MARITIMES CRUISE 2025
PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
Day 7- Charlottetown, PEI
Today’s Canadian stop was Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island. We had looked at the different tours available from Princess, Expedia and Viator, but they were either sold out, or involved a hodge-podge of stops crammed onto a giant bus with 60 other passengers. I really wanted to go see the Confederation bridge, so we rented a car and explored the island.
We woke up to a very foggy morning, but the fog cleared pretty quickly. Norine and I grabbed a couple breakfast Sandwiches from the awesome International Cafe, beat the rush off the boat, and Uber'ed to the airport to pick up our rental car.
After picking up our fancy Buick Enclave from the airport, we came back to the port to pick up the rest of the gang.
Our first stop was the quaint little town of Victoria-by-the-Sea, a historic fishing village that’s been revitalized by the many artists and creative people who call it home..
The little Dog Library full of sticks is a nice touch
Our next stop was my ultimate destination... The Confederation Bridge joins the eastern Canadian provinces of Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, making travel throughout the Maritimes easy and convenient. The curved, 12.9 kilometre (8 mile) long bridge is the longest in the world crossing ice-covered water, and continues to endure as one of Canada's top engineering achievements. After four years of construction using crews of more than five thousand local workers, the Confederation Bridge opened to traffic on May 31, 1997. We drove across the bridge to New Brunswick (Cape Jourimain) and walked the trail to the lighthouse for better views of the bridge. Luckily for us the toll cost had drastically dropped to $20 just a month before.
We drove back across the bridge to PEI, and I whipped abruptly into a parking lot to take a picture of this church, and get one more view of the Confederation bridge before we drove away.
From the parking lot we headed North to the Anne of Green Gables house for the full Canadian experience. Anne of Green Gables is a 1908 novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. Written for all ages, it has been considered a classic children's novel since the mid-20th century. Set in the late 19th century, the novel recounts the adventures of an 11-year-old orphan girl Anne Shirley sent by mistake to two middle-aged siblings, who had originally intended to adopt a boy to help them on their farm in the fictional town of Avonlea in Prince Edward Island. Since its publication, Anne of Green Gables has been translated into at least 36 languages and has sold more than 50 million copies, making it one of the best-selling books worldwide to date in any language, and is taught to students around the world. Don't even get me started on the TV series and films.
The Museum containing many of the artifacts referenced in the books centers around a home built in 1872, on a farm first settled by the Campbell family in 1776, by Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Uncle John and Aunt Annie Campbell. Throughout the Museum there is many of Montgomery’s hand-developed photographs. Upstairs, you can visit the author’s "own little bedroom" she stayed in when she came to visit, complete with a collection of her books she autographed for the Campbell family.
Having had enough of Anne's history, their kitchen was closed, so we moved on with a brief stop at the overlook of French River.
Our last stop of our self-driving tour was the Cows Creamery for the best Ice Cream in the world. Cows is a Canadian ice cream manufacturer based in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. Cows was founded in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island in 1983, and has since expanded into cheddar cheese, and cow-themed merchandise. Cows was named "Canada's best ice cream" in a survey of readers of Reader's Digest and listed as number 1 on the world's top 10 places to get ice cream by Tauck World Discovery.
It's nearly impossible to pick just 2 flavours with choices such as Wowie Cowie, Gooey Mooey, Messie Bessie, PEI Apple Crisp, Caramel Moochiato, Moo York Cheesecake, Royal Cownadian Mint, Cowconut Cream Pie, Cookie Moonster, Cownadian Maple, Fluff 'n' Udder, Nanaimoo Bar, PEI Blueberry, and Very Dairy Chocolate Cherry.
Feeling much better after the Ice Cream, we dropped the car off at the airport and headed back to the port. This was one location I would have loved to have more time in the port.
Tonight's big show was Reggie Rice, a comedy magician... I think they call him that because his magic was a joke.
We spent the rest of the evening drinking Harvey Wallbangers by the dance floor.
Day 8- AT SEA
We woke up to a foggy morning, but today was a day at sea, so it didn't really matter. We slept in while some of the others did a galley tour and saw a presentation by the chefs.
Today was a nice day to just hang out on the deck, and take advantage of the buffet and other food outlets until it's time for dinner.
Ivan (Romeo), Brett, Leslie, Juliette, Norine, and I
Tonight's show was a Forever Whitney show with Nina Skyy, she had an amazing voice!
Some of us enjoyed the show more than others, and some of us went to bed after the show, and some of us went dancing.