New York - New England/Canada with kids

[sssct]

I like to cruise out of NY/NJ but have done all of the southbound itineraries...on more than one line. I need a new itinerary and all that's out there is New England/Canada. I question how the northern ports and cruises in general will be with kids. On a RC cruise to the Caribbean that did a 5 day Canada between 9 day Caribbean, some crew members said there were few children on board. I have 2 sons - next summer, they'll be 12 & 15 and they care more about the friends they make than anything...but they do like snorkeling etc that they do in the Caribbean...but that's secondary. What do you think of these northbound cruises/ports for families? Please share experiences or direct me to where I could find more info.

 

(Just returned from a 9 day Caribbean Princess cruise south - I hate being back in reality so I have to search for our next vacation!)

[old bag]

We just returned from our second cruise to Canada ... 9 Days Explorer of the Seas ---which included New London, Boston, Portland ME, and Bar Harbor.

 

My 8 and 11 year old loved it ... there were plenty of children on board, particurily teen aged level, though I will say it was an older group of cruisers.

 

I carefully planned our excursions ... which made all of the difference in the world.

 

In Bar Harbor, we had a 4 hour private tour .. just the 4 of us, with Michael Good from Down East Bird Tour ... or something like that.

 

He was great with our children and tremendously informative. For $250 ... I don't know how we could have done better ... plus he adjusted the tour to meet the wants of our family. He was fantastic.

 

In Boston we did the hop on and off Old Town Trolley Tour ... we ran out of time in port before we ran out of things to explore.

 

In New London we got a Sea Everything Pass for Mystic ... though your children may be a bit older for this, it was, again, fantastic ... just leave enough time to get a taxi back ... it took us about 30 minutes to get a taxi!

 

Halifax ... Peggy's Cove

St John ... first time Photography Tour, Second time St. Martins ... again, both were fantastic

 

Portland ... Duck ... it was OK.

 

The Explorer had a lot of teen activities, it seemed. Any time we were swimming or ice skating there were more teens than anything. It was cool and raining most of the time we were at sea and in port ... but that didn't stop my childern and other children from haning in the hot tub.

 

In all ... we loved it. I think it's an all age group kind of tour.

[sssct]

We have been on the Explorer (and Voyager) and like the ships very much. I'm glad to hear that families are going north these days...sounds like my kids would find lots of friends. I live in CT and have been to New London/Mystic/Groton and the casinos lots of times. But it could be interesting arriving by ship!