Downeast Windjammer Cruise Lines LLC — Attraction in Bar Harbor

This was a waste of time and money. Their ad promotes “a strong afternoon breeze” and an "exhilarating sail" which is why we booked this excursion in the afternoon instead of the morning.

The excursion started out having this large four sail sailboat use its’ motor to take us out of the harbor. Then the sails were unfurled. A very light breeze took us out a little way and then we just sat there; looking for anything that came our way.

In the very far distance, a porpoise or two was spotted. Tlhey were pretty far away but there was no attempt made to get closer.

We never got close to land, where we could possibly see more wildlife. As stated, we just sat there in the open water in hopes something swam by. Based on their writeup, I expected we would be looking for wildlife, not just hoping it appeared where we were.

I know you cannot always predict the weather, but even without a breeze, they could have used the motor to maneuver around and not just sit still!

They did hand out a salty snack, in hopes to sell drinks. When I went to buy a bottle of water, for the posted price of $2.00 plus tax, the girl put that price in her calculator and told me I owed $3.00. I questioned the $2.00 posted price and was told that was correct, but with tax it came to $3.00. I do NOT know any state in the United States that has a 50% tax rate!

We traveled with our well behaved three-year-old grandson and his parents. In our general instructions, it was mentioned that the parents keep up with and control their children. There were times we were all asked to keep our seats for our safety, however other times we were able to walk around. However, our three-year-old, who could not see over the height of the railing was not allowed to stand, or get on his knees. If we were sitting on the outer seats along the railing, I would understand, but we were sitting in the middle of the ship.

Bottom line, I do not agree with all the positive reviews. We left there VERY disappointed and wish we had booked...

I went on the schooner cruise 2 hr day cruise and it was mediocre. Now when I say mediocre, I DO NOT mean it was bad. In my opinion it just wasn't good.

Let me start with the positives. The crew was very friendly. I helped raise sail which was fun, and the crew was very charismatic. Being out on the ocean in the beautiful Bar Harbor area is also AMAZING. The Captain brought us near some pretty areas which was awesome.

Now onto the negatives. Seeing the pretty views of the ocean and the island was nice... but that's all we really did. The captain narrated some interesting facts and history and he was doing a great job, but he seemed to run out of things to say in the first 30 minutes. The microphone that he spoke into made him barely intelligible, and later into the trip he reminded me of a student giving a presentation that he just put together the night before. "If you look over here at this island I think there's an eagles nest... Yes definitely... Hard to see but it's there... Also there's probably some seals and porpoises in the water. If you just stare at the water long enough you'll probably see something eventually." The second hour just got boring.

The first hour was nice but then everyone got very bored and restless, especially on the crowded ship with metal benches. At one point they decided to turn off the engines of the boat and just use the sails, but we were dead in the water for about 20 minutes before they finally decided to turn on the engine again. Not really sure why they did that? At that point every one just wanted to get off the ship.

In summary, this was definitely my least favorite activity that we did in Bar Harbor. It wasn't "bad" by any stretch of the imagination! It just wasn't worth $45 per...

Make sure you have the right expectations. I took my wife on the evening "romantic" cruise and looking back it's obvious that I should have expected what we got. There was nothing wrong necessarily, it's just that it was a large metal sail boat with bench seats. It felt more like being on a floating bus. Yes they had a drink station where you can purchase drinks and yes they had a gentleman who went around from bench to bench singing romantic songs on his guitar (he was great, but he can only spend so much time around you so most of the time there was no music). But There were probably 60-70 people on the boat. The crew were nice and interactive if you talk to them. But they did have a job to do and they had to go to their jobs, so it wasn't like a special event for/with them. I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you're looking for a sanitized/touristy situation, you won't find that here. Everything was very practical and no nonsense. So if you're just wanting to get out over the water and you don't care about how "special" the environment is, then this is a GREAT affordable solution. But if you're wanting a romantic cruise or something that will make you feel "whisked away", then keep looking. I'm not saying they need to change anything. They do what they do and they fill a need that people have and people seem to like it. Like I said, just know...