If you only have a day in Saint John: gateway to Canada's Maritime Provinces - St. John, New Brunswick

Cruise Travel, Sept-Oct, 2002 by Randy Mink, Karen Mink

It has no palm-lined beaches, no great landmarks. It cannot rival the beauty of Hawaii, the sizzle of Acapulco, the glamour of Rio de Janeiro. If you're dreaming of exotic lands, set sail for Istanbul, Bali, or Hong Kong. But if you're looking for a fresh discovery close to home, a day in Saint John, New Brunswick, will add a dimension to your world travels.

With waterfront cafes and flower baskets festooning downtown street lamps, Saint John (home to 125,000) is a comfortable port-of-call for Americans, a place where people speak English and seem genuinely glad to meet their neighbors from the south. Located on the Bay of Fundy, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean, the tidy city is only 70 miles from the Maine-New Brunswick border. This year it welcomes more than 70,000 cruise visitors during 40 vessel calls.

For our family of four and 2,700 other passengers sailing from New York on Carnival Cruise Lines' Carnival Triumph, Saint John was our gateway to Eastern Canada's Maritime Provinces, a rather offbeat destination in the whole scheme of cruise vacations. The other port on the five-day Atlantic adventure was Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Though people tend to associate cruising with tropical isles, more and more discerning travelers are thinking cool-clime voyages to historic cities in Canada and New England. Instead of embarking from Miami or Fort Lauderdale, they're setting sail in summer and fall from New York or Boston on the same megaships that usually carry sun-seekers to the Bahamas and Caribbean.

North American cruising has become an attractive alternative since last year's terrorist attacks caused people to re-evaluate their travel plans to faraway places, and cruise lines this year are providing more domestic options than ever. Canada/New England cruises are especially enticing for those who live within driving distance of the Eastern Seaboard.

After a day of getting acclimated to life at sea and sampling the facilities on our flashy floating resort, the Carnival Triumph delivered us right to the heart of Saint John, within easy walking distance of downtown shops, restaurants, and museums. Greeting passengers were costumed "Loyalists" in three-corner hats and frilly dresses; ladies received a rose, men a pin. (Loyalists, or American supporters of the British crown, settled the area in 1783; one early resident was Benedict Arnold.) In the shed at the pier, vendors sold T-shirts, fudge, crafts, and other souvenirs.

Besides two indoor vertical malls connected to other buildings by enclosed skywalks and underground passageways, shoppers head to the stalls of Old City Market, a cavernous, block-long hall with festive banners, moosehead trophies, and white-painted rafters reminiscent of a ship's hull. It's a good place to take pictures and absorb some local color while perusing the foodstuffs and souvenirs at Canada's oldest continuous farmer's market, a fixture since 1876. The retail mix includes butchers, bakers, fruit peddlers, florists, sausagemakers, and fishmongers.

Appealing to sweets-lovers like us were the market's ice cream treats, homemade chocolates, and New Brunswick maple syrup and candy. We tried a salty snack called dulse, a dried purple sea vegetable that grows on the shores of Grand Manan Island in the Bay of Fundy. Locals eat dulse like potato chips or popcorn. We decided it must be an acquired taste.

For a taste of times past, we prowled through some of the antique stores and art galleries in the Victorian brick and wooden gingerbread buildings on Prince William and Germain streets, a short walk from the pier. Some Carnival passengers signed up for the two-hour "History In Stone Stroll" guided tour focusing on the ornate carvings, gargoyles, stained glass, and other architectural details of churches, residences, and commercial buildings in Canada's oldest incorporated city.

In Market Square mall, we enjoyed excellent exhibits on whaling, logging, and shipbuilding at the three-story New Brunswick Museum--a new, expanded version of Canada's oldest museum. Market Square, a delightful place to shop, is a multi-level, harborfront complex fashioned after an old village square, incorporating 100-year-old warehouses as well as modern additions. Across the street is Barbour's General Store, an authentic 19th century country store that in 1967 was moved here from a rural New Brunswick location.

Another downtown focal point is King's Square, a tree-shaded oasis with gardens, monuments, and a vintage, two-story bandstand--a "Memorial To King Edward VII, King Emperor 1901-1910." The square, near the Old City Market, once hosted cricket and baseball matches as well as band concerts.

Saint John's chief claim to tourist fame is Reversing Falls, a natural phenomenon in which a series of rapids and whirlpools caused by high tides force back--twice each day for several hours--the mighty St. John River, which normally would flow through the rocky gorge into the Bay of Fundy. (It's not a single, straight-drop waterfall like Niagara Falls.) One of Carnival's most popular shore excursions features a thrilling 20-minute jet-boat ride through the rapids past the Irving Pulp Mill. Yellow rain slickers are provided because everyone gets wet. Waves tower as high as 10 feet. (For extreme sports enthusiasts, the jet-boat operator just introduced the 10-foot "Bubble," which allows harnessed riders to bounce through the rapids.)