July 27, 2024 - Canadian Cruise Vacation Day 8 - Bar Harbor, Maine

Bar Harbor was a gorgeous place to drop anchor.  And since it was the only port that was too small for us to directly dock at, we literally did drop anchor there.

Unfortunately, the health issues continue to plague our group and I was the only one well enough to go on shore.  I enjoyed the shuttle trips both ways.  It’s really weird to walk from a very large boat to a relatively small one while neither is anywhere near a dock.  The trip TO Bar Harbor I was on a contracted dinner cruise type boat (good sized) but on the way back to the ship I was on one of our ship’s own tenders which are really fancy lifeboats but somewhat better equipped.  For lunch I ate at West Street Cafe and had a spicy chicken sandwich and coleslaw.  Though there are a few deep fried items on the ship, they seem few and far between so it hit the spot as did the blueberry mule.  

Other than the trips to and from and the lunch, Bar Harbor wasn’t my favorite.  Far more than any of the Canadian cities we visited, Bar Harbor seemed utterly overrun with tourists.  Surely our ship was a big part of that but there were also license plates from everywhere.  Also, Bar Harbor seems to have very little public space.  It was just block after block of dense commercial space.  I did walk farther inland and it got a little less commercial but not any less privately owned and restrictive.  There is a path which leads 1000 feet back from the end of a road to the shore and then apparently used to go both back towards port and the other direction along the shore but it (even the 1000 foot connector) is all marked as closed due to ‘storm damage’.  There were a lot of people on the closed trail so I went ahead and went also and it’s not damaged enough to seemingly warrant closing it but worse, it has a big no trespassing sign and barrier placed along where it clearly used to go farther towards port.  It’s possible∫ this damage is legit and recent but honestly, to me, it felt like a clear case of using some storm or event as an excuse to pseudo privatize a pathway which was previously public.  (Nice alliteration!)

I made my way back to ship around 2 pm and everybody was in nap mode so it was a quiet return.  We had reservations at one of the ‘casual’ upgrade dining options on the Emerald Princess at 7:30 which is much later than our usual 5:20 pm dinner reservations in the dining room.  My step-mother, father and I played Sequence on one of the pool decks since it was nice and warm there and had a cocktail while we played.  Dinner at ‘Salty Dog Gastropub’ was certainly a letdown but it was, at least for me, fun to try something else for our last dinner on the ship.

It’s been a very nice first cruising experience.  In one way I feel the same about this cruise as I do almost every single vacation or road trip I ever go on which is that I’m happiest when I start the trip and when I finish it.  I’m not usually the person who wishes vacation will never end.