which date?

[Luxlight17]

My husband and I plan to take the NCL Canada/New England cruise Fall, 2010. We would like to take advantage of possible Early Bird discounts and go ahead and book this cruise now. This cruise is typically round-trip New York; however, twice each fall NCL has a one-way cruise which begins in Boston and ends in Quebec City. The one-way cruise is the one we are interested in. My question concerns the choice of date. Here in the South, our trees change color late in October. Which cruise do we have the best chance of seeing gorgeous color, the one beginning Sept. 25, or the one beginning Oct. 9? The ports are: Bar Harbor; Saint John (Bay Of Fundy); Halifax; Sydney; Corner Brook; Quebec City. We want to have good enough weather to be able to enjoy our balcony cabin, which makes me lean toward the Sept. 25 cruise; however, we don't want to miss out on the color, which makes me lean toward the Oct. 9 cruise. Obviously, we want to have our cake and eat it too - warm enough weather for the balcony, but cool enough for the leaves to have changed! Please advise!

[SailBadtheSinner]

Using the interactive foliage map here http://www.yankeefoliage.com/peakmap/

provided by Yankee Magazine as a guide, here is my opinion -

 

The Sept 25 cruise start will be early for the New England ports; Oct 9 start will be just right for them.

 

Now for the Canadian ports, since Saint John (Bay Of Fundy); Halifax; & Sydney are coastal ports, my guess is that the 10/9 cruise will be good, same as coastal Maine; for Corner Brook, it is coastal but further north, maybe OK. For Quebec City, not coastal but inland, and based on the foliage map showing interior Maine being past prime by the end of the cruise 10/16, I would guess that may be true for Quebec City.

 

Not much help so I would suggest that you post your question to the Canadian Ports-of Call board to get a more knowledgeable reply, if you haven’t already.

 

Now for the question concerning the balcony, except for entering or leaving a port and passage on the St Lawrence River, the cruise ship is normally out of the sight of land. Also, most of the cruise between the ports will be at night plus it will be chilly to you on either cruise. There is one sea day on the itinerary, Corner Brook to Quebec City. Save your money.

 

 

SBtS

[Luxlight17]

Thanks so much for the great advice! I'm happy to have the Yankee fall foliage map; that's one I hadn't seen before. We will certainly ponder nixing the balcony - that would save quite a bit of money.