We had an afternoon excursion so took the morning to wander on our own. We expected a mass exodus of passengers wanting to see this exciting port but found very few. We were docked in a secure, commercial dock, and thus had to be shuttled to the cruise terminals. We were one of about 12 on the shuttle bus.
Upon arrival at Pier 22, we saw that the Caribbean Princess had arrived but it didn’t appear that their ship had been cleared for disembarkment yet.
We strolled along the boardwalk and made our wait to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic as soon as it opened.
The museum had quite an impressive exhibit regarding the Titanic.
Here is an original deck chair followed by a replica life boat:
The museum also displayed models of many other ships important to Halifax.
The last exhibit of the museum was a tour of the CSS Acadia docked right outside the museum.
We found lunch at The Old Triangle where I had a delicious meal of shrimp and gluten free pasta seasoned with olive oil and basil.
The birds in Halifax were fun. Here are a few pictures:
On the way back to the dock to meet our shore excursion we noted that the Aida Diva had arrived. It appeared that the majority of the passengers on that boat were German speaking as that was the only language we heard and the signs for tourbuses were all in German. At some point the Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas had arrived at the pier next to ours as well. We heard that there were over 10,000 cruise passengers in Halifax this day. The boardwalk didn’t seem very busy which surprised us considering the number of cruise ships.
We walked through the Halifax Farmers’ Market which we didn’t think was all that impressive, especially after seeing Quebec’s farmers’ market but later learned that Saturdays are when all of the farmers come out with their produce.
It was a bit of a challenge to figure out where we were to meet our shore excursion as our ticket said to meet at the terminal building. Since we were in a secure dock, there was not a terminal building near the boat and the terminal building where the shuttle dropped us off was being used by the Princess ship. Nevertheless, we had budgeted sufficient time.
Our tour took us to the beautiful Peggy’s Cove, a small fishing village, which had been overtaken by tourists. Clearly this is where everyone from the four cruise ships was. It was still fun although my husband may not agree.
As you can see the waves were quite a bit rough and mostly sunny skies had turned to completely cloudy by the time we left. The two pictures of the lighthouse were taken within about 30 minutes of each other. Fortunately the rain held out until we were back on the ship, eating dinner, and pulling out of the dock.
The last stop on our tour was to Fairview Lawn Cemetery where many victims of the Titanic are buried. As bodies were recovered they were each given a number and the clothing they were wearing and any personal items were noted. This helped in identifying the victims. Sadly though, to this day, many still have not been identified.
The cruise line provided the basic grave stones with date of death, identification number, and name, if known. Some families paid for more elaborate gravestones.
We had dinner in the dining room (here is a link to the menu) and enjoyed some entertainment around the ship including listening to Sean Roach in one of the lounges, watching the incredible show, iHollywood put on by the Celebrity Singers, Dancers, and Orchestra, and then a late night Ice Party in the Revelations Lounge on deck 11.
Here is a link to the Celebrity Today.
