Eat Club Cruise, Fall 2018. New England And Canada Maritime Provinces. October 12-19, 2018. Aboard The Norwegian Dawn. Starring The Beauty Of Fall Foliage. Call for info or reservations:
504-456-0846
The Eat Club's 2082 cruise returns to a favorite itinerary. Indeed, we have taken this watery way four times before. It is the most asked-for cruise in our repertoire, and my own favorite cruise. This may not strike you as a thrilling, exotic passage. It is not Europe. No Caribbean beaches. On the other hand, this cruise requires no transatlantic flights, no foreign languages (unless you count Yankee as a dialect), and (probably) no hurricanes. We begin in Boston. By doing that we'll be able to enjoy more of the sights of that historic city and its many excellent restaurants. We will have a package for those who want to spend a whole day or two in Boston. We sail out of Boston on Friday, October 12 at 5 p.m. Our first stop is in Portland, Maine, where we will encounter the first of a surprising number of seafood restaurants involving species we rarely see at home--notably the best scallops, mussels, and lobsters in America. Good oysters and clams, too. The best part of this cruise is Sunday in Nova Scotia. This is, among other things, the homeland of the Cajuns, who were forced out in the 1700s and wound up in Southeast Louisiana. The eastern part of Nova Scotia is also a center for lobster fishing. We'll watch that in motion, and then sit down to eat lobsters of enormous size that came directly from the fishermen who gather them nearby. The landscape around all this is amazing. After all the times we've visited the area, I've come to know a guy with a fleet of limos to take us around and bring us to the attractions. He knows all the history, including the cemetery in Halifax where a large number of survivors from the Titanic disaster are remembered. He also knows where to get the great maple syrup. Monday is a day at sea, right on time for a day of relaxing, dining, wine, spa treatments, and just relaxing. Catch up with your reading: Anne Of Green Gables. (About which more shortly.) This would be a good day to check out the eleven specialty restaurants in the recently-rebuilt ship. And that's not even counting the main dining room, the buffet, and the like. They also have many live-music clubs--big and splashy as well as intimate and artistic. And there's plenty more to occupy your day. Tuesday, we are docked in Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island. Maybe you've seen "PEI" on menus touting mussels around New Orleans. This is where they come from. The other famous item here is a series of books under the name Anne of Green Gables. I'm going to buy all eight of them and pass them around to Eat Clubbers who like to read. Maybe we can have a literary seminar about the books.(Optional) The last two ports add something dramatic and new to our cruise. In the past, the ship entered the St. Lawrence River at its wide end and stayed with it all the way to Quebec City. But we never got a good look at the fjiord-like cliffs that line the river, because we sailed through the beautiful parts overnight. Now, we stop for the day in both Gaspesie and then Saguenay, peninsulas with communities that only recently embraced tourism. It's so beautiful a landscape that a lot of the area is in National Parks. Our travels end in Quebec City. Founded in 1608, it's two hundred years older than New Orleans but sprouts from the same French roots. Walking around downtown will make you think, "Now this is what Bourbon Street should be like!" Restaurants--most with French menus--are everywhere in a city meant for walking. I'll give you a guide to the best restaurants around town. The ship will already be at the dock at daybreak, giving us the whole day to explore this magnificent French city. Saturday, October 19. We leave Quebec early in the morning for home. If you're like me, you'll already be looking forward to taking this cruise again some day. This will be my fifth time, and with good reason.--Tastefully yours, Tom Fitzmorris. [divider type=""]- Package includes seven-night cruise on the Norwegian Dawn
- Port charges and departure tax
- Dining at any four of the specialty restaurants on Norwegian Dawn, with tips included for those dinners.
- Complimentary beverages, including tips for those drinks.
