Dave’s Live from Veendam 14-day Canada-New England, October 3-17, 2015

Thanks so much for your "live from", Dave. You really make us feel like we are there!

Great pictures of Bar Harbor.

Hard to believe that there are only 4 items for entrees' on Gala night.

Dave , I see your ship on the port cam and what a lovely day you will have in Halifax today. I'm pleased for you that our expected rain storm has gone astray. Have a great day here and don't go too handy to the edge of the rocks at Peggy's Cove as we want to hear all about the rest of your cruise.

Thanks for taking us all along with you, we really appreciate your time and expense in doing so.

Helen

We are enjoying your writeups as we just disembarked in Boston Saturday from the cruise last week from Quebec City. We had a question about being able to tender at Bar Harbor due to the weather on the previous day. The tide was above normal that day as well. But we did manage to get ashore and all of the tours were conducted. The Silver Whisper stayed anchored overnite from the previous day due to the weather.

An option for early morning coffee in Bar Harbor is the Trailhead Cafe on Cottage Street. It is located up a block from Agamont Park and turn right. It seems to be frequented by the locals - and no lines.

Our choice for a shore excursion was the Cadillac Mountain and Jordan Pond House tour. COLD on the the peak, and a pleasant lunch in a private dining room. The 3-1/2 hour tour gave us a nice taste of the park as well as time to visit the town.

Last week Halifax was very wet and windy. Docking that morning was a challenge for the pilot and crew as the wind was a 5 on the Beaufort Scale. The QM2 was also at the dock two hours early which added to the difficulty. The Carnival Sunshine sailed in - and out without even docking.

Smooth sailing on the rest of your cruise!

I'm loving your "live from", Dave! Great photos!

Hard to believe that there are only 4 items for entrees' on Gala night.

Yeah, it's been really pared down. It certainly isn't anything special in my mind.

I hope you enjoy your day it Halifax. Peggy's cove is very pretty. Hopefully it won't be overrun today. Thx for keeping the thread so up to date.

From the "High Praise Indeed" category - my wife, who doesn't necessarily follow everything on CruiseCritic, saw your thread last night and was all excited. :) You should have some excellent "colah" on the second leg of your trip.

If I were in Bar Harbor next week, I'd get a table on the lawn at Jordan Pond and have a popover with blueberry jam. I'd also borrow someone's retriever (Labrador or Golden) for petting opportunities. That's just me though.

Dave, what a great read, and your photos are gorgeous. It's sure fun to "see" what you're seeing.

We just got back in late August from a Montreal to Boston cruise on the Maasdam, and we liked it so much that we're going back next year on the Veendam.

Thank you so much for doing your Live review. I know how difficult it is to fit a review into your already full days.

Hard to believe that there are only 4 items for entrees' on Gala night.

Yes, that’s what we thought. But, although we did not ask for one since we found an entrée each that we liked, we assumed that we could have asked for the usual salmon, steak or chicken dish.

Dave

Long range weather here in Halifax looks very nice, so hopefully you will have sunny blue skies for your visit to our city.

Monday, October 5, Halifax (Cont.)

Well, whatever you did, we really appreciate it. We approached Halifax in mostly cloudy conditions, but the clouds burned off quickly, and it was a bright sunny morning. In fact, I happened to catch a reflection of Veendam in the office building that we passed as we neared Pier 20 to moor:

More later,

Dave

P.S. … what are you arranging for when we come back Oct. 15?

Thank you so much for the information about the Dine Around Plan, and the ship. I called my on-line travel agency, they contacted HAL and confirmed the information that you gave me, even tho nothing shows on my HAL check-in documents.

Sounds like you're enjoying the cruise, and you had great weather in one of our favorite ports, Bar Harbor.

Thanks again for your continuing post. It's great following along with you on your cruise.

Monday, October 5, Halifax (Cont.)

We were a bit late arriving, and then were delayed a bit more because there were a few people who did not fill out the Canadian immigration forms and were invited to discuss the matter with the authorities … immediately.

But, we cleared and went ashore with everyone else pretty smoothly. Our 9:30 excursion to Peggy’s Cove left only about 15 minutes late. We drove through Halifax and out to the countryside for what was about an hour’s drive to Peggy’s Cove. We passed a lot of places where the trees, especially the sumacs and maples, and the ground cover were starting to show some oranges, reds and crimsons, but it is still early – hope it is more into peak season when we return.

We drove at the end through what obviously was a glacial field with lots of large and small rocks deposited by the retreating glaciers. Then, we arrived, and we and several hundred other people enjoyed the fine weather and spectacular views. We had a bit less than an hour before we were to rejoin the bus.

Here are a batch of photos I took of or around the lighthouse, including a piper, and some people who were past a sign on the lighthouse – since our guide had warned about getting too close to the edge of the rocks, I was struck by the juxtaposition.

More in the next post,

Dave

Monday, October 5, Halifax (Cont.)

Since I prefer mine bright red, with butter, I passed on the discussion of live lobsters and wandered about the little village while DW popped into gift shops looking for postcards and stamps. I took a great many photos, because hey, what’s the point of having a 16 GB camera card if you aren’t going to use it?

I’ve selected five of the many I took:

This village has obviously grown to cater to the tourists, but you can still see that it started as a lobstering/fishing village. I could also see what the attraction is – it is a special place and I am glad we finally took the trip to see it!

More later,

Dave

Loving your reports and photos Dave.

Awesome photos! Thanks.

What glorious photos of Bar Harbor and Peggy's Cove. Many thanks for sharing.

Great pictures.

We loved Peggy's Cove when we were there many years ago.

I swear that the gift shop and restaurant had a different name -- I can tell I am getting old -- I could be wrong.

Thanks for the post Dave! The pics and info are great....we want to do this cruise in '17 and now just have lots more to look forward to!

Dave, what type of camera and what lenses are you using?

Dave, what type of camera and what lenses are you using?

My old FujiFilm point and shoot, which I have used for several cruises, finally stopped working, so I've bought another point and shoot -- A Nikon Coolpix L32. The only lens is the built-in 4.6-23 mm 5x optical zoom.

Dave

Monday, October 5, Halifax (Cont.)

We went to Happy Hour again at the Ocean Bar. In addition to wine, they served us hot hors d’oeuvres. Last night it was fried calamari. Tonight, it was vegetarian spring rolls and sausage fried wonton. Here is a photo:

We then went into early fixed dinner. For starters, I had the smoked fish. I used to be able to get smoked fish on the Lido breakfast line, but I haven’t seen for a long time. I enjoyed it very much. DW had the andouille and Swiss chard soup. For entrée, I had the duck breast. Duck breast can be pretty fatty if not prepared well; this was very crispy and well rendered, and it was excellent.

As a seeming non-sequitur, Americans tend to have mixed heritage – for example, mine is mainly Irish and Cherokee, with additions of Scottish, Welsh, English and Chickashaw. DW’s is mainly English and German in about even parts. Sometimes, her German extraction manifests itself unexpectedly; tonight was one of those nights. She ordered the crackling pork belly, along with braised red cabbage -- she raved about it.

But, after our very rich entrees, we did not feel the need for dessert. I’ve included that menu, though, along with the dinner menu:

More later,

Dave

Love your descriptions and pictures. I'll be a first time cruiser next summer. It seems so far away. In reading the menu I noticed the after dinner drinks. I assume these are included in the SBP. There is one in a souvenir glass. Do you know what the glass looks like?

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Where the heck is the bitterballen :D? Thx for the update.