New to NCL - Canada/New England help

[hollon]

I usually cruise royal caribbean big ships, but we want to try a different cruiseline. We want to do a canada/new england cruise this fall, I'm so overwhelmed, can yall help me pick out a good itineriary?  We are active people in our 50's. anyone been there and can tell me about your trip

[Denise T]

I was in Canada/New England on the NCL Pearl in 2022 and will be going back this October on the NCL Sky. I love Canada/New England. My first cruise was a 7-day Boston round trip. This was my very first cruise ever. I went with my sister. We sailed from Boston, Charlottetown, Sydney, Halifax, Portland, Bar Harbor, and back to Boston. The ports were all very walkable with Bar Harbor being a tender port. With the exception of Boston (it poured), the weather was beautiful. Lots to see in the ports. We chose not to book excursions because we like to do things ourselves. 

Our cruise coming up is a 10-day cruise sailing from Quebec. Very excited about this as I have never been to Quebec. This trip we will be seeing Quebec, Saguenay, Charlottetown, Sydney, Halifax, Bar Harbor, Portland, Boston, and finally Baltimore. We have a couple of excursions planned this time around, but we will just walk the ports. 

My sister and I are in our 60s and loved just walking around and seeing the sites. I guess it depends on what interests you. The ports were so beautiful, and we did see the fall colors 

[FLAHAM]

In my opinion, the most interesting NCL Canada cruise route is Boston to Quebec City.

[PhillyTravelBug]

There's lots to consider.  If a closed looped sailing is a must, I would recommend sailing out of Boston over NYC.  In my opinion, Boston is a much better city with history and is quaint (love NYC as well, not a diss).  

 

If you are open to flying into one port and ending in a different, Quebec City is a must. I was just there this year and it really is a lovely city.  Spend the extra day in the Frontenac and really live up the experience.  If you did a full day and a half, it really is plenty of time to explore and get the feel. It's a small city.  Sailing the saint Lawrence river is probably a pretty cool experience.  I would opt for the Joy( larger ship) out of NYC or the Gem (older small)out of Boston.

 

If you are free with time, I would recommend the longer sailing with the Sky; however, its the oldest ship I believe.

 

Late September into October is prime season for New England/ Canada.  The weather is usually perfect.  

[BirdTravels]

5 hours ago, hollon said:

I usually cruise royal Caribbean big ships, but we want to try a different cruiseline. We want to do a Canada/New England cruise this fall, I'm so overwhelmed, can yall help me pick out a good itinerary?  We are active people in our 50's. anyone been there and can tell me about your trip

 

For us, the most interesting Canada/NE cruise is one way (or back-to-back) to Quebec. Sailing down the St. Lawrence is spectacular. There are 7-days to Quebec or longer. 

 

We do that itinerary and spend an extra day or two in Quebec. We normally take a post-cruise excursion to see some of the sites ending at the airport and taxi back to a B&B in the old city. If an extra day does not fit your schedule, then a post-cruise excursion ending at the airport and a flight home. 

 

Alternately, you can do a round trip from Boston or New York. That gets you to a few Canadian ports and a few US ports. 

 

The Joy is the biggest ship doing the itinerary this year. She will have the most to do onboard which may be of interest to 50ish folks (4000 passengers). The Breakaway is also a big ship (4000 passengers). Both of the big ships have a more modern cruise experience.

 

The Jade, Gem, Sky are older smaller ships (2400, 2400, 2000 passengers) with more traditional cruise atmosphere.

 

Any of the ships and itineraries are great if you want to dip your toes into the Canada/NE cruise. 

[hollon]

thank you - it sounds like boston to q. city is perfect, thank you guys, is there any port that you would say "pass on"

[Sea saw 56]

We have done Canada/New England 4 times.  The port we have never enjoyed was Sydney.

As with many of the other posters Quebec City is a fave (did a back-to-back one year on the Dawn), and Halifax and Charlottetown are also favourites.

[RN_Prof]

 

We've done roundtrip sailings out of New York and the one-way sailing from Quebec to Boston. Both are nice. We sailed at the end of September last year and missed Fall Color by about a week. The cruise out of New York was in the middle of summer, which was also nice. We would either of them again.

[Wayward Son]

32 minutes ago, RN_Prof said:

We sailed at the end of September last year and missed Fall Color by about a week.

 

I assume you were a week too early? We did the NE cruise in mid-September '22 and everything was as green as Spring.

 

Definitely wouldn't book a NE cruise with any expectation of seeing Fall colors. That's a disappointment waiting to happen. The year we decide to try October, we'll probably miss it late.

 

 

[ryarger]

4 hours ago, Wayward Son said:

The year we decide to try October, we'll probably miss it late.

We did Oct 23-30th in ‘22 and just missed peak. There were a handful of trees that had super vibrant colors so it was still absolutely worth it, but 80%+ were bare.

[phillygwm]

8 hours ago, hollon said:

thank you - it sounds like boston to q. city is perfect, thank you guys, is there any port that you would say "pass on"

I've done the RT NY cruise several times.  Last time, Sydney and Charlottetown were on the itinerary, in addition to the usual Boston, Portland (sometimes Bar Harbor,) Halifax, and Saint John. 

 

We did the Alexander Graham Bell museum in Sydney which was underwhelming (and a fairly long drive, as I recall.)   We enjoyed Bar Harbor the most.  I HATED Hfx my first time there but that was just the excursion we chose.  On subsequent visits we enjoyed it.  We did the Hop on Hop off bus in Saint John, which was fun.  Boston is Boston.  I've been there, for business and pleasure, countless times but it's absolutely worthwhile if you've not been.

 

If you're an Anne of Green Gables fan, C'town is a must.  I am not but friends and I found a really nice Irish pub there. The town had been ravaged by a tropical storm a couple weeks earlier and the uprooted trees and other damage was still readily visible but we had a good time.  

 

[Matahari47]

We did NYC round trip on Breakaway, in September 2022, after staying 3 nights in Boston. Loved sailing out of NYC! But the weather was very disappointing as in we never got to sit on deck once as it was too cold and sometimes absolutely chucking it down with rain.

I am from the English Lake District, so well used to questionable weather, but I don’t like it when I go on holiday! 
Also some of the ports were disappointing. St John’s sticks out as ‘why are we here’….🤣

Edited June 2 by Matahari47

[hollon]

2 hours ago, Matahari47 said:

We did NYC round trip on Breakaway, in September 2022, after staying 3 nights in Boston. Loved sailing out of NYC! But the weather was very disappointing as in we never got to sit on deck once as it was too cold and sometimes absolutely chucking it down with rain.

I am from the English Lake District, so well used to questionable weather, but I don’t like it when I go on holiday! 
Also some of the ports were disappointing. St John’s sticks out as ‘why are we here’….🤣

yes, it's kinda like going to alaska 🙂   any other ports would you say you didn't enjoy?  Did you like the Breakaway?

[Matahari47]

2 hours ago, hollon said:

yes, it's kinda like going to alaska 🙂   any other ports would you say you didn't enjoy?  Did you like the Breakaway?

Breakaway was lovely. We enjoyed it. Didn’t particularly notice any smoke from casino. But there was a smoking shelter on deck and it was billowing out of it 🤢🤢 

[PugM0m]

On 6/1/2024 at 6:25 AM, hollon said:

I usually cruise royal caribbean big ships, but we want to try a different cruiseline. We want to do a canada/new england cruise this fall, I'm so overwhelmed, can yall help me pick out a good itineriary?  We are active people in our 50's. anyone been there and can tell me about your trip

So funny, my husband and I and 3 other couples are the same. Have only done Royal Caribbean and decided to try a different company. We are doing the the Quebec to NY 7 day on 9/10/24.😁

[hollon]

1 hour ago, PugM0m said:

So funny, my husband and I and 3 other couples are the same. Have only done Royal Caribbean and decided to try a different company. We are doing the the Quebec to NY 7 day on 9/10/24.😁

Royal is getting so expensive. What ship are yall taking out of Quebec?

 

[spethstation]

On 6/1/2024 at 2:58 PM, hollon said:

thank you - it sounds like boston to q. city is perfect, thank you guys, is there any port that you would say "pass on"

 

Sydney is so boring, stay on the ship that day... 😂 Not much to do in Saint John either, if your itinerary includes it, but at least there are interesting bars, restaurants, and shops right near the port.

[cruiseny4life]

In St. John, rent a car and drive to Hopewell Rocks. It's a gorgeous place, even more so if the tide is out and you catch it coming back in. The drive through the countryside is long, but beautiful! 

[figment9999]

NE is a great, port intensive, sail. We’ve done 7n  a couple times; will do the Breakaway 10/6. 
 

overall do your homework and book on/off ship plans ahead. Most port stops are short so we usually use NCL excursions just on case

 

Newport is great to se “golden age”mansions. 

St John’s we like the excursion to St Martins or just walking and eating in a local brew pub and shopping in the peri side container/craft market. 
 
Bar Harbor we like to visit Acadia park and eat at the lobster house near the tenders. 
note that for now 2024 is the last time cruise ships are likely allowed in Bar Harbor. 

 

Halifax if fun. Take a cab up to the fort then walk down to the boardwalk. Lots to see, one thing not usually mentions is a WW2 Corvette. Interesting to walk around. 
 

The port diversity is such that you can do as much,or not, as you want

 

 

[PugM0m]

19 hours ago, hollon said:

Royal is getting so expensive. What ship are yall taking out of Quebec?

 

We are on the Joy. I agree, Royal is getting very expensive and my husband and I booked a 40th wedding anniversary cruise that was supposed to be a full Panama canal transit, then they took the canal completely out, after we had already bought our flights, and the cruise was then marketed mainly to South American passengers so alot of stuff was done in only Spanish which we don't speak. After several other fubar things, we decided it was time to try a different line.😄

[bonvoyagie]

We took the last 14 day Boston to Quebec and back to Boston on the Dawn in 2016. Back then we only repeated Halifax which was fine as there is lots to see and do there. Sydney is an interesting area we rented a car and drove out to the Alexander Bell museum and then drove up the coast. We booked most of our tours privately using Trip Advisor and tourist guides I sent for. Most of the time we used taxi style tours where it was just us in a car being shown around by a local. I know that we got better tours and spent the same amount of money as the ships tours. All the companies had back to ship on time guaranteed in writing.

 

Even though we were on the last sailing in late September into October we were just barely able to see some color.

[Sea saw 56]

We sailed last Oct 13-20, Pearl out of Boston.  Colors in most ports, especially at Acadia in Bar Harbor were definitely beautiful.  I really believe peak color was late last year.

[flarad]

We cruised last year on the Escape out of NYC the last week of September. We had a terrific time. The ports were all interesting and NYC is a gorgeous sail away with the sky line and statue of liberty. Our favorite port was Bar Harbor. We also enjoyed Portland, New Port, and Halifax. Really it's just an interesting cruise and we love the ship. For us NYC is an easy, direct flight from Florida and we've now cruised from this port twice.