, we passed under the Confederation Bridge at night so we couldn’t see it. We did take a short walk along the port area. A vendor was giving away oyster samples and he had plenty of willing samplers. Lobster was available at several restaurants near the port.
There was a large market on the pier and they were doing a brisk business with passengers from the four ships in port. The Zuiderdam and the Emerald shared the dock while two smaller ships tendered. All four ships left the port shortly after 4:30. A couple of the ship’s tours ran a bit late so we had passengers coming to the dining room at 5:00 directly from embarkation.
Over the past two days there has been comedy club running with several standup comics. As usual, some get better audience reaction than others. We saw a couple of them and got a few chuckles. One assistant cruise director probably got the biggest laugh by introducing one comedian as coming from misery rather than Missouri. One would think they’d check things like that but apparently not.
We had an interesting experience visiting one of the many hot tubs. Sitting in the water chatting with another chap and the pump shut down. They are on timers so that was not unusual. The pump would not restart. That was unusual. Even more unusual was the water began to drain. We took that as in invitation to vacate, so we left, since the second tub at that location was covered with netting, the normal way of indicating a closure.
The dining room food on this cruise is stunningly mediocre. It is quite apparent that they are trying to reduce food waste with smaller portions and discouraging over ordering. There are now at least five extra cost food services including a steak house, Italian restaurant, pub style eatery, sea food speciality and bar-b-que specialty. Never-the-less we don’t have to prepare it nor do the clean up. One of the best aspects of the food and beverage services is the number and variety of people we meet. We are also at the point in the cruise where we are beginning to meet the same people for a second or third time simply because we have similar eating schedules. The passenger list is dominated by Americans with Canadians a distant second. We come across Brits, Australians and New Zealanders quite frequently.
Next stop will be Sydney, Nova Scotia.
Mark Jenkins
Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self- determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. Theworld the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and- white.