Our Trips: Cruise to Halifax, Canda. June 23

Background

Anne and I were part of the Cornell Chinese Bible Study Group (CBSG) during our years in Ithaca, NY in the 1970s. Over the nine years of my being at Cornell (8 for Anne) we had come to know many other Chinese Americans; some are older than us, some are younger. For this cruise the oldest got his/her first degree around 1970, and the youngest around 1979.

Over the years we have kept in touch. There is a Northeast contingent that meets regularly (well, a couple of times a year), and a West coast contingent as well. We had two prior reunions, one in 2007 - a cruise from LA area to Mexico, one in 2009 from NYC to St. John, New Brunswick. It took 17 years for this third one to be organized.

Cruise Specifics

For this 2026 cruise, five couples flew in from the West coast, one couple form Toronto, and one individual from Hong Kong. Altogether 36 people attended. (I may be miscounting here and there.)

The cruise ship itinerary was simple: start Tuesday night, arrive Halifax Thursday morning, spend the day in Halifax, and return that evening to arrive at Bayonne Saturday morning. Two full at-sea days.

We only had a few scheduled activities, Bible studies lead by two of the cruisers, and one session on health. However, between reminiscing over old photos and general catching up we had little "free time."

To get to and from the Cape Liberty Cruise Terminal, we enlisted a couple of private cars.

While we were on a large passenger ship, that we had calm sailing was not a given. Weather was great throughout the trip, except for some light rain during our first full day at sea.

Ship Review

Royal Caribbean Independence of the Seas was built in 2008, and refurbished in 2018. If refurbishment is on a ten-year cycle, that would mean we are a couple of years from the next one. While the ship shows her age, she remains highly functional, and was in great condition.

Our stateroom on the 9th deck has a balcony, and is quite roomy compared to some other cruise ships we were on recently (Disney Alaska Cruise and a couple of European River Cruises come to mind). Considering how little time we spent in the room, even less on the balcony, I wonder if an inside stateroom, or one with portholes, wouldn't be sufficient.

A few words on the cruise ship experience. Staff on cruise ships are always friendly, and generally know what they are doing (getting food orders correct, and the staterooms clean are prime examples), so there are no issues there.

The ship gave us a conference room that we could use for most of the cruise, which was much appreciated. Only drawback was no food and drink were allowed. (I suppose we could always order coffee and snack service from them.) One result is we spent a lot of time at the Windjammers Restaurant. It closed at 9 pm, so we had to break up by then (the last night was an exception, we were there until around 10 pm). While there was no more food offering, we could still get coffee and tea.

Food quality on cruise ships seems to have declined considerably over the last few decades, even though as I get older I am less picky about food. From the first evening meal on, "Sizzler" kept coming to mind. Indeed Sizzler steaks are generally thicker than what the cruise ship offered; so "medium rare" is a concept that was seldom achieved. Menu selections at the dining room were also limited. I found that surprising as I thought a ship with 4,000 passengers would be able to offer more variety. In that regard Windjammer offered a much broader variety, but that meant looking for a table during rush hour.

Some sort of entertainment is offered every evening. We went only for a playing card show. It was pretty impressive; the pace could be a bit faster, though.

Halifax, NS. Anne and I drove from NJ to Nova Scotia back in 1980, when she was pregnant with our first child. We stopped by several cities in the province, including Halifax. What is more memorable was Peggy's Cove, and the lighthouse. Today's Peggy's Cove is very touristy, with several shops and eateries. The walk to the lighthouse looked treacherous enough that I decided not to walk there; instead we went to the actual Cove for which the town is named. Our tour guide told us that the population in the winter is 29.

Given the population of Canada (about 40 million) and Nova Scotia (about 1 million), I was surprised that Halifax has over 500,000 residents. Today was a nice day, and the drive through town was very pleasant. Given its location next to the ocean, and the gulf stream, the weather generally isn't as harsh as one would expect. We decided not to explore the city further, again in large part due to my back problems.

Overall. The friendship and camaraderie fostered by the group in the 1970s remain as strong as ever. Even though some had not seen each other for 17 (or more) years, we talked with each other without skipping a beat. We lost a few from the 2009/2007 cruises, which makes the reunion even more precious. There is talk we will do it again in a couple of years. It would be nice if we could pull it off.

Below I post some of the photos taken during the trip (some are taken from the shared drive set up for photo uploads).