September 24, 2023
Today we are docked in Prince Edwards Island, in a town called Charlottetown. Charlottetown is the capital of Prince Edwards Island and its largest city. We booked a private tour through Viator for today, called Scenic North Shore and Anne. This private tour cost us $473 for a family of 4.
We had a lazy morning this morning – we are pulling into Charlottetown at 1pm so there’s no need to rush for anything. We enjoyed our late morning coffee on the balcony as we sailed through the Northumberland Strait.
From our balcony, you can see the Blockhouse Point Lighthouse.
After lunch, we got off the ship and our tour guide was already waiting for us. Our tour guide’s name is Duncan Conrad, the owner of Conrad’s Coastline Tours. Duncan’s knowledge of this area was incredible. He told us a lot about the history. Charlottetown is named after Queen Charlotte, a queen of Great Britain and Ireland.
My first impression of Charlottetown was that there’s a lot of seafood restaurants with lobsters here! Duncan tried to point out a few good ones as recommendations once he learned we love seafood. They are located very close to the cruise port but they are not overly touristy. It seems locals frequent them too. One of the ones he recommended was Water Prince Corner Shop and Lobster Pound. Noted. The next thing he pointed out was St. Dunstan’s Basilica. A beautiful Basilica that is free to enter. Duncan suggested he’ll just drop us off over here when the tour is over and we can go in the Basilica and have some lobster if we wanted to. Unfortunately, I guess Duncan forgot the fact the Basilica closes at 5pm. That’s OK. We’ve been to many Basilicas.
Our first stop is the Green Gables Heritage Place. This popular attraction is based on the books written by L.M. Montgomery, about a little girl named Anne. If you are a fan of the book, then this is a must do for sure. My kids had never heard of Anne of Green Gables until I started researching about places to go for this trip. Ava being an avid reader, read some of the first book and did like it. I wanted us to come here and check it out in case she started falling in love with the book and we would regret not making this part of our trip. Duncan came prepared with two straw hats for the girls.
The Heritage Place is big – there are trails and cottages that seemed to go on forever. There’s even hotels on site here. Duncan told us we only had time to take one trail, so we took the Haunted Wood Trail.
Next, Duncan drove us to Cavendish Beach, a PEI National Park.
The beach here is uncrowded with lots of trails.
There was a famous arch on this beach, called McKenzie’s Brook. Unfortunately, the arch is no longer there, due to tropical storm Fiona.
Back in the car, we took a short ride to North Rustico. There’s also a lighthouse here, the North Rustico Harbor Lighthouse. This is one of few lighthouses in the area that still has a light keeper’s residence.
Next, Duncan pointed out a little round building near the ocean called Around the Sea Rotating House. The whole house actually rotates and you can stay there!
Next, Duncan walked us to the area of North Rustico where lobster fishing is done. He showed us the lobster traps and explained the ins and outs of the lobster industry. It was very interesting. It’s very expensive to get a license to fish lobster because there’s very limited number of license available. Most people that own the licenses got them through family. Recent years the cost of a lobster license has skyrocketed.
Our next stop is at the Farmer’s Bank of Rustico.
Farmer’s Bank is a small bank and museum that is the smallest bank charted in North America. Behind the bank is the 1772 Doucet House, the oldest house on the island. We did not go inside – I’m not sure if it was open when we visited or if we just didn’t think to go in.
Next door to the bank was the St. Augustine Catholic Church. This we did go in. It was nice inside.
St. Augustine Catholic Church is the oldest active Catholic Church on the island.
Next, Duncan dropped us off at Water Prince Corner Shop and Lobster Pound like we had discussed earlier today.
We have been having a lot of lobsters on the ship and we didn’t have a whole lot of time to spend here, so we just got some PEI mussels.
Like I mentioned earlier, the Basilica is closed now. So we took a picture outside.
As we walked back to the port, we saw this floating restaurant. Maybe next time!
Back on the ship, we took the whole family to the specialty steakhouse, Cagney’s.
Cagney’s is definitely the family favorite out of all of the restaurant choices. It’s the most popular specialty restaurant on the ship as well, so if you want to dine at Cagney’s, make sure you make your reservation early.
Our dinner was amazing. After dinner we went back to our room and found a note that we were invited to Dining with the Officers on September 26! Dining with the officers is a loyalty benefit for Sapphire Tier, which we are not yet, but our concierge Leo told us he would try to get us in. Yay!!
Tonight’s show was called Vocalist Angelique, starring singer and songwriter, Angelique. Unfortunately, our dinner ran over so we couldn’t make it to the show.
The night view at Port Charlottetown is beautiful from the balcony.
