Tinkerblue

2 Hours in Halifax, Nova Scotia

 

When I signed onto Splendor it was on its last Canada/New England cruise. I couldn't get off in Portland, Maine because I don't have my new I95 yet. I was able to get off in Halifax. But we had an all crew general emergency drill first.. By the time that finished I had 2 hours to explore Halifax before back on board.

 

First stop - Royal Bank to deal with some banking. It was nice not to have to pay cross border or wire fees just to pay my Canadian bills.

 

I had an iced Capuccino at Timmies, yep an ICED cappuccino despite the fact that it's freezing outside. Well at least for me. I'm used to a Caribbean summer. I'm not used to 14c anymore. I don't have enough clothes with me for this weather. But the shop was warm and I downloaded some TV viewing while I sipped my Ice Capp.

 

 

Walked the harbourfront. Stopping to window shop, people watch and watch the boats in the harbour.

 

 

Made good use of being in a Bell service area and phoned a friend or two in Vancouver without having to pay long distance or roaming charges. It was nice to hear familiar voices. Tried to phone a few others but the middle of a week day is not a good time to catch working friends at home. Oh well.

 

Watched some glass blowing at Novia Scotian Crystal and then

 

 

shopped. You knew that was going to happen. I purchased a few Christmas gifts to send around the world. And you'll be pleased to know I continued my tradition of buying myself useless gifts for the house I do not have. Christmas decorations at that. So not only do I not have a house to put them in but they can only be used once a year! Even I don't leave Christmas decorations up all year round. Although I could say they are winter decor not Christmas decorations. Then if I move back to Australia I can put them up in July and August for winter and then again in December for Christmas. Oh I like that idea. Twice the fun.

Pewter from Amos pewter and

 

Crystal from Nova Scotian Crystal. All locally made.

 

Finally a beer before I headed back to the ship.

 

 

I would love to come back to Halifax and spend a few days exploring the area. It's my second visit to Nova Scotia, previously I've visited Sydney and Baddeck. The more time I spend here, the more I like it.

 

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

7 Months on a Trio of Ships

Alright, I was unbelievably annoyed with Typepad and the constant problems I was having getting photos to load. So I gave up. That's why there has been nothing for the last 6 months. I really need to change platforms, but it's not going to happen this week.

Anyway.

This contract got off to a rocky start. I was initially assigned to Carnival Legend in Seattle.  When I signed on it had two weeks left cruising to Alaska, then it was repositioning from Seattle to Sydney. Yes, Sydney in Australia.  But...

But there is some bizarre regulation that Australians cannot work on ships that are home ported in Australia. I was told it has to do with taxes.  Um, yeah. That makes absolutely no sense. It's more likely to do with the unions. Regardless I was not allowed to be on the ship when it arrived into Australia.  So one week after I signed onto Legend, I signed off.

Next stop? Carnival Sensation in Port Canaveral, Florida. Sensation did 3 and 4 days itineraries to the Bahamas. I am not a fan of the 3 and 4 day itineraries because it means two safety briefings a week, two liquor tastings a week, two of everything. I much prefer 7 day cruises. Oh well.

 

 

Turned out, it didn't matter. I was only there for a month. One month. I never was told why I had to transfer off Sensation, just that they were transferring me again.

October 4th I signed off Sensation and flew to Boston. October 5th I signed on to Carnival Splendor. My third ship in 6 weeks! 

I won't keep you in suspense. I didn't have to transfer again, I stayed on Splendor until the end of my contract.  

 

 

When I first joined Splendor it was doing its last Canada/New England cruise of the season.  I wasn't able to get off in Portland, Maine because I had training but I was able to explore Halifax, New Brunswick and St John, Nova Scotia - both Canadian ports.

 

 

Then Splendor relocated from New York to Norfolk, Virginia. We spent two weeks based out of Norfolk cruising to the Bahamas and to Bermuda before we repositioned to Miami.

The rest of my contract was spent based in Miami cruising to:

• Cozumel, Mexico
• Belize City, Belize
• Roatan, Honduras
• Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands
• Amber Cove, Dominican Republic
• St Thomas, US Virgin Islands
• San Juan, Puerto Rico
• Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos

Oh! And then to finish the way I started? Normally I would just sign off in Miami at the end of a cruise and another shoppies would sign on to replace me. Not this time.  A different company is taking over the shop on this particular ship so we had to pack it all up. Yep, we closed it down completely. In Freeport, Bahamas while the ship was in dry dock getting a bunch of upgrades.

 

 

This contract by the numbers:

• 3 ships - Legend, Sensation, Splendor
• 5 home ports - Seattle, Port Canaveral, New York, Norfolk and Miami
• 5 managers - Gary, Kat, Sinem, Jacques and Lisa
• 6 cabin mates - Ithu, Anneisha, Sali, Azra, Kristina and Anna
• 2 repositioning cruises - New York to Norfolk. Norfolk to Miami
• 1 Bermuda Cruise - we docked in Bermuda for 3 days/2nights and didn't cruise anywhere else
• 45 days to close down the shops - The shops were still open, we started packing up the back stock and the lockers first
• 3 Christmas I have spent at sea
• 14 days medically off with pneumonia over Christmas and New Years
• 17 trolleys of liquor - our busiest liquor pick up morning. We started at 4am and finished at 10am
• 3 unexpected seadays because we couldn't dock/anchor - Halfmoon Cay, Grand Cayman and Roatan
• 1 day working in our shop on Carnival's private island destination - Halfmoon Cay
• 2 - twice I was able to meet up with Trudy, my friend from my previous contract on Freedom. In Nassau and Belize
• 1 - once I was able to meet up with Sachin, my friend from my previous contract on Freedom. In Nassau
• 1 - once I was able to meet up with Ponky, my friend from my very first contract on Liberty. In Grand Turk
• 4 days in dry dock in Freeport, Bahamas
• 7 shoppies/managers who closed the shop down. Our full team was 15.