Majestic Princess - Canada & New England from New York
A fall-foliage classic: Majestic Princess loops out of Manhattan to five ports in six days - Gilded Age Newport, Boston, Portland, Bay of Fundy gateway Saint John, and Halifax - before a single sea day home. The ship's glass-enclosed Hollywood Conservatory and dome-covered indoor pool are tailor-made for crisp October days on deck-free afternoons.
Price Range
$
Budget
*Prices vary by cabin type, sailing date, and availability. Confirm rates with Princess Cruises before booking.
Ship Details — Majestic Princess
View full Majestic Princess details
Year Built
2017
Tonnage
143,700 GT
Passengers
3,560
Crew
1,346
Decks
19
Class
Royal Class
Itinerary & Route Map
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Where this cruise calls, day by day
7 ports and 1 sea day over 7 Nights.
- Day 1New York, NY port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore
New York, NY
United StatesDepart - Day 2
Newport, RI
United StatesPortNewport is a tender port - ships anchor out in Narragansett Bay and run boats into Perrotti Park at the head of the harbour, which lands you a block from Thames Street. The call is usually short and the town is compact, so the real choice is between the Gilded Age mansions on Bellevue Avenue and simply walking the waterfront.
- The Breakers, the Vanderbilt house on Ochre Point, plus Marble House if you have time for two
- The Cliff Walk, 3.5 miles between the mansion lawns and the Atlantic
- Thames Street and Bowen's Wharf for chowder and boat-watching
- The International Tennis Hall of Fame in the old Newport Casino building
- Getting ashore
- A tender call: ships anchor in the harbour and land at Perrotti Park, a block from Thames Street - no bus needed, but a stiff blow can cancel the tender operation.
- Best months
- Jun-Oct (September is the best combination of weather and thinner crowds)
- Day 3Boston, MA port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore
Boston, MA
United StatesPort - Day 4
Portland, ME
United StatesPortPortland is the easiest stop in New England: larger ships tie up at Ocean Gateway, smaller ones at the Maine State Pier, and the Old Port's cobbled blocks of brick warehouses begin about five minutes from the gangway. It is a walking call, which means you can skip the excursion entirely and still fill the day.
- The Old Port - Commercial, Fore and Exchange Streets for lobster rolls, bookshops and breweries
- Portland Head Light at Fort Williams Park in Cape Elizabeth, 15 minutes out of town
- The Portland Museum of Art, strong on Winslow Homer
- A Casco Bay Lines mailboat run out through the islands if you have most of a day
- Getting ashore
- Ocean Gateway Terminal takes the larger ships and the Maine State Pier the smaller ones; both are a 5-10 minute walk from the Old Port, and the Jetport is about 15 minutes by road.
- Best months
- Jun-Oct (the season is short; late Sep-Oct brings foliage cruises and cold mornings)
- Day 5
Saint John
CanadaPortSaint John sits on the Bay of Fundy, which has the largest tides in the world. Here the range is around eight metres, and twice a day the incoming tide physically shoves the Saint John River backwards through a rock gorge - the Reversing Falls Rapids, which only performs if you time your visit to the tide table. The city behind the pier is a weathered working port with a genuinely good 1876 market hall, and you can walk off into it.
- The Reversing Falls Rapids from Fallsview Park - check the tide times before you go
- Saint John City Market, the oldest continuously operating farmers' market in Canada
- The sea caves and covered bridges at St. Martins, about 40 minutes out
- Hopewell Rocks flowerpot formations, walkable on the sea floor at low tide but 90 minutes each way
- Getting ashore
- Docked at the Marco Polo Cruise Terminal on the downtown waterfront, with an enclosed pedway through to Market Square and the City Market.
- Best months
- Jun-Oct; Sep-Oct for fall colour
- Day 6Halifax port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore
Halifax
CanadaPort Day 7 · At sea
- Day 8New York, NY port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore
New York, NY
United StatesArrive
What to know about this sailing
Only 3 traveler threads put Majestic Princess in Canada and New England, all from 2024 and none a review of this loop; these notes come from those, 63 threads about the route on other ships, the route data and the port notes above.
The one traveler thread that weighs Majestic Princess on this coast is a parent choosing between it and Holland America's Zuiderdam for the same Canada and New England itinerary, and it is a fair summary of the ship's position here: the replies treated the two as near equivalents, both drawing an older crowd outside school holidays, with Holland America edging it on food, stateroom quality and onboard talks and Princess offering more production shows, and one poster naming the Conservatory as the reason to pick Majestic on a cool-weather route. Nobody in the archive has reviewed this ship on this exact loop, so what follows on the route comes from the itinerary and from threads about other ships running the same ports. The loop's shape is the unusual thing: five port days in a row and the single sea day last. That works because the legs are short, Newport an overnight hop from Manhattan and each of Boston, Portland and Saint John another overnight, with Halifax to New York the only run that needs a full day. That last leg, out around Nova Scotia into open Atlantic, is where a poster on an August 2024 Majestic thread was told the remnants of Caribbean hurricanes make themselves felt, typically a week or so after they hit the islands; replies also mentioned that ships slow down in the Gulf of St. Lawrence for whales, which does not apply to this loop but says something about the season.
Against Norwegian Escape, which sails the identical six ports from the same Manhattan pier over the same week at nearly the same fare, the choice is about the ship rather than the route, and the only first-hand account of this exact port set is a September 2024 Norwegian Breakaway review that found the week fine but unremarkable and the ferry from Port Imperial to the pier painless. Breakaway and Zuiderdam run near-identical loops from New York and Boston without Newport; Oceania's Vista and Seabourn Ovation do the coast at six to seven times the fare over eleven or twelve nights; Brilliant Lady's eight-night version is about double. Port advice from the route threads is practical rather than glowing: Boston's museums and North End pastry shops, Portland's Old Port and its bakeries a few minutes from the ship, a walking tour in Saint John, the Citadel and the Public Gardens in Halifax. The sailing suits couples and retirees within reach of Manhattan who want the leaf season with a port every day and a ship whose indoor spaces are made for it, and who accept that a fall departure carries some tropical-storm risk on the Halifax leg; it does not suit anyone who wants Bar Harbor, which this route skips, or who wants sea days to use the ship, since there is exactly one.
Questions about this sailing
How rough is the sea on a Canada and New England cruise from New York in hurricane season?
Usually fine, with one caveat that came through clearly when an August 2024 Majestic Princess passenger asked how the Maritimes compare with Alaska's open-water days. Replies said the route is calm unless a Caribbean hurricane's remnants track north, which tends to happen a week or so after landfall in the islands and is felt most on the stretch east of Nova Scotia into the North Atlantic, the Halifax to New York leg here. One poster's ship had sheltered in Portland for three days in a September storm; another had a smooth run on Caribbean Princess in 2023 and had missed two ports to tropical storms in 2012. Spring and early summer were suggested for anyone prone to seasickness, at the cost of the foliage.
Majestic Princess or Holland America's Zuiderdam for a Canada and New England cruise?
The September 2024 thread that asked this, from a parent and teenager who cared about food, coffee, quiet places to read on deck and evening shows, got a split verdict. Two Zuiderdam regulars praised Holland America's food and service, the Crow's Nest lounge for watching the water, the onboard talks on Canadian topics and free 24-hour room service, and rated the ambience quieter. A Princess regular said the two lines are similar, both older-skewing with families in school holidays, and that Princess offers more production shows on a longer sailing; another poster who loves Majestic named the Hollywood Conservatory as its trump card. Nobody thought either choice was wrong.
Onboard Amenities
Cruise Highlights
About the Ship
What Travelers Say About Majestic Princess
Reviews of the ship itself — the same for every Majestic Princess sailing. Distilled from 86 traveler threads, Cruise Critic member reviews and travel blogs.
Majestic Princess is the odd sibling of the Royal class - built in 2017 for the Chinese market, then a long-time Australia and Alaska favorite - and travelers talk about her differences as features, not bugs. In place of the fee-based Sanctuary and SeaWalk found on sisters like Discovery Princess, she has the free Hollywood Conservatory, a glass-walled indoor garden with cabanas, and the dome-covered Hollywood Pool Club. That indoor real estate makes her one of the best-suited big ships for cool-climate cruising, and the vibe is classic Princess: calm, service-led, and more about food, wine, and live music in the Piazza than deck-top thrills.
What People Love
- The Hollywood Conservatory and glass-domed Hollywood Pool Club are the ship's secret weapon - a free, climate-controlled solarium with cabanas and an indoor lap pool that travelers say no other Princess ship matches in cool-weather regions
- Two Michelin-pedigree specialty restaurants set it apart: Bistro Sur La Mer from 3-Michelin-star chef Emmanuel Renaut and Harmony, widely called the best Cantonese food at sea
- MedallionClass tech consistently earns praise - the wearable disc unlocks your cabin hands-free, tracks kids, and delivers drinks to wherever you're sitting
Common Complaints
- The Princess Theatre is undersized for 3,500+ passengers - reviewers warn you must arrive 30+ minutes early or stand for popular production shows
- No traditional wraparound promenade deck, which long-time Princess loyalists miss for sea-day walking
- Standard interior and balcony cabins run small for the class, and storage feels tight for couples on longer itineraries
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