This was a really hard review to write. My husband and I are both Maine natives. We have been living in Portland (Eastern Prom) for 12+ years and always got excited to see the Fire Truck tour truck driving around our neighborhood. When I’d see it I’d always look at my husband and say, “I want to do that!”. So maybe I had a very high standard already set in my mind when we reserved our private tour with both our friends and family. We were a mixed group of adults and children. The ages of the children were 18 months, 2yo, 4yo, 8yo, 16yo plus the nine adults. It was comfortable inside we had enough room my son sat on my lap, more on that topic later.
Positives:
We really enjoyed the tour of Portland by antique fire truck. At the start they helped us climb the ladder into the truck it’s a bit steep. Gave the kiddos plastic fire truck hats and told us the history of the fire truck. Both pink and red are available. One of the boys had to have a pink hat because they ran out of red. This didn’t really go over well. But I wasn’t expecting the hats so not a big enough thing to put as a negative. They had all you can drink bottled available for our group which is really nice on a hot summer day with the sun shining on us.
This truck has personality and you feel like your royalty in the open top back sitting area. The seats are plush and the tour operator sits outback with you. The viewpoint is very high which gives you excellent views throughout the tour with many potential opportunities for photos while the tour is on the move. The full tour route is on their website but encompasses old port area, eastern promenade and western promenade.
We departed the start of the tour late but because it was a private tour we were able to wait a little for the late guests which we ended leaving without and meeting halfway down Commercial Street. I thought this was nice that they didn’t want to waste time waiting and not driving.
We elected to not have a tour driver, more on this topic later. With no tour leader the driver of the fire truck assured us he would do his best to act as tour guide when he wasn’t driving. When we pulled over at various scenic outlooks he talked a little about each landmark and gave us a concentrated tour.
Negatives:
We rented the whole fire truck for a little less money it would take for our whole group to purchase each an individual ticket. BUT, the only option for a private tour left sharply at 9am. I wish they gave us an option for later in the day. Its hard to get a large group of people together from all over the state of Maine with young children thrown into the mix.
The truck was large enough to have all our group with the exception of my 18 month old son. My 18 month old son they counted as an adult because he was over 1 year old. Because we were one person over the max capacity of the fire truck we had to take the tour guide away. I have mixed feelings on this topic as they said this was a function of safety. I don’t know all the technicalities of safety with commercial tour vehicles in Portland but on airlines they still allow my son to sit on my lap. (Which he ended up doing anyways because at his age and attention span there was no way he would stay comfortably on the seat with a single lap strap across his waist which is the only safety belts available for passenger in the open back) I think looking back they could have allowed us to have the tour guide without losing my son or another adult which they suggested. If they are going to push safety capacity they should not count toddlers (younger then two) as adults unless they have a safe way of restraining them or allow them to be considered lap held without compromising another seat in the tour.
Because we left late the tour was a little rushed to make up for lost time. The driver was stressed trying to get to the end and rushed us out of the fire truck and we didn’t get offered a group photo which I was really sad to not have. I paid a good amount of money to enjoy the tour and in the end I felt slighted with the rushed end to a great tour and no photo to remember the memories.