There is a certain hush that falls over Lake Winnipesaukee in late September. The summer crowds have thinned, the water turns a deeper, colder shade of blue, and the shoreline glows with the first flush of foliage. It is the perfect time of year for a ghost story. And this fall, Mount Washington Cruises is betting that the season's best place to hear one is out on the water, aboard a boat that has just spent three years coming back to life.
Haunted Winnipesaukee is a 90-minute evening cruise that runs from September 17 through October 24, 2026, departing from 211 Lakeside Avenue in Laconia. Passengers board the newly refurbished Winnipesaukee Belle, a 65-foot vessel with a history as layered as the lake itself. The cruise promises local ghost stories performed by a live "Ghost Host," a complimentary sampling of fresh seasonal desserts, and a bar serving soft drinks, beer, wine, and cocktails, including signature drinks featuring spirits from Tamworth Distillery. Guests are asked to keep a respectful silence during the performances, and conversation is encouraged between tales. General admission runs $60 for ages five and up, with babies free.
The whole experience has the feel of a very New England kind of Halloween party: dark water, cold drinks, and old stories told to the hum of an engine. But the real magic may be in the setting. The Winnipesaukee Belle is not just any boat. Launched in 1985 and operated for decades by the Wolfeboro Inn, she spent her early years carrying passengers on lunch and sightseeing cruises around the lake. By the early 2020s, however, the pandemic had taken a toll on staffing and maintenance, and the inn could no longer sustain the vessel. In March 2023, Mount Washington Cruises, part of the Winnipesaukee Flagship Corporation, acquired the Belle with plans for a major overhaul.
The refurbishment was extensive. General Manager Jared Maraio told the Laconia Daily Sun that the team essentially brought the vessel back to its studs. The lower deck was redesigned as a lounge with a speakeasy vibe, complete with long velvet couches, a bar, a buffet area, and windows that can now open two-thirds of the way for airflow, a major improvement over the originals, which were sealed shut. The upper deck is a more traditional observation area with high stools and chairs along the rails and couches at the stern. After three years of work at the company's shipyard in Center Harbor, the Belle was finally returned to the water, docking at the Meredith Town Docks before joining the fleet. She now accommodates 120 passengers on two decks, with a single bar.
There is something poetic about launching a ghost-story cruise on a boat that has just spent years being resurrected. But the Belle is also part of a larger history that gives the event its atmosphere. Lake Winnipesaukee has been drawing visitors for well over a century, and the lakes region has accumulated more than its share of dark tales across the decades. The cruise's promotional materials tease stories about cursed lands, mysterious fires, haunted hotels, and unsolved disappearances. Those themes are not invented. The area's history is full of them.
The cruise's descriptions hint at unsolved mysteries, and the lake's long history does not lack for them. Whether the stories told aboard the Belle are verifiable or folkloric is beside the point. The point is the telling, and the telling is part of the region's character.
The Belle herself has a quieter connection to that character. She was built for the Wolfeboro Inn, an establishment that has stood on the lake's shore since the 1800s. Generations of families have eaten, sailed, and celebrated on the waters around Wolfeboro, which bills itself as one of the oldest summer resort towns in the country. When the inn could no longer operate the boat, the transfer to Mount Washington Cruises was framed as a rescue. The Belle's current captain, John Howard, stayed with the vessel through the transition, a small but telling detail in the Laconia Daily Sun's reporting. Some connections to the old days, it seems, were worth preserving.
The cruise itself is a new venture for the company, which has long been known for scenic tours, Sunday brunch cruises, and sunset dinner dances aboard the larger M/S Mount Washington. That vessel, the modern incarnation of the steamer that was lost in 1939, is a 230-foot excursion ship that launched in 1940 and has become, along with its predecessors, a symbol of New Hampshire. But for a spookier, more intimate evening, the company turned to the Belle, with its 120-passenger capacity and the cozy, close-quarters atmosphere that makes a roomful of strangers feel like a campfire gathering.
There is also the matter of the drinks. Tamworth Distillery, located in the White Mountains town of the same name, has gained a following for its inventive, locally sourced spirits. The distillery's philosophy draws inspiration from the 19th-century Transcendentalists of New England, which feels right for an evening on the lake: thoughtful, local, and a little bit philosophical. A cocktail made with Tamworth whiskey or gin is a fitting companion to stories about the darker corners of the region's past.
The schedule stretches more than five weeks, from mid-September to late October, offering plenty of chances to go. There is no reserved seating, so the experience has an open, come-as-you-are quality. Whether you are a lifelong local or a first-time visitor, the Haunted Winnipesaukee cruise offers a way to see the lake the way the old-timers tell it: beautiful, yes, and also strange, layered, and full of stories that have not quite faded away.
On a cool autumn evening, with the leaves turning gold along the shore and the surface of Winnipesaukee dark and still, it is not hard to imagine that the lake holds secrets. This fall, a refurbished boat, a cast of storytellers, and a well-stocked bar are giving those secrets a voice. Dark water, cold drinks, and unsolved mysteries: that is the pitch, and for one season at least, the lake is delivering all three.