Plimoth Patuxet: A joy for history-lovers, very thoughtfully done. It's not a huge area, but none of the spaces are just empty. Each house is a little different, with slightly different furnishings and accessories. All the exhibits are robust as well, and the craft house is a cool idea that lets you get up close with different period activities like pottery, medicine, or gardening. I really liked the Thanksgiving through the ages exhibit. There were even livestock roaming around. I hope we go back when the food exhibit is done! Very neat if you're into history. We went on a beautiful September day and it was lovely just to walk around. The performers were very good, high marks for them!
The only problem was that there wasn't enough explanation. Most museums would have placards explaining what each item was, or why they chose to set up each house as they did. Here they didn't have any of that in the villages. Perhaps the idea was that there would be a performer in each room to ask, but a) there weren't and b) it would be nice if you didn't have to take up everyone's time if you're super interested in historical details and have a million questions (yes, history nerd here :) ).
We did eat at the cafeteria and it was actually very good! The "Indian pudding" is tasty, but different from what you might be used to - and there's a lot of it. But the peascod was amazing. Seriously might have been the best thing I ate my entire vacation week. Buttery, flaky crust, with seasoned turkey inside, all warmed up - it was perfect. Also can recommend the cornbread cookies, and the salad was not your normal sad cafeteria salad either.
Mayflower II: Even on a Thursday in September it was very busy, and it's a small ship. It probably helps add to the feeling they must have had, being crammed in that space for months. This had some interesting accents, but with the tight space (and lack of info) it was hard to see what was what. Definitely recommend they put more info out for people. Staff were very helpful, and it was very interesting, although it really only took maybe half an hour to go through.