Canada/New England Cruise 2025 - Saint John, NB (09/14/25)

 

Our last day in Canada, and I met someone from where I used to work.  Long story of our relationship made short: He is a Type-A, and I am a person who doesn't fit into a type mold. As such, we butted heads when working, but were pleasant and polite now that we are no longer at the bank.

- - - - - -

We arrived on a Sunday and had breakfast in the buffet.  That's where we sat next to a former rival coworker and shared pleasantries. It was nice to know that there were no hard feelings.  Then, we decamped to our cabin to pick up some things and go into town.

For those readers who haven't been to Saint John yet, the passenger port has room for two ships on a normal day.  There is a shopping area next to the terminal with stores housed in shipping containers.  Once out on the main street, one will find street merchants selling their wares, with stores, pubs and restaurants doing their thing on the other side of the street.  To go inland from here requires navigating up some steep streets to the top of a hill.

Since it was a Sunday, most of the shops in this district were closed.  But, as one would expect, the church was open for Sunday services.  It was the first time that I've visited this city where the port district was quiet.  It was a perfect day to photograph some of the old and unique buildings in this part of town.  Sadly, the candy store that sold us "Toxic Waste" candy was no longer in business, nor was the city's police museum.  So we walked back to the ship for a late lunch.

- - - - - -

Eventually, dinnertime came and we were seated next to a nice British couple.  Even though we were at separate tables, we were close enough to consider our tables to be shared.  I had two appetizers, a main and a dessert, and I was well sated after the meal.  (The appetizer was a poached pear with blue cheese, and the dessert was a poached pear with cinnamon.  So I don't feel that guilty about having two pear dishes.)  All too soon dinner had to end, and we went back to our cabin for a few before the nightly theater entertainment started. 

  

 

 

By the time you read this, we'll be ready to be landlubbers.

 

 

 

By the time you read this, we'll be back from our cruise.  We originally planned to take this cruise in June, but one thing got in the way: an offer from Princess Cruises to "Move Over" to a different Canada/New England cruise, so that they could make our cabin available for people who paid for a "Guaranteed" cabin. In exchange, we'd receive a free cruise, the money paid for this cruise returned to us as refundable onboard credits.  Within 10 minutes of receiving this offer, we accepted it and were booked on this cruise.  Little did we know that this cruise would be even more popular than the cruise we originally booked.

(New Cruise Cabin Location Above)

 

(Old Cruise Cabin Location Above) 

When we booked the new cruise, we were given a balcony cabin on the Aloha deck (12) of the ship.  this deck is just below the Lido deck (14), and I expect that the cabin will be a little noisy until late hours on the ship, due to the buffet area being above us.  I'm not sure whether it is much of an upgrade from the obstructed cabin we originally had on the Emerald deck (8), as it was near the main atrium.

- - - - - -

We've been on this and similar Canada/New England routes before, so choosing shore excursions wasn't as important to us as it could have been if this were our first cruise together.  We've already been to Peggy's Cove, NS, so we weren't that interested in going there again for a photographic tour.  But, we hadn't been to Lunenberg, NS yet.  So we booked this excursion.  We would have liked to get the Alexander Graham Bell excursion at another port, but this was sold out before we had a chance to book it.  So, we had a few days without scheduled excursions to explore some ports at our leisure.

This will be the 4th cruise we are taking this year.  We have one more left to go.  Strangely enough, we'll enjoy having most of autumn to enjoy on dry land.... 

 

Second Cruise - Day 5: Saint John, NB.

 

Day 5: Saint John, NB.

RQS and I didn’t have any plans for the day, as there is not that much to see in this city.  The Reversing Falls may be nice to visit, but they are not worth the time and effort spent to get there. The excursion to see the Bay of Fundy tidal area is not worth the price.  So what is there to do in this city?  That was the question we asked before doing anything today.

When we finally got moving, we decided to have a late breakfast and then go out for a walk.  Our decision was to head towards the Reversing Falls, but we changed our mind when we found that we’d have to walk another 1.5 miles from where we were after a mile of walking.  So we headed back to ship, with a detour to a local coffee shop and the candy store next door to it.

On our way back to the ship, we found where the St. John Police Museum is (we missed it on our last visit), but decided not to visit because we wanted to return to the ship a little bit early. (Hopefully, we’ll make the time to go there on our next visit to this city.)  It was nice to be able to get back onboard the ship without waiting for a ride on a tender boat.  And, it was even nicer to get comfortable and rest before our 3rd visit to a specialty restaurant on this trip.

Day 07 - St. John, NB

 

St. John, NB. This is a port that I'd skip for St. Johns, NL. There are only two things worth seeing when in St. John, and one of them will almost always be unavailable to cruise ship passengers - a visit to a park on the Bay of Fundy, where one can walk on the ocean floor at low tide.

- - - - - -

Both of us found it hard to get moving when we woke up. But we were able to make it to one of the main dining rooms in time for breakfast, and sat with a couple from England. (This was RQS's first experience sharing a table with other cruiser for a meal.) We had a nice chat with this couple, and wouldn’t mind dining with them again.

After breakfast, it was out and about in St. John. Since I visited the place before, I knew that this wasn’t a place for shore excursions. Instead, we walked to a coffee shop for some free Wi-Fi, then to an empty shopping mall to see if we could find an electronic gizmo we could use to transfer photos from her camera to her Chromebook. Once we were done with the mall, we wnt across the street to the local farmer’s market. There was not really much to see here, so Sue and I went back to the ship to rest before having dinner at the ship’s French restaurant.

Given NCL's penchant for nickel-diming, we were surprised to find that the specialty restaurant staff did us a solid by not charging us for an extra appetizer. Once done with dinner, we went to get our pictures taken, and then back to our cabin to end the day.