How's the Color Mid-October

For those of you sailing Sidney/Halifax/Quebec/PEI mid-Ocober, wondering if the foliage was colorful this year at this particular time?

We've sailed this route a few times in September, but next year will be sailing 10/8-10/18. Hoping to see lovely color.

The only place that stuck out, in our minds, to be colorful in September was Cadillac Mountain.

We just did this cruise on Summit - Sept 24th to Oct 8th. We had some colorful spots here and there but not really peak. I would suggest going starting around the second week of October. However the leaf color peak is highly variable every year and depends on temperature and weather. Hard to predict.

Its very hard to predict. This year color is late due to the hotter temps we have been having. I was up in New Hampshire this past weekend and as I got further north, there was a bit more color, but not like it usually is.

We are currently sailing from Quebec to Bayonne. Quebec on Oct 11 and 12, 2017, had only minimal light yellow trees showing. The next ports, Cornerbrook and Sydney, NS, also showed the yellow leaf color.

We sailed Bayonne to Quebec from Oct 1 to 10 stopping in New England and Canada port towns on the way to Quebec, and there was no color change at all.

There seems to be no certain way to project the colors changing.

Statistically you're likely to get better colours mid-October than in your prior September cruises, but that's no guarantee that next year won't be freakishly early and it turns out you came too late! Unfortunately OP, even if folks were reporting tremendous colour this year it would have zero impact on your cruise next year. Check out historic 'leaf peeping' info for your assorted ports and they might give you some idea of the average peak periods - but they'll also confirm that the time of peak colour varies, sometimes quite a lot.

If seeing the colours is your priority, cruising is the wrong way to do this trip - you need a car and a flexible timetable so that you can go to the right places at the right times. Given you've done it multiple times before by ship though, you obviously enjoyed the rest of the experience enough to keep coming back - so personally if you stick to cruising I'd say treat the leaves as a 'nice to have' and then you can only be pleasantly surprised!

The colours are a bit muted this year due to our unseasonably warm weather. However in northern Nova Scotia they are pretty good right now, much more so than Halifax. Cape Breton should be good this week and perhaps into next if we do not get a bad windy period.

We just returned from a Sept. 30-October 10 NYC to Quebec City cruise, and I figured based on previous years that we would get good color, but Mother Nature had other plans!

This was not a great year for color. Fall has been unusually warm in New England, so there was little color in Boston and even Bar Harbor. Also not much in Halifax, Sydney, nor PEI. We got a little more in the Sagueney area, but mostly golds...our guide told us that due to the drought they had this summer, the maples were unable to produce their usual brilliant reds. The best color we got on the entire cruise was in and around Quebec City, and since we drove to Montreal after disembarkation to fly home, the 2.5 hour drive was beautiful (although foggy).

October much better than September, without fail.

There was pretty good colour in Nova Scotia this fall, but it is just past peak now. Halifax was not as good as the countryside. If you want colour on a cruise day in the second week of October head for the Wolfville area.

Sydney would be better if you can go around the Bras D'Or lakes or take the partial Cabot Trail drive.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/photos/photographers-capture-nova-scotia-s-fleeting-fall-colours-at-their-peak-1.4354616

Here's the website I use to follow the color change across our state... you can't predict from year to year, but you'll get an idea if you lucked out or not when it's time for your cruise.

http://www.maine.gov/dacf/mfs/projects/fall_foliage/index.shtml

Not much color

Bar Harbor - Regal Princess

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Just off crown oct 25. Best color in Halifax and Sydney. Nothing in Boston or nyc

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Thank you all for your replies. Always interesting to compare fall color year to year. One can only hope to be in the right area, at the right time, when weather conditions have produced beautiful fall color. It certainly is an extra bonus-when all you really are counting on is a relaxing fall cruise.

Here, in the woods of the Missouri Ozarks, the color is probably about to peak, and it seems dull this year.

Safe travels to you!

Actually I was wrong about the colours being past peak in NS on the 16th. They were great up to about the 20th. so aim for the second to third week of October. We have just had a lot of wind and some rain and many leaves are on the ground now.

Just off (Oct 12-21) Anthem to Canada/New England cruise. Not that spectacular color I was hoping for, but still much better than the dryness here in Southern Calif.

We were just there till the 16th. The colors were so vibrant. Not sure if they still are a couple weeks later.

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We were there just last week (Oct. 18 - 24), and it did not look like colors had peaked yet in most of the ports. Sydney perhaps was at peak color. Absolutely gorgeous driving from the port to the Bell Museum in Baddeck.

We were with "TeeRick" on the Celebrity Summit September 24 cruise and stayed on for the following October 8th cruise. The colors on the October 8th cruise were definitely better, but it also as definitely cooler.