New England and Canada Cruise – Day 3, Bar Harbor
October 14th, 2009More photos have been posted from our trip! Click on any of the photos in this post to see the full album from Day 3.
We had another early day with a shore excursion in Bar Harbor, our second and final stop in Maine. Kristin and Chad ordered room service for breakfast, and the rest of us went to the Windjammer for the buffet. Gabe and I weren’t too impressed with the selection and quality when we ordered room service breakfast in May. We were happy with the Windjammer this time! Maddie had another great breakfast to start her day.
Our tour was an hour later than the previous morning, but we were tendered instead of docked, so we had to allow some extra time to get to our tour. The tender process was quite easy this time, so we had plenty of time when we arrived on shore. Maddie enjoyed pointing out all the boats in the water. We walked around a little before the tour, but we had to get in line early so that we could sit together and hope to get Maddie a seat.
We liked Bar Harbor much better than Portland! The town had a lot more character. We were excited about our tour, Cadillac Mountain and Rinehart Pavilion. I knew when we were going to Bar Harbor that I definitely wanted to go to Acadia National Park.
Our bus was a bit full, and we were worried that Maddie would have to sit on our laps, but fortunately a few people didn’t show up. Thank goodness. It turned out that this excursion was going to be difficult enough as it was with our little toddler. I think she decided that two days in a row on a bus were not her idea of a good time, plus this tour was a bit long and only stopped twice. I was disappointed that we didn’t get more chances to get off of the bus for photo opportunities. Perhaps that is why Maddie was not happy about being on the bus either! The worst part is that Maddie had a stinky diaper in the first 15 minutes of the tour. We didn’t stop for at least an hour and a half. It was awful! We decided that this was Maddie’s last excursion for a long, long time. Ah well, we learned our lesson.
The views in Acadia were beautiful, especially from the top of Cadillac Mountain. We even were able to spot a little fall color. We had nice views of our ship from the top of the mountain. Unfortunately, we only had about 15 minutes at the top, so Gabe and I didn’t get much chance to enjoy it. We had to change Maddie’s diaper and barely had time to walk to the restrooms and back.
Overall, I definitely prefer tours that have more stops for photo opportunities. The only other stop on the tour was for blueberry pie. The pie was very tasty, but we didn’t have a lot of time for photos at this stop either. All in all, it was a pretty long tour for toddlers (and adults) with little chance to stretch our legs. Maddie hated the time on the bus, but she did love the blueberry pie!
We all opted to get off at the first stop when we returned to Bar Harbor, and Gabe, Chad, and Dad spotted a Brewery right away and went to investigate. They participated in a free, personal beer tasting of four different beers including an interesting blueberry one. Maddie was so tired that she fell asleep in the stroller when it was parked in the tasting area.
We walked around Bar Harbor and visited various shops while Maddie napped. Chad, Kristin, Gabe, and I went to eat lunch while Maddie continued to nap. We were shocked that she napped through the entire meal. Everyone except for me enjoyed their lobster rolls (and I certainly did not feel left out, yuck!). After lunch, we walked around a bit more and then headed back to the ship.
Once back on the ship, we got some food for Maddie and went to hang out on my parents’ balcony. Maddie enjoyed her banana and had a funny moment when she was requesting more banana. She was pointing at the plate of banana, saying “nana! nana!” Then she got a funny look on her face and looked over at my mom and said, “Nana…” You could really see the gears turning and the light bulb appear above her head.
We took Maddie to the Crayola art session. She was the only kid to show up, and the session was geared towards older kids. I’m not sure that oil pastels are a good match with toddlers! She learned that she could easily write on the glass table (which fortunately easily wiped off). At one point, I said, “don’t let her write on her shirt or anything.” Maddie immediately looked at the fistful of pastels in her hand and looked at her shirt and proceeded to draw on her shirt. Oops! Turns out that oil pastel draws nicely on shirts, too.
We got ready for dinner and spent some time on the deck outside before heading to the dining room. Dinner did not go especially well, and Gabe ended up taking Maddie out of the dining room before the entrees were served. Unfortunately, this was Italian night when the waitstaff dances around and sings for us. Gabe was able to catch most of it.
After Maddie went to bed, my mom watched her for about 30 minutes so that Gabe and I could spend a little time in the casino together. We felt like winners when we left the casino with all of the money we brought into it. We didn’t leave with any of the casino’s money, but breaking even with slot machines and video poker works for me.
We went to bed early since we had yet another early excursion the following morning (plus we were losing an hour that night due to the time change). It’s a little exhausting to start the cruise with three straight port days, but we were excited that we would be visiting a new Canadian province the next day (New Brunswick).
Possibly related posts (automatically generated):
- New England and Canada Cruise – Day 2, Portland
The photos have been posted from Day 2. Click on any of the photos in this post to see the... - New England and Canada Cruise – Day 0, getting to Boston
It’s time for the first in my series of trip reports for the New England/Canada Cruise. I’m going to try... - New England and Canada Cruise – Day 1, leaving Boston
I’ve also posted the photos from Day 1. Click on any photo in this post to see many more in... - Cruise Day 6 – Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada
I have captioned quite a few of the photos, and now I only have a few albums left. I should... - Cruise Day 3 – Juneau, Alaska
Today was our first port day of the cruise, and the only day that we were tendered instead of docked....