‘The Price Is Right’ Gave Away a Trip to Portland, Maine, but Not Really

I've been watching "The Price is Right" for as long as I can remember and in the almost 50 years of the show's run, I've never seen any trips to Maine offered until the show that aired on January 19. As part of a Showcase, which included a pair of VR headsets and pair of Vespa scooters, they offered a pair of trips to Portland, Oregon and Portland, Maine. Pretty cool right? Except the trip technically wasn't to Portland, Maine. Here's the description of the trip to Portland as read by "The Price is Right" announcer George Gray:

You and a guest will fly round trip business class from Los Angeles to Portland, Maine for a six night stay in a deluxe ocean view room at the Inn at Ocean's Edge. Relish the finer things at this quintessential ocean front hotel perched on the shores of the Penobscot Bay.

What? Penobscot Bay? But Portland is on Casco Bay. So sure. The winners plane from Los Angeles will land at the Portland Jetport, but the Inn at Ocean's Edge is 83 miles up the coast in Lincolnville, near Camden and Belfast.

Now there could be all kinds of reasons why they didn't get a hotel in Portland, even though the Inn at Ocean's Edge looks like a beautiful place to stay. One of those reasons could be that the producers of The Price is Right were looking for a hotel with a nice ocean view. Portland has those, but typically the show is looking for a hotel that would be willing to donate a stay in exchange for a mention on the show. Maybe there weren't any Portland hotels willing to do that, but the Inn at Ocean's Edge did and even threw in free breakfast as well. You can always tell which products on the show donated prizes for mentions and which didn't. For example, the announcer says "That's a 18 ounce box of peanut butter," they just bought a jar of peanut butter at the grocery store. If they say "That's an 18 ounce jar of Reese's Peanut Butter. It tastes like that delicious peanut butter you know and love from Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Spoon it into your favorite dessert recipe or enjoy a spoonful straight from the jar," then you know it's product placement or given to the show in exchange to mentions. We're not sure how much this trip cost because you were bidding on the entire package, not just the trip to Portland...uh....Lincolnville. However, Oscar Rosales Gonzalez, a theme park employee in Southern California, ended up bidding $21,000 on the VR headsets, scooters and trips to Portland, Oregon and Camden, Maine, and was closest without going over the actual retail price of $22,625. Congratulations Oscar! If you happen to be reading this, get in touch and we'll be happy to show you around Portland when you arrive. Just make sure you get a rental car to get to your hotel. If you want to watch the episode for yourself, hit the link below for to stream it on CBS.com