Halloween in Boston

We are tied up at 8 am and the clearance to go ashore comes soon after.  Today we are in Boston.  We have been here twice before, but both times on ship and we both agree we really want to come here for a longer vacation.

Today is Halloween!  As I stroll around the Caribbean Princess I have to say that this ship has the BEST decorations I have ever seen for Halloween.  

Every floor in the Atrium has a unique display.  The Purser's desk is all done up.  There are scary bits on the stairs.  

Then of course every bar and dining venue has their own displays.  And like usual the large carved pumpkin set up by the International Cafe.

The Patter is packed with lots of fun things to do for Halloween.  I love that all the bands have been given a spooky name.  David Moore is now David "Morbid" Moore, Vincent Smith is Vincent "Vampire" Smith, the band is "The Witch" Project 5.

The Entertainment Team has lots of spooky movies playing in your cabin.  Also Halloween Game Show I'll Take Spooky Trivia for 100, Miracle Lyrical Game Show:  Halloween Edition.  Which we played and laughed our head at.  Then the big Halloween Haunted Mansion Spooktacular Party and then the Costume Parade.

But back to this morning.  We wander off around 11 am and we walk towards town.  The cruise line was offering a shuttle service for a fee, but we are good with walking and not so much with a big bus.

It takes about a half hour to walk to Quincy Market from the ship.  And along the way we stopped and window shop, admire the decorations.  Also it gives me a chance to take a lot of pictures for future lectures.

This morning before we disembarked we decided to go online and check out tours with Viator.com  We have used this service numerous times and love the freedom of choosing last minute and a large variety.  Also the prices are good.

The tour we booked was thru the company called Urban Adventures who have tours all over the world.  We booked a walking tour  and you can find the tour here.

We are a little early for the tour so we walk all around Quincy Market and the Market Hall which is well worth checking out on your own.

The tour starts at 1 pm and it is raining, off and on, which is more of a nuisance.  But it is warm.  In fact I end up taking my pull over off and just going around with my t-shirt and coat.  But I am finding it muggy.

The tour went all over!  And we learned some new things.  Bob our guide was very knowledgeable and he loved to talk!  Which is a good thing.  His stories and jokes kept us laughing.

We even had a stop at a Speak Easy called Carrie Nation for a complimentary alcoholic beverage.

We continue on the tour and even got to go into the legislature and tour around.  

Then ended up in Beacon Hill to see the stunning houses and the decorations and boy do they go all out!

The tour was suppose to be two hours, but ended up being 3.5 hours!  And only $46 dollars each.  Amazing deal and tour.  Much better for us, than being stuck on a bus with 50 other people.  But you really have to be able to walk long distances.

We Uber it back to the ship and head to the cabin to clean up and dress up.  Yup we dressed up for Halloween.

We were a hippie couple.  A lot of people dressed up, some totally in costume and some with just some fun Halloween additions.

Most of the crew seemed to be dressed up and some really outdid themselves. I was quite impressed.

Our first order of business was to hand out Halloween candy.  We purchased 200 chocolate bars while in Sydney and we handed all them out to the crew.  I really tried to get the crew that not everyone sees either, like the cooks in the Horizon Court, and cleaners, and cabin stewards.

Today's drink of the day is the Black Cat for $9.25.  It is Grey Goose, Blue Curacao, Amaretto, and Cranberry juice.  I had one - made my tongue blue - and it was okay.  A bit too sweet for me, and I hardly tasted any alcohol.  But it looked cool.

Dinner was at our regular table in the dining room.  It is busy here tonight and with that means our poor servers are run off their feet again.  We arrived at 7:15 but did not get our starter until 7:45.  Entree came at 8:10.  We had to skip dessert as we wanted to go to the trivia at 8:30.  It is not that our servers are poor, they are some of the best.  However they have a table for 8, and a bunch of tables for 2 and they are slammed.  At one point we did see some other waiters come over to help from sections that were not busy.

Also we still have yet to see a supervisor in the dining room come around to see how things are.  So far I am not impressed at all at the dining room, and Bernie and I chat and agree that we will probably give up on the dining room for the rest of the voyage.

We want to go to Crown Grill and maybe another specialty restaurant again.  Plus we really like the Horizon Court (darn it is the World Fresh Marketplace on this ship).

Again we are in port overnight - read more about why in my previous blog.  It seems strange to see the city lights in the distance.  Remember you will pay local tax if you buy drinks while in port.  It shows up on your bill as a separate item.

It has been a long day.  We logged over 23,000 steps.  Our legs feel like jello and this is when I really wish we had a bathtub to soak in.  If I had the energy we would be up and soaking in the hot tub.

Night everyone