Torn between two cruises?

[cw2go]

Hello I am planning a Canada/NE cruise....

 

Princess Ruby sails Oct. so I am concerned of the weather, would much prefer summer temps...As for Fall foliage, it would be nice but not a priority for me.

 

Holland Veendam sails June but I am equally concerned of the ship. Although I am primarily seeking a great itinerary, the shipboard activities and meals will have some baring.

 

There are the two options:

 

Holland Veendam

DayDatePortArriveDepart0 21 Jun 2014 Quebec City, Quebec, CA1 22 Jun 2014 Quebec City, Quebec, CA04:00 PM 2 23 Jun 2014 Cruising Gulf of St. Lawrence3 24 Jun 2014 Charlottetown, Prince Edward CA08:00 AM 05:00 PM 4 25 Jun 2014 Sydney,Canada08:00 AM 04:00 PM 5 26 Jun 2014 Halifax, Nova Scotia, CA08:00 AM 04:00 PM 6 27 Jun 2014 Bar Harbor, Maine, US08:00 AM 05:00 PM 7 28 Jun 2014 Boston, Massachusetts, US07:00 AM

 

 

 

Princess Ruby:

DayPort / DateArriveDepart1Quebec City, Quebec

Thursday, October 2

Overnight Stay2Quebec City, Quebec

Friday, October 3

5:00 PM3Ville Saguenay, Quebec

Saturday, October 4

7:00 AM2:00 PM4Gaspe, Quebec

Sunday, October 5

10:00 AM6:00 PM5Charlottetown, Canada

Monday, October 6

9:00 AM6:00 PM6Sydney, Nova Scotia

Tuesday, October 7

8:00 AM5:00 PM7Halifax, Nova Scotia

Wednesday, October 8

8:00 AM5:00 PM8Bar Harbor, Maine

Thursday, October 9

7:00 AM6:00 PM9Boston, Massachusetts

Friday, October 10

8:00 AM5:00 PM10At Sea

Saturday, October 11

11New York City (Manhattan or Brooklyn), New York

Sunday, October 12

7:15 AM

 

For those of you who have sailed both lines or have sailed Canada, can you please give me any insight you may have or some considerations I may have not noticed? I would love to sail the Princess route in the summer but since that is not an option I am now debating with myself and can't seem to get a real feel for either.

 

About us: 47 and 50 years old, have sailed RCCL, Carnival and Celebrity...Enjoyed all of our cruises with Celebrity being the nicest cruise experience and RCCL being the most fun...Carnival, well lets just say I went once and never went back. Formal nights are non issue for us. Can take them or leave them but always follow cruise lines requested attire. Can't say we are party animals but are lively and do like to wonder about the ship for an evening drink after dinner BUT classical music is not our thing more modern in that regards.

 

Hope this helps and thank you in advance for your input,

Patty

[Nan_Sea]

I am from New England, RI, and I have traveled on both ships. We switched to Princess a couple of years ago because we find there is more to do on a Princess ship and HAL attracts an older crowd. Early Oct. in New England is beautiful and the temps can be very pleasant. Of course, the weather is never a sure thing.

[timetravler]

Last year we did the New England repositioning cruise from Quebec to Florida with a similar itinerary as the one you posted. But then hurricane Sandy came along and instead we cruised much of the St Lawrence river in Canada. So we missed 4 American ports. But the cruise was very pleasant never the less. But my main point is a hurricane could affect a NE cruise in the summer as well as in the fall. You just never know. I would still go with the Princess cruise because you will find pretty much old people on a Holland America cruise with not much going on after 7pm.

[Colo Cruiser]

I agree with Nan_Sea, I would pick the Ruby.

[Pam in CA]

If you want summer temps, you won't see much Fall foliage. :( No matter what, sea temps north of Cape Cod are very cold, even in the summer.

 

Peak foliage is usually the first week or two of October. Much earlier, and you won't see as much or as brilliant color.

 

An excellent source of information about Fall foliage is http://www.yankeefoliage.com/peak-foliage-forecast-map/

[msmoger]

We did the Ruby itinerary but on the Emerald (sister ship with the same layout) a couple years ago. We went about the same time as you are considering. We saw some beautiful foliage in Quebec (we spent a few days pre-cruise and rented a car one day...it was spectacular). Also saw some nice color in the rest of Canada but not as much as we sailed south.

 

We very much enjoyed the cruise. In fact it was our best dining room experience on Princess (Thanks Godwin!! :D).

 

However, and this was not a problem at all, just an observation, it was by far the oldest demographic of all our cruises on Princess. This is because of the itinerary and time of year. We had friends taking the more or less same itinerary at the same time on Celebrity and they had the same experience.

 

I would select the Ruby because we love Princess, but don't expect a major party atmosphere. It's port intensive and Skywalkers was utilized much more during the daylight hours. ;)

[lor74]

I did NE last year on the Caribbean Princess, rt from NY. We sailed on Sept 21st, and the temperatures were between 10-19 celcius. Foliage season started the first week of October. I was comfortable walking around in shorts, but the DW needed an extra layer.

 

It was a standard Princess cruise..which we love, and we enjoyed the itinerary more than we thought we would. We are hoping to do NE again this year on the Royal Princess.

Edited March 14, 2014 by lor74

[cruisequeen10]

my niece and I did this itinerary on the Veendam 2 years ago from Montreal to Boston (7 days). We had 1 day before the cruise in Montreal then the 7 days to Boston, stayed for 3 days then took the train (3 hours) to New York for 4 days. Had a wonderful time except we missed Charlottetown because of high seas and couldn`t dock. Had a sea day to replace it. All in all, we had a fabulous time.

[Gabrielle R.]

Kind of boils down to what do you really want to do? If the fall colors don't matter that much (Northern climate people may say eh, If you see one maple tree you've seen most ;) )

 

If you want to see the ports then go with what you want to see most....

Ships... Well I've done Princess... LOTS.. HAL once. It would have to be a REALLY GOOD deal for me (& DH) to go with HAL. We just didn't enjoy the the food at all. We are not foodies, but we had foodies with us on the trip- he scored chefs... He wouldn't give our chef a star. I wasn't impressed. My elderly aunt & uncle felt they were the spring chickens on their Panama Canal trip.. they were unimpressed with the food.

 

Summer MIGHT give a younger crowd on the HAL. We did meet some very young feeling older people on HAL... the age demographics didn't bother us with HAL... Not much night life.. We were most disappointed with the food on HAL Princess wins for food, service, and entertainment. HAL... It was a pretty ship and they had covered pools... That's all I got.

 

Sorry so negative on HAL.. we liked where we went on HAL, the ship was pretty. It just fell short compared to Princess.

[geoherb]

We had a good time on both Princess and HAL on our cruises to Canada and New England. Our first was on the Golden Princess in October 2002. We sailed the second week of October. The fall colors weren't very evident yet in most of the ports with the exception of one lone maple in the Public Garden in Halifax. We sailed last year on the Veendam. HAL has cut back on its cruise director's staff, so there are not as many activities going on. This cruise, though, is port intensive, so you might not want as many things. The food and service on both were great.

[Rosethorn40]

Are you concerned about lots of families? School lets out on the East coast usually the 2nd-3rd week of June, so even though HAL usually attracts an older crowd, it is the beginning of summer vacation season on the east coast. October you won't find too many parents pulling their kids out of school, not that early in the school year. I sailed Canada/New England nearly 5-years ago in October. It was overall a nice cruise, but we did have a Nor'easter that caused us to skip Newport, RI, and the day we were in Halifax was very chilly. I don't think you have to worry about Hurricanes in June. I think Hurricane Season starts July 1st.

 

Personally I would want the Veendam. It's a smaller ship and I like fewer passengers. However, there have been reports of issues, major issues with air conditioning and plumbing. I do not have first hand knowledge of these, it's from reading reviews, and the HAL board.

[Sailingpeace]

With or without fall foliage, I personnally woud defenitely choose to go up the Saguenay fjords up to Saguenay ( the small city) where you dock in a beautiful bay. Saguenay is the name of the region, the name of a city ( regrouping many villages in fact) and the name of a magnificient river coming down a fjord. Where it meets the Saint-laurent river, it is also the area of a preservation marine park.

 

http://parcmarin.qc.ca/home.html (Website is also in English)

 

Have a great cruise!

Edited March 16, 2014 by Sailingpeace

[cw2go]

Are you concerned about lots of families? School lets out on the East coast usually the 2nd-3rd week of June, so even though HAL usually attracts an older crowd, it is the beginning of summer vacation season on the east coast. October you won't find too many parents pulling their kids out of school, not that early in the school year. I sailed Canada/New England nearly 5-years ago in October. It was overall a nice cruise, but we did have a Nor'easter that caused us to skip Newport, RI, and the day we were in Halifax was very chilly. I don't think you have to worry about Hurricanes in June. I think Hurricane Season starts July 1st.

 

Personally I would want the Veendam. It's a smaller ship and I like fewer passengers. However, there have been reports of issues, major issues with air conditioning and plumbing. I do not have first hand knowledge of these, it's from reading reviews, and the HAL board.

 

 

As for demographics or foliage...I guess I am an odd duck because neither matter to me at all. Young or old mean nothing to us...been one and getting to the other :D At this point it seems I am either going with Holland in summer for warmer climate and less chance of rain or risk the weather for the itinerary which could be awesome or a bust. (side note I do prefer the smaller size of Veendam and that there will not be 10k cruisers pulling in on the same day)

 

I've been reading and researching the ships. As much as I prefer the princess route I really want a summer sailing???

 

Still torn, :o

Patty

[cw2go]

With or without fall foliage, I personnally woud defenitely choose to go up the Saguenay fjords up to Saguenay ( the small city) where you dock in a beautiful bay. Saguenay is the name of the region, the name of a city ( regrouping many villages in fact) and the name of a magnificient river coming down a fjord. Where it meets the Saint-laurent river, it is also the area of a preservation marine park.

 

http://parcmarin.qc.ca/home.html (Website is also in English)

 

Have a great cruise!

 

 

This is indeed a major drawl for Princess...maybe I just need to do both...LOL! :D

Edited March 16, 2014 by cw2go

[Liz54]

With or without fall foliage, I personnally woud defenitely choose to go up the Saguenay fjords up to Saguenay ( the small city) where you dock in a beautiful bay. Saguenay is the name of the region, the name of a city ( regrouping many villages in fact) and the name of a magnificient river coming down a fjord. Where it meets the Saint-laurent river, it is also the area of a preservation marine park.

 

http://parcmarin.qc.ca/home.html (Website is also in English)

 

Have a great cruise!

 

Agreed. The Saguenay is a must see, so go with Princess.

As a life long Northerner I NEVER tire of the colours in fall!