Bar Harbour, Maine to New York

Early Monday morning we anchored off Bar Harbour, Maine and eventually tendered ashore after everyone on board had  presented themselves to US Immigration Officers. Despite good ship organization, many people had to wait in line for at least 45 minutes causing the usual unrest!

Bar Harbour is a small town situated on Mount Desert Island and is the gateway to Acadia National Park which includes 33,000 acres of forest. With autumn arriving a little late this year the trees were showing some autumn colour but were still not at their best.

Travelling around the island, we visited a coastal ´thunder hole´ where waves funnel into a rock tunnel and also climbed to the top of Cadillac Mountain, said to be the highest point on the east coast of the USA. The views were fantastic and the sun shone! Many large mansions are dotted around the coastline but most are only holiday homes as the winters are quite harsh.

The highlight of our day was a hotel lunch where we were served a whole fresh soft shell lobster each. What fun we had getting at the meat which was delicious!

That evening we picked up the anchor and were off to Boston, a lovely city that we last visited in 1991.

The morning arrived and we were alongside by 0800 but so disappointed to have grey and drizzly weather. Undaunted however we set off about 0930 in our wet gear on the shuttle bus which took us into the centre of the city and dropped us off near Quincy Market.

Boston has such wonderful history (The Tea Party and Paul Revere spring to mind) and such impressive buildings (The State House especially). For tourists the Freedom Trail is marked out on the pavements and is easy to follow and connects all of the major places of interest. But on a grey day with continuous heavy drizzle our enthusiasm waned quickly and after walking most of the Trail we ended up in a Cheers Bar next to Quincy Market the got the shuttle bus back to the ship. We sailed at 1600hrs and 2 passengers and 2 crew were late back and held the ship up!

On Wednesday morning we awoke anchored in Newport Rhode Island but another wet day. We tendered ashore to do our tour to visit Rose Island Lighthouse which involved a boat trip around the wonderful harbour but we all got soaked! We had always imagined this centre of yachting to be so pretty and remember the Americas cup races years ago which were held there. Saw some magnificent mansions around the bay and of course some large boats but the atmosphere was lost due to the weather conditions. After our tour it was still raining hard so we returned to the ship to dry out, disappointed that we couldn´t explore further.

Thursday morning and we awoke early as we steamed up the Hudson River to our Manhattan berth at Pier 88. That wonderful skyline is unmistakeable!. Breakfast after we evacuated our cabin and said goodbye to Roberto our steward. Then waiting around until 1000 when we left Crown Princess after a great 10days.

I haven´t said much in these notes about the ship but she is magnificent. Wonderful cabins and we had a great balcony but didn´t use it much! The food could not be faulted anywhere and was excellent. The staff especially are terrific including the

Horizon Court

staff who actually serve up juice and coffee and alcoholic drinks as well as clearing tables. Why don´t P&O do this? Special thanks to Peggy, Joe and Natalie in Crooners Bar who were always such fun. Most of the passengers were so great to talk to too and interested in talking. No British reserve  although there were about 300 Brits aboard.