Fall Foliage Cruise — Starting in Québec

In early October of this year Ursula and I flew to Montreal, Canada, where we spent two nights before taking the train to one of our favorite destinations, Quebec City. Flying into Montreal was much cheaper than landing at Quebec’s airport, so this is why we went this route.

Our reason for going to Quebec was to catch a cruise ship to capture the colors of fall in the Maritime Provinces and Maine before the ship headed south on a reposition to Fort Lauderdale, Florida via a stop at Cape Canaveral. So, in a few weeks’ time, you’ll be seeing the Kennedy Space Center and some great stops along the west coast of Florida as we drove up to Tampa for the flight home.

We arrived into Quebec City on October 7, 2019, and boarded Royal Caribbean’s ship Adventure of the Seas. Adventure of the Seas is one of five Voyager Class ships in the Royal Caribbean fleet, and despite their age, this class is a favorite of ours.

Although we boarded on October 7, that’s not to say we departed Quebec City on the 8th. We didn’t. We were using Adventure of the Seas as our hotel stay in Quebec, as the ship was not due to depart until the morning of the 9th. And since we were here in October, we got to view how Quebec decorates for Halloween:

Strolling around the Old Town section of Quebec City you’ll find one of the most magnificent hotels anywhere. This is the fabulous Château Frontenac opened in 1893. As you can see, this 18-floor, 262-foot/79.9-meter tall hotel dominates Quebec’s skyline:

The pictures he see above were taken on October 8th, as we did not venture into the Old Town on the 7th. It was getting too dark for that by the time we arrived by train, took a car, and checked aboard the ship. But that doesn’t mean we did nothing that first night. Ursula wanted to see the Quebec skyline by night, so we walked off the ship and headed over to the Quebec City Ferry Terminal for a round trip excursion via the Quebec City-Lévis ferry. Along the way I managed to snap this shot of the Quebec skyline:

Once we boarded the ferry I began clicking away with abandon:

During our St. Lawrence crossing we even got a good view of Adventure of the Seas:

But probably the prize shot of the evening was this water-reflected image of Quebec: