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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T100000
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UID:10007541-1789207200-1789248600@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Three Special Thames River Cruises
DESCRIPTION:Three Special Thames River Cruises give Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival visitors three very different ways to experience New London and Groton from the water September 12 and 13\, from free transportation between festival sites to narrated history cruises and a Saturday night trip beneath a 300-drone light show. \nThames River Heritage Park is expanding its normal role during festival weekend with free Hop On\, Hop Off Harbor Cruises Saturday and Sunday\, four free 45-minute historic boat tours Sunday\, and a special Saturday night Drone Show Cruise that heads downriver toward New London Ledge Light before returning to the harbor for the festival’s nighttime spectacle. \nTogether\, the trips also demonstrate what makes Thames River Heritage Park a little unusual. \nIt isn’t one park. \nIt’s a network of historic and cultural sites spread along both shores of the Thames River\, with the river itself serving as the connection between them. \nAnd for one weekend\, much of that connection is free. \n1. Ride the Thames for Free All Weekend\nThe most useful cruise of the weekend may also be the simplest. \nThames River Heritage Park’s Hop On\, Hop Off Harbor Cruise will be completely free from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday\, with the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival sponsoring the service. \nNormally\, an adult Harbor Cruise ticket costs $15. \nDuring the festival\, visitors can simply use the boats to move among three major locations: \nFort Trumbull State Park in New London \nCity Pier in downtown New London \nThames River Landing in Groton \nThere is an important change from the Heritage Park’s regular summer schedule. \nDuring festival weekend\, there will be no fixed departure or arrival times. The boats will travel continuously among the three landings\, and boarding will be first-come\, first-served. \nThat makes the service part transportation and part attraction. \nSomeone attending the festival at Fort Trumbull can board a boat\, cross the harbor to Groton\, get off to explore and later catch another boat back to downtown New London. \nOr visitors can simply stay aboard and see the harbor from the water. \nThe Boats Have a Navy History of Their Own\nEven the vessels carrying festival visitors are pieces of maritime history. \nThames River Heritage Park operates refurbished former U.S. Navy liberty boats. \nUtility boats like these weren’t designed as sightseeing vessels. They transported sailors between larger Navy ships and shore\, including taking crews ashore for “liberty\,” the Navy term for authorized time away from a ship. \nOne of the Heritage Park boats was assigned to the USS La Salle\, which served as flagship for Commander Middle East Force beginning in 1988. \nAnother was assigned to the USS Hunley\, a submarine tender that supported the Navy’s Polaris ballistic-missile submarine fleet. \nNow\, instead of carrying sailors ashore\, the old Navy boats carry visitors through the same harbor that remains home to one of America’s most important naval communities. \nIt’s particularly fitting in 2026. \nThe United States is celebrating the Navy’s 250th anniversary\, while the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London is celebrating its 150th. \nA River Where American Naval History Is Still Happening\nThe scenery from the boat isn’t simply historic. \nThe Thames remains a working military and commercial river. \nThe U.S. Coast Guard Academy occupies the New London shoreline farther upriver. \nAcross the Thames in Groton is Naval Submarine Base New London\, the Navy’s primary East Coast submarine base and a place so closely associated with undersea warfare that Groton calls itself the Submarine Capital of the World. \nNearby is the historic USS Nautilus\, the world’s first operational nuclear-powered submarine. \nDownriver\, Fort Trumbull stands near the entrance to New London Harbor\, while ferries\, fishing boats\, recreational craft\, commercial traffic and military vessels continue using the water around it. \nBut the history stretches much farther back. \nNew London became one of America’s major whaling ports during the 19th century. \nThe river witnessed colonial trade\, privateering and the American Revolution. \nIndigenous people had lived along and traveled these waters for thousands of years before Europeans arrived. \nThe Heritage Park’s weekend cruises approach those overlapping histories in very different ways. \n2. Sunday Brings Four Free 45-Minute History Cruises\nSunday offers the best deal for visitors who want more than transportation. \nThames River Heritage Park will operate four free narrated historic boat tours from City Pier in New London. \nThese aren’t the regular Hop On\, Hop Off rides. \nEach is a 45-minute mini-tour led by a Heritage Park docent\, concentrating on a particular part of the region’s history. \nNormally\, Thames River Heritage Park’s full historic boat tours cost $35 for adults. \nThe four festival mini-tours are free\, sponsored by the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival\, and available first-come\, first-served. \nTwo different subjects alternate throughout the afternoon. \n11 a.m. — Black Heritage Along the Thames: The Half That’s Never Been Told\nThe first departure introduces stories that were often missing from traditional accounts of New London’s history. \nBlack Heritage Along the Thames: The Half That’s Never Been Told draws from Thames River Heritage Park’s larger tour of the same name\, which explores approximately 400 years of local history through the experiences and contributions of the region’s Black community. \nThat history begins long before the Civil War. \nSlavery existed in colonial Connecticut. \nEnslaved people lived and worked in New London and Groton\, including within households whose surviving homes and documents are now used to interpret colonial life. \nBlack sailors worked from New London’s waterfront. \nThe city’s history intersects with abolition\, education\, military service and the long struggle for civil rights. \nAnd one of the most consequential events in American history arrived in New London Harbor aboard a ship in 1839. \nThe schooner La Amistad was seized off Long Island after captive Africans aboard the vessel revolted against the men illegally transporting them into slavery. \nThe ship was brought to New London. \nThe legal battle that followed eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court\, where former President John Quincy Adams helped argue the Africans’ case. \nThe Court ruled in their favor in 1841. \nIt is one of the most internationally significant stories connected to the New London waterfront\, but it is only one part of the Black history preserved along the Thames. \nDeparture: Sunday at 11 a.m. from City Pier \nNoon — The Mashantucket Pequot’s Story\nAt noon\, the perspective shifts much farther back. \nThe Mashantucket Pequot’s Story focuses on the Indigenous history of the region and the people who lived here long before New London or Groton existed. \nThe Pequot homeland historically encompassed portions of southeastern Connecticut. \nThe waterways of the region weren’t barriers separating communities. They were transportation corridors and sources of food\, trade and communication. \nThen European colonization transformed the landscape. \nTensions over land\, trade and political power culminated in the Pequot War of 1636–1637\, one of the defining conflicts of early colonial New England. \nThe war devastated the Pequot population\, but it did not eliminate the Pequot people. \nThat distinction matters. \nFor generations\, popular histories often treated Native nations as if they disappeared when a particular colonial-era chapter ended. \nThe Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation is very much a living community today\, headquartered just a few miles from the Thames River. \nThe tour offers a chance to look at familiar southeastern Connecticut shoreline through a story that began thousands of years before the forts\, submarines and whaling ships. \nDeparture: Sunday at noon from City Pier \n1 p.m. — Black Heritage Along the Thames\nThe Black heritage mini-tour receives a second departure at 1 p.m. \nThat gives visitors who spend the morning elsewhere at the festival another opportunity to take the 45-minute narrated cruise. \nDeparture: Sunday at 1 p.m. from City Pier \n2 p.m. — The Mashantucket Pequot’s Story\nThe final free history cruise of the weekend repeats the Mashantucket Pequot program at 2 p.m. \nAll four tours depart from City Pier in downtown New London\, not from the other Hop On\, Hop Off landings. \nAnd because they’re free and first-come\, first-served\, arriving early makes sense. \nDeparture: Sunday at 2 p.m. from City Pier \n3. Saturday Night Goes From History to 300 Drones\nSaturday’s third special cruise is completely different. \nAfter the daytime festival winds down and the sun disappears\, Thames River Heritage Park heads back onto the water for its Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival Drone Show Cruise. \nThe evening begins with a trip down the Thames River. \nWeather and marine traffic permitting\, the boat will continue beyond New London Harbor toward New London Ledge Light\, the distinctive lighthouse sitting near the mouth of the Thames. \nThen it turns around. \nThe boat returns to position itself for a front-row view of the festival’s 300-drone light show over the New London waterfront. \nInstead of watching from the shore\, passengers watch from the water beneath the display. \nNew London Ledge Light Is Worth the Trip by Itself\nEven before the drones appear\, the cruise has an unusual destination. \nNew London Ledge Light stands at the entrance to the Thames River\, where New London Harbor opens toward Long Island Sound. \nCompleted in 1909\, it doesn’t resemble the stereotypical round New England lighthouse. \nInstead\, the three-story brick building looks almost like a substantial waterfront home that somebody inexplicably placed in the middle of the water and then put a lantern on top. \nLocal tradition has also supplied the lighthouse with its own ghost. \nFor decades\, stories have circulated about “Ernie\,” the supposed spirit of an early keeper said to haunt the lighthouse. \nThe legend has become part of Ledge Light’s identity\, although the more elaborate details attached to Ernie are folklore rather than established history. \nFrom the Drone Show Cruise\, passengers get a nighttime maritime trip toward one of the region’s most recognizable navigational landmarks before returning to the festival. \nThen 300 Drones Take Over the Sky\nThe show waiting back in New London Harbor is part of the America’s Navy 250 Celebration. \nThree hundred illuminated drones will fly coordinated patterns over the waterfront\, synchronized with music. \nThe planned display celebrates 250 years of the United States Navy\, using the drones to form patriotic imagery and naval symbols above the harbor. \nIt’s a striking place to do it. \nNew London’s relationship with the Navy stretches back to the Revolutionary era\, while the Groton side of the Thames became one of the most important submarine-building and submarine-operating centers in the world. \nFrom the cruise boat\, passengers will be watching a 21st-century aerial light show about American naval history while floating in the middle of a river where much of that history actually happened. \nOne Timing Detail Is Worth Watching\nThames River Heritage Park currently has two slightly different departure times published for the Drone Show Cruise. \nThe dedicated festival-weekend schedule lists departure at 7:55 p.m. \nA more recent Heritage Park event announcement lists 7:45 p.m. \nBecause this is a ticketed trip and the difference could result in someone literally missing the boat\, passengers should use the departure time shown on their ticket confirmation and verify it with Thames River Heritage Park before Saturday. \nThe Heritage Park also notes that only a small number of seats remained when it published its latest festival information. \nPassengers may bring snacks and drinks aboard\, but glass is prohibited\, and there is no restroom on the boat. \nThe trip to Ledge Light is also conditional on weather and boat traffic. \nThese Aren’t ADA-Accessible Tour Boats\nThere’s another important practical consideration for all three experiences. \nThe Heritage Park’s refurbished Navy boats are not ADA compliant. \nPassengers must be capable of walking up and down four stairs and boarding the vessel independently with only minimal courtesy assistance from the crew. \nThey must also be capable of disembarking without assistance if an emergency requires it. \nThe boats do not have restrooms. \nThe Heritage Park encourages passengers who require assistance to travel with a companion\, but the captain ultimately determines whether a passenger can safely board. \nThat’s particularly important information for anyone considering the cruises as an easy alternative to walking around the festival. \nFor some visitors\, they may not be. \nThe Free Harbor Cruise Can Change How You Do the Festival\nFor visitors who can board safely\, the free Hop On\, Hop Off service creates an interesting possibility. \nDon’t think of the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival as one event site. \nThink of the Thames as its main street. \nStart at Fort Trumbull. \nBoard an old Navy liberty boat. \nCross to Groton. \nCome back to City Pier. \nExplore downtown New London. \nOn Sunday\, trade the transportation ride for a narrated mini-tour and learn the stories of Black residents or the Mashantucket Pequot people who shaped the region. \nAnd Saturday night\, those with Drone Show Cruise tickets can return to the river after dark\, head toward Ledge Light and finish beneath 300 points of light moving across the sky. \nFor most of the year\, the Thames separates New London from Groton. \nFor Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival weekend\, Thames River Heritage Park turns it into the thing connecting everything together. \nDetails\nEvent: Three Special Thames River Cruises at the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival\nPresented By: Thames River Heritage Park\nFestival: Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival\nDates: Saturday\, September 12 and Sunday\, September 13\, 2026\nLocation: Thames River\, New London and Groton \nHop On\, Hop Off Harbor Cruise\nDates: Saturday and Sunday\nTime: 10 a.m.–5 p.m.\nAdmission: Free during festival weekend\nBoarding: First-come\, first-served\nSchedule: Continuous loop with no fixed departure or arrival times during the festival\nStops: Fort Trumbull State Park\, City Pier and Thames River Landing in Groton \nFree Historic Boat Tours\nDate: Sunday\, September 13\nLength: Approximately 45 minutes each\nAdmission: Free\nBoarding: First-come\, first-served\nDeparture Location: City Pier\, New London\n11 a.m.: Black Heritage Along the Thames: The Half That’s Never Been Told\nNoon: The Mashantucket Pequot’s Story\n1 p.m.: Black Heritage Along the Thames: The Half That’s Never Been Told\n2 p.m.: The Mashantucket Pequot’s Story \nDrone Show Cruise\nDate: Saturday\, September 12\nDeparture: Heritage Park currently publishes both 7:45 and 7:55 p.m.; passengers should follow their ticket confirmation and verify the departure time before arriving\nRoute: Down the Thames River and\, weather and boat traffic permitting\, out to New London Ledge Light before returning for the drone show\nDrone Show: 300-drone display synchronized to music as part of America’s Navy 250 Celebration\nTickets: Advance ticket purchase required; Heritage Park reports limited availability\nFood and Drink: Snacks and drinks may be brought aboard; no glass\nRestrooms: None aboard \nAccessibility: Heritage Park’s former Navy utility boats are not ADA compliant. Passengers must be able to negotiate four stairs and independently board and disembark with minimal courtesy assistance.\nBoat Operations: 860-407-5655\nWeather: Boat operations and the Ledge Light portion of the evening cruise are weather-dependent; check with Thames River Heritage Park for current operating information. \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \n  \n  \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown.
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/three-special-thames-river-cruises/2026-09-12/
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Three-Special-Thames-River-Cruises.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260913T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260913T170000
DTSTAMP:20260910T173727Z
CREATED:20260910T173727Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260910T173727Z
UID:10007542-1789293600-1789318800@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Three Special Thames River Cruises
DESCRIPTION:Three Special Thames River Cruises give Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival visitors three very different ways to experience New London and Groton from the water September 12 and 13\, from free transportation between festival sites to narrated history cruises and a Saturday night trip beneath a 300-drone light show. \nThames River Heritage Park is expanding its normal role during festival weekend with free Hop On\, Hop Off Harbor Cruises Saturday and Sunday\, four free 45-minute historic boat tours Sunday\, and a special Saturday night Drone Show Cruise that heads downriver toward New London Ledge Light before returning to the harbor for the festival’s nighttime spectacle. \nTogether\, the trips also demonstrate what makes Thames River Heritage Park a little unusual. \nIt isn’t one park. \nIt’s a network of historic and cultural sites spread along both shores of the Thames River\, with the river itself serving as the connection between them. \nAnd for one weekend\, much of that connection is free. \n1. Ride the Thames for Free All Weekend\nThe most useful cruise of the weekend may also be the simplest. \nThames River Heritage Park’s Hop On\, Hop Off Harbor Cruise will be completely free from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday\, with the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival sponsoring the service. \nNormally\, an adult Harbor Cruise ticket costs $15. \nDuring the festival\, visitors can simply use the boats to move among three major locations: \nFort Trumbull State Park in New London \nCity Pier in downtown New London \nThames River Landing in Groton \nThere is an important change from the Heritage Park’s regular summer schedule. \nDuring festival weekend\, there will be no fixed departure or arrival times. The boats will travel continuously among the three landings\, and boarding will be first-come\, first-served. \nThat makes the service part transportation and part attraction. \nSomeone attending the festival at Fort Trumbull can board a boat\, cross the harbor to Groton\, get off to explore and later catch another boat back to downtown New London. \nOr visitors can simply stay aboard and see the harbor from the water. \nThe Boats Have a Navy History of Their Own\nEven the vessels carrying festival visitors are pieces of maritime history. \nThames River Heritage Park operates refurbished former U.S. Navy liberty boats. \nUtility boats like these weren’t designed as sightseeing vessels. They transported sailors between larger Navy ships and shore\, including taking crews ashore for “liberty\,” the Navy term for authorized time away from a ship. \nOne of the Heritage Park boats was assigned to the USS La Salle\, which served as flagship for Commander Middle East Force beginning in 1988. \nAnother was assigned to the USS Hunley\, a submarine tender that supported the Navy’s Polaris ballistic-missile submarine fleet. \nNow\, instead of carrying sailors ashore\, the old Navy boats carry visitors through the same harbor that remains home to one of America’s most important naval communities. \nIt’s particularly fitting in 2026. \nThe United States is celebrating the Navy’s 250th anniversary\, while the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London is celebrating its 150th. \nA River Where American Naval History Is Still Happening\nThe scenery from the boat isn’t simply historic. \nThe Thames remains a working military and commercial river. \nThe U.S. Coast Guard Academy occupies the New London shoreline farther upriver. \nAcross the Thames in Groton is Naval Submarine Base New London\, the Navy’s primary East Coast submarine base and a place so closely associated with undersea warfare that Groton calls itself the Submarine Capital of the World. \nNearby is the historic USS Nautilus\, the world’s first operational nuclear-powered submarine. \nDownriver\, Fort Trumbull stands near the entrance to New London Harbor\, while ferries\, fishing boats\, recreational craft\, commercial traffic and military vessels continue using the water around it. \nBut the history stretches much farther back. \nNew London became one of America’s major whaling ports during the 19th century. \nThe river witnessed colonial trade\, privateering and the American Revolution. \nIndigenous people had lived along and traveled these waters for thousands of years before Europeans arrived. \nThe Heritage Park’s weekend cruises approach those overlapping histories in very different ways. \n2. Sunday Brings Four Free 45-Minute History Cruises\nSunday offers the best deal for visitors who want more than transportation. \nThames River Heritage Park will operate four free narrated historic boat tours from City Pier in New London. \nThese aren’t the regular Hop On\, Hop Off rides. \nEach is a 45-minute mini-tour led by a Heritage Park docent\, concentrating on a particular part of the region’s history. \nNormally\, Thames River Heritage Park’s full historic boat tours cost $35 for adults. \nThe four festival mini-tours are free\, sponsored by the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival\, and available first-come\, first-served. \nTwo different subjects alternate throughout the afternoon. \n11 a.m. — Black Heritage Along the Thames: The Half That’s Never Been Told\nThe first departure introduces stories that were often missing from traditional accounts of New London’s history. \nBlack Heritage Along the Thames: The Half That’s Never Been Told draws from Thames River Heritage Park’s larger tour of the same name\, which explores approximately 400 years of local history through the experiences and contributions of the region’s Black community. \nThat history begins long before the Civil War. \nSlavery existed in colonial Connecticut. \nEnslaved people lived and worked in New London and Groton\, including within households whose surviving homes and documents are now used to interpret colonial life. \nBlack sailors worked from New London’s waterfront. \nThe city’s history intersects with abolition\, education\, military service and the long struggle for civil rights. \nAnd one of the most consequential events in American history arrived in New London Harbor aboard a ship in 1839. \nThe schooner La Amistad was seized off Long Island after captive Africans aboard the vessel revolted against the men illegally transporting them into slavery. \nThe ship was brought to New London. \nThe legal battle that followed eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court\, where former President John Quincy Adams helped argue the Africans’ case. \nThe Court ruled in their favor in 1841. \nIt is one of the most internationally significant stories connected to the New London waterfront\, but it is only one part of the Black history preserved along the Thames. \nDeparture: Sunday at 11 a.m. from City Pier \nNoon — The Mashantucket Pequot’s Story\nAt noon\, the perspective shifts much farther back. \nThe Mashantucket Pequot’s Story focuses on the Indigenous history of the region and the people who lived here long before New London or Groton existed. \nThe Pequot homeland historically encompassed portions of southeastern Connecticut. \nThe waterways of the region weren’t barriers separating communities. They were transportation corridors and sources of food\, trade and communication. \nThen European colonization transformed the landscape. \nTensions over land\, trade and political power culminated in the Pequot War of 1636–1637\, one of the defining conflicts of early colonial New England. \nThe war devastated the Pequot population\, but it did not eliminate the Pequot people. \nThat distinction matters. \nFor generations\, popular histories often treated Native nations as if they disappeared when a particular colonial-era chapter ended. \nThe Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation is very much a living community today\, headquartered just a few miles from the Thames River. \nThe tour offers a chance to look at familiar southeastern Connecticut shoreline through a story that began thousands of years before the forts\, submarines and whaling ships. \nDeparture: Sunday at noon from City Pier \n1 p.m. — Black Heritage Along the Thames\nThe Black heritage mini-tour receives a second departure at 1 p.m. \nThat gives visitors who spend the morning elsewhere at the festival another opportunity to take the 45-minute narrated cruise. \nDeparture: Sunday at 1 p.m. from City Pier \n2 p.m. — The Mashantucket Pequot’s Story\nThe final free history cruise of the weekend repeats the Mashantucket Pequot program at 2 p.m. \nAll four tours depart from City Pier in downtown New London\, not from the other Hop On\, Hop Off landings. \nAnd because they’re free and first-come\, first-served\, arriving early makes sense. \nDeparture: Sunday at 2 p.m. from City Pier \n3. Saturday Night Goes From History to 300 Drones\nSaturday’s third special cruise is completely different. \nAfter the daytime festival winds down and the sun disappears\, Thames River Heritage Park heads back onto the water for its Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival Drone Show Cruise. \nThe evening begins with a trip down the Thames River. \nWeather and marine traffic permitting\, the boat will continue beyond New London Harbor toward New London Ledge Light\, the distinctive lighthouse sitting near the mouth of the Thames. \nThen it turns around. \nThe boat returns to position itself for a front-row view of the festival’s 300-drone light show over the New London waterfront. \nInstead of watching from the shore\, passengers watch from the water beneath the display. \nNew London Ledge Light Is Worth the Trip by Itself\nEven before the drones appear\, the cruise has an unusual destination. \nNew London Ledge Light stands at the entrance to the Thames River\, where New London Harbor opens toward Long Island Sound. \nCompleted in 1909\, it doesn’t resemble the stereotypical round New England lighthouse. \nInstead\, the three-story brick building looks almost like a substantial waterfront home that somebody inexplicably placed in the middle of the water and then put a lantern on top. \nLocal tradition has also supplied the lighthouse with its own ghost. \nFor decades\, stories have circulated about “Ernie\,” the supposed spirit of an early keeper said to haunt the lighthouse. \nThe legend has become part of Ledge Light’s identity\, although the more elaborate details attached to Ernie are folklore rather than established history. \nFrom the Drone Show Cruise\, passengers get a nighttime maritime trip toward one of the region’s most recognizable navigational landmarks before returning to the festival. \nThen 300 Drones Take Over the Sky\nThe show waiting back in New London Harbor is part of the America’s Navy 250 Celebration. \nThree hundred illuminated drones will fly coordinated patterns over the waterfront\, synchronized with music. \nThe planned display celebrates 250 years of the United States Navy\, using the drones to form patriotic imagery and naval symbols above the harbor. \nIt’s a striking place to do it. \nNew London’s relationship with the Navy stretches back to the Revolutionary era\, while the Groton side of the Thames became one of the most important submarine-building and submarine-operating centers in the world. \nFrom the cruise boat\, passengers will be watching a 21st-century aerial light show about American naval history while floating in the middle of a river where much of that history actually happened. \nOne Timing Detail Is Worth Watching\nThames River Heritage Park currently has two slightly different departure times published for the Drone Show Cruise. \nThe dedicated festival-weekend schedule lists departure at 7:55 p.m. \nA more recent Heritage Park event announcement lists 7:45 p.m. \nBecause this is a ticketed trip and the difference could result in someone literally missing the boat\, passengers should use the departure time shown on their ticket confirmation and verify it with Thames River Heritage Park before Saturday. \nThe Heritage Park also notes that only a small number of seats remained when it published its latest festival information. \nPassengers may bring snacks and drinks aboard\, but glass is prohibited\, and there is no restroom on the boat. \nThe trip to Ledge Light is also conditional on weather and boat traffic. \nThese Aren’t ADA-Accessible Tour Boats\nThere’s another important practical consideration for all three experiences. \nThe Heritage Park’s refurbished Navy boats are not ADA compliant. \nPassengers must be capable of walking up and down four stairs and boarding the vessel independently with only minimal courtesy assistance from the crew. \nThey must also be capable of disembarking without assistance if an emergency requires it. \nThe boats do not have restrooms. \nThe Heritage Park encourages passengers who require assistance to travel with a companion\, but the captain ultimately determines whether a passenger can safely board. \nThat’s particularly important information for anyone considering the cruises as an easy alternative to walking around the festival. \nFor some visitors\, they may not be. \nThe Free Harbor Cruise Can Change How You Do the Festival\nFor visitors who can board safely\, the free Hop On\, Hop Off service creates an interesting possibility. \nDon’t think of the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival as one event site. \nThink of the Thames as its main street. \nStart at Fort Trumbull. \nBoard an old Navy liberty boat. \nCross to Groton. \nCome back to City Pier. \nExplore downtown New London. \nOn Sunday\, trade the transportation ride for a narrated mini-tour and learn the stories of Black residents or the Mashantucket Pequot people who shaped the region. \nAnd Saturday night\, those with Drone Show Cruise tickets can return to the river after dark\, head toward Ledge Light and finish beneath 300 points of light moving across the sky. \nFor most of the year\, the Thames separates New London from Groton. \nFor Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival weekend\, Thames River Heritage Park turns it into the thing connecting everything together. \nDetails\nEvent: Three Special Thames River Cruises at the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival\nPresented By: Thames River Heritage Park\nFestival: Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival\nDates: Saturday\, September 12 and Sunday\, September 13\, 2026\nLocation: Thames River\, New London and Groton \nHop On\, Hop Off Harbor Cruise\nDates: Saturday and Sunday\nTime: 10 a.m.–5 p.m.\nAdmission: Free during festival weekend\nBoarding: First-come\, first-served\nSchedule: Continuous loop with no fixed departure or arrival times during the festival\nStops: Fort Trumbull State Park\, City Pier and Thames River Landing in Groton \nFree Historic Boat Tours\nDate: Sunday\, September 13\nLength: Approximately 45 minutes each\nAdmission: Free\nBoarding: First-come\, first-served\nDeparture Location: City Pier\, New London\n11 a.m.: Black Heritage Along the Thames: The Half That’s Never Been Told\nNoon: The Mashantucket Pequot’s Story\n1 p.m.: Black Heritage Along the Thames: The Half That’s Never Been Told\n2 p.m.: The Mashantucket Pequot’s Story \nDrone Show Cruise\nDate: Saturday\, September 12\nDeparture: Heritage Park currently publishes both 7:45 and 7:55 p.m.; passengers should follow their ticket confirmation and verify the departure time before arriving\nRoute: Down the Thames River and\, weather and boat traffic permitting\, out to New London Ledge Light before returning for the drone show\nDrone Show: 300-drone display synchronized to music as part of America’s Navy 250 Celebration\nTickets: Advance ticket purchase required; Heritage Park reports limited availability\nFood and Drink: Snacks and drinks may be brought aboard; no glass\nRestrooms: None aboard \nAccessibility: Heritage Park’s former Navy utility boats are not ADA compliant. Passengers must be able to negotiate four stairs and independently board and disembark with minimal courtesy assistance.\nBoat Operations: 860-407-5655\nWeather: Boat operations and the Ledge Light portion of the evening cruise are weather-dependent; check with Thames River Heritage Park for current operating information. \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \n  \n  \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown.
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/three-special-thames-river-cruises/2026-09-13/
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Three-Special-Thames-River-Cruises.jpg
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