Well the cruise ship botched Halifax by not providing a city itinerary or allowing enough time to see "the sights", but they made St. John look like there were no "sights" to be seen. The only tours were "pub crawls" and tours of the pier area.
As I mentioned before the Bay of Fundy is a "sight" all on its own, but we pulled in under the cover of darkness with only me and a handful of other possible Maximalists awake to see the view. We also departed at dinnertime, sigh. Another missed adventure was what appeared to be a fort at the top of a distant hill. It was, in fact the Carleton Martello Tower which played a part in the War of 1812 and is now a museum. With a little homework our cruise company and our cruise director (no Julie McCoy that's for sure) could have made this visit a thrilling historical adventure. Instead people came back to the boat and wondered why we stopped there. Sad but true.
I wonder why cruise ships don't bother creating truly interesting tours or providing a serious reference booklet about the ports of call. If they left the gambling tables open while we were docked I could understand the fear of lost revenue, but they were closed. And a heck of a lot of gambling accompanied the serious drinking took place.
The Maximalist did find one unlisted beauty of a place; the Scheherazade Books and Music store! Just a great place to browse and a grand collection in French and English. I found some wonderful LPs and some paperbacks I've been hunting for locally. I could have spent a few more hours just there.
Alas. I would love to go back to these two serious cities and get to know the area and the sights. Maybe in time for the Halifax Jazz Festival in 2012?
As for cruising, the Maximalist is not the casino type and I just did not find the glimpses of the two ports of call to be fulfilling. Perhaps a Caribbean cruise would be more like it. Beach hopping without the need to unpack.
As for cruises in general, I would have to try a different line or a different time of year perhaps. Maybe this particular cruise was something of an aberration, but I found the drinking to be astonishing. Every time you turned around you saw someone holding a gigantic drink, a bottle of beer, or wine. And the started with the bloody marys and mimosas at breakfast! There were AA/NA meetings twice a day on the ship, but there appeared to be plenty of people who should have become friends of Bill W.
Alcohol consumption is nothing I favor maximalizing in terms of quantity, but I bet that drove people to gamble more liberally. Anyway I got an idea of the true scope of the drinking when the cruise director announced a raffle. The prize was $500.00 off your bar bill! It was a five day cruise.
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