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The photos have been posted from Day 2. Click on any of the photos in this post to see the full album.

Our first full day was also our first port stop. We haven’t experienced too many cruises, but I think that I prefer having a sea day as the first full day! Our other two cruises started out in that way. You don’t get as much time to relax or explore the ship when you start out with 3 port days right in a row.

Our day started with breakfast in the Windjammer. In our other trips, we preferred the dining room but we found the food to be better on this trip all around, except for the quality of the pastries. I think we all agreed that the pastries were lacking. Fortunately, they had plenty of choices so the pastries were easy to avoid. Maddie didn’t mind as she had her favorite Cheerios to keep her happy. We tried to give her a taste of an English breakfast with baked beans, but everyone knows baked beans aren’t breakfast food! She wouldn’t touch them.

All 7 of us were signed up for the Lighthouses of Maine tour. It was nice to be together on the shore excursion (plus, we were able to get quite a few photos). The tour stopped at 3 different lighthouses: Portland Breakwater Lighthouse (known as “Bug Light”), Spring Point Ledge, and Portland Head Light. The stops were spaced well enough so that Maddie didn’t get too upset about being on a bus (and she was able to have her own seat). She was still amused by the new purse and new toys, so that helped, too. Our liberal usage of the pacifier didn’t hurt either.

The tour guide talked constantly but seemed to be making up things as she went along. She was quite fond of Portland and took every opportunity to tell us how “lovely” that it was. She also seemed obsessed with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow who is actually a prominent local figure (so her facts in some cases were not botched). She talked quite a bit about the statue of Longfellow downtown and how that local people decorated him around holidays and such with Santa hats for Christmas or hearts around Valentine’s Day. Chad joked that she was probably the one doing all the decorating. We all thought that was hilarious.

She told us about the American Revolutionary War that happened in 1865 and that our 3rd United States president was Alexander Hamilton. I’m not sure what these things had to do with Portland, but apparently they were significant. We couldn’t get past the fabrication of “facts” on the tour. It also seemed like every other building in Portland was filled with low-income, elderly people. This may be true, but we felt it was a bizarre thing to talk about every other block. We did see some signs around Portland that said, “elderly pedestrian crossing” which is something I had never seen before!

My favorite thing that she said was after she was coughing. “Oh, I think I’m getting a cold!” Um, yeah. That’s not the sort of thing that you should be telling a tour full of cruise ship passengers. We’re a little concerned about the spread of disease. I kept my distance from her after that and certainly wasn’t about to shake her hand. Come to think of it, maybe that’s where Kristin and Chad got their cold that they had later in the trip. Hrm…

We could see our ship from the first stop (Bug Light). I tried pointing it out to Maddie, “Look, Maddie! There’s our ship! It’s our big boat!” She got a big smile on her face, and then started saying, “dog! dog!” Several dogs were playing in the park. Funny girl.

After walking around the Bug Light area, we headed to our next stop at Spring Point Ledge. This is the lighthouse that we were able to see from our stateroom as we were pulling into the dock. We weren’t able to get real close to this one as it is at the end of a long, rocky path.

We took a bunch of photos at this stop of the scenery and each other.

Our last stop was at Portland Head Light which had a little museum and a lady who talked to us about the history of the lighthouse. I’m pretty sure that her facts were more trustworthy than our tour guide’s! This lighthouse was very picturesque. All of the stops on our tour did not have access to any gift shops or stores with drinks or snacks, and the only restrooms were port-a-potties. Fortunately, we brought some snacks for Maddie but felt like we should better prepare for our next tour!

We headed back to the dock where Kristin and Chad went back onto the ship for their hot stones massage. We went to eat lunch with Mom and Dad where everyone except me had a lobster roll. I tried a crab roll. I wasn’t a big fan of either. I’m just not crazy about lobster, and the crab roll was way too much crab meat for me. My dad and Gabe were happy to eat my leftovers. After we left the restaurant, we realized a few blocks later that we left the fancy, expensive camera behind. Thank goodness we figured this out before getting back on the ship!

Gabe and I went back to the ship for Maddie’s afternoon nap, and Mom and Dad continued to a railroad museum and to walk around Portland some more. Maddie napped in her stroller, and I had a second lunch to make up for not eating much of my crab roll. We went back to the room a bit too early as Maddie woke up shortly after we parked her in the stateroom. Gabe was kind enough to let me nap while he strolled her around the ship, but she never did go back to sleep. After my nap, we got ready for our first formal night.

We had several formal portraits taken with just the 3 of us and with all 7 of us on the trip.

Dinner with Maddie did not go as smoothly as the previous night, but she still did pretty well given that she had such a short nap. Our waitstaff was slow, especially considering that we told him that we preferred a quicker than average meal. Every night, other tables would be getting their entrees before we received our appetizers and would be completely finished with their meals before we ordered dessert.

By the end of this day, Maddie was saying everyone’s names in our family with ease. It was very cute to hear her say, “Keestan,” “uh-Chad,” “Nana,” and “Bapa.” By the end of the trip, she started calling my dad, “Papa,” so I guess we’ll see what sticks in the long run.

After dinner, Mom and I went to the Viking Crown Lounge while Gabe was putting Maddie to bed. We had a nice chat with the bartender. On this trip, we talked with several of the crew about their schedules and being away from their families. I’m sure it is a great opportunity for many of them, but it is difficult for me to imagine being away from my family for 7 months at a time.

Once Maddie was sleeping, all of us hung out on the balcony of our stateroom. We loved having a balcony! Mom and Dad shared their wine and cheese plate that we had ordered for them as a “thank you” for the trip. Mom and I continued to hang out on the balcony while Gabe, Kristin, Chad, and Dad all went to the casino to lose some money. Gabe discovered that they had a poker game, but we didn’t end up playing the rest of the trip. The game wasn’t great (similar to the other cruise), and it was $2-5 NL. We didn’t exactly have the bankroll to be playing $2-5 NL, so we stayed away. If the players were all awful, we may have played more!

We all went to bed to get ready for another early morning, this time in Bar Harbor!

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Posted by kerry on Monday, October 12th, 2009 at 10:37am.
Categories: life.