Maine Ports Of Call: Bar Harbor & Portland

To read about our time in NYC click here ß

Our time on the Norwegian Gem click here ß

And our Canada ports of call click here ß

Our third and fourth ports of call were back in the USA: Bar Harbor, Maine and Portland, Maine.

The main attraction in Bar Harbor, Maine is Acadia National Park.  When we booked our cruise, we specifically chose the one that went to Bar Harbor so we could tour this national landmark.  We were loaded into a very large tour bus making it hard to actually see a lot of the scenery along the drive.  We also found out later in the tour that large busses are not allowed to stop and so much of the tour was spent driving very slow and trying to snap photos from the bus window.  We made one stop which was at the top of Cadillac Mountain.

 

Once we arrived back in Bar Harbor, I was ready to get out on food and wander.  We found a restaurant with outdoor seating that had a pretty good looking menu.  Kenyon is allergic to shellfish and we were now in the land of Lobster Rolls.  But, he was a good sport about it.  I was in the mood for a beer so I tried the Shipyard Pumpkinhead, which she asked if I wanted the sugar rim.  It was the highlight of the trip!

Portland, Maine was our longest port stop the entire trip with a full 11-hours at port.  Before we arrived, we had talked about possibly taking an Uber or taxi to Freeport, Maine, which is home to the LL Bean flagship store (and I later found out…outlet malls) after our excursion.  We booked a tour through the cruise ship called Lighthouses of Maine and it was amazing!  I had hoped we would be able to get off the bus unlike the day in Acadia.  Thankfully we did.  We stopped at three different light houses, all equally breathtaking.  I love coastal towns and I love light houses.

 

This was easily the highlight of our whole vacation.  Once we arrive back in the town of Portland, we went in search of the nearby Starbucks and ordered our Uber to Freeport.  This was my first Uber experience and the driver was a local who was very knowledgeable and acted like a tour guide.  We checked out LL Bean, which has five different stores buildings along with the outlet mall and then grabbed some lunch. 

I wanted to go to the Coach Outlet and fell in love with a beautiful pink/purple purse that sparkled.  She said they had just arrive and this was the last one of that color.  The entire store was discounted and 50% more off.  My kind of deal! 

Our Uber home wasn’t good.  It was a pseudo taxi driver named Mohammad that was really rude to us and wanted to argue that we didn’t give the correct address when we requested him.  Ugh.  His broken English understood we wanted to go back to the shipyard but he didn’t understand I wanted to go to Shipyard Brewery first.  In my search of the delicious beer I had the day before, I realized their brewery/tasting room was located in Portland.  Thankfully Kenyon finally got him to understand where we wanted to go.  Boy was that frustrating!

But the beer tasting made up for it.

 

This cruise was wonderful and we enjoyed the ports of call.  We were too early for the fall foliage and so we will have to make another trip in the future but closer to October.  We might consider driving more inland and adding more states.  I would also love to stay in some of the old costal homes that are now bed and breakfasts.  We might also consider this cruise again or another cruise that goes from Boston, Massachusetts (I’m dying to go to Boston) to Quebec, Canada.  But, that is further down the road as we will have to save our pennies for Europe next year.