To make a long story short, we took this cruise thinking traveling up the coast in Autumn would be a beautiful experience, with the changing of the leaves and the bright, crisp air. However, the weather was very bad; it was cold, rainy, windy and foggy.

Our "adventure" began when we had to stay an additional night in the departing city of Boston because our ship was stuck in Halifax due to bad weather. The initial hotel we were assigned to couldn’t accommodate us for a second night, so we had to traipse to another hotel. We were not given a “heads-up” about this ahead of time. The cruise line offered us a free excursion in Boston which was a Whale Watch out of Boston Harbor. Great idea, right? Well, there was no representative at the harbor to tell us where to go and there wasn’t a bus waiting to meet us to take us back to the cruise ship when the Whale Watch was over. It was a disaster. On the second day in Boston after another excursion, we were dropped off at the hotel and we had to hang around in the lobby for 3 hours before we could board the ship.

We couldn’t make our scheduled stops in Martha’s Vineyard, or Bar Harbor (Acadia National Park) due to bad weather. Why would a cruise company offer a trip at the end of October when the season is over and when the weather is questionable? Shouldn’t the people in charge of scheduling be cognizant of weather conditions and when the tourist season is over? Also, the website is not traveler-friendly. Paperwork didn't specify the exact location of debarkation. There's a Saint Johns, New Brunswick and a St. John's Newfoundland, in Canada, so if you book flights, beware. The cruise line did not tell us this, either. We booked from the wrong place. I blame American Queen. Very inept management. Read more