cliftoncruiser

Bar Harbor is another beautiful seaside town.  Those sailing here in September are sure to see spectacular color as the leaves change!

Uploading the pictures while I had cellphone reception worked pretty good yesterday so will  do the same today.  These are from Bar Harbor and Arcadia National Park. They include Cadillac Mountain, Thunder Hole,  the town, the Coping Stones (stones that were brought in to form a ‘natural’ guardrail, and the highest point in Maine that is the first place to see the sunrise up and down the east coast.  I will write the days events later.

Day 4: Portland, Maine.  First, I have to say Portland is a beautiful place.  Very picturesque like something you would see in a seaside movie.  The architecture and victorian homes were beautiful.  Temperature wise, it was a nice day but the forecast called for rain (and it did rain part of the time) so we decided to do a two hour bus tour of Portland.  We did not book through the ship but when you get off, there are numerous roadside stands at the port with different companies offering tours.  We did the light blue bus tour (maybe Blue Lobster tours but cannot be sure).  The tour was okay - not fantastic but not horrible.  It was exactly what they said it would be which was no getting off for pictures except at the lighthouse.  We went ahead with it since we didn’t want to get caught in the rain.  The cost was $31 per person.  It was hard getting pictures in motion at times, especially those from the other side of the bus.  But when we got off at the lighthouse, it was an amazing sight.  The pictures don’t do it justice. I would say the tour taught me a lot about Portland and covered a lot of territory.  As I said, before we bought the tickets, they told us it was not hop on and hop off so we knew.  I do not regret the tour and would recommend it to someone wanting a quick overview sort of tour for Portland.  After the tour, we walked around Portland.  It is a very walkable place with easy access to the ship from the city area. We walked to Holy Donuts which I had read about.  They make donuts using a potato base (and you would never know it).  The consistency is much like a cake style donut.  Definitely worth a try just for the pure sake of it.  I has a salted chocolate and DD got a cinnamon sugar and old fashion donut.  She is not a sweets person but like to donuts.  After the stop at Holy donuts (about a 10 minute walk from the ship), we went to Luke’s Lobster for some fresh lobster and a shrimp roll.  Both were plentiful in portion size and tasted great. Delicious is all I can say.  The lobster rolls at the table next to us looked pretty good too.  Luke’s is about an eight minute walks from the ship but sits far back on a pier so it could be easy to miss from the road.  One of the pictures above is of Luke’s.  It sits right on the water and has all the lobster cages in the water (not a tank) that are quite visible.  Luke’s is just past Gibson’s Chowder.  The employees there were so friendly and a lot of locals ate there.  Every single person we met Portland was so friendly.  My DD has decided this is her favorite place to visit our if all the places she has been (not just this trip).  

Back on the ship, we skipped the top tier reception as it was close to our dinner seating and we had to get ready.  After dinner, we went to the Palladium show.  It was a singer very Fran Sinatra (ish) named Mike Preston.  Initially I thought, ughh but I must admit, I enjoyed the show once he got past the first few songs.  

As we headed out of port , a heavy fog sat in so the Grandeur’s horn has sounded quite a bit tonight.

To all the Dad’s our there... I hope you had a Happy Father's Day!

And I’ll end it with a Maine lobster meal picture from Luke’s (about an eight minute walk from the ship). 🦞 

A few more ....

Some more...

Before the ship leaves port, I thought I would get some Portland pictures posted since the ship WiFi is slow and they often fail to upload.  I’ll write about the day later.

4 hours ago, loltastic said:

This is great so far!  We went back and forth about doing this cruise with our teens as well so I'll be interested to see what they think about everything.

Toward the end of the cruise, I will paraphrase my teens thoughts on the cruise.  I do know that the teen club is used as a meeting place for many teens.  The first couple of days, the staff try to get the teens acquainted with one another.  The teens form friend groups fairly quickly and will meet up throughout the week (not always at the camp) and hang out.  In port today, there were lots of hello waves amongst the teens. If 18 or older, they can no longer go to the camp.  Even so, my 18 year old is enjoying herself.  I will update later this week.  If you have any questions you would like me to ask my teens, feel free.

Surprisingly, for the teens the Cheers attraction was the one one site that was on their list to see.  They spent a while trying to get an instagram picture.  🤔. They were satisfied after that.  Also, fir the walkers, her is a picture of the guides painted on the sidewalks.

I couldn’t get any of the the Boston pictures to upload last night but here are some ...

We had a great time in Boston today.  We hired a taxi for three hours today who took us to all of the touristy sites we wanted to see.  We were able to visit Quincy Market, the Boston Tea Party Ship, the USS Constitution ship, saw some folks dressed in colonial costumes, see the big colleges (Harvard, MIT, Boston Univ, and Boston College), visit the Cheer Bar (the Bull and Finch Pub, and other sites.  We ate a lobster roll lunch at Legsl Seafood, and than we walked back to the ship.  Walking is easy as there were painted guides along the sidewalk directing us.

Once back on board, we went up to the concierge Lounge for a drink.  I have been trying new drinks and found one I liked - the dirty monkey but over ice rather than frozen.  The frozen was good but wouldn’t go through the straw.  I love trying new drinks on vacay so if anyone has a good suggestion, let me know.  

We had dinner and than I watched a game in the Pacific Lounge called Majority Rules.  Questions were asked to teams and  answer submitted on paper - whichever answer came up  most often won.  I finished the evening with the adult comedy show in the Palladium.  The comedian, Don Gavin, was great!  Definitely worth seeing.

Captain Patrick and gang guiding the Grandeur to dock.

We are pulling into Boston now and the weather is great.? Looking forward a a fun day downtown!

Day 2 - Today was a Sea Day.  I found the day to be relaxing.  We enjoyed the suite breakfast in Chops and than I did a little shopping.  The center area had dress purses for $10 each and they come in handy with teen daughters so I picked up a few.  They come in handy for homecoming and formals.  Than I went to the international hair show with my DD.  I thought the show would include more styling techniques versus explaining how the products solve problem hair.  My daughter enjoyed it so it was worthwhile.  My other DD signed up for the Sushi making class.  She loves sushi and really enjoyed the class.  She said she could make the sushi at home now.  I had read that they give you a handout with directions to take home but she said that directions were not handed out.  I’ll have to test her sushi making skills memory at home and have her make a sushi dinner one night. 

    The Captain’s Welcome Reception for suite guest was also this morning.  They had a nice buffet display and the staff we fabulous.  We met Captain Patrick, the Guest Services Manager Diana (Hi Diana 😀), and the many other crew members.  The Grandeur has such a friendly crew.  It really makes the cruise more  enjoyable. Lunch was in Gatsby's as we prefer sitting down and not searching for a table with a plate of food. The Concierge Lounge is always a favorite and we chatted with Carlington a bit.  He shared information on Boston with us. Tonight was formal night so we headed to the room early to get ready as we have the early dinner and wanted to get photos done before we ate.  We all dressed up in gowns which was fun as we don’t get to dress formal all that often.  Plus we got a little more use out the the girls gowns.  Activities for the rest of day included watching a dance lesson from above. a Broadway style show in the theatre and 80’s music trivia in the Centrum.  The trivia was a blast and there were some very good sports - two men that danced like butterflies with prodding for the CD. They laughed and went along with it was hilariously. We ended the evening in the Viking Lounge.  It was empty up there so after a drink, we headed back to the room.   Tomorrow is the 1st port day and we will be in port for a good portion of the day.

1 hour ago, dixieva said:

Was your lunch at Chops?  Was it free for suite guests?

 

Enjoy your cruise!

Lunch for the suite guests was in Gatsby’s for this cruise.  Other than the suite guests and private parties, Gatsby’s was closed.  The food so far has been delicious.  The concierge, Carlington, was in Gatsby’s and walked around greeting us at the table(s).  He is great, very friendly and wants guests to enjoy their vacation.  Lunch photos...

1 hour ago, depplep said:

Looking forward to your review. We are doing the 7nt in October. Do you have any excursions planned?

How exciting- October will be a beautiful time of year and you may see the beautiful foliage.  In Boston we plan to freestyle it and use the trolley.  We have done that in the past and it worked out well.  The trolley driver narrates the areas much like a tour guide and it is hop-on/ hop-off with a single price.  We plan to go down town to Quincy Market area.  In Saint John’s we booked a Sox hour private tour that takes us all over to include the reversing rapids and sea caves.  The other ports we have not decided yet.  

I’ve never done a review of a cruise but always enjoy reading the reviews so I thought I would give it a try and write a review.  I say semi-live because I will most likely look at this late evenings after my day is done and I settle done for the night.  I am typing from my phone so please excuse any typos.  😳

Now for a little about myself and my cruise.  I am traveling with my family.  We are a family of four that have cruised before.  I have two teenagers- one 18 year old and a 16 year old.  I often see questions about teens so I will add a bit about what they do throughout the cruise.  The kids have gone through various age groups at the camps in the past.   The 18 year old just aged out of the camp and the 16 year old is still able to join in the camp activities.  Both have enjoyed the Cabos over the years as it had given them the chance to meet other kids their age to hang out with during the week.  They have found that the first few days all the kids go to the camp and form groups.  These groups tend to stick together throughout the duration of the cruise.  Day 1 the 16 year old went up and met other kids.  The 18 year cannot go to the camp any longer but is able to go to the on board club but not drink alcoholic drinks but can order virgin drinks.

As far as the cruise, the itinerary is nine nights up the NE and Canada.  We will stop in Boston, Massachusetts; Portland and Bar Harbor, Maine; Saint Johns Canada and Halifax Canada.  

Day at one was fantastic!  Boarding in Baltimore is so easy.  As you enter the parking lot, the attendant directs you to the luggage carts.  You luggage is pulled out of your car and than you park. It took about 10 minutes to get through security at 12:00pm.  We than took the boarding pictures and were on board by 12:30pm.  Vacation has started!!!  😀. Once on board, we headed to lunch.  Being in a suite, we were treated to a special lunch for suite guest.  I ordered salmon and it was delicious.  Husband and kids ordered skirt steak.  Once I figure out how to upload pictures, I will post a few.

After lunch, we  roamed a bit to get reacquainted with the ship. Next was the mandatory muster drill.  It was very well run and went quickly. and than went up to the concierge lounge.    We met a few cruisers and enjoyed lovely conversation and then headed down to our room to unpack and get ready for dinner.  Dinner was pork chops with fresh veggies.  

After dinner, we e plotted a bit more before heading to the Pacific Lounge for the ABBA trivia game.  I am horrible at trivia but it was fun nonetheless.  After the trivia there was karaoke.  I watched the first few performance and then headed back to the room to finish unpacking.  Once unpacked, I headed up to the Viking Lounge.  It was not crowded but fun.  The bartender was personable and it was a nice way to end Day 1.

We just finished a cruise on Grandeur this month with a 13 year old. The first night the teen club was opened (day 2), she went up and met a group of teens that she hung out with the entire week. The teen club is for 12 - 18. It was a group of 15 or so teens in her age range. Other age groups also banded together.

The teens from my DD group split the time between organized activities (teen dances, karaoke, scavenger hunts, etc.) and things they organized (teen lunches, pool, cafe latitudes, and ship trivia games, etc.).

I would recommend going early in the week to meet the other teens as the groups formed pretty early on. A few kids joined in later once they saw the group.

Have fun!