Saturday to Saturday continuous shall ship cruises during the summer along the villages and yacht harbors along Maine coast north of Portland. Good food and service, free wine at dinner and free cocktails in the lounge before dinner. Single setting, open diner seating and generally good fellowship among passengers. Cabins roomy and comfortable. Overall on-board ship ambiance was good and pleasant; but worth $1000/couple per day for a first deck, non balcony room? You must pay for all shore (guided?) tours at each village by a bus. Tours were short, (about 2 hours) with stops leaving little time for more than make a potty stop. These are not guided tours, just bus stops with a little over the speaker commentary by bus driver. On-board entertainment most nights were usually by one performer, some good and some not. Each lasted only one hour. Two lectures were about the same quality. One free excursion was an on-shore picnic Lobster and Mussel fest which substituted for that night's dinner.

If you like lobster and seafood cuisine with fellowship, looking at yachts in harbors and are willing to pay the price, this is for you. If you want to see all these villages as far north at Bar Harbor, take photos, and participate in the culture of the communities at your leisure, take Route One (US 1), and do it for less. We enjoy small ship cruises, river cruises where you get to meet people, have enriching, cultural, photo opportunity on shore, and include tours like many river trips that we have taken in Europe. This did not live up to our expectations.

Summary: On-ship was expensive but very good except for entertainment - On-shore - not worth it. - One thing nice about this and other small ship/river cruises - no one inspects your baggage or on shore purchases each time you board the ship.