Best time for a New England/Canada cruise

[IndyKid]

I'm looking into a possible cruise in the September/October time-frame for a 7-day New England/Canada itinerary. What would be the best time both in terms of the weather and the fall colors?

[IndyKid]

So it appears that the Enchanted Princess is the ship for this itinerary. The description for the trip says it leaves and returns to either Manhattan or Brooklyn, so which is it? And which airport is the best one to use going into and out of NYC?

[roxievegas]

Red Hook is the port in Brooklyn - that is where we boarded and returned to for our cruise

 

We flew into La Guardia and flew out of JFK - both are about the same distance.  We flew in a day early, stayed in hotel in Brooklyn.

[nini]

It can be tough to predict the Fall colors. I would aim for October. As I recall, there is a website which tries to predict, but you would have probably booked by then. 

We were on then Golden Princess in mid October 2003 and there really news not yet an abundance of color but we had a great cruise!

It was a great itinerary. We stayed in a lovely hotel across the street from Ground Zero. We boarded in Manhattan. 

On the next one on the Regal, we boarded in Red Hook.

[cr8tiv1]

I was just on this fall cruise. Mid-October to November 1.  The best colors were from Montreal to Quebec on a train.  Really did not see much color in the ports.  It is very hard to predict this far out.

 

i had booked 3 voyages to see the Cherry Blossoms in Japan (March or April). As the 90 day till final payment got closer, I had to pick a date.  Even then, it was difficult. I happened to keep the very best week.  All the trees as we sailed south were perfect!  

[dog]

Did this twice. Great cruise. Out of Red Hook. Car service to/from LGA.  Marriott hotel Brooklyn & Marriott Marquee Manhattan. Fall colours were best in early- mid October both times.  Weather was fine, however cruises previous to ours had rough seas, rain and missed ports.

[Coral]

Here is a website for fall colors historically (fall foliage network). Many will tell you Columbus Day but that is best for inland sites as opposed to coastal ports. It is also only good for US ports.

 

I did this trip 2x. At the time (several years ago) - it appeared Oct 15 was a good average date. We went October 15 (RT NYC) and we were early. We then did an Oct 23rd out of Quebec City to FLL. We had near blizzard conditions in Quebec City, we hit the best prime day for colors according to locals on Halloween in Boston and once we got to Norfolk, VA it was green from there on out. 

 

This website is very good: https://www.foliagenetwork.com/index.php/foliage-reports/foliage-reports-northeast-us/foliage-reports-northeast-us-archive  

 

Guessing Mother Nature can be tricky.

[d9704011]

5 minutes ago, Coral said:

Here is a website for fall colors historically (fall foliage network). Many will tell you Columbus Day but that is best for inland sites as opposed to coastal ports. It is also only good for US ports.

 

I did this trip 2x. At the time (several years ago) - it appeared Oct 15 was a good average date. We went October 15 (RT NYC) and we were early. We then did an Oct 23rd out of Quebec City to FLL. We had near blizzard conditions in Quebec City, we hit the best prime day for colors according to locals on Halloween in Boston and once we got to Norfolk, VA it was green from there on out. 

 

This website is very good: https://www.foliagenetwork.com/index.php/foliage-reports/foliage-reports-northeast-us/foliage-reports-northeast-us-archive  

 

Guessing Mother Nature can be tricky.

It seems the OP is looking at a seven-day round trip on Enchanted Princess out of NYC.  The Canadian port of call will be Halifax, and maybe Saint John.  I'd say the website for NE USA you provided is OK for 'predicting' the colours.  Me, I'd choose early to mid October for this, if possible.

[Coral]

10 minutes ago, d9704011 said:

It seems the OP is looking at a seven-day round trip on Enchanted Princess out of NYC.  The Canadian port of call will be Halifax, and maybe Saint John.  I'd say the website for NE USA you provided is OK for 'predicting' the colours.  Me, I'd choose early to mid October for this, if possible.

I agree about mid-October, even based on the website I provided. I did a ton of research on this. After saying that, we were too early on our October 15th cruise for the Canadian ports as well. It is a crap shoot. Every year is different. Regardless - it is a great cruise port wise.

 

I also did a RT 7 night cruise out of NYC on Oct 15th and missed the colors entirely.

Edited January 22 by Coral

[skynight]

7 hours ago, IndyKid said:

I'm looking into a possible cruise in the September/October time-frame for a 7-day New England/Canada itinerary. What would be the best time both in terms of the weather and the fall colors?

On the RT NYC (Brooklyn). The later the cooler.  In the northern part of the itinerary trees start turning color starting late September through maybe mid October. Boston, Bar Harbor maybe early October. I would suggest you look at the one way 10 day voyages from Quebec City. That itinerary is very nice. Princess has a few options. 

[skynight]

7 hours ago, IndyKid said:

So it appears that the Enchanted Princess is the ship for this itinerary. The description for the trip says it leaves and returns to either Manhattan or Brooklyn, so which is it? And which airport is the best one to use going into and out of NYC?

It's Brooklyn. I can't understand why Princess continues to use Manhattan or Brooklyn in their itineraries. As far as I know Princess has been embarking/disembarking at Red Hook Brooklyn for at least 15 to 20 years. Princess change your web site.

Princess does use Manhattan when it is a mid cruise port stop such as a world cruise. 

[Lady Arwen]

We’re booked on this cruise August 24th and flying from Toronto to Newark, NJ.  We prefer to fly in and out of a smaller airport.  Also, we’ve book the Princess transfers both ways.  Fall colours in Canada can be early or late in the fall.  I can tell you that the weather in the Maritime provinces can be quite nasty in the fall with lots of rain and very cool temperatures.  
 

We prefer to go early to enjoy warm weather and sunshine.  We live two+ hours north of Toronto and we get a fabulous display of fall colours right in our own backyard, usually starting early to late October.  By then it’s starting to snow!  We plan on staying on the ship to relax and only getting off in the Canadian ports.

Very much looking forward to our cruise.

Edited January 22 by Lady Arwen

[Coral]

23 minutes ago, skynight said:

 

Princess does use Manhattan when it is a mid cruise port stop such as a world cruise. 

Only sometimes. We had a mid cruise port stop and used Brooklyn. Unpredictable.

[Parrottdizes]

https://nycruise.com/

This site shows both Manhattan and Brooklyn schedules. 

At the moment it appears the the Enchanted will be using Brooklyn (of course everything is subject to change).

[Tedferg]

Interesting that no one has mentioned hurricanes. That was always a concern for me because cruises are during hurricane season. Most cruisers say the ships can avoid them and so we went Oct 2022. Hurricane Fiona hugged the coast, we missed Bar Harbor, soaked in Boston, Halifax limited by downed trees, missed St John - an OK cruise but disappointing.

[IndyKid]

3 minutes ago, Tedferg said:

Interesting that no one has mentioned hurricanes. That was always a concern for me because cruises are during hurricane season. Most cruisers say the ships can avoid them and so we went Oct 2022. Hurricane Fiona hugged the coast, we missed Bar Harbor, soaked in Boston, Halifax limited by downed trees, missed St John - an OK cruise but disappointing.

That would also be a concern of mine. 

[Cruise Raider]

3 minutes ago, IndyKid said:

That would also be a concern of mine. 

We’ve gone 3 times, each time in Sept as we celebrate an anniversary and a birthday in Sept.  My DH is colorblind as well so, the seeing the colors was not our main objective.  What we did get was decent weather .. not great but decent.  We had some great experiences on those sailings.  We were deciding if we wanted to back but decided on the Southern Caribbean instead … guess what, the hurricane hit up in the New England states so we dodged a bullet.  
perhaps late October is a better time to go.  

[Lady Arwen]

37 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

We’ve gone 3 times, each time in Sept as we celebrate an anniversary and a birthday in Sept.  My DH is colorblind as well so, the seeing the colors was not our main objective.  What we did get was decent weather .. not great but decent.  We had some great experiences on those sailings.  We were deciding if we wanted to back but decided on the Southern Caribbean instead … guess what, the hurricane hit up in the New England states so we dodged a bullet.  
perhaps late October is a better time to go.  

I gotta tell you, late October in the Maritime provinces and you could very easily get snow flurries!  We’re doing late August and that’s the absolute latest for us.  Warm days with cool nights and moderate chance of rain. 
 

You certainly did dodge a bullet!  You just never know what Mother Nature has up her sleeve and sometimes it’s not nice. lol

[Cruise Raider]

20 minutes ago, Lady Arwen said:

I gotta tell you, late October in the Maritime provinces and you could very easily get snow flurries!  We’re doing late August and that’s the absolute latest for us.  Warm days with cool nights and moderate chance of rain. 
 

You certainly did dodge a bullet!  You just never know what Mother Nature has up her sleeve and sometimes it’s not nice. lol

Coming from the west coast, so very glad to know this.  
 

[skynight]

3 hours ago, Parrottdizes said:

https://nycruise.com/

This site shows both Manhattan and Brooklyn schedules. 

At the moment it appears the the Enchanted will be using Brooklyn (of course everything is subject to change).

It's been Brooklyn for 15 to 20 years. I can't understand why Princess places Manhattan on their schedules. Princess certainly knows the pier where their ship will dock.

[Coral]

Red Hook opened in 2006.

[Parrottdizes]

17 minutes ago, skynight said:

It's been Brooklyn for 15 to 20 years. I can't understand why Princess places Manhattan on their schedules. Princess certainly knows the pier where their ship will dock.

You will have to ask NY cruise port why they place Princess on the Manhattan schedule. 
On 6/25/24 both the Island and the Emerald will be in NY…..according to the cruise port schedule the Island will be porting in Brooklyn and the Emerald will be porting in Manhattan. By the time June comes around, (who knows) the schedule could be changed.

Yes, I know Princess usually uses Brooklyn, but there can be exceptions (though not very often).

 

[Coral]

27 minutes ago, Parrottdizes said:

You will have to ask NY cruise port why they place Princess on the Manhattan schedule. 
On 6/25/24 both the Island and the Emerald will be in NY…..according to the cruise port schedule the Island will be porting in Brooklyn and the Emerald will be porting in Manhattan. By the time June comes around, (who knows) the schedule could be changed.

Yes, I know Princess usually uses Brooklyn, but there can be exceptions (though not very often).

 

On our Quebec to FLL cruise, the Captain did not know until the day before which pier we would be at - we ended up at Red Hook.