Geoff Brock & Bruce Gamble
         
     
   
 
 
 
 
 
 

Day 12: We disembark in Saint John, New Brunswick

A visit to the Reversing Falls and a drive to St. Martins, followed by
lunch back on the ship, before final disembarkation and hotel transfer.
Saturday 12th October 2024
After a relaxing day at sea yesterday, we sailed into the port of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada at around 8:00am. (We should have been sailing into the port of Portland, Maine, USA right now and seeing places like the Old Port waterfront and driving to Kennebunkport, but as explained earlier, these pleasures had been denied us).
 
 
 
 
 

We were told last night that we would have to undergo a face-to-face immigration process when we arrived, despite the fact that we had been in Canada and Canadian waters for the past 12 days. When the time came this morning, this wasn't required and we were able to disembark quickly for our morning excursion.

The port seemed to be very quiet, with only a handful of staff on hand to keep an eye on us and our ship. Today was the start of a long weekend, culminating in Canada's Thanksgiving Day on Monday and as we were last-minute unexpected visitors, we surmised that many of the port's staff had been given leave.
 
From the ship, we could see the Crowne Plaza Hotel, where we would be staying overnight tonight.
 
 
We were quite surprised (and thankful) that three coaches, with drivers and local tour guides, had been found at short notice on a holiday weekend and that they were all ready and waiting for us with cheery smiles on their faces.

From the port, we drove through the city of Saint John (not to be confused with the arguably better known city of St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador) towards Rockwood Park, before turning back and driving through some residential areas to the Fallsview Park, from where there are the best views of the Reversing Falls.
 
 
Some of the best colours (plus the odd deer or two) were to be seen as we got to Rockwood Park. Sadly there was no time to make a stop here.
 
 
 
 
We then turned and drove through some residential areas on our way to Fallsview Park...
 
 
 
...catching another glimpse of the harbour and of our ship en-route.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Our first stop was at the Fallsview Park, from where there is this view, rather spoilt, we thought by the Irving Pulp and Paper Mill, which dominates.
 
During our visit, the water was quite calm. In addition to our own photos below, we have added additional photos (with borders) to illustrate the full impact of the tidal flows that create the Reversing Falls effect.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
At the end of our visit to the Fallsview Park, it was back on the coach for an unexpectedly long trip to St Martins.
 
 
 
Our guide was quite a character and had many stories and anecdotes! Here, she tells us about toilet paper... by royal appointment!
 
During the drive to St. Martins, our guide passed around a packet of Dulse, which she said she loved. We tried it, but weren't particularly keen on it. Perhaps it is an "acquired taste" after all.
"Somewhat of an acquired taste, dulse is an edible red seaweed that grows in intertidal zones in the North Atlantic and Northwest Pacific Oceans. Dulse picked off the coast of Grand Manan Island, in the Bay of Fundy, is said to be the best in the world, specifically that harvested in Dark Harbour. The high cliffs along this western section of the island shade the intertidal zones, protecting the dulse from too much sunlight and therefore producing a darker, thicker and more flavourful seaweed."
 
Rain began falling quite heavily as we arrived in St. Martins.
 
 
 
 
Despite the rain, Bruce saw an ice-cream shop beyond the trees and made a dash for it!
 
We were given a very warm welcome by the lady in the ice cream (and gallery) shop. The place looked and felt warm and inviting too and we think she sensed that we might be her only potential customers for the day.
 
 
Naturally, we didn't want to disappoint the proprieter so we bought her ice cream... only to please her, you understand! Bruce loved his walnut and vanilla treat.
 
Afterwards, we made for the Vaughan Creek Covered Bridge.
 
 
 
 
 
Later, back on the coach, we drove the short distance to the beach with the somewhat forlorn hope of visiting the famous sea caves.
 
 
 
Well, it might have been interesting to get closer and to go inside, but it wasn't going to happen today.
 
It was still raining heavily as we began our return trip to the ship.
 
We were happy to back on board for lunch!
 
After lunch, some people went out again for a tour of the city of Saint John. We chose to stay on board and enjoy our last couple of hours on the ship.
 
 
By mid-afternoon, it was time for us to disembark and make our way over to the hotel that we could see from the ship. Ideally, we would all have preferred to stay on the ship for another night before flying to Boston tomorrow, but because of a lack of staff at the port over the Thanksgiving weekend, our ship was having to leave the port before sunset, after which the port was going to close.
 
 
A last look back at our lovely ship as we boarded the coach for the very short drive to the hotel.
 
The Crowne Plaza Hotel - our home for one night only.
 
 
The hotel was quirky, in a nice way, and our room was large and very comfortable.
 
We didn't have a view of the harbour, but for one night, it was fine.
 
 
We were given a voucher for 50 Canadian dollars each, to use for dinner in the hotel restaurant. We were given the option of going elsewhere for dinner if we preferred (refundable in cash once we got home), but this would have meant getting a taxi into town. Also, being a Saturday night, we thought that finding a table might prove difficult. Our reluctance to do this and to go instead for the default option of eating at the hotel, was probably a mistake. The hotel had only been given 24 hours notice of an influx of 100 guests and there were only two people serving in the restaurant and clearly not many in the kitchen either. The food, when it finally arrived, was really good, but we were disappointed by the impatience and bad attitudes shown towards the staff by some of our fellow passengers, especially the four people who happened to be sharing a table with us.
 
After dinner, we went back to our room and had an early night. We had quite an early start in the morning.
 
 
 
©Geoff Brock and Bruce Gamble