It’s Day 10 of the Inaugural Transatlantic cruise on Norwegian Bliss.
The weather looked promising when we looked out of our balcony at 8:30am as the Bliss manoeuvred into her berth in Halifax, Novia Scotia.
We had made it across the pond! For Halifax, we had pre-booked a Hop-On Hop-Off bus with Norwegian – mainly because it was slightly cheaper than if you paid on the day and we would get our money back if we missed the port.
So we wrapped up warm and I put on my rainmac just in case. We could disembark from forward or aft on deck 7 and there were pretty steep gangways to take us to ground level. It took us directly into cruise terminal 22 where there were lots of stalls and shopping opportunities. We resisted and walked out of the main entrance where we could see the double-decker buses lined up to the right.
You present your tickets to a man at a table and he gave you a sticker and a guide map. You can also buy them from here on the day.
Our main aim was to visit the Titantic Cemetery at stop 10 and to try and get off so we could walk to a specific brewery tasting room near stop 7.
Just as we boarded the bus, there were some ominous raindrops. We had to wait ten minutes for more people to board. The bus itself was built in 1965 and reminded us of the days we worked in Central London when we had to jump on and off the old Routemaster buses.
We had some great commentary along the route where we learned all about the famous people and buildings of Halifax, the links to the Titanic and the awful event 100 years ago called The Halifax Explosion. We were also informed that the Norwegian Bliss was the first ship in port for the season. We also noticed HAL’s Veendam coming in after us.
You could get off at any stop and would only have to wait up to 20 minutes for the next bus. All double-deckers in Halifax are part of the same company.
It started to rain heavily and soon the roads were awash with water.
There are some steep hills in Halifax and, once we reached the Citadel at stop 7, we knew our plan to get off wouldn’t work as it was pretty high up and isolated. Once the bus had got out to the Titantic Cemetary, the rain was non-stop and previous passengers were getting on drenched. We chickened out and decided to stay on the bus back to the terminal. We decided we really liked Halifax and will come back in better weather!
At the terminal we shopped for souvenirs and gifts for our family. We tried to get a hot drink at the cafe but they were out of latte and hot chocolate! We also bumped into Jessalyn, a fellow blogger, who was just setting out on her own personalised brewery and pub trip despite the rain.
So we got back on the ship, getting very wet as the rain came through the gangways gaps almost sideways.
After warming up in The Atrium with a Starbucks, we received a direct message from Jessalyn at around 2:20pm that the beers Chris wanted to drink were on tap in an Irish pub that she was sitting in! By this time there was only light rain. We checked the address, cross-checked with the HOHO bus route, went back to the stateroom to dress up again and were at the pub within 20 minutes!
The Old Triangle pub – one minute’s walk north of stop 3:
Chris and Jessalyn with beer:
Afterwards, we walked up to stop 13 outside the Art Museum and were back at the terminal very quickly.
Here we stopped at Garrison Brewery, just down from the terminal, and got a small flight:
Chris loved the Maple Porter – pity we couldn’t take bottles on the ship. Although we did find out later that the District Brewhouse had replenished it’s dwindling selection of ‘on tap’ beers with at least 6 other kegs from Garrison.
Back on board, we rested for half an hour and then went up to the Garden Cafe for our first evening meal here. Chris was very happy to find a Chicken Vindaloo curry!
We then went to the District to check out the rumours of restocked beer. Happy Days!
We spent the rest of the evening at Karaoke in The Cavern Club. Their selection of songs is pretty poor – couldn’t find any we could sing! The same people kept going up so we gave up after 90 minutes and went to bed.
Here are the Day 10 Freestyle Dailies:
Brits On A Ship 