A Day At The Cruise Harbour In St.John

It’s amazing what happens these days. Couple of days ago I got a phone call from the only cruise agency in Saint John, “Aquila Tours” asking about whether our van would be available for a day of shuttling cruise passengers.  I accepted the work order and yesterday morning I left Campobello at 7:15am.   Lubec, eastern-most town of the U.S bathing in first sunlight It is around 3hrs to the port city so I reached the cruise terminal around 10am. My first tour was not before 12 noon but from then on I had a trip every hour. And my passengers were booked in for the Zip Line, which means they try to fly along a strung-out wire between 5 poles set up along a slope.   “Grandma” hanging off the wire If you think that this was only used by young people, than think again, for even grandma wanted to fly. Most people let out a wild scream once they left the platform fastened to the pole. Even in my wildest dreams i could not imagine to do this, let alone the fact that they paid $150 Bucks for the “adventure”. Arriving at the cruise terminals I was greeted by one of the longest and tallest cruise liners I have ever seen. At the Marco Polo Cruise Terminal lay the 348m long “Anthem Of The Seas”, a ship owned and operated by Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL). 45 minutes later the 294m long “Norwegian Gem” of Norwegian Cruise Lines pulled in at the Diamond Jubilee Cruise Terminal. Both ships have been built by “Meyer Shipyard” in Papenburg, Germany. Saint John was about to be swamped by nearly 7000 people off the ships. I am sure Saint John’s business owners had already trained their binoculars on the most prosperous looking passengers.    Our van “dwarfed” by the giant ships Shortly before 12pm a nice young man came up to me and the van and introduced himself as being from the Zip-Line and that we would spend the afternoon together, he as a guide and me driving.   St. John’s “Reversing Falls” with Irving’s “lovely” Pulp Mill as thebackground.   When all the fun was over at 6:30pm I had yet 3 hrs to get home to our much more quiet Campobello Island. Aahhh… what a relief to turn back across the FDR-International Bridge.