Seabourn Ovation - Canada & New England Fall Foliage

Where this cruise calls, day by day

10 ports and 3 sea days over 12 Nights.

1. Day 1

   New York, NY

   United StatesDepart
   New York, NY port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore
2. Day 2

   Newport, RI

   United StatesPort

   Newport 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)

3. Day 3

   Boston, MA

   United StatesPort
   Boston, MA port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore
4. Day 4

   Rockland, ME

   United StatesPort

   A small-ship call on Penobscot Bay, and a working harbour rather than a resort one - lobster boats, a fish pier and the windjammer fleet. Rockland is quieter than Bar Harbor and holds a museum most passengers do not expect: the Farnsworth, with one of the strongest Wyeth collections anywhere.

   • The Farnsworth Art Museum and its Wyeth Center on Elm Street
   • Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse, out at the end of nearly a mile of granite blocks
   • Main Street's galleries and the Maine Lighthouse Museum
   • Camden, eight miles north, for the harbour view from Mount Battie

   Getting ashore

   Small ships tie up at the public landing or anchor and tender in; either way it is a short walk to Main Street.

   Best months

   Jun-Oct

5. Day 5 · At sea

6. Day 6

   Halifax

   CanadaPort
   Halifax port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore

7. Day 7 · At sea

8. Day 8

   Charlottetown

   CanadaPort

   Prince Edward Island runs a real tourism economy on a fictional orphan - Anne of Green Gables brings visitors, a great many of them Japanese, to the Cavendish farmhouse Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote from. Charlottetown itself is where Confederation was negotiated in 1864: small, red-brick, flat and walkable straight off the pier.

   • Green Gables Heritage Place at Cavendish, about 40 minutes across the island
   • Confederation Centre of the Arts, home of the long-running Anne stage musical
   • Victoria Row and the waterfront around Founders' Hall, both on foot from the ship
   • Red-sand beaches in PEI National Park and a church-hall lobster supper at New Glasgow or St. Ann's

   Getting ashore

   Docked at Port Charlottetown on the downtown waterfront; the historic centre is a five-minute walk, though Cavendish needs a tour or a taxi.

   Best months

   Jun-Oct; Sep for warm water and thinner crowds

9. Day 9 · At sea

10. Day 10

    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

11. Day 11

    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

12. Day 12

    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

13. Day 13

    Montreal

    CanadaArrive

    Montreal is usually a turnaround rather than a call - it is the upstream end of most St. Lawrence itineraries, since ships cannot pass the Seaway locks above it. The Grand Quay terminal at Alexandra Pier sits in Old Montreal with a public observation tower on its roof. What you get is a French-speaking city with a serious food culture and a compact old quarter.

    • Notre-Dame Basilica and the cobbled streets of Vieux-Montreal
    • The Mount Royal lookout, with the whole city and the river below it
    • Jean-Talon Market, and the Mile End bagel and smoked-meat institutions
    • The Underground City and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

    Getting ashore

    Docked at the Grand Quay (Alexandra Pier) in the Old Port; Old Montreal starts at the terminal door and the metro is a few blocks away.

    Best months

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