Queen Mary 2 - New England & Canada: St. Lawrence Autumn Voyage

Where this cruise calls, day by day

10 ports and 6 sea days over 15 Nights.

1. Day 1

   New York, NY

   United StatesDepart

   New York sails from two very different places. The Manhattan Cruise Terminal occupies Piers 88 and 90 off Twelfth Avenue in the West 50s, a 1930s finger-pier arrangement with rooftop parking and Midtown at the end of the block. Brooklyn's terminal in Red Hook is calmer and roomier but further from a subway. Either way the ship must clear the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, which rules out the largest ships afloat.

   • The Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, a ten-minute walk from the Manhattan piers
   • The High Line and Chelsea Market, with Hudson Yards on the way back
   • The sailaway itself - past the Statue of Liberty and under the Verrazzano; be on deck
   • Red Hook if you sail from Brooklyn: Louis Valentino Jr. Park has the best free Statue view in the city

   Getting ashore

   Manhattan berths at Piers 88 and 90 (West 46th to 54th Streets) with drop-off on Twelfth Avenue, while Brooklyn Cruise Terminal is in Red Hook; reckon 45-60 minutes from JFK or Newark and 30-45 from LaGuardia, all of it hostage to traffic.

   Best months

   May-Oct (Bermuda and Canada/New England runs; Sep-Oct adds foliage sailings)

2. Day 2 · At sea

3. Day 3 · At sea

4. Day 4

   Boston, MA

   United StatesPort

   Flynn Cruiseport sits on Black Falcon Avenue in South Boston's Seaport, and its selling point is Logan: about four miles away through the Ted Williams Tunnel, often fifteen minutes. Boston works both as a homeport for Canada/New England and Bermuda runs and as a port call where you can walk off the ship and immediately be somewhere worth being.

   • The Freedom Trail - follow the red line from Boston Common to Bunker Hill, about three hours end to end
   • Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market, touristy but efficient
   • The Institute of Contemporary Art, a 15-minute Harborwalk stroll from the terminal
   • The North End for dinner, which is the real argument for coming in a day early

   Getting ashore

   Flynn Cruiseport Boston uses the Black Falcon Terminal in the Seaport District; Logan is about 4 miles by the Ted Williams Tunnel, usually 15-20 minutes.

   Best months

   May-Oct (Sep-Oct for the foliage sailings north)

5. Day 5 · At sea

6. Day 6

   Sydney

   CanadaPort

   Sydney is the way into Cape Breton rather than the reason for the day. The pier is marked by a giant fiddle sculpture on the boardwalk, and the town behind it has been quiet since the coal mines and the steel plant shut. Nearly everything worth the day is a drive away, so decide before you dock - unplanned, Sydney runs out in about an hour.

   • Fortress of Louisbourg, a reconstructed 18th-century French garrison town, about 45 minutes away
   • The Cabot Trail and Cape Breton Highlands National Park, a full-day loop
   • Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site at Baddeck, roughly an hour out
   • Cape Breton Miners' Museum in Glace Bay, with an underground tour led by former miners

   Getting ashore

   Docked at the Joan Harriss Cruise Pavilion on the Sydney boardwalk; the town is a short walk, but the sights all need a coach or taxi.

   Best months

   Sep-Oct (Cabot Trail fall colour); Jun-Oct season

7. Day 7 · At sea

8. Day 8

   Quebec City

   CanadaPort

   The berth at Pointe-a-Carcy sits directly under the old city, which makes this one of the easiest walk-off ports anywhere - you come out into the Lower Town and the funicular up to the Chateau Frontenac is two blocks away. Quebec is walled, French-speaking, steep and a UNESCO site in its entirety. Some St. Lawrence itineraries turn around here rather than just call.

   • Quartier Petit-Champlain and the funicular up to Dufferin Terrace and the Chateau Frontenac
   • The Plains of Abraham and the star-shaped Citadelle
   • Montmorency Falls, higher than Niagara, with a cable car and a bridge across the top
   • The farm road and cider houses of Ile d'Orleans

   Getting ashore

   Docked at the Port of Quebec terminal at Pointe-a-Carcy in the Old Port; Old Quebec begins at the gangway.

   Best months

   late Sep-mid Oct (fall colour); May-Oct season

9. Day 9

   Quebec City

   CanadaPort

   The berth at Pointe-a-Carcy sits directly under the old city, which makes this one of the easiest walk-off ports anywhere - you come out into the Lower Town and the funicular up to the Chateau Frontenac is two blocks away. Quebec is walled, French-speaking, steep and a UNESCO site in its entirety. Some St. Lawrence itineraries turn around here rather than just call.

   • Quartier Petit-Champlain and the funicular up to Dufferin Terrace and the Chateau Frontenac
   • The Plains of Abraham and the star-shaped Citadelle
   • Montmorency Falls, higher than Niagara, with a cable car and a bridge across the top
   • The farm road and cider houses of Ile d'Orleans

   Getting ashore

   Docked at the Port of Quebec terminal at Pointe-a-Carcy in the Old Port; Old Quebec begins at the gangway.

   Best months

   late Sep-mid Oct (fall colour); May-Oct season

10. Day 10

    Quebec City

    CanadaPort

    The berth at Pointe-a-Carcy sits directly under the old city, which makes this one of the easiest walk-off ports anywhere - you come out into the Lower Town and the funicular up to the Chateau Frontenac is two blocks away. Quebec is walled, French-speaking, steep and a UNESCO site in its entirety. Some St. Lawrence itineraries turn around here rather than just call.

    • Quartier Petit-Champlain and the funicular up to Dufferin Terrace and the Chateau Frontenac
    • The Plains of Abraham and the star-shaped Citadelle
    • Montmorency Falls, higher than Niagara, with a cable car and a bridge across the top
    • The farm road and cider houses of Ile d'Orleans

    Getting ashore

    Docked at the Port of Quebec terminal at Pointe-a-Carcy in the Old Port; Old Quebec begins at the gangway.

    Best months

    late Sep-mid Oct (fall colour); May-Oct season

11. Day 11

    Saguenay

    CanadaPort

    The cruise berth is the Quai de Bagotville in the La Baie borough, at the head of the Baie des Ha! Ha! - and reaching it means 54 nautical miles up the Saguenay fjord from the St. Lawrence, which is itself most of what you came for. Saguenay has won best-welcome awards four times over and puts entertainment on the dock for every arrival. Quebec City is a two-and-a-half hour drive away.

    • The fjord transit itself, past Cap Trinite and the Notre-Dame-du-Saguenay statue on the cliff
    • Musee du Fjord in La Baie, on the bay the ship berths in
    • La Pulperie de Chicoutimi, a ruined pulp mill turned regional museum
    • Zodiac and sea-kayak trips on the fjord, or the drive out to the abandoned company town at Val-Jalbert

    Getting ashore

    Docked at the Quai de Bagotville cruise terminal in La Baie, which has its own welcome pavilion; some ships instead anchor a few hundred metres off and tender.

    Best months

    Sep-Oct (fall colour); Jun-Oct season

12. Day 12

    Sept-Iles

    CanadaPort

    Sept-Iles is an iron-ore port on Quebec's North Shore, one of the largest ore-handling harbours in North America, shipping out what comes down the rail line from the Labrador Trough. The town of roughly 25,000 exists because of it. A cruise day here is about Innu culture, the archipelago of seven islands the place is named for, and a great deal of empty boreal shoreline.

    • Musee Shaputuan, an Innu museum arranged around the cycle of the seasons
    • Le Vieux-Poste, a reconstructed 18th-century fur-trading post on the bay
    • Boat trips out to Ile Grande Basque in the Sept Iles archipelago, with marked trails and beaches
    • Drumming, storytelling and country food at Uashat mak Mani-utenam, the Innu community beside town

    Getting ashore

    Docked at the Quai des Croisieres, a dedicated cruise wharf close to the downtown core; the archipelago boats and the outlying sites still need transport.

    Best months

    Sep-Oct (fall colour); Jun-Oct season

13. Day 13 · At sea

14. Day 14

    Halifax

    CanadaPort

    Halifax was the port that recovered the Titanic dead, and it has never entirely let go of them - 121 graves in Fairview Lawn, an unclaimed deckchair in the Maritime Museum. Ships tie up at the Seaport piers at the south end of a long boardwalk that walks you into downtown past Pier 21, where a million immigrants first set foot in Canada. It is an easy, self-guided port.

    • The Titanic graves at Fairview Lawn Cemetery, laid out in the curve of a hull
    • Maritime Museum of the Atlantic for the Titanic and Halifax Explosion galleries
    • Halifax Citadel National Historic Site and the noon gun
    • Peggy's Cove lighthouse and the granite barrens, about 45 minutes out

    Getting ashore

    Docked at the Halifax Seaport piers; the boardwalk runs from the gangway into downtown in 10-15 minutes.

    Best months

    Jun-Oct; late Sep-mid Oct for fall colour

15. Day 15 · At sea

16. Day 16

    New York, NY

    United StatesArrive

    New York sails from two very different places. The Manhattan Cruise Terminal occupies Piers 88 and 90 off Twelfth Avenue in the West 50s, a 1930s finger-pier arrangement with rooftop parking and Midtown at the end of the block. Brooklyn's terminal in Red Hook is calmer and roomier but further from a subway. Either way the ship must clear the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, which rules out the largest ships afloat.

    • The Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, a ten-minute walk from the Manhattan piers
    • The High Line and Chelsea Market, with Hudson Yards on the way back
    • The sailaway itself - past the Statue of Liberty and under the Verrazzano; be on deck
    • Red Hook if you sail from Brooklyn: Louis Valentino Jr. Park has the best free Statue view in the city

    Getting ashore

    Manhattan berths at Piers 88 and 90 (West 46th to 54th Streets) with drop-off on Twelfth Avenue, while Brooklyn Cruise Terminal is in Red Hook; reckon 45-60 minutes from JFK or Newark and 30-45 from LaGuardia, all of it hostage to traffic.

    Best months

    May-Oct (Bermuda and Canada/New England runs; Sep-Oct adds foliage sailings)