Portland Spirit boat dinner cruise - anybody experienced it?

We%26#39;re sort of thinking of going somewhere for Christmas and eating out Christmas Day. I noticed that the boat cruise has a buffet that day.

Has anybody been on any of their cruises and had a meal? How was it?

Portland Spirit boat dinner cruise - anybody experienced it?

Forgot to say I did read the reviews and a couple were helpful with a good rating.

One of those useless ';anonymous'; reviews simply said ahoy. How ridiculous.

Portland Spirit boat dinner cruise - anybody experienced it?

I responded on the other thread too.

Yup, been on both a lunch and dinner cruise, though neither was a buffet. Typical rubber-chicken banquet-style meal. Might be nice to see Christmas lights from the water, but don%26#39;t choose this expecting to get great, or even good, food.

Well, to be honest, we were aiming at ';good'; ;-)

Will have to give it more thought . . . thanks.

I actually did do this last December. The food reminds me EXACTLY of the food I get at my current company%26#39;s xmas parties (think Marriot buffet): It doesn%26#39;t matter if you order the chicken or fish or beef because it%26#39;s the same gray piece of meat. The xmas-light boats are kinda neat though. It%26#39;s like driving down Peacock Lane but you%26#39;re not in a car and you can%26#39;t leave. And you%26#39;re drunk. And you lose your hat. Man, that was a nice hat.

Oh no, it wasn%26#39;t an official TripAdvisor cap was it? ;-)

Okay, I think I%26#39;m getting the picture here, lol. Darn, it *looked* nice on the website . . .

We went for brunch in the spring. It was a gift from the kids and we were actually dreading it. We had done the Philedelphia Spirit before and did not like that we had to be seated with strangers. Anyhow- we went with ZERO expectations and actually had a pretty nice time. That said it was brunch so there was plenty of breakfast stuff which I think lends itself better to a buffet. And it was daytime and nice weather so we were outside a lot of the time.

We did it a few years ago (not the buffet, but the dinner) and it was a nice time. The food is mass-prepared, of course, like any tour or ';Christmas Menu'; anywhere in town, so you have to take it for what it is, but we thought it was a nice experience.

No ';Christmas Menu'; anywhere is going to be as good as the regular menu simply because it%26#39;s mass prepared, I think, but if you have to have a ';Christmas Menu';, then why not have it on the Portland Spirit - you can watch the city lights, quite nice.

We just went on the Lunch Cruise today. I made the reservations over the internet. We had a group of six.

We purchased a lunch for everyone, then they ask if you are going to have dessert. I said yes. That%26#39;s another $5.00 per person.

When we got on the boat, we were handed menus that said if you wanted a diner salad, that would be another $5.00. They even charge extra for an ice tea!!!

We thought the bathrooms were dirty, the food was not good. The wine was though. Yes...of course, extra. No choosing where you sit. They seated our table in the back, towards the stairway and toilets. Nice touch.

When the bill comes, they put the cruise and the food on the same tab, so, you are tipping on the cruise part too. Not just on the service, this is really getting spendy here folks.

I would not probably go on this one again. For the amount of money we spent, we could have went a GOOD place, took a walk by the water, and went to the Zoo, or Omsi, or the Japanese Gardens and still had money to boot.

Save your cash folks, this is not so great, and when we were coming back to the dock area, sitting at our table the wait staff kept asking US to hand them our glasses, and are you finished with this? Like they really wanted us just to stand up on deck or something...tacky.