A typical cruise along the Eastern Seaboard of the US will usually start in New York or Boston with calls at Rhode Island, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Yorktown or Norfolk in Virginia before heading further south to Charleston and Savannah en route to Florida. This is the main US oceangoing cruise itinerary after Alaska, Hawaii and New England/Canada. On the other side of the vast continent, San Francisco and Los Angeles are laid-back Hollywood and Disneyland-style with the holiday islands of Hawaii within easy cruising range. In the Deep South on the mouth of the Mississippi lies jazz-tinged New Orleans – the so-called Big Easy – where French Quarter bars play fabulous live music into the early hours. The city is now an alternative cruise gateway to the Caribbean and Central America. There is such variety of voyages departing from US and Canadian ports, it would be impossible to cover every destination in a single holiday. Many North America ports are also the starting point for voyages to Bermuda, the Caribbean, Mexico, central and South America, Alaska and Hawaii, so there’s huge potential for add-on land stays either before or after your cruise.

The main cruising season runs from May until October.