My New England-Canada cruise has been one crazy week.

The amount of things that have been done—from spending time with family, to a completely unplanned running-into of a friend (hi, Jack!) , to nightly cruise adventures— it feels like a month’s events have been packed into seven short days on a ship (as well as on land.)

Right now, sitting at my desk writing this thing, I am finally starting to realize how much cruises pamper you. With complementary food 24/7 and activities all day and night, it is pretty much a resort on a boat. But 7 days is the perfect amount of time for a cruise; I think the ship would start to feel like a box after that.

Our ship was Royal Caribbean’s Adventure of the Seas. We spent the first day at sea exploring the ship and busying ourselves with a myriad of activities. Outside on the topmost decks, there were water slides, boogie boarding, rock-climbing walls, and table tennis. There was also a really nice fitness center. For the more sedentary people there was trivia, game shows like Family Feud, and performances such as ice skating. “Ice skating on a cruise ship?” you may think. Yes!!! The performers were world-class ice skaters, except the rink was about a third of a regular Olympic-sized ice rink. The ship rocked a little so they could not do a lot of tricks, but the performance was still wonderful.

Even though this was not my first cruise (for my cousins, it was!) I still completely forgot how much food is available. Besides a buffet that was open basically all day, there was also a cafe that served unlimited treats, plus a fine dining hall that was included in our cruise package. I feel like everyone gains at least 5 pounds after a cruise.

Our cruise stopped at Portland, Maine; Bar Harbor, Maine; St. John, New Brunswick, Canada; and Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Although these stops are not as famous and groundbreaking as, say, the Bahamas, these not-as-famous places never failed to impress us with breathtaking views (figuratively and literally).

THE STOPS

Portland, Maine

Portland is the biggest city in Maine and it is a port city (duh) with a lot of expensive houses overlooking the sea. It was also home to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and a bunch of other famous peeps like Stephen King and Patrick Dempsey. I am very used to the hustle and bustle of NYC; Portland was much quainter and quieter than that. It was a nice change.We first toured around the city for a bit and then made a stop at the Portland Head Light. This lighthouse was commissioned by George Washington himself! (I definitely not have been as enthusiastic if I had not taken APUSH. Hello, APUSH people. How is that summer assignment coming along? 😭) After that, we walked twenty minutes to the Eastern Promenade, which is a park overlooking the ocean. It was restored from being a battlefield during the Civil War.

As we sailed off to our next stop we passed by the Portland Headlight!

Bar Harbor, Maine (Acadia National Park)

This excursion was especially cool because this was my second time in three years visiting this place. Bar Harbor is a little vacation town in Maine near Acadia National Park. The national park boasts rocky coasts with lush vegetation. It occupies the majority of Mount Desert Island and a bunch of small islands off the coast.

It all felt very nostalgic. I though it was amazing to see that the town itself and the scenery had not changed too much but I as a person have grown and changed a ton since I was last here. I was only a rising seventh grader. Ahhh, good times. One of my cousins who I was traveling with is also a rising 7th grader and she reminds me of when I was her age.

Because it is Maine, Maine people like to do interesting things with lobsters. We tried some lobster ice cream and it was pretty good! It had a buttery flavor with lobster chunks inside.

 

I am going to leave this post at here, otherwise it is going to get too long and you all are going to get bored. Be ready for cruise part 2 in a few days! I am at a camp right now so it might take longer to write than usual.

—Katie

(All photos that are really good quality belong to my dad.)