Caribbean Princess Canada/New England Day 4: Bar Harbor, Maine

Day #4:    Bar Harbor, Maine
Cruise Line:  Princess        Ship:  Caribbean Princess   Length of Cruise:  7 days     Departure Port:  New York City

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Arrival: At around 7:00am, another beautiful sunrise welcomed us as we rounded Mt. Desert Island and entered Frenchman’s Bay where the ship anchored.  For passengers who had booked excursions and for those wanting to go ashore to explore the village of Bar Harbor, it was necessary to use the ship’s tenders. The tendering process went smoothly, the water was calm and the trip did not take very long.

Sunrise as we arrived at Bar Harbor

Ship's tender boat that took us to shore

Morning in Bar Harbor: Since our excursion didn’t start until late morning, we had plenty of time to explore the village of Bar Harbor with its many shops and galleries. There was also time for a walk along the scenic historic shore path that passed elegant homes of the Bar Harbor Golden Age.

View from Bar Harbor after tendering

Area around the pier

Interesting building in Bar Harbor

Looking down the main street & shopping area of Bar Harbor

Acadia National Park: One of the reasons for booking this cruise in October was to be able to visit Acadia NP and, hopefully, to see beautiful fall colors. Unfortunately, a strong wind storm several weeks ahead of the cruise blew away many of the leaves. But the storm didn’t do anything to diminish the beauty of Acadia National Park. The park had it all – spectacular ocean scenery with beaches and mountains.

Beginning our tour of Acadia National Park - two cruise ships in port

Sand Beach - between the granite mountains and rocky shore

Excursions: Most of the excursions visited Acadia NP with various stopping points, ways of transporting (coach, carriage, limousine, boat or bicycle), and different lengths of tours. Our 2.5 hour excursion was by coach and we drove along the coastline of the park, passed Sand Beach, stopped at Thunder Hole and then followed a winding, narrow road to the top of Cadillac Mountain, the tallest mountain on the US Atlantic coast. We spent the majority of our time on the mountain which gave us a great view of Frenchman’s Bay and Porcupine Islands as well as Bar Harbor. We could even see our cruise ship!

Rocky coast

Thunder Hole - waves crashing in collide with air which created sound of distant thunder. Water can splash into the air as high as 40ft.

Rocks and surf

Still some fall color could be seen

View from Cadillac Mountain

View of Frenchman's Bay and Porcupine Islands from Cadillac Mt.

Colorful bushes

Another view from Cadillac Mt.

Path to top of mountain

Lobster boats in Frenchman's Bay

Lobster boat

Tendering back to ship

Afternoon Tea: We arrived back to the ship in time for a special treat – afternoon tea. It sounded very English and it was. There were tiny sandwiches, many different kinds of cookies and other desserts and, of course, tea, but the best (for me) was the scones served with whipped cream and jam.  I really didn’t need to eat dinner after all the scones I ate!

Evening Entertainment: The Comedy Showtime that evening starred a hypnotist. He asked for volunteers from the audience to take part in the show by being hypnotized by him. If these “volunteers” were not really volunteers, it was not apparent to me. It was the funniest show I have ever seen. After the show I felt a little guilty for laughing so hard at the antics of my fellow passengers, but they did agree to be hypnotized and, hopefully, knew how foolish they might look to the audience.

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