Days at Sea and a visit to St.John's, Newfoundland

Days at Sea on the Ruby and St. John's, Newfoundland

We left Reykjavik, Iceland and had three days at sea before arriving at St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. We got into a routine with coffee in our room at 7am and breakfast in the dining room by 9am.  We enjoy sharing tables, talking to other passengers and the different breakfast menu every day.  We've met people from so many states and countries it would be difficult to list them all.  The conversation is as good as the eggs and bacon.

We started playing "Progressive Trivia" at the beginning of the cruise. There are about 20 different teams of six who meet every sea day in the Club Fusion and attempt to answer 10 trivia questions. The scores are progressive and the team who has the most points at the end of the cruise wins! Well we are five points off the leaders at this point and we probably will not catch them. It's been a lot of fun. I spend the days reading and enjoying a Classical string quartet in the afternoon plus MA's done line dancing and tap dancing classes.

WW & MA......Cathy & Richard 

On our last cruise we met Richard and Cathy from Virginia at an airline employee event. We were really pleased to find them again on this cruise and have really enjoyed meeting them for dinner in the early evenings. Thanks to Cathy, we have a reserved table in a small alcove of the big dining room.  We get the same waiters every evening who come to know our preferences quite quickly plus the maitre d' comes more than once to check on how our dinner is going. We then all go to one of the evening shows of either magic, classical music or a very funny ventriloquist. Our next stop was at St. John's in Newfoundland, Canada on Friday.

Entering St. John's protected harbor

St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada

The Ruby Princess entered the narrows of St. John's harbor about 6:30 Friday morning. This is the most natural port and harbor that I have ever seen. The sun had not risen but you could still see the harbor and city under lights. We had booked a "Photographer's Tour" at 1:30 pm.  In the morning we decided to walk around town and then a ceremony of pomp and circumstance to honor our ship's first visit to this port. The mayor was introduced by the "St. John's town crier" accompanied by a fife and drum military tattoo (band) and three soldiers dressed in WW1 uniforms.

The time quickly passed and we gathered our cameras and met our group in the Princess Theater. I was hoping for a small group of 15-20 people as other "photographer tours" have been. This was not to be. Sixty of us were stuffed into a "tourist bus" along with two local photographers. The only thing that made it a photography tour was some basic advice from the two photography guides. I was disappointed but attempted to enjoy the moment because we were still in a place a lot of people only dream of visiting.

Fort Amherst & Lighthouse

We started out with a drive around the harbor to the opposite side to see of the city to photograph Ft. Amherst and the Cape Spear Lighthouse which is the oldest in Newfoundland. It is also located at the very most easterly point in all of North America. We then continued on to a fishing boat harbor where we walked and took some really great photos of the scenery and lighthouse.  MA got some nice photos around the harbor and the boats.

St. John's is a city build around the harbor. It dates back to colonial times and has a wonderful history. Land is a premium so most of the homes are "row houses."  They are multicolored and remind me of San Francisco.

Our next stop was the tiny fishing village of Quidi Vidi located on an inlet near St. John's.  Some of the buildings date from the 1750's.  I also found some great subjects with the wide angle lens of lobster traps and the village. 





Our tour then took us back through town and up to Signal Hill, the site of the reception of the first "wireless" on the Marconi in Morse code in 1901.

We visited the Government House which I wasn't interested in photographing and then drove a short distance to the Basilica of St. John's, where the pope visited a few years ago. We could not get inside as there was a wedding in progress.

We were then bused back to the ship and after passing through security we made it to the room, changed clothes and has supper with Richard and Cathy. Entertainment for the evening was a ventriloquist by the name of John Paul Ziegfeld, a very funny guy. 

We are on our last two sea days and will arrive in New York City on Monday morning. I hope you have enjoyed the blog. We are sorry about not reading your emails or not putting up a lot of pictures. Our internet service on board leaves a lot to be desired.   I will send out a link to some more photographs after we get home and I can edit them.

Thanks for tuning in! Bon voyage!  Wayne and MA

The Big Apple

As we pulled into New York Harbor, Miss Liberty greeted us with her arm held high.  As the sun came up I went to the 16th deck and got a few more before we left the ship.

Battery Park, Coast Guard cutter and NYC Skyline