July 23, 2023. Bar Harbor

At 7 a.m. there was a thick fog, as the captain’s last evening’s weather forecast predicted. The temperature was 19°C and a light breeze NW 7 kmph.

We finally met the room stewards for this hallway. On previous cruises on Holland America ships and other ships, the stewards greet you on boarding day, give you their card so that you know their names and find out any special requests you may have, if any.

We walked seven times around the Promenade Deck before breakfast accumulating 3,500 steps (2 km). The ship’s fog horn was blowing every two minutes. The service in the dining room was slow, at our table, taking over 70 minutes for breakfast. During that time we saw the boat that delivered the harbour pilot at 8:30 a.m., as the captain had predicted. Shortly after the fog dissipated within 15 minutes revealing a blue sky with some puffy white clouds near the horizon. We could see the numerous islands we passed on our way to Bar Harbor, Maine.

When we returned to the stateroom there were droplets of water very slowly dripping from the ceiling. The steward phoned maintenance to check it out. It was about five centimetres past the foot on the bed. The steward brought two bath towels to absorb any drips until it could be fixed. When we returned around 4 p.m., the towels were damp, but no one had looked at the dripping which was only about one droplet every five minutes.

Zuiderdam was anchored by 9:45 a.m., ready to transport passengers to the Bar Harbor pier. It is a tender port. To get to shore, passengers (and crew) board the smaller 125 person enclosed tender boats that ferry everyone to the port’s passenger dock. We had a cycling excursion today and met in the main 800 seat theatre,. Here the excursion staff check your electronic ticket on your phone and issue you a numbered coloured sticker for the proper excursion. We were Blue 2.

There were five other cyclists, all retired and not regular cyclists. We met our two guides by the dock and were taken in a large van to the main parking lot of Acadia National Park. It is located on Mount Desert Island, the largest island off the coast of Maine.

Part of the park contains 110 year old carriage roads that John D. Rockefeller Jr. had constructed beginning in 1913, with additions until 1940, which were refurbished in the mid 1990s. The design aligned the roads to follow the contours of the land and to take advantage of scenic views. The roads were graded so that they were not too steep or too sharply curved for horse-drawn carriages. Being a skilled horseman, he wanted a place that was free from motorized traffic. Hikers, horses and cyclists use the roads, but vehicles use the 43 kilometre Park Loop Road that goes up to the summit of Cadillac Mountain.

The carriage roads, about 5.5 meters wide, are an example of broken-stone roads commonly used at the turn of the 20th century. In many places the roadway is lined with small granite coping stones used as roadway guardrails. Part of the original design included landscaping the roadsides with native vegetation such as blueberries and sweet fern. Friends of Acadia volunteers annually contribute thousands of hours cleaning ditches and culverts, clearing brush, and assisting park staff with other restoration projects.

When the 90 minute cycle tour started there were a few clouds in the sky and the temperature was a lovely 23°C and just a slight breeze. Along the route we stopped to view some ponds. One pond had a beaver house in it. We passed under one of the several hand cut stone bridges.

At Eagle Lake we were able to see Cadillac Mountain beyond the far shore. It is the highest peak on the eastern United States seaboard. The group spent 20 minutes exploring the trails, sipping water or relaxing and taking in the view.

The cycle journey was leisurely with short pauses for the slower cyclists to catch up. Besides twenty one speed bikes, we used helmets and were given a 750 ml bottle of water and more was available. Most of the group were finished the water at the end of the ride.

Near the end of the ride, we stopped at the top of a small hill on a side road, left the bikes standing on their kickstands then walked down hill to a scenic pond about 200 meters away. There were low lying bushes of ripe wild blueberries lining the road, which everyone picked and sampled.

For the steepest hill, our guide had instructed us to walk the bikes up. On the return journey, we walked the bicycles down the curved slope where there were places of loose crushed rock. The total ride was just over ten kilometres.

Back at the parking lot, the bicycles were loaded onto a trailer and the cyclists returned to the van to be driven back to Bar Harbor. The town was filled with people milling around the shops and cafés. Entering the town and passing the Village Green, we noticed an ice cream shop selling wild blueberry soft serve ice cream. That was our destination for a light lunch. We wandered through some nearby shaded streets with much fewer people as we enjoyed our cones. On our wander we passed a side lane that had the Route 66 Restaurant at the end. It seemed a strange name for a restaurant here in Bar Harbor when Route 66 ran from Chicago to Los Angles. The temperature was 25°C, it was mainly sunny and a 19C and a light SSW wind. Steps to that point were 15,131.

We timed the tender departure well as the last two passengers to climb into the waiting tender boat just after 3 p.m. The trip was less than 15 minutes back to the ship. There was enough time to shower and get to Happy Hour before dinner. Looking at our phones waiting to be served at the Ocean Bar, we noticed that both had a credit from Shore Excursions. When we went to our stateroom after dinner there a letter explaining that all the tours for August 19 in Qaqortoq, Greenland were cancelled “due to the local operator limitations” and a refund would be added to our account.

At dinner, Supri, our Indonesian waiter explained that three others were supposed to be at our table but requested their own table. We are quite happy by ourselves for dinner at a starboard window table.

The all aboard time was 6:30 p.m. for the scheduled 7 p.m. departure. The captain announced that passengers could go to the bow on deck 4 to watch as the ship’s anchor was raised and she cruised out into the Atlantic Ocean, southeast on course 132.36 degrees.

Meanwhile the maintenance technician visited our stateroom and determined the drip from just condensation for the air conditioner and should not be a problem again. We will see if that is correct.

The production in the “World Stage” main theatre tonight was one we had seen in April called Humanity. Instead we went to the Explorer’s Lounge on deck 3 to listen to a classical music playing duo play music by German composers for three quarters of an hour. There was an audience of over 150 people.

Later we climbed up to Lido on deck 9 and had an evening tea by the outdoor pool under the crescent moon. In the room was a notice that over night the ship clocks would be moved forward one hour to be on Atlantic time.

Total steps today were 18,422.