Too cold for a Canadian cruise?

We are thinking about booking the 13 day Canada & Colonial America cruise on the Caribbean Princess that leaves out of Quebec on Oct 24 and returns to Fort Lauderdale on Nov 6, 2019. I have found a few comments on the net that the seas can be pretty rough this time of year along with the weather being quite cold, windy, and wet. Any thoughts on a Canadian cruise this late in the season and should we consider going in late September or early to mid October instead?

Like anywhere weather and sea conditions can change hourly.

It hit or miss in october.A few years ago we sailed out of quebec city 10/31and there was snow on the deck.

long cruiser

It all depends on what you are looking for. Ave high temp for Canada that time of year is around 40 and Cancun is closer to 80. If you are looking to sit in your bathing suit on the balcony don't go to Canada.

Ave high temp for Canada that time of year is around 40

Not quite that bad. The average high temperature for October is 11C (52F) for Quebec City and 13C (55F) for Halifax. Even in late October, the average high temperatures are well above 40F.

We live in the U.S. northeast. It can be cool or warm, never hot, late October. If you want a warm weather cruise where you spend the days outside in bathing suits and shorts, this isn't your cruise. If you want a cruise with some nice ports with mostly comfortable weather then this may be your voyage. Also mention that late October is still Atlantic hurricane season.

Not quite that bad. The average high temperature for October is 11C (52F) for Quebec City and 13C (55F) for Halifax. Even in late October, the average high temperatures are well above 40F.

By the end of the cruise it's down to 6C (42.8F) unless Accuweather has it wrong.

https://www.accuweather.com/en/ca/quebec/g2l/october-weather/50011

sknight made the point I was trying to make much more eloquently. All depends on what the OP is looking for.

We always take the Canada/NE cruise early to mid October. There are instances where the seas are rough. We also wear some layers in Canadian ports. I guess the repo cruise to FLL is late Oct.

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This will not be a warm weather cruise. We did a New England/ Canada

cruise in October 2003 and it was on the chilly side but not too bad. The Fall

days were beautiful and leaving NYC was balmy.

We did have 12 ft. swells one night at sea.

Bar Harbor was our favorite port.

Of course it won't be warm. But what is too cold? I am doing this cruise on the Royal from 10/26-11/09, 2018. My concern, if any, is the roughness of the weather. That is a crap shoot. You might get a lot of fog, or be too windy/choppy to make a port. That really, is the main concern, not the temperature. But we are going anyway. Take our chances. I went on an early June cruise to Alaska one year and it was cold! So I am just going to layer as it will be similar.

Pooh

By the end of the cruise it's down to 6C (42.8F) unless Accuweather has it wrong.

According to the Accuweather link you provided, the average temp is 9c (48F) for October 24-25 when the ship is in Quebec City. Temperatures at the other Canadian stops tend to average a bit warmer than Quebec City.

We did the 5 day cruise to Nova Scotia and then the repo out of Brooklyn this year. It was in the high 70’s in Nova Scotia. Shorts and flip flops!! The only cold day was leaving Brooklyn on 10-26-17. We never wore all the cold weather clothes we brought. It was warm in New Hampshire and Vermont before the cruise too.

We had smooth sailing the entire 15 days.

Cheers, Denise.

By the end of the cruise it's down to 6C (42.8F) unless Accuweather has it wrong.

We are thinking about booking the 13 day Canada & Colonial America cruise on the Caribbean Princess that leaves out of Quebec on Oct 24 and returns to Fort Lauderdale on Nov 6, 2019. I have found a few comments on the net that the seas can be pretty rough this time of year along with the weather being quite cold, windy, and wet. Any thoughts on a Canadian cruise this late in the season and should we consider going in late September or early to mid October instead?

Early will be better weather normally. Cold is okay with me, windy out on the ocean I like, wet happens, but wet and cold is lousy.

This year you would have had a sunny warm cruise, we had a very warm fall and into October/November. I find the term 'cold' is somewhat subjective. My MIL visits us from Texas and finds it cold at 60F, where my husband has fully converted to Canadian weather and can't understand why she is so chilly.

Other note, if you are going for fall colours you are more likely to see them in the later part of the season. We didn't get all the leaves dumped onto our yard until almost December this year (that was much later than usual).

As others have said, the weather is unpredictable but we did this cruise in 2014 and had a wonderful time and overall good weather. We arrived in Quebec City 2 days early (highly recommended since there is plenty to do and see) and that evening a cold front came in with strong winds. It was cold (in the 30s) but we had brought layers and while going out to dinner wasn't exactly pleasant, we still had a good time. The wind died down and the temps went up about 10 degrees for the rest of our visit in Quebec City. The cruise was increasingly warm - Halifax and Bar Harbor were probably in the low 50s (a little bit of rain in the afternoon in Halifax), Boston, Newport and New York were long sleeve/sweater weather in the 60s with bright sun. We missed Charleston due a storm and by the time we arrived in Fort Lauderdale we were comfortable in short sleeves. It is an excellent cruise!

We sailed about that time and spent the 2 days before the cruise stuck in the hotel in Quebec due to white out snow conditions. Thankfully it was a huge hotel. Princess had cancelled all of their tours to the scheduled places and gave them tours of our hotel (as the ship overnights in Quebec so there are tours in Quebec).

We missed the next port and the port after that was pretty cold. It was nice once we went farther South. Boston and Halifax were gorgeous and then Norfolk and Charleston were hot. It was just the first few days that were not good. We hit Boston on Halloween and it was peak for colors (they were late that year).

We are thinking about booking the 13 day Canada & Colonial America cruise on the Caribbean Princess that leaves out of Quebec on Oct 24 and returns to Fort Lauderdale on Nov 6, 2019. I have found a few comments on the net that the seas can be pretty rough this time of year along with the weather being quite cold, windy, and wet. Any thoughts on a Canadian cruise this late in the season and should we consider going in late September or early to mid October instead?

We have done variations of this Canada New England cruise six times. Except for Hurricane Sandy during which we were diverted to Newfoundland we have never had bad weather. It has at times been cool and even snowed in Quebec we found the cruises very comfortable. Try it, you'll like it. If you are looking for color you will probably see more of it in early to mid October.

If you can aim for early October, I think you'd enjoy it much more. It was one of very favorite cruises, so definitely go! We were prepared for lots of rain and cold and we had absolutely gorgeous, mostly dry weather (I think we got a few sprinkles that lasted maybe 30 mins.). It really is a spectacular area and so worth seeing but I think the fantastic weather was a big part of our cruise being so incredible.

But at the end of the cruise they will be in Fort Lauderdale basking in Florida sunshine

Yes thanks all for the clarifications. From all the posts this sounds like a great itinerary and shouldn't let the weather scare me or the OP off. Although it also sounds hit or miss, could be great or it could be snowing.

We did the cruise out of Quebec in Oct of 2015 & down the NE coast back to FLL and the temps in Quebec the morning of departure, was 39 degrees, remaining ports until we reached Boston, were in the 50's. We had relatively smooth seas.

100% crapshoot. oct 21 we sailed to halifax and st john. i regret not wearing shorts, it was 72 out. climbing on the rocks at peggys cove would have been much cooler.

the patters from 2016 i found online showed temps in the 40s. i had perfect weather for my 1st regal experience and it was great! so plan for the coldest temps and be surprised if it doesnt happen