Janthony's Blog: Cruise to New England & Canada

Last week we went on a 7-Day cruise with the family to New England and Canada. Our journey started in NYC. Since we arrived at the break of dawn, we had some time to kill. So, why not take a picture in front of a squad car?

Then checked out the Hershey Store. We found an entire section dedicated to Reese's. They even had the Reese's peanut butter cup in a huge bar form. I know!!! Right!?!

Jan loves hitting up these carts whenever we're in town.

By the afternoon, we boarded the Carnival Triumph.
Don't worry... She's having a virgin cocktail.

I always assumed anchovies would be gross on pizzas. But the anchovie & caper pizza was awesome. Gotta love the 24 hour pizza counter on the lido deck.

This is where my mom spent all her time when we were at sea.

I bring the purple and gold with me everywhere I go.

Here we are in the "disco". Can you believe they still call their hip night club a "disco". No wonder the dozen or so 30 yrs and under passengers never went into the place. Every bar and lounge was busy throughout the trip except this place. I guess the fact that 90% of the passengers on this boat were retired had a little something to do with it.

I was hoping the disco would have a door man so Jan could have this conversation (not safe for work):

Our first stop was Boston. I didn't care how nice the town was... the Laker fan inside of me couldn't handle it.

There were so many people wearing Celtics jerseys that it was making me nauseous.
For some reason, it took nearly 24 hours for this boat to get from New York to Boston. So, here we were arriving at 2pm on a Sunday. We found out that we couldn't find any tours that late in the day. So we had to just wander around on our own.

We managed to find the Omni hotel that came up with the original Boston Cream Pie.

We followed the Freedom Trail around for a bit. It is basically a red line that runs along the sidewalks to various points of interest. It lead us to Boston Commons.

There was a guy selling "fried dough". We gave it a try with apple topping. It was kinda like a doughnut but in an almost flatbread form.

I can't remember what this building was, but it had a cool gold dome.

We also found the original Cheers. Sam and Woody were nowhere to be found.

Next stop was Portland, Maine. They love their Lobster... I mean Lobstah.

Here's a shot of the Golden Girls with my sister and Jan.

This is a famous lighthouse in the town. It's called the Portland Head Light.

After a little trolley tour around town, we went to a "floating" restaurant called DiMillo's. Check out my Lobstah Club. Imagine your typical club sandwich, but replace the turkey with a load of lobster. Yes, it was tasty.

Here's a shot of the boat we called home for a week.

These week long cruises involve two formal attire required dinners. So here's Grandpa Ernie and myself waiting for our Lobster tail dinners.

Like I said... Lobster tail dinners. You can ask for as many as your belly desires.

Here's the familia without Mikey. For some reason, if my dad is out of the office, he has to stay, and vice versa. It's ridiculous.

Here's a video of Jan & I trying to get my dad and Grandpa (who were roommates next door) for dinner.

A Filipino bartender gave him double shots of booze in the afternoon. So, he was completely drunk by 8:30pm. Gotta love it.

So, apparently this weirdo is famous on these Carnival ships. This guy goes on a bunch of cruises (he's unaffiliated with Carnival Cruiselines). While on the cruises, he passes out random stickers that say things like "I met Jack" or "Jack's Mistress". It was funny at first, but when you start seeing the guy around the boat wearing these Jack shirts in different colors, it got old pretty fast. This was taken when it was still funny.

Our next stop was St. John, New Brunswick Canada.
Here's the only Vietnamese Mountie.

I can't really explain this one.

Here's our taxi driver. I believe his name is John. We basically paid this guy to take us on a tour. He was a great guy who did the best he could. It rained the whole time we were in town.

Here's some of the leaves we saw that were turning color on time. All of the places we went were still green.

Oh Canada, Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
That's all I can remember of their anthem from going to LA Kings games.

Here's how my mom spends her time on tours.

This is some factory (paper factory I think) next to a river.

Being that we are with my parents, we can't miss an opportunity to check out the local Catholic Cathedral.

Everyday, our steward would leave these towel creatures in our room. Salamat!!! (Yeah, they were Filipino).

Can you say that you've had Molten Chocolate Cake every night for an entire week?
I can.

Here's a view of the empty Lido Deck. It looks bright and shiny, but it was freezing out there.

This Filipino band rocked the lounges every night. They covered all kinds of songs such as YMCA and Electric Slide. I guess all that time they spent at the Karaoke machine really paid off.

The last port was Halifax, Nova Scotia.

It doesn't matter what town I'm in anywhere in the world. It's almost like they find me. Yeah, I found a sneaker boutique in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

We checked out their Public Gardens. It's just a fancy way of saying... Park.

It had a lot of nice plants considering how cold it was up there.

They even had a miniature model of the Titanic in their pond.

We were wondering if a miniature iceberg would pop out of the water every hour. I know, that was mean.

Here's the gate to the Citadel where they do the changing of the guard routine.

At the Maritime Museum, they have some artifacts recovered from the Titanic.

The museum also had these elaborate models of various ships. We were hoping they had our sacred Queen Mary. We couldn't find it.

We checked out Halifax aboard these Hop On/ Hop Off Double Decker Buses. What's cool is they are actual old double deckers purchased from London.

We found time to relax at a local tea shop.

Here's the waterfront at Nova Scotia.

Here's Jan and TJ with Theodore Tugboat.

Before leaving Halifax, we stopped by one of their thousands of pubs.

Had a beer...

and some Bangers & Mash.

Jan bought these Sock Monkey Gloves.

TJ just wanted a picture with a Mountie.

The last day was at sea. We couldn't go outside since there were 18-20 foot waves rocking the ship.

Here's how we kept ourselves entertained:

This last night on the ship, I also attempted to go out with a bang at the fine dining room. Prime Rib and a rack of spareribs. I hardly touched the spareribs. Oh well.