Travel Day - Taking a Boat to Get On A Boat

We are up very early after a good night sleep.  We need to strip the bed and wash it as we have friends staying at our house and well, as a courtesy we thought clean sheets would be a perk.

We are out the door at 6 am driving West to Yarmouth to catch the CAT Bay Ferry to Bar Harbor Maine.  Boarding was quick and easy.  Lots of places to sit on board. 

The ferry is second hand, new to us, but still used.  It does show some wear and tear.  We did eat a nice lunch on board.  We shared a Reuben sandwich and a Mexican salad.  We enjoyed both.  Prices are what you would expect for a ferry.  Both items came to $23 US.

It is a 3.5 hour trip, but arrive about 20 min late due to all the traffic in the Bay.   Then we all queue up in our cars to go thru customs.  Sadly we were unloaded in the last group so it too another half hour.  But customs agent was quick and friendly.

I will say the staff on the ferry were phenomenal.  Probably the best staff I have ever experienced.  Numerous cabin crew came by and said hi and asked if we had questions.  Every one we passed or helped us with loading or uploading of car said hi/bye, thank you for sailing with us.  There was a movie shown in one area that was family friendly.  They even did a tour of the CAT with Q/A.  Heck they even had musicians!

Holland America Ship at anchor in Bar Harbor

There was only two negatives on the ferry, and both minor.  The wear and tear.  Many cushions had visible tears, walls had marks, and the Boat just needs a little tlc.  The other issue was there was no quiet area.  Now of course people chat etc.  But the front area had musicians, the middle area had a movie, the one area had tv's on with volume up, and even closed captioning!  And the aft area where we sat had a family area.  Which is great but why not put that family area where the family movie is.  

There was one kid in a family of four who I would guess was 4. OMG we wanted to trip him! He ran all over and screamed! Parents had no control over this little guy. Good birth control. The other kids on board where fine.  

Taking the ferry saved us 6 hours of driving and that equates to an extra day, which means an extra hotel, food etc.  Although the cost of the ferry is high, in the end with some specials they were offering, we figured cost was on par with driving around.

Once on the road we got onto I95 and headed south!  Then traffic!  When we asked the toll booth attendant if it was an accident she said no, just normal Sunday traffic going home!  Oh my!  It added an hour to our day.  3 lanes of bumper to bumper for 60 min!

We got to our hotel at 7:30 in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, at the Holiday Inn we've stayed at before.  Dropped our bags and went to the Panera Bread right in the same area.  Soup each, and we shared a sandwich.   

Filled out our Princess Health Form, attached our luggage tags so we are ready to go tomorrow.

It says that the route to Brooklyn is 3 hrs but I am adding another hour to be safe.  

Again I am not sure when the blogs will go up.  I don't have a wifi package on this voyage and not sure how good a signal we will get anyways.  But I will write up my blogs and post later.

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We are beat.  

Bar Harbor, Maine

Today is the day we all have to clear immigration first thing.  I know it started very early.  I also know they had quite a few locations for people to go to.  However I don't know how they broke it down.  

We were assigned to Club Fusion.  There was a short queue, but that was for Americans.  We were directed to the right and there was no one.  The agent checked our passports and asked us when we would be leaving the US and we were good to go.  Then a crew member put a small yellow sticker on our medallion to identify that we had gone thru immigration.

Later those stickers would come in handy as crew walked around the ship and if they saw no sticker they asked to make sure you had cleared it already. 

Later in the day when there were a few outstanding that had not cleared there were paged.  And where the medallion comes in handy is they were able to track the few who had not gone thru immigration.  I know the couple I had seen that were approached by a crew member did not speak English but the crew member who did approach them spoke their language and they went right away. 

Thankfully they were able to send people ashore even though not everyone was cleared.

This ship is also using this new tender process that you go and get your tender ticket and then you can wait out in any of the public areas until your number is called.  They call out tender number over the PA system to all public areas.  After a while it gets annoying.   We are sitting in our cabin and every few minutes this is what you hear. 

Note if you are elite or in a suite you are informed to go to Wheelhouse Bar where you are directed to the very next tender.  Although they now call them water shuttles.

We are not going ashore today.  I really hated tendering, and we have been here a few times and I really need a rest day.  Plus Bernie and I are thinking of coming down this way for a visit as a road trip in the near future.

We sit in the International Cafe enjoying our coffees (love that they have almond milk).  We are sitting at a table for four and we have a few people join us as we sit.  Including Susan who we have sailed with before and comes by and says hi and we have a great conversation.

One thing we have noticed is about half the people we meet on board really lack in conversational skills.  A couple joined us and I must of spoke to them for over a half hour.  Boy oh boy.... I learned almost everything about them.  And it all started when I said good morning and where are you from?  But they did not even ask me one question!  Not one!  Not even where are you from! 

And this is not the first time this has happened.  It does not matter the age, the sex, or their nationality.  People seem to not understand that a proper conversation should be a back and forth.  Not you constantly talking while one listens.  And I am just so darn polite, I just nod.  I swear one time I am going to say something like "is there anything you would like to know about me?"

Does this happen to you too?

So as soon as I could tear myself away from them I did and went upstairs to take some pictures of the beautiful scenery.

Bernie decided he wanted to do a load of wash.  I am not going to say anything.  If he wants to go for it, more power to him.  He states he has pants that he needs to wash and that can not wait for the two day turn around. But this is his thing.  He seems to get an itch whenever he sees dirty clothes.  An itch to wash them.  Hey it comes in handy sometimes.

Laundries are very busy and he manages to secure one, but after it is done he needs to rewash it because the detergent has not dissolved completely, even though it has done a full cycle.  He even was able to get a dryer!  Time to go buy a lottery ticket.

Tonight there is the production show Broadway Ballroom at 6:30 - it was performed yesterday at 7:15 and 9:30.  Smart of them to do three shows and also to state when it will be replayed.

The comedian Scott Wyler performed three shows last night too.

Tonight is Branden and James with a show called "At The Corner of Symphony and Soul" at 7:00, 8:45 and 9:45.  Also Comedy Magic with Nathan Phan is in Princess theater at 8:30 and 9:45 for tonight only as he leaves tomorrow in Boston.

The movie Yesterday was shown on MUTS last night and in the Princess Theater this afternoon.  Bernie is talking about going to it. 

Bar Harbor

I wake to someone talking loudly in the hallway….. What time is it?  Why are they talking so loud?  Then I realize we have dropped anchor and it is the purser’s staff announcing that the tender service is now available.  Oh…. It is 7:15

We decide to head to the dining room for breakfast this morning and we had a lovely table right near the window and pancakes and sausage hit the spot.  The staff here are amazing… so attentive and patient. 

I will state that there was a bit of a queue to get a table but they moved it along very fast so patience is necessary but worth it.

We are not going ashore for a bit so we are down in the coffee bar enjoying a latte and a tea while we see so many grab tender tickets to go ashore.  We are meeting up with Delmarie to go ashore and enjoy a nice meal.  The sun is shining and the place looks beautiful.

Around 11 am they no longer require that you go to the dining room for tender tickets.  Although we don’t require tender tickets anyways cause of priority but we aren’t in any rush.  We only head ashore around noon.  The ride is quick and the weather is lovely, a light jacket is required as the winds can be cool.

When we get ashore we head to find lobster.  We walk up the main street to the Lobster Pound.  A nice simple restaurant that a local recommended.  We sit outside and order a drink and well some lobster.  Bernie gets a lobster roll dinner and I and Delmarie get a pound and a quarter whole lobster.  Marketprice for the lobster was $15 and then we added on the meal option for an additional $12 which included chowder, mussels, fries and corn on the cob and a piece of pie for dessert.  Oh my what a lot of food but I really dug into that lobster!  It was so good and so fresh. 

After the meal we are so full and we need to walk a bit.  We walk around the streets and pop into a few stores.  I ended up buying a tshirt that has the lobster with the sign that says “say no to pot”. 

We stroll along the water and then we are back on board around 4 pm.

Dinner tonight is the Crown Grill with a dear friend but it is going to be late around 9 pm as he can’t really get away until then.  But it works out great for us cause we have the Most Traveled Cocktail Party tonight at 7:30.  Yes it is a cocktail party as this is something Captain Pomata prefers and personally we do too.  We don’t know where we fall in the numbers as we have not even met the Captain Circle Host yet and I can’t be bother to wait for his desk hours.  We hear he is from Buenos Aries and Delmarie speaks highly of him so we will say hi soon, well tonight for sure.

Bernie is trying trivia this afternoon again.  Me I am just going to wander the ship.  Got some great pictures of the entire ship earlier today for my fan page.  Make sure to head there and check out the album when I get back.  Here is a link to my fan page.  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cruising-Princess-Cruiseline-with-Vickie/240526055979098 

I sat in Vines for a bit and enjoyed two glasses of my wine that is stored at Vines and did some Sudoku puzzles and Bernie joined me after his trivia for which he said he did poorly at but met a lovely Mother Daughter from Ontario.

I am back in the cabin now.  Earlier in the voyage Bernie gave me some little pampering items and I am indulging in a deep moisturizing hair mask and a facial mask, trust me, no pictures of this will be put up here on this blog.  But the results may be later on tonight at dinner.