Which Ship Fall Foliage?

[Beth and Bailey]

Thinking of taking a Sept or October trip along the east coast next year.  The ships are Vision, Grandeur, Empress, Adventure and Brilliance.  All the itineraries are similar enough for that not to be a priority.  I thought maybe looking at the date/rehab of the ship might be wise.  Seems only the Adventure is scheduled for dry dock in 2021 so that makes me think since it came out in 2001, perhaps it's rather tired/worn.

 

I'd love any suggestions anyone has.  I've been on the Brilliance but it was to Alaska many years ago.  I did like the size as I have recently done the Harmony and the Symphony and they are SO HUGE....so don't mind a smaller ship.

 

Thanks much

 

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

We took a September cruise a few years ago.  There was little color.  So, I would go with October.  

 

We are going on the Adventure Snowbird Migration cruise Oct 7.  We hope to see some nice foliage.  . . . but each year is a little different.  

[Ashland]

We're getting ready to sail on Adventure in Oct also. I have absolutely no concerns about the shape AOS is in.

Just sailed on Vision (hmmm) this past May (Med/Greece)...loved the itinerary but I wish it would have been on another class/ship.

Out of all your choices I would opt for AOS.

We've done the Canada/New England on Anthem...not a favorite class ship but our early October time frame was wonderful.

[Bee Guy]

4 hours ago, DragonOfTheSeas said:

We took a September cruise a few years ago.  There was little color.  So, I would go with October.  

 

 

 

If foliage colors are a priority I would suggest after Columbus Day.

[mets123]

Adventure had upgrades last year. That shouldn't be a concern.

 

 

[Beth and Bailey]

52 minutes ago, Ashland said:

We're getting ready to sail on Adventure in Oct also. I have absolutely no concerns about the shape AOS is in.

Just sailed on Vision (hmmm) this past May (Med/Greece)...loved the itinerary but I wish it would have been on another class/ship.

Out of all your choices I would opt for AOS.

We've done the Canada/New England on Anthem...not a favorite class ship but our early October time frame was wonderful.

Thanks so much for this information.  I think I will look into AOS .  We are looking at 2020.  Funny your signature says SoCal by way of Kentucky.  We are just the opposite.  Moved a year ago from L.A. to Kentucky.  

[purduemom1]

We did Canada /New England leaving from Quebec In late Oct on Brilliance. Loved it. We thought that choosing late Oct would eliminate worries about hurricanes-WRONG, Hurricane Sandy decided to travel up the east coast and join us. We had to overnight . In St John NB and skip Bar Harbor because seas were too rough for tenders and we had to make up time to reach Cape Liberty on time. If you recall NJ was hard hit and it was very difficult for pax to make plans to return home because flights weren’t completely up rand running. Many hotels were closed, long lines for gas etc. if I were going again I would not choose Sept for sure. We did see fall color in late Oct. but not peak. it is difficult to pinpoint peak color this far out but mid Oct and on is a better choice.

This was one of my favorite cruises in spite of the stress that Sandy caused. I also prefer the smaller ships if one can consider Brilliance a small ship!

[cruisegus]

In my opinion if choosing by ship Adventure leads all the others name by a long distance

[Baron Barracuda]

We've done fall foliage on Anthem, Explorer and Liberty round trip from Bayonne.  Our favorite though is X's Summit.  14 nights round trip to Quebec including an overnight in Quebec.  Picking the right sailing is difficult.  Once it was still 90 degrees in late October and all dw packed was long pants and long sleeve blouses.  Came back aboard in Boston with a "Boston Proud" tee shirt.  Didn't think they'd let her off the ship in NY

[mickeygirl78]

I live in Maine, if you’re looking for New England foilage I’d wait til October. I’m not any help with what ship, but I’d look for the most recently refurbished.

 

 

[Bloodgem]

16 hours ago, DragonOfTheSeas said:

We took a September cruise a few years ago.  There was little color.  So, I would go with October.  

I have to agree 

We did a fall's cruise in September 2017 and there was very little colour. Very disappointing as the trees at home were more autumnal.

[BillB48]

We did a autumn cruise the first half of October and there was very little color until we got to Quebec City.  Quebec City was fantastic for fall colors.

[mets123]

There is no perfect time. The changing of colors varies from year to year  based on many conditions such as temps and amount of rainfall. It's difficult to predict the current year, and future years are just an educated guess.

[jr8934]

Several years ago we did a Fall Colors cruise on the Legend of the Seas in October. It left and returned from Quebec. Worst cruise I've ever been on. 95% French only speaking cruisers. Not friendly. And no colors, of which to speak. We had better colors here in Chicago.

[Beth and Bailey]

52 minutes ago, jr8934 said:

Several years ago we did a Fall Colors cruise on the Legend of the Seas in October. It left and returned from Quebec. Worst cruise I've ever been on. 95% French only speaking cruisers. Not friendly. And no colors, of which to speak. We had better colors here in Chicago.

19 hours ago, purduemom1 said:

We did Canada /New England leaving from Quebec In late Oct on Brilliance. Loved it. We thought that choosing late Oct would eliminate worries about hurricanes-WRONG, Hurricane Sandy decided to travel up the east coast and join us. We had to overnight . In St John NB and skip Bar Harbor because seas were too rough for tenders and we had to make up time to reach Cape Liberty on time. If you recall NJ was hard hit and it was very difficult for pax to make plans to return home because flights weren’t completely up rand running. Many hotels were closed, long lines for gas etc. if I were going again I would not choose Sept for sure. We did see fall color in late Oct. but not peak. it is difficult to pinpoint peak color this far out but mid Oct and on is a better choice.

This was one of my favorite cruises in spite of the stress that Sandy caused. I also prefer the smaller ships if one can consider Brilliance a small ship!

We sailed on the Brilliance to Alaska in 05 or 06.  It was my husbands first cruise and we loved the shop.  The huge ships.....they are so big and massive now.  I like the smaller ones.

 

[Beth and Bailey]

jr8934...   I'm so sorry to hear that.  I think we will try the Adventure going in/out of New Jersey.   At least that's the plan at the moment.  

[Biker19]

54 minutes ago, jr8934 said:

 It left and returned from Quebec. Worst cruise I've ever been on. 95% French only speaking cruisers. Not friendly.  

I guess then you wouldn't be interested in Empress from Montreal.

Edited September 3, 2019 by Biker19

[lovemylab]

For the best fall colors, I recommend mid-October.  What are the differences in the intineraries?

 

[Colorado Babe]

My suggestion is to try and book in October mid month.  

[Teeara]

I work in Boston and we have little to no color yet.  It is just too warm.  You should look at mid to late October.  I did a Fall Foliage cruise back in 2011 with my mother during Columbus Day week and there wasn't much color up in Maine and not even at peak in Canada (although better than here in MA).  Our foliage has been delayed for the last couple of years due to it being too warm to trigger the foliage color change.

 

Adventure is a wonderful ship.  Make sure you get a balcony cabin.  

Edited September 4, 2019 by Teeara

[nbsjcruiser]

On 9/2/2019 at 12:30 PM, DragonOfTheSeas said:

We took a September cruise a few years ago.  There was little color.  So, I would go with October.  

 

We are going on the Adventure Snowbird Migration cruise Oct 7.  We hope to see some nice foliage.  . . . but each year is a little different.  

 

Early September is too early for color in the foliage. Very late September to middle of October at the latest would be peak time, at least around here (Eastern Canada).

[Beth and Bailey]

1 hour ago, nbsjcruiser said:

 

Early September is too early for color in the foliage. Very late September to middle of October at the latest would be peak time, at least around here (Eastern Canada).

We are looking to book the Adventure for mid October 2020.   Thanks so much.

[Beth and Bailey]

16 hours ago, Colorado Babe said:

My suggestion is to try and book in October mid month.  

You all have been so helpful in confirming my initial thoughts about October.   We will look to book the Adventure for 2020.

[Beth and Bailey]

16 hours ago, lovemylab said:

For the best fall colors, I recommend mid-October.  What are the differences in the intineraries?

 

We are only looking at Royal and pretty much all 5 ships that sail do the same ports.. The longer trips add another port, but pretty similar. Looking like the Adventure for a 9 day for Oct 2020.

[Colorado Babe]

14 minutes ago, Beth and Bailey said:

We are only looking at Royal and pretty much all 5 ships that sail do the same ports.. The longer trips add another port, but pretty similar. Looking like the Adventure for a 9 day for Oct 2020.

We are on the Adventure on Friday for 21 days.  We are aware that we will not see the fall colors, we saw them on the Brillance in 2014.  We weren't able to do much as I waiting on cervical and lumbar surgeries that incurred while I was on active duty.  We pretty much just walked around the ports.  This time, we have excursions booked at every port and plan on seeing everything we can while on this cruise.