MARITIMES CRUISE 2025
NEW BRUNSWICK
Day 3- Saint John, New Brunswick
Today's stop was the 1st of our Canadian stops... Saint John, New Brunswick, famous for the Bay of Fundy. It would be the one Princess excursion that we all chose to do, St. Martins discovery & The Bay of Fundy.
The morning views from the ship didn't look all that great, but we all got on a bus tour after breakfast that took us to the old City Market first. Built between 1874 and 1876, the Saint John City Market narrowly escaped the great Saint John fire that swept through the City in 1877. The Market building contains several shops on the ground level featuring all locally owned businesses.
Next up on the tour was the reversing rapids, a unique phenomenon created by the collision of the Bay of Fundy and the Saint John River. At low tide the river empties into the bay causing a series of rapids and whirlpools. As tides rise they slow the river current for a brief period called slack tide. The Bay's tides continue to rise, gradually reversing the flow of the river; rapids form again, peaking at high tide. A 8.5-metre (28-foot) tide cycle is roughly 12.5 hours.The setting is a little less than glamorous with a giant mill in the background.
Back on the bus, we head out through the country side to the other side of New Brunswick.
The Bay of Fundy runs between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, it is known for having the world's highest tides, which can reach up to 50 feet. Our stop would be the cute little town of St Martins, a small fishing town. We were given a lunch of a bowl of Chowder, and fresh buns, before having free time to wander the beach at high tide, so we only could see the caves and not go in the Sea Caves.
Our motley crew L-R: Stuart, Norine, Leslie, Carroll, Brett
It was a 2 minute bus ride back to the town area and a couple historic covered bridges, some shops, an old light house and an Ice Cream Shop.
Full of Ice Cream and Chowder, everybody was nodding off on the hour ride back to the reversing rapids, where we all got to see them flowing the other way. Very exciting!
We were dropped off back at the ship, and Norine and detoured to the Area 506 Waterfront Container Village beside the ship. It was full of little shops and food vendors. A good place to find a unique souvenir like a local snack called Dulse, a bag of seaweed, which is harvested from the Bay of Fundy and has a salty, peculiar taste. It is traditionally picked by hand at low tide, then dried in the sun.
Norine and I grabbed a couple drinks and watched the Blue Jays clinch the playoffs on a giant video screen before heading back to the ship for dinner with Romeo and Juliette.
Tonight’s show was a Lionel Ritchie tribute, the guy was really good.
Of course Norine and I ended the night in the Piazza on the dance floor.
Day 4- AT SEA
A Sea Day is one where the ship doesn't make a stop, you can sleep in, and hang out on your little deck watching the horizon. While Norine was off wandering the ship, I watched Dolphins from the balcony of our room. We hung out at the back of the boat in the sun before the rest of the group went to a high tea. I went back to our balcony and saw more dolphins.
Imagine there is a dozen little dolphins swimming in these blue waters.
Being a Sea Day, it's also considered Formal Night on the ship, and I had booked us all for dinner at the specialty Italian restaurant called Sabatini’s, a five-course Italian restaurant. I tried to warn everybody about the dangers of having high tea before this meal. We all basically rolled out of there when it was over.
Tonight's show was called Encore, basically a group of opera type singers.
Norine and I followed the show up with a comedian Shayma Tash at the other end of the ship. We were so full after dinner that we didn't dance, we just walked laps around the ship until we felt it was safe to lay down.
