The cruise began with a quick non-stop flight from the Raleigh/Durham airport. We purchased Princess transfer (as we always do in New York) and had to wait about 45 minutes for another plane to arrive with more passengers with transfers. The ride from the airport (JFK) to the port in Red Hood/Brooklyn was unbelievable. Our shuttle driver would have fit right in with the crazy drivers in Rome. My husband and I shared the shuttle with about 10 British passengers. We were all GREATLY relieved when we arrived at the terminal after about an hour. Embarkation was painless. We were onboard within 30 minutes. We arrived late so it was almost time for mustering once we got onboard. We got that out of the way and went to dinner and about 7 pm the ship left, headed for Newport RI the first stop.

We arrived in Newport the next morning to pretty good weather -- sunny and about 60 degrees. That was the last of the sun we saw for quite some time. This was our fourth Canada/New England cruise and we've never had such yucky weather. I think we only saw the sun about five times during the 20 days. The ports were very nice. It's a beautiful cruise but it's much better with a little sunshine! Some of our favorite highlights from this cruise were: the land and sea tour in Newport, walking through the town of Bar Harbor (our favorite stop), the cute farmer's market in Saint John, New Brunswick, and the three day stay in Quebec City. We did a fantastic walking food tour in Quebec through a local company Le Vieux Quebec.

The Emerald Princess is a nice ship although it's a little to big for our tastes. It's due for dry dock in December but it was in pretty good condition and didn't really show a lot of wear and tear. We had a wonderful cabin steward and waiter -- Princess always does a great job here. The food was very good at all locations. The ice cream and pizza on the Lido were some of the best. Read more