Cruising With Mike: The $399 Sailing (III)

Trip Report Contents 

Part One: Introduction & Planning
Part Two:  To Boston & Sailing Away
Part Three:  Bar Harbor, These Are Tender Times (This Installment)
Part Four:  Cloudy and Windy In Halifax
Part Five:  Seeing the Sun In Sydney
Part Six:  Sunny Charlottetown
Part Seven:  Down the Saint Lawrence, a Day “At-Sea"
Part Eight:  Québec City.  Again.
Part Nine:  Into Montréal; Out of Montréal

Part Three:  Bar Harbor, These Are Tender Times

Sunday morning we slept in a little and then went down together to the main dining room for breakfast before returning to the cabin to get ready to head ashore.

Tender Times

Bar Harbor is too small to be able to accommodate larger ships along its quay.  So, the Maasdam anchors offshore, about a football field’s length from the dock.  Passengers make the last leg of the journey to Bar Harbor via tender, small boats hanging from the mother-ship and doubling as life boats in, um, more trying times.

To get a spot on the tender, we had to go to the showroom to get a ticket and then waited for our number to be called.  We were called after about twenty or so minutes, which, given how long we’d waited to go down, was a bit of a surprise.  We packed into the tender and were ashore in about ten minutes.

 

In Bar Harbor

The town of Bar Harbor is quite small and easily explored in just a couple of hours, max.  We spent our time ducking into a few shops, picking up some souvenirs and small gifts, and eating.

Mike poses in Bar Harbor

Me in Bar Harbor

...and, we in Bar Harbor.  That sign gets a lot of camera time!

When Philip and I were in Bar Harbor a few years earlier, we happened upon the West Street Café and loved the lobster roll there.  Of course it made sense to return for more deliciousness.  Although the place was packed with people—to the contrast of our previous visit, when it was empty—the food was just as good.  We both had the chowder, lobster roll and fries, and house-made blueberry pie.  All delicious.

Incredible lunch:  lobster roll, fries, and seafood chowder.  Later there was homemade blueberry, warm blueberry pie

After lunch a band of mist and rain was moving in and offered us just the right amount of encouragement to cause us to head back to the boat.  The queue to get the tender back to the boat was short and we were back at the Maasdam within about fifteen minutes.

Reboarding

Back aboard Mike and I parted ways and met back up a little later for dinner in the main dining room.

The main:  Peppercorn steak

The dessert:  tiramisu

After dinner we went to the main show in the showroom, stopped past the piano bar for a few minutes, and then called it a night.

Up Next, Part Four, Cloudy & Windy in Halifax