After three years “on the hard,” I was eager to cruise again on a line and ship that I had been on before. As our inaugural effort, we selected 12-night Fall Foliage Cruise on the Seabourn Quest. We started in New York City earlier this week and are now approaching Halifax in Nova Scotia. My intent is to describe how cruising has changed in the past three years.

As dedicated small-ship cruisers, we have sailed on 2-3 voyages a year for more than two decades: mostly on high-end lines including Silversea, Regent, Crystal, Oceania, Azamara, Windstar, and Seabourn. Later this year, I will do the same while we are cruising on some of the newest offerings from Viking Ocean and Regent.