A friend of mine broke up with her boyfriend and since the cabin had been paid for she asked me if I’d join her on the cruise.  I’ve traveled a lot but I had never been on a cruise and had always resisted the idea.  But, I felt bad for my friend and decided to take the cruise and check it out.

Well, I can tell you before I share my photos that I was right when I say that I resisted cruising.  It’s just not for me.  I live in Manhattan and the theatres and restaurants and endless activities are available to me 24/7 so that the 25 restaurants, the shows (even though good) and their type of activities where just not that exciting.  Also the Shore Excursions that I signed up for (pictures to follow) were just a taste of the areas and that’s also just not my thing.  I enjoy immersing myself in a culture, experiencing the people, the supermarkets and the history on a much more intense level.  So even though I had a pleasant time simply because it was the first cruise and there was a learning curveLol-on how to find how to get to where and the language used, I highly doubt that you’ll find me on another cruise ship in the very near future 🙂 🙂 🙂

So I cruised on the Norweigan Escape and we left from Pier 88 at 711 12th Avenue.

It’s a humongous ship which holds about 4200 passengers and 1800 in crew.  It makes Time Square look minuscule when it’s dinner or show time.  Way too many people for me to have to deal with. Wow!!

Here are some angles of the ship:

Here is the outside of the cabin where lights indicate whether you’re in the room or you need the room cleaned and here’s also a shot from the balcony:

Here are the essential places to know and learn how to get to 🙂

Here are the 3 restaurants that I ate in:

Here is one of the venues where I saw some shows:

And here is a typical Cruise Ship Hallway on the Escape:

So we left New York on a Sunday, were at sea on Monday and on Tuesday we docked in Portland, Maine.  I signed up for a Windjammer Experience and it rocked.

Then on Wednesday we arrived in Bar Harbor, Maine.  At this port, we had to take a tender to the dock.

And here I am in one of my most favorite cities Bar Harbor, Maine where we would up taking a 2 hour tour of Arcadia National Park.  Love it here!

The next day we docked at St. Johns, New Brunswick.  We took a bus tour of St. Johns and also visited the Bay of Fundy.  The Bay of Fundy is one of the 7 wonders of North America because it has the highest tides on earth, the rarest whales in the world, semi-precious minerals and dinosaur fossils and it was nice to see.

The following day we docked at Halifax, Nova Scotia and I took another land excursion.  The best part of this was when we visited Peggy’s Cove.  Peggy’s Cove has stunning natural beauty, lots of hiking trails, kayaking, bird watching, pristine beaches and golf courses.

Here’s a good shot of what the area looks like…

So all in all, there were some lovely highlights to the cruise but with the focus on the food, the shows and activities and very little land time-it’s just not the way that is most comfortable for me to travel.

Would I go on another cruise.  I never say never But it’s highly unlikely 🙂 🙂 🙂