It's the oldest city in North America and the fortified walls of the Old City are a UNESCO World Heritage site. Québec City, the heart of French Canada and the capital of Québec province, is built on the St Lawrence. We do, however, spot whales spouting and frolicking in the Saguenay River, a vast waterway that drains into the St Lawrence River.
The park is home to wolves, black bears, lynx, beavers and moose and although we don't see any our guide shows us recent photos of the animals roaming at night. Trees are beginning to colour for the annual fall-foliage display but the season is late to start this year because of unusually high temperatures. Our third tour is an energetic hike through Saguenay National Park, an area of astounding natural beauty. It is our second Crystal shore tour and like the others we take, it's well-organised and caters for a comfortably small group. Prince Edward Island is renowned not only for its lighthouses and potatoes, but for the fruit wines produced at the boutique Rossignol Estate. The haunting stories of their crews are graphically illustrated in the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, a short walk along the harbourside boardwalk from where we're docked. In April 1912, four ships were dispatched from Halifax to recover bodies from the "unsinkable" liner, which had sunk in the freezing ocean some 1300 kilometres away. On to Nova Scotia, Canada – we alight in Halifax, a busy working port inextricably linked to the Titanic tragedy. I can only hope our ship-organised bike ride around the gloriously uncrowded park – it's early September, pre-peak season – makes an inoffensive contribution to the local economy. It's a vexing, ongoing dilemma in many over-loved destinations around the world.
The small town is the gateway to Acadia National Park, which received more than 3.5 million visitors last year – most of them are not from ships but mass arrivals create traffic and crowd problems. Credit: Shutterstockīar Harbor, on Mount Desert Island, is another port trying to prevent its natural attractions being overrun by tourists, particularly cruise-ship passengers. We choose a mix of independent wanderings, three ship-organised excursions and a couple of locally operated tours. Over dinner at Prego – perfection on a plate, naturally – we map out possible excursions for the coming days. He indulges us with afternoon canapes in the suite and refills the fridge without a hint of judgment about the astonishing quantity of champagne we get through, reminding us that actor David Niven once said, "Champagne isn't drinking". Italian, in his 30s, he is unfailingly friendly, considerate and good-humoured. One of our favourite crew members is our brilliant butler, Dario. The reconfiguration of suites that reduced maximum guest capacity from 920 to 848 means there is an even higher crew-to-passenger ratio than before on our voyage there are 583 crew for fewer than 800 guests. Hotel director Josef Matt, who has been with Crystal for nearly 25 years, says the newly introduced open-seating dining system is working well and the increased number of tables for two in Waterside, the main dining room, are always full. Crystal Symphony's redesign includes sleek new dining venues Umi Uma & Sushi Bar (Nobi Matsuhisa's only Nobu restaurants at sea), Chinese-style Silk Kitchen & Bar and the Marketplace, a casual buffet by day that becomes a lively Brazilian churrascaria in the evening. These two grand dames may be among the older generation of uber-luxury ships but they regularly win prestigious awards and the space they offer is palatial compared to some of their younger sisters. Our spacious Seabreeze Penthouse suite is in one of the main areas of the ship, which underwent an extensive refurbishment a year ago – sister ship Crystal Serenity is now undergoing a similar multimillion-dollar makeover. We're on a cruise to Montreal aboard the unabashedly indulgent Crystal Symphony and over the past couple of days, while the ship has been docked in New York ahead of the journey, we have had time to look around the ship and meet a few fellow guests, in between exploring the city that never sleeps. As the ship's whistle salutes the Lady, my cruise companion and I toast her with a Cosmopolitan in the elegant Palm Court. It's grey and drizzly, but the mood is upbeat, particularly when we sail past that most famous of landmarks, the Statue of Liberty. Louis Armstrong's classic song What a Wonderful World fills the air as Crystal Symphony sails out of the Manhattan cruise terminal and across New York's magnificent harbour into the open ocean.
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