Around 6am, a pilot boat met us and transferred a ship pilot on board, because we had to go under Confederation Bridge. It’s tricky and if we don’t go under just the exact spot, we’ll hit the bridge. Not the supports, the bottom.

Lots of people were up early to watch the spectacle - the rest were awakened anyway by the horn blast from the ship as it approached the bridge.

Once under, the idyllic setting of PEI came into view, which drew even more people out to the bow of the ship as we arrived in port.

When we were here in 2019, it was a bit later in the year. That meant a riot of colour in all the trees, which was spectacular… but it was post Labour Day, so a lot of stuff was closed, including both of the small amusement parks in Cavendish, both of which have a coaster. This time, we were here on Labour Day weekend, so they were still open. Hooray! Coaster #943 was “Buccaneer Bay Bullet”, a custom Zierer ‘Tivoli’ model with a ridiculously long train.

It’s a zippy little ride, thanks in part to the extra-long train. The swirling double-helix was a treat.

Got my ride, hopped in the car, the popped around the corner to Sandspit amusement park. You can literally see one park from the other. But while the first park was beautifully landscaped with plenty of room between rides in a park-like setting, Sandspit felt like a carnival. More rides, almost no ambience. Still, I was here for the Cyclone.

This was the main attraction, as it was designed by Anton Schwarzkopf, my favourite coaster designer, and it’s a super-rare Wildcat 54m model, of which only 16 were made and only 4 still survive. This one, plus one in Maryland, Kazakhstan, and Iraq. I’ve been on just one of these before, the Wildcat at the old Bell’s Amusement Park in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It’s been gone since 1997.

A Wildcat (even if they call it ‘Cyclone’) is compact, with dips in the middle and spirals on the ends. It’s a layer cake of figure-8s.

The drops are speedy and steep and the single cars (rather than long trains) make all the transitions feel even more abrupt. She was running a bit sluggish today, but all of the trim brakes were wide open, so it was a full-on ride with no speed checks. Nice.

Got my ride, hopped back in the car, and we headed across the island to Victoria By The Sea, a nice little seaside town we’d visited before. Destination: Landmark Oyster House for a lobster roll and some PEI potatoes.

Nothing at all was disappointing about lunch! Fresh lobster is the best.

All of the above plus absolutely gorgeous weather made the rigamarole of getting off the ship almost worth it. This was the halfway point of the queue to get off the ship this morning. The HALFWAY point.

The queue was the entire length of the ship… then cross to the opposite side… then the entire length of the ship again. Crazy. It went pretty fast, surprisingly.

Upon returning, we all met for dinner at 5:15 at our new table, which will be ours for the rest of the cruise. It was prime rib night, and several of the group gave it a go.

I’ve been fighting a bit of a toothache for the last couple days, so I bypassed the prime rib and got carpaccio to start, followed by rigatoni with chicken meatballs. Both were excellent.

Finished up a cheese platter and a glass of Port.

Then it was off to the show! Tonight’s show was a pianist named Jason Lyle Black. He was quite talented and didn’t even need the ‘gimmicks’ to be entertaining. But hey, if you got it, flaunt it….

Far more impressive than the upside-down playing was when he asked for four notes from the audience, plus three styles. Then he would compose a piece on the spot using those four notes and in those three styles. Impressive enough, but the audience gave him: C#, Cb, E#, and G# for the notes and jazz, ragtime, and 80’s European synth pop for the styles. Yeah. (No points for guessing who called out that last style)

Anyway, he pulled it off pretty well. Very impressive!

After the show, the rest of the group headed up the Crow’s Nest for a nightcap and I headed back to the room to finish up this post and maybe get to bed early.

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