Some maps showing our position today in Portland, Maine. Circle on maps is our position.
Circle showing we are docked right by downtown area.
This gives you an idea of our last two ports, today's port, and tomorrow's port in Boston.
LAST EVENING
We went up to the Observation Lounge at 6pm for a quick drink before heading down to Prime 7. Our usual lounge was closed until 8:30 due to silly Canadian rules. This is the resident pianist, Kathy Pippard who plays every evening in Observation Lounge. She has no music but plays continuously.
At 6:30 we went to the little bar just outside of Prime 7 for another drink. Our reservation was for 7pm but Tojo, maitre d, seated us early so we would have a nice window table.
We brought our lemon pepper. I had them bring out two nice filets and I seasoned both sides at the table. They then took them back to kitchen and grilled them. They brought me a finger bowl so I could clean my fingers.
This is Kim, our waiter. Very nice guy.
Budi, sommelier we have known since 2010, served our wines. We had ordered another bottle of Rombauer chardonnay at $80 per bottle but still have unused ship board credit. Kadek sent this J Lohr cabernet up but I did not care for it. So Budi brought me Criss Cross zinfandel, which I do like.
Tojo had a very nice window table for us. Still in port as did not sail until about 8pm.
Vidalia Onion Soup. It was very good and almost a meal in itself.
I had the surf & turf, lobster and 6 ounce filet.
She is removing the lobster shell. The lobster was very tough and I could not eat it. Filet was great.
We did not go to the show but rather headed back to the suits to watch football.
TODAY
We were up at 7:20. I got our coffees and then watched the sail into the Portland harbor. There was a lighthouse of course.
Lots of expensive, very nice homes on sail in.
A Princess ship was anchored and passengers being tendered ashore.
Had to get a closer up shot to see what the ship's name was--Enchanted Princess. I assume we got to dock at the pier since we had to do face-to-face meeting with US Customs and Border Patrol this morning in the cruise terminal.
Fort Gorges, 1800's US fort, but now a park accessible only by boat.
Marina for small boats.
Portland skyline
This is our pier
Some men ready to receive lines from the ship to tie up alongside.
The cruise terminal
Will have to walk along this after leaving ship to get to the terminal.
9:15 now and gangway appears to be set but passengers not leaving yet. They will start with early tour folks. We have no tour here.
Finally today we have a nice view from our balcony.
Appears some of the crew cleared with the officials first. Rest of the cleared all morning long. Now at 9:30 tour groups are leaving. After the early tour group left there was to be a 45 minute window between tour groups for non-tour folks to clear. We went off at 9:40 and was back in out suite 15 minutes later. Part of that time was the long walk to the terminal. Boy, was clearing well organized by the ship!!! There were 12 officials so basically no wait. All they did was make sure we had passports and took a photo of us. Took maybe 30 seconds! Easy Peazy! When we came back on there was a very long line of people trying to leave the ship so we did good by going early.
Tour train.
Great burger from pool grill for lunch.
Today was the first day Rebecca had left the ship since we boarded in Barcelona. Can't say however that she set foot on land as the terminal where we cleared Border Patrol is over the water.tAfter lunch I watched "Bold & Beautiful" soap show streaming on Paramount Plus with Rebecca. We get it a day later than it was broadcast.
At 1:15 I headed ashore for a walk in the "Old Port" section of Portland. It is area of restaurants, shops, and galleries. It was sunny and 73 degrees so perfect for a walk.
Small tables with all kinds of handicrafts and souvenirs along the walk.
This is the Portland Ocean Terminal where the Princess tenders were operating. When I walked back past here on my way back to our ship, the line of people waiting for a Princess tender back to their ship was over 200 yards long. It'll be an hour or more before end of line gets a tender.
Old buildings in the Old Port.
Small park
Love the name
Old Unites States Custom House
Lots of restaurants
I was back on the ship an hour later and got to work on finishing this blog post. It is 3pm now and the crew is having an emergency drill. I believe there are US Coast Guard personnel monitoring the drill.
Here is tonight's Compass Rose menu. Last night I asked Luigi, Restaurant Manager (all restaurants), if we could have some black muscles in a garlic cream sauce as our appetizer tonight. We had it earlier in the cruise and is one of our favorites. Roasted turkey, stuffing, potatoes, peas, and gravy is another favorite dinner entrees.
Meridian Lounge will be open at 6pm as usual since we have left Canada. Grey Goose vodka martini night!! Rebecca can have some Rombauer chardonnay leftover from last night.
We will be sailing again at 7pm. It is a very short hop down to Boston where we will be docked by 7am tomorrow.
The show tonight is a production cast show, "Diamond Run". We saw part of it last segment and did not care for it and left early. I just did not understand the plot. Singing and dancing was good however. Not going tonight.
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