Veendam birthday

May 30, 2013: Halifax
My life raft drill was cancelled this morning! So, I went out and got internet for a little bit with Jenn before going on an excursion to Peggy’s Cover. Odd weather. It was foggy this morning, cleared up when I went out with Jenn, got rainy-looking again when the excursion left the main town and stayed that way until we got back to the ship and it was sunny again. The excursion was mainly a bus ride out to Peggy’s Cove. The tour guide was very talkative, she talked about the town of Halifax, friends she knew and finally some about Peggy’s cove when we arrived. We had about 45 minutes to walk around Peggy’s Cove when we arrived, but it was foggy, cold and looked like it was about to rain. I didn’t walk around long, I wasn’t too impressed with the area: a small lighthouse, a small town, fishing/lobster boats, and lots and lots of rocks. I was kind of relieved to get back on the bus for the ride back. As we got closer however, all of the passengers and I got more and more nervous about getting back on time. The tour guide took us the long way back to town, then we had to go through town and all the traffic to get back to the ship. We got back and the people in charge of the tour guides were there, not happy that we were 10 minutes late. We were the last tour to get back and the ship was having to wait on us.

I spent the next hour going through my pictures and getting ready for dinner! For my birthday, Carly had made reservations for me, Jenn, Donna and herself to eat at the Pinnacle! We had a dinner with really good food (for once!) and had fun just hanging out off duty. Carly had to get to work, she told me that she would cover for me so I could hang out more without having to worry about time.

I got there right after freetime. It was “Brave the Night” so the kids had divided themselves into teams and started making their team flags. It was thankfully only the older kids, so I knew it would go well. They finished their flags and presented them to the group, then we went on to do a word scramble, Wall-Sits, the letter riddle game. Snack finally arrived (an hour late!), so when we finished the letter-puzzles, I had them do the jello-slurp before we had snack. Great timing because some parents came to pick them up during the slurping! With only two kids left (on the same team), I had them do the other challenges on their own until time to leave. It was a good night. I probably stayed up too late chatting with Donna, Paul (officer) and Carly, but it was a fun night in the OB as well!

May 31, 2013: Bar Harbor
I had to get up early to help with immigration again. Carly and I worked together to scan all the cards of all the passengers. It took a while, and the cruise director was doing tendering and was frustrated that none of us were downstairs helping her with tendering. We got all but 8 of the passengers through, and they told me I could go help with tendering. Luckily that only took about 2 and a half hours. I got off with Jacqui and we went walking around. We ended up on the sandbar that disappears during high tide. I of course went barefoot, because it was warm enough not to wear long sleeves! We had lunch and then I went off to meet my tour.

It was a pretty crowded tour. Not really what I was expecting though, of course I didn’t really know what I was expecting anyway. It was a bus tour of Acadia National Park. They slowed down when we got to some areas, but we didn’t’ get off until we got to Cadillac mountain. We had about 20 minutes to walk around there, before it was back on the bus and back to the ship. We could see the ship from Cadillac Mountain, which was pretty cool. Funny considering I was looking at it when it was crew all aboard time. I was an escort, so that didn’t apply to me today, but it was a bit odd. We were the last to get on the tender to get back on the ship. I’m very glad I got to get off and do something today, even if it wasn’t my first choice in tours.
Once back on the ship, I got my suitcase from Donna and started to pack. I got up to Club HAL and found that Carly had had the kids do arts and crafts stuff for my birthday. They’d made me a sign! :) It was a pretty easy night, we had free time for a little over an hour, then watched the Wizard of Oz.
Carly and I went to the OB and hung out and said bye. I ended up staying and talking to Paul for a while, until we realized how late it was and how I had to leave in the morning