2025-08-14: Celtic Music and Fortress

We woke up as the ship was pulling into Sydney, Nova Scotia this morning. For once, it wasn’t foggy when we woke up. Amanda and Patrick had a morning tour scheduled this morning so they got up, had breakfast, and got ready for the day. They headed to the theatre for 9:30am to catch their tour.

We took a short walk off the cruise ship and into the terminal, upstairs into a conference room with tables and chairs set up all facing the front. Patrick and I sat close to the front. The band was Aaron C. Lewis (guitar and vocals), he started his career with The Carlton Showband, with his Dad Bob Lewis. They were regulars on a CBC variety show in the 70’s. The pianist was Joel Chiasson, he has worked with the likes of Ashley MacIsaac and Natalie MacMaster. Our fiddler Kimberley Fraser, she is world renowned in the Celtic genre and has traveled the world teaching and performing. They were awesome! The music was fun and lively, part way through the first half, a Celtic dancer came to give us a demonstration which was fun to watch. After a short break, Aaron organized a four pairs to demonstrate a square dance. Amanda tried to get Patrick to do it with her but he was not interested. The dance was fun and simple. We enjoyed a few more songs before heading back outside to check out the worlds largest playable fiddle. It is considered playable because it is built to scale, although no one has ever tried to play it.

While Amanda and Patrick were enjoying the performance, Darrell and Michael grabbed some breakfast on the ship and then headed off the ship. The crew were performing emergency drills while we ate and disembarked. We wandered the streets of Sydney. We came across St. George’s Anglican Church which was built in 1785. They had a couple of volunteers dressed up in historical garb. We continued on and came across a mural on the Highland Arts Theatre that was fun. We passed another old white church that has been converted to a venue you can rent out. There was a a small craft fair in the local Legion that we checked out quickly. There wasn’t a whole lot else to see aside from some old houses. We made our way back to the cruise terminal.

Patrick and Amanda met up with Darrell and Michael at the cruise terminal after their show. We poked through the shops at the terminal. Inside the terminal there was a market set up with a bunch of local vendors. Outside the terminal building were a few shops set up as well.

After poking through the shops, we headed back on the ship. Darrell and Amanda grabbed a small bite at the buffet before we grabbed our gear again, picked up Michael, and headed to the dining room at 12:30pm for our afternoon tour. We were heading to the Fortress of Louisbourg. Patrick wasn’t interested in the tour so he stayed behind.

We waited in the dining room for a few minutes before they sent us off the ship. Once off the ship, we were directed to a parking lot to meet our tour guide, Alan, and board our bus. After a quick drive through Sydney, we were on our way out of town on the way to Louisbourg. It was about a 40 minute drive to the Fortress. Our guide pointed out sights along the way and provided some information about the Fortress and the local area.

We arrived at the Fortress around 1:30pm. The fortress was established in 1713 and was expanded through to 1740. In 1744, a force from Louisbourg attacked a British fort at Grassy Island and burnt it to the ground. They captured 50 British families. The families were brought to Louisbourg. They didn’t have room to secure the prisoners in a jail or anything, and being “gentlemanly”, they let the prisoners wander freely through the fortress during the day. These prisoners took careful notes of the design and layout of the fortress. The prisoners were eventually released to Boston. The information they gathered was used to plan an attack on the fortress. In 1745, a New England force backed by a Royal Navy squadron attacked the fortress and eventually captured it. It remained under British control until it was returned to the French in 1748 in return for territory in Austrian Netherlands and India. The French recruited soldiers from Europe to work in Louisbourg by lying to them. They were told it was a tropical location with a bunch of women looking for men and they’d make a bunch of money. It definitely wasn’t tropical, they money they earned was heavily garnished for food, accommodations, and equipment. The women weren’t interested in the soldiers because they weren’t making much money. It was a miserable post to work at, but they signed a 6 year contract.

The fort was eventually abandoned and natured took over. The fort now is a reconstruction of about a quarter of the original fort that was started in 1961. The fort is now run by Parks Canada. Alan took us through several buildings and explained some of the history. There were also Parks Canada employees dressed in historical garb and acted as residents of the Fort to convey information on the buildings they were in. It was kind of like being at Heritage Park at home. Alan used to work in the bakery at the fort so he gave us a detailed tour of the bakery, where they still make and sell bread using the old ovens. We bought a loaf to try. They had a demonstration with a quartet of musicians followed by a soldier explaining the conditions of working at the fort. The have a wooden horse with no saddle outside. If you misbehaved, you would be sat on the horse with your feet tied to the ground as punishment. At the end of the talk, the soldier demonstrated the firing of a musket.

We walked through the Governor’s house, the engineer’s house, the bakery, store rooms (magazines), barracks, and resident houses. On the second floor of the Governor’s house they have several rooms storing artifacts from the original fortress or the time of the fortress. There are a couple of rooms of furniture, and a few rooms with cabinets full of smaller artifacts. They also have a cross that was taken as spoils of the original siege of the fortress. This cross was found in New England and is part of Harvard’s collection. It is on permanent loan to the Government of Canada and is on display at the fortress. The French had a close relationship with the local Mi’kmaq tribes.

At 3:45pm, we re-boarded the bus and headed back to Sydney. Alan told us about lobster fishing in the area. Lobster fishing licenses are hard to come by and can only be purchased if someone gives theirs up for sale. They usually start at $1,000,000 to buy, but are auctioned off so can go higher. This doesn’t including your boat or anything, just the license to fish in a certain zone.

We made it back to the ship at about 4:30pm. We relaxed on the ship and tried some of the bread we bought while we watched the ship leave port at 6:00pm.

We headed to grab some dinner once we saw the ship pull away from the pier and start heading out of the harbor. Darrell and Amanda tried to attend the evening show at 7:30, but it was full by the time we got there. We grabbed some dessert in the piazza and listed to some music while we ate. There was a game show called Liars Club in Princess Live! at 8:30pm that we decided to check out, but again it was full by the time we got there. We’ve noticed the venues on the ship aren’t big enough for the activities they are running which is a disappointment.

We returned to the room for a bit before heading to the theatre again to try to catch the 9:30pm show. We were able to get a seat this time. We were in the row right behind the section that was reserved for those with the Princess Premier package. One woman was holding half of the row in front of us in the Princess Premier section, which isn’t allowed. Another family tried to sit in the seats that were being held and a heated conversation ensued. We thought it was going to come to blows for a minute. The people the seats were being held for showed up which seemed to defuse the situation. The show was another production show with the ships onboard entertainers. It was a show specifically designed for the Majestic Princess. It was visually amazing with light shows, light up costumes, lasers, and even drones. But again, there was no story connecting anything. It was just various scenes/songs with cool effects. It was fun, but it would have been nice if there was a story to go along with it. Throughout the show, the rude lady in front of us was pulling our her phone to record the show, which was announced at the start as being not allowed. And her husband kept sending text messages which was quite distracting.

After the show, we returned to our cabin and called it a day.