New England Cruise Tour - October 2009

WOW!! New England in October is the place to be!

     Cissy and I have sailed from a lot of different places, including all the Florida ports, Los Angeles, CA., New Orleans,LA., and Galveston,TX. We've always wanted to see the leaves changing in New England, and her mother and sister, who usually sail with us (yes, I know I'm different, but I LOVE to sail with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law!)have wanted to go there as well, so we decided that we would take a fall cruise up the east coast in October so we could enjoy both the leisure pace of the cruise and still see the beautiful sites of New England during full leaf change.

     I am going on record to say that this was my favorite cruise of all, thus far. We sailed on Royal Caribbean's Jewel of the Seas, a Radiance Class ship which weighs in at a comfortable ninety thousand (90,000)tons displacement and nine hundred sixty-two (962) feet long. The ship has 1,055 state rooms, with 817 that are ocean view rooms, of which 577 have a balcony. There are 238 interior state rooms. I found the ship beautiful, but a little "dated" in its decor in the state rooms. Some of the newer ships had flat screen TVs, but Jewel had that "touch"; elegance without gaudy, comfort without being too big; plenty of company without feeling swallowed up by the crowds; an ideal ship for this trip.  Here is a link to see as much as you would want to see and know about the Jewel of the Seas:  Royal Caribbean's Jewel of the Seas

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     Our trip started in Boston. Here is the most interesting website I found showing sites of Boston.  We loved the old city; the history and charm of the historical sites like the Old North Church were wonderful to see, as well as some of the more unique architectural sites of the more "modern" types.Wikipedia info on Boston
Boston Freedom Trail points of interest

 We flew into Boston October 1, 2009 and spent two days touring Boston before we boarded our ship on February 3rd and departed that afternoon, heading for our first stop, Rockland, Maine. Shown below are some of the interesting pictures Cissy and I took in Boston:

     As luck would have it, we were the very first cruise ship to ever stop at Rockland. Royal Caribbean had only recently completed the arrangements with Rockland for us to be able to stop there, and the people of Rockland were out early that morning to great us. Typical of New England fall weather, that morning when we arrived, there was a heavy fog over the harbor, and we could barely see anything as we boarded the tender ships that took us from the ship to land. In the picture below, the ship is barely visible through the fog early that morning as we were motoring into the harbor at Rockland. Erie image; something like one would expect as a scene from an Alfred Hitchcock thriller!

     Rockland was a lovely stop; a fishing village on the coast of Maine, famous for its lobsters and quaint shops along the waterfront. One famous restaurant we found was called The Brass Compass. It gained its notoriety from being the site of one of Bobby Flay Throwdown contests. They put their dish named "King of the Club" up against Bobby Flay and WON!. When we asked the owner how the contest came out, she smiled real big and told us "We kicked his butt!" Nice place and good food.

     Our next stop was in Bar Harbor, Maine. This was my favorite stop on the trip. Bar Harbor is exactly what one would picture in our imagination that a quaint, friendly New England town would look like. The building were all neat and well maintained, the shops were full of quality merchandise at reasonable prices, the restaurants were excellent, and the scenery surrounding that town was out-of-this-world! We were able to get off the ship and tour some of the Maine countryside, including a beautiful trip up into Acadia National Forest where we got some absolutely spectacular shots of the leaves turning and the cruise ships in the harbor.

   
     The picture below is something spectacular. The CUNARD Lines ship QUEEN MARY 2 was at Bar Harbor the same time we were. This is a huge ship, weighing in at one hundred fifty thousand (150,000)tons of displacement,and is 1,132 feet long. I snapped a picture of the ship just as a beautiful rainbow appeared. As you will see from the picture, the rainbow met the water right at the stern (rear) of the Queen Mary 2. This is NOT an optical illusion; the rainbow did actually meet the water very, very close to the stern of that ship. This is a once-in-a-lifetime image that I was blessed to capture; a magnificent ocean-going vessel with one of God's most beautiful natural creations right by it.

I ENCOURAGE YOU TO CLICK ON THAT IMAGE TO GET A GOOD CLOSE-UP OF THAT RAINBOW RIGHT ON THE WATER AT THE STERN OF THE QUEEN MARY 2; A SPECTACULAR SHOT!

     Our next stop was in St. Johns, New Brunswick Canada. That was a nice stop for the ladies, but I stayed on ship and saved my energy for the next day at Hallifax, Nova Scotia. Here are a couple of pictures of Saint Johns.

     Our final stop on the cruise was Hallifax, Nova Scotia. Here is a link from the Internet with some beautiful shots of Halifax.  Views of Halifax, Nova Scotia .  This was a wonderful city with a great boardwalk area right along the waterfront. Shown below are some of the favorite pictures Cissy and I took while in Halifax.

     There are two sites that one must see when there; the Titanic Museum, which contains many actual relics from the Titanic, and the old Fort that guarded the entrance to the harbor. There is still an actual Scottish Guard unit that mans the old fort in their original costumes. The view of the harbor and the city from the old fort is fantastic.  In the above montage of pictures, Cissy is in the Titanic Museum and sitting in a deck chair similar to those shown in a picture from the Titanic's deck shown beside her.  The relics form the Titanic were amazing to see, and the museum was very moving to go through.

     It was a beautiful cruise, but no cruise up the New England/Canadian coast would be complete without a picture of beautiful lighthouses from St. Johns and Hallifax. I highly recommend making this trip if you like smooth sailing, quaint New England towns and hospitality galore. Well worth the money and time!