An unexpected adventure: Halifax for six nights

Margaret in park at Willow Tree, Halifax

Dedicated followers of this blog who are not regular Facebook users must wonder if the Sea Princess was swallowed up by the Adriatic or the Mediterranean Sea!  Not so.  Rather, I’ve had a bit of writer’s block.  Whilst I’ve cropped and enhanced many of John’s photos of places we’ve been to since, and uploaded them to Facebook, my word-craft has sadly been missing in action.  I can’t even blame our latest adventure, mentioned above.

A leisurely walk in Halifax

But back to Halifax in Nova Scotia.

This was a port not on the original itinerary.  We had envisaged visiting L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables territory, Prince Edward Island, but due to tidal conditions and coast guard rules which did not suit the ship, we called in to Halifax on 12 August.  We were initially disappointed about that, since we’d already visited the latter in 2014 and I was looking forward to an excursion to Anne’s farmhouse.

But the plus side was that we had Moxon friends there, whom we’d first met in 2014 whilst we were commuting from Southampton to New York on the Queen Mary 2.  But Len and Penny responded saying they were out of town for 10 days. C’est la vie.

However, the day in port arrived, and I was too ill to get out of bed.  John stayed with me.  I knew I didn’t have that curse of cruise ships worldwide, Norovirus, but I was no better during the day.  By 3:30pm I was on a drip in the ship’s medical centre, after our friends Hazel and Deb (both highly experienced and qualified retired nurses) agreed with John that I was bringing up “coffee grounds”.  This was an indication of bleeding in the stomach.

Queen Elizabeth 2 hospital, Halifax

I needed medical attention not available on the ship, including an endoscopy. John had been given a choice to stay on the ship or disembark with me, but of course, chose to disembark too. All our gear had to go with us. Whilst Hazel and Deb were unsuccessfully attempting to supervise the crew members bundling up our personal belongings and John’s medical equipment so that John could find what he needed overnight, I was being loaded into an ambulance, having been taken down the ramp by two basketball playing ambulance officers.  Passengers were queuing up to return from their excursions and pleasant day in Halifax, and some of them recognised me and got quite a shock.  I was not known for my ill-health!  Hazel and Deb were able to fill in the details within the next 24 hours but apart from my health, friends wondered if they’d see us again onboard.

Atlantica Hotel across the road from QE2

In each port, including Halifax, Princess employs a port agent.  Each has a varied – and to my mind interesting – job.  Port agent Kate organised a wheelchair accessible taxi for John so he could meet us at the QE2 hospital, about four kilometres from the port, book him into a neighbouring hotel and transported all our luggage which was so badly disorganised that it included at least 10 blue Princess shopping bags.  She was also the liaison officer between the ship and Princess Family Services staff in Seattle, USA.

Having perked up slightly after I was attached to a drip, I was as worried about John as he was about me.  He had visions of the hospital discovering an ulcer or the Big-C (fortunately it was neither); I was worried about him being alone in a hotel for however long I was in a hospital in a strange country. 

Meanwhile, the Sea Princess sailed away without us.  We’d been on board over eight weeks at this stage, and it almost felt like home.  We had planned to be on board another six weeks.

But how fortunate we were that I took ill in Canada rather than in the USA! 

Margaret starting to feel better at Dilly Dally cafe

Despite travel insurance – which may or may not kick in – imagine what the bill would have been like in the latter!  At the time of writing, we are about $4.5K out of pocket, with the cost of mailing a large suitcase back to Sydney (postage unknown) to come, but the Halifax hospital charged us only $550 for the endoscopy and $30 for a prescription.  Being off-loaded – like other passengers, including Kiwi friends David and Elwyn were – in New York, Charleston (South Carolina), Miami or West Key would have been far more expensive.

We loved this local cafe - beats Starbucks

Port agent Kate must have alerted the hospital to John’s predicament, because within 30 minutes whilst the ambulance officers were still with me, the hospital social worker turned up.  She was able to connect John with a non-expensive but flexible home support service.  The home care worker was later able to assist John with finding everything he needed immediately in the hotel room – from toothbrush to medical equipment needed overnight and in the morning.  That was a relief.

John had been booked into the four-star Atlantica hotel across the road from the hospital.  They are used to looking after relatives of hospital patients and gave us a 15% discount on all hotel services.  In fact, the restaurant staff, the concierges and the reception staff were exceptionally helpful, and in my view, rather spoilt John for the whole six days he was there.  They got him out of a scrape on the first morning: he was stuck between the mattress and his wheelchair for ninety minutes whilst trying to transfer.

Meanwhile, I was handed over by the ambulance officers to the nursing staff and doctors and the gastro specialists and received excellent care.  I kept forgetting to keep my arm with the canular inserted straight – I’m not a very good patient although I did try!  An initial x-ray and endoscopy the following afternoon put our minds at rest about serious diagnoses, but I did not sleep at all well, and still felt very ill until after the endoscopy.

The doctors appear convinced that my condition stemmed from long term use of iron tablets – originally suggested by my GP but never reviewed.  I ought to have known.  Many senior citizens – amongt whom I must now count myself – have adverse reactions to medication and vitamin combinations.  As soon as I get home at the end of September, I will have a total check-up and maybe make an appointment with a nutritionist.

On the second morning, I was able to walk over to the hotel and check-in.  My energy levels varied wildly for the rest of the week but are now improving rapidly.  Upon discharge, the doctors were prepared to state that I was well to continue cruising for the next six weeks.  At first, the Sea Princess doctor was doubtful, but I returned to the hospital to obtain further clarification in writing about visiting South American countries without problems.

After feeling very depressed and negative on Tuesday and Wednesday, we received clearance to re-join the World Cruise very late Wednesday night.  We were dealing with the Princess Seattle Office running four hours behind Halifax time.

Since we now had to resort to flying out, whether it was to Miami or home to Sydney, we had too much luggage for a flight, despite the extra allowance for our disability equipment.  I’d spent the time at the hotel reorganising our luggage and deciding what we could do without.  One large suitcase was handed over to the port agent to be posted home.

A lovely catch up with Halifax locals Penny & Len Moxon

We decided to find out if our Moxon friends (no relation but members of The Moxon Society) had returned to Halifax.  They had, and so we were able to spend a very pleasant two hours with them over a cup of tea at the hotel on Friday.

Despite the Seattle Office suggestion that we fly into Miami on Sunday 19th, the day of Sea Princess’s departure, we were not prepared to take the risk.  We settled for a Saturday flight with an overnight stay at the Miami Port Holiday Inn.  The airfares were expensive of course, being booked at the last moment; the available flights were through Newark, NJ where we had a four-hour layover.  Both John and I found the airports an ordeal, John because of the complicated procedures for dealing with his wheelchair, and me simply because I was not yet running on all four cylinders.

The second flight ran behind schedule and some luggage initially went missing, so John was in his chair from 6:30am until 1:30am the following morning – not good for his skin at all.

With little choice of accommodation, both hotel rooms  (Halifax and Florida) had a shower over the bath.  But at least John could get into the bathroom and there was running water.  Better than nothing in a crisis.

Taxi transport was variable.  In Miami, the design of the wheelchair space would not suit larger chairs.  Luckily, John is/was only 5’8’’ and could fold his footplates up and raise his chair so that he could put his feet under the seats in front.

Nevertheless, despite these difficulties with accommodation, transport and airports, we got there.  By 11:30am on Sunday, we were back on the Sea Princess.

It was so good to be home.