Nova Star

There are days when I just love my job.   As a FAM trip for AAA, a bunch of people were invited to go on the Nova Star, which is the new ferry from Portland to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.   We sell the tickets for this ferry, so it's in the Nova Star's best interest to have people who are knowledgeable about their product.

Luckily for Hubby, I was able to bring a guest!  And I chose him!!!

The Ferry leaves Portland at 9pm and sails all night to dock in Yarmouth at 8am.  (Their time....which is an hour different from our time.  That one hour difference really screwed me up!)


It's a pretty big boat....it holds 1500 people, a lot of crew and cars!   There weren't a lot of people on it...it's brand new and most people don't even know there's a new ferry running.

We got on the ship and were shown to our quarters.  We go the best accommodations they have to offer.....an Ocean View cabin.

Hubby was not so thrilled with the separate beds!

We said goodbye to Portland and a beautiful sunset

We stayed out on the deck for about an hour until it was too dark to see anymore.  

We got this photo of  the pilot boat but it was so dark it created this funky photo

We spent some time checking out the ship.  Hubby's favorite place to hang out

 turned out to be the Piano Bar!

He snuck over a couple of times and played the piano for a little while.

No one seemed to mind it.

There wasn't too much to do.  Eventually when they are up and running they'll have evening entertainment.  There was a place called the Aqua Lounge that had a dance floor but there was nothing going on yet.

So we went to bed.  Unfortunately I'm a terrible sleeper and despite the comfortable bed I didn't get much sleep.  So I was privileged to watch the sun come over the ocean.

In the morning, we got up early to eat breakfast before we got off the boat at 8am.  The breakfast buffet was excellent.  We sat in the Piano Bar Lounge which had huge windows and watched the boat dock in Yarmouth.  

Despite the fact that we were turning around and going right back we had to disembark, go through Canadian customs and then turn around and get right back on the boat after going through US Customs!

Hubby and I snuck out and took a 15 minute walk outside and up the hill to the Yarmouth Visitor's Center.

Then it was goodbye Yarmouth!

We spent the day on the ship trying to keep busy.  We sat outside as much as we could but they only had wooden tables and benches so it wasn't as comfortable as it could be.  We had brought books and a deck of cards, so we did a lot of reading and card-playing.   There were a couple of movies available to watch but we chose not to.   

I took the opportunity to take some photos of the rest of the ship:

Lifeboat...made me think of "Captain Phillips"

Water-skiing anyone?

 Look at the perfect blue sky we had!

The uncomfortable tables and benches outside.

Hallway

Cool stairway...there were elevators but these were more fun

Casino.  Hubby and I aren't big gamblers so we only lost about 5 bucks.

Piano Bar

Hubby at the piano AGAIN

Children's play area

Fathoms Buffet where we had breakfast, lunch and dinner

Boutique where you could buy things duty-free.  It was filled with cigarettes, liquor and watches.

Hallway

The "Art Gallery" with no paintings.  Something to do with figuring out  how the artists can sell their paintings and customs.

Finally around 7pm we were almost home

It was a fun trip and exciting to be on a brand-new ship.  We had beautiful weather and I got to spend the whole day with my Hubby...what could be better than that?