Ahoy Matey! Cruise Ship off the port bow

Photo courtesy of portcitypics-fundysnapper.blogspot.com

Ah…..summer. Weed whackers, backyard BBQ’s, beers out on the deck…and oh yeah...CRUISE SHIP SEASON!!!

Yes folks it’s that time of year again. The time when thousands of cruise ship passengers descend on Saint John like a swarm of pastel colored, photo snapping, chino wearing locusts.

But hey we know what side our back bacon is buttered on and because of this short lived span of American greenback influx we will put on our best Canadian grins, practice saying ‘EH’’ and generally get into character. Remember to tell them what the price is in ‘REAL MONEY” , ours apparently is just pretend stuff. I know it may stick in our craw a bit, but come on….the Americans love it! What does it cost us really? We know we read more books and speak better English.

For a couple of weeks now downtown has been a busy little hive of activity. Cleaning, scraping, painting and generally sprucing the joint up. We have venders that wait all year just for this flow of retail commerce and base their financial survival on it. If you shop at the City Market make sure you do not go between the hours of 9 to 5., otherwise you will never make it thru the throng of tourists ‘Oooin and Awwwin “ over $17.00 vials of maple syrup, moose figurines and T-Shirts with friendly beavers on them.

Being that hubby and I are from Alberta, you don’t get many cruise ships out there. None that I can think of anyways. Our first apartment we rented when we landed in Saint John was down on Prince William Street, right on the harbour in front of Pugsley wharf. I can still remember being awakened one morning to a low grade rumbling of a ship’s mighty turbines. On the way to the kitchen I glanced out at the wall of white steel blocking my view of the world thinking, “holy cow…someone parked a ship on my doorstep.” Note to self: pick up “No Cruise ship Parking” sign.

Well we were pretty impressed I must say. Hubby snapped away, getting photo’s from every possible angle. Then we printed off a schedule so we could prepare and set up chairs for each arriving and departing ship. We put up Canadian flags and waved at all the tourists. Stood on our front deck at the end of the day and waved goodbye, teary eyed as our nautical friends waved back. E-mailed hundreds pictures home to Edmonton.

First it was fun, helping tourists with directions and explaining Canadian currency - no that’s real money…for sure eh? Then….it became a little bit of a drag. Helping them find their ride at the end of the day. “The large WHITE thing parked at the end of the street, I think that’s your boat.“ Assuring them that it would not snow later in the afternoon and yes we have the internet in Canada….” and so on.

Saint John is the fourth-busiest port in Canada for cruise ship passengers, behind only Vancouver, Victoria and Halifax. In 2008, the Port City welcomed a record 183,462 passengers - a jump of more than 49,000 over the previous year. Port officials are confident that traffic will reach 200,000 passengers in 2010 and surge past the 300,000 mark by 2015. The 2008 Cruise Ship season brought approximately $19,000,000 in revenue into the port city and remember we got that big spanking new Cruise Ship Terminal to pay for.

So just remember, to dumb down a little, smile a lot, it‘s just for a short while….because at the end of the day, that is allot of maple syrup.

Til later