Today is the final day of the cruise. We are docking in Portland Maine around 11am. Since this is the first U.S. port, we have to do an immigration process.
Yesterday was Halifax. We love Halifax and have been before. We wanted to do something different this time. We had coffee in Cafe el Baccio prior to leaving the ship. We walked down the board walk which I enjoyed. The board walk is easy to access right where the cruise ships dock. There are a lot of great statues at the beginning of the boardwalk that display a lot of the history.
The boardwalk starts at pier 21 and the Farmers market right at the cruise port. The immigration museum is also in the port area and there are several statues and works of art that depict immigration into this port area. You get to the Cunard statue and then enter the boardwalk. There is lots of great seating along the waterfront. I could see myself sitting here on a nice day listening to a podcast or an audio book.
A little further down you start getting to many restaurants and shops. The boardwalk spans 2.5 miles and ends at a casino on the north end. One cool area about is called the Salt yard and hosts a kiosk of foods popular in Halifax and New England. You can find Dave’s Lobster, Cow’s ice cream, Smoke’s poutinerie, a place to get Beavertails (a famous Canadian pastry), and a large patio area with picnic tables, etc.
Past the Salt yard, you will find other restaurants, a beer garden, and the entrance to the Maritime museum of the Atlantic, the oldest and largest maritime museum in Canada.
We decided to take the ferry across the Harbor to Dartmouth, get a lobster roll, and visit the battery park restaurant for a beer. There are also a few breweries near the Alderney landing in dartmouth. The app for the ferry and the ability to purchase tickets electronically is new in 2024. I downloaded the app ahead of our visit and purchased 2 one way tickets the day before our arrival which were good for 1 year until they were activated. Tickets were $3 canadian for a single ride which is just over $2 with the current US exchange rate. We activated the ticket when we arrive to the Halifax ferry terminal and were able to show it as we went through the ticket gate. Ferry’s come frequently so we only had to wait a few minutes before boarding the Alderney ferry.
The day ended up being beautiful, almost 60 degrees F and warm with the sun out. We sat on the top deck of the ferry and had a beautiful view of the Halifax harbor. It was a great way to see the city from the water and a quick 10-15 minute ride to Dartmouth. We had lunch at Evan’s seafood at the end of the ferry terminal. We split a lobster roll and fries which we enjoyed, but they also had Lobster poutine. From the ferry terminal it was a short 10 minute walk to Battery park. The walk was somewhat uphill. We passed another place that looked popular to get Humble pie along the walk.
We sat at the bar and each got a beer at battery park. The bar had a great local bar with a lot of cool decorations around the bar area. Battery park is very popular for their burgers and had one of the origonal smash burgers.
After 1 beer each, we decided to head back to the ferry terminal and back across the Harbor to Halifax. The ticket is good for a few hours after activation, so we did not have to buy a seperate one way ticket to get back. We walked back down the boardwalk to the port area and decided to visit Garrison’s brewery in the cruise port. We have been to Garrison’s on previous trips to Halifax.
After re-boarding the ship, we watched sail-away and visited the sunset bar in the back of the ship. Dinner last night was in the main dining room. It was lobster night. We had lobster and split the beef Wellington. I also had shrimp cocktail, and Escargot. We called it an early night last night and watched a movie in the room after the show in the main theater. It was a great day that was even more spectacular with the sun shining.
