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I have consumed an enormous amount of food during this cruise. All of us are joking about having forgotten what it feels like to be hungry. My favorite joke is that it only takes 3 cruises to reach the size of most of the people on board… and how can it be helped when you walk in to sushi, and then move on to veal stew, lasagna, and made-to-order Mongolian noodles? Even Bella who is normally very careful about what she eats has developed an obsession of trying every dessert offered in the evenings (after eating two plates of grilled veggies).

We have taken to stopping in at the buffet in the Windjammer when it opens at 6:30pm to feed the kids dinner…and then going directly to our dinner seating in the fancier sit-down restaurant, My Fair Lady, at 8 pm. No joke!

Our family has the same table and same servers every evening, which is nice. Perhaps what it might be like to have a personal chef and butler. They know my brother-in-law is going to want a cold beer as soon as he sits down, and that my dad always wants a sourdough roll from the fresh-baked selection. They know my mom wants hot tea, and that my brother likes to order three starters and skip the main meal. Our seating is late which is why we’ve been feeding the kids early – but the regular dinner seating (it’s even printed on our seapass) is a nice way to relax and check in with the rest of the family.

We’re presently docked in Halifax, Nova Scotia for the day. We’re not meeting the rest of the family for another two hours (at the top of the old star-shaped citadel fortress in the center of town) so we’ve stopped for our daily dose of internet in a rooftop garden above the indoor farmer’s market. Internet service on board is $35/hour, so we reserve our travel research and email checks for when we are on shore and drinking tea at Starbuck’s. We’ve been craving internet more since we’ve reached Canada as I’ve put my phone on plane mode to avoid international charges.

We’re also planning on walking through the historic area and the public gardens so Christian can have a good run around. Although there is a 50% of thunderstorms today; if it rains we’ll duck into the Maritime Museum which has actual artifacts from the Titanic (frozen bodies floated ashore and were buried here in Halifax).

We’re a little regretful not to spend more time in the wild part of Nova Scotia; we’ve been told it’s some of the most beautiful coast and country in the world! But in the nature of the cruise, we’re only one day in each port, and there is plenty to do within walking distance from the boat. Nobody in the family has ever visited Halifax before. I didn’t imagine it would be a bustling little city (375,000), but I do like all the red brick and old buildings. The northern east coast is all about history, and buildings and parks often date back to the 1700 and 1800’s.

I’ll pics when I get back to the ship tonight. It’s been hard to find the time to turn on the computer – so much EATING TO DO.

P.S. Loving my self-assigned cruise reading, Skippy Dies, by Paul Murray.  Chad’s already finished it and now Joss is halfway through too. Fantastic read about boyhood adolescence.

[Posted in Bar Harbor, Maine in a little laundromat off Cottage Street. Headed to Bridge Street next, where we hope to walk over to a little island while the tide is low. This town is quiet and quaint. My parents are attending church, and the rest of the family is sleeping in and coming over to town for lunch – lobster rolls!]

The cruise was a great idea for a family reunion as a way to avoid a large part of the feeding and logistics of keeping the Lee family fed and entertained. Food and entertainment is never-ending on a cruise ship – as soon as breakfast closes down, lunch is starting somewhere else. Ditto for the activities (and if nothing else, you can workout in the gym or go rock climbing).

We are on Day Four and pulling into Bar Harbor, Maine. The ship is cruising slowly as we approach and the ocean is calm. Outside our room, the corridors are deserted, as it’s not even 6 am, and many of the night’s activities (live music, stage shows, gambling, karaoke, dancing) have only just finished up.  We’re in the early-to-bed-and-early up set, which has the main advantage of avoiding the crowds. It’s a pretty big advantage this morning; the boat docks at 7 am and first small boat shuttles start for shore at 7:15 am. Yesterday we spent the better part of an hour in lines feeling like sardines, being hustled in lines from floor to floor, and barely managed to get into Portland with the whole family intact. (Ironically, we all separated into groups shortly thereafter; one group to rent bicycles and see the new Harry Potter; one group to go on a trolley tour; and the third group to the park, library, and toy store.)

Yesterday, though, was the first shore day of the cruise and also the first time seeing land after nearly 48 hours at sea. Besides which, we didn’t dock until 11 am, so there was a lot of time to anticipate the docking in Portland. I don’t expect to have to deal with lines today.

Our room is larger than we anticipated and very comfy. Granted the bathroom is teeny, but for being on a boat – actually, in any mode of transportation: motor home, train, bus, airplane – the bathroom is roomy, with the delightful addition of daily maid service. I’d forgotten about that part of cruising – that a boat is transportation!

The experience of navigating the long narrow halls of the ship is somewhere between walking down the center of a railway car and a hotel corridor. In fact, the whole ship is literally a floating hotel. (Or a prison, since you can’t leave this hotel.) It’s strange, because you’re having this impersonal experience of eating a buffet meal like at Soup Plantation or Hometown Buffet, but at every meal the faces are the same. It’s a surreal experience, to walk on deck while at sea and realize that you are essentially marooned on ship with thousands of strangers (2000+), with whom you have nothing in common except for that fact that you chose to be on a New England cruise ship in July.

New England is a beautiful place to be in July. The skies are gorgeous blue with fluffy clouds (lots of sky-watching out at sea) and there is always a breeze, so even though the temps are close to 80 it feels refreshing.

I don’t like being “fresh off the boat” every time the boat docks and we all spill onto shore, but Chad and I have managed to stay on foot and explore different nooks and crannies of town. Chad was not so impressed with Portland, judging from the name of the wi-fi networks that kept popping up on my phone and from the number of locals smoking… but Bar Harbor he has deemed a free wi-fi paradise – and movies cost only $6 at the local theater.