BaumD

If you wait until it is close enough to check the weather, chances are the flightseeing excursions will be sold out. The cruise lines will have locked up most of the seats.

If there is an excursion, you really want to do in a certain port, you should book it yourself direct with the vendor. When the ACL excursions come out 60 days prior, you can decide whether to stick with the one you booked or transfer over to American. Most excursions you book online can be canceled within two weeks of the excursion so you don’t lose any money.

Probably difficult for American to come up with a final excursion list until 60 days before the cruise. Excursions can change from cruise cruise due to local conditions or situations with the vendor. For example, a visit to a winery may have to be canceled if there is a wedding planned for that day at the winery. Sometimes special activities going on in the city may cause another excursion to be cancelled. Prices can also change. Imagine you see a price for an excursion six month before your cruise and when the 60 day list comes out, the price of the excursion has gone up by $15. imagine the negative feedback that the cruise line will get.

if you go on the ACL website, find the Columbia River Cruise, click on ITINERARY, then click on DAY BY DAY ITINERARY. Under each port they is a list of excursions. Click on each one for details. As far as going on your own, it depends on how comfortable you are doing this. Just be sure to be back on board at the designated time before the ship leaves. Probably not to many "private" excursions on your cruise as they are smaller cities. Just was in Key West on an ACL cruise and did several excursions on our own, but in Key West, there are hundreds of private excursions as it is a big tourist destination.

Do not have copies of the menus, maybe someone else will post. Typically, they do not have any Buffets. During the day, you’re typically in Port, and most people are off the ship. When on the ship during the day, They will have a lecture about the area or possibly a bingo game. Every evening between 530 and seven is happy hour, then, at about 830 they have evening entertainment. The entertainment may be an in-house entertainer that plays the guitar or several times during the cruise, they will bring in local talent to perform. many passengers have walkers or wheelchairs, and the staff is excellent in dealing with them. The older ships, mostly paddle wheels, may have one old style elevator, which may or may not go to every level. those elevators will stop at all levels that have lounges and cabins, but may not go up to the top deck. The newer ships usually have two modern elevators, which go to all levels. You can look at the deck plans online for each ship to determine where the elevators go.

Chengkp75 and DaveinCharlotte both got it right. I just got off the Glory cruise that didn't return to St Pete, but went to Key Biscayne from Key West. We had about 8 hours of 2-3 foot seas and the banging was unbelievable. The waves get "caught" between the two bows, have no place to go and try to go under the ship causing the bow to rise up, which causes the banging and slamming. Chengkp, you should have consulted with ACL before they built the Coastal Cats!! They were scheduled to build 11 of the Cats, but after Eagle and Glory went to sea, they discovered this issue. The next two Cats were already under construction, so they will finish those, then transition to the new Patriot Class with traditional bows. If the seas are calm, the Cats are great. If rough -- beware! Glory is now headed (Crew only) from Miami to Maryland for some "preventative maintenance". They must have been caught in the big storm along the east coast. Must be a really rough ride. Now I know why they didn't take passengers.

Typically, they schedule excursions in the morning, and in the afternoon and leave time in between for lunch on the ship. Yes, you can do two excursions in one day. Some excursions may overlap lunch as they are longer excursions. In that case, you could only do one per day. 60 days before your cruise they will publish the shore excursion list with times on the website. You need to login to the website and select your excursions.

Yes, many of their passengers use walkers and wheelchairs and they are very good at helping them. One suggestion, take one of the newer ships with TWO elevators. Some of the older ships have only one elevator and they are very small and very very slow.

The higher you get, the better the view. Every cruiseline charges more the higher you get.

There are three levels of excursions. Complementary, premium and signature. Each port will have at least one complementary excursion, which usually involves a local loop, bus trip, or possibly a trip to a museum or gallery. The cruise line makes arrangements with the museum for free admission for its guests. premium excursions are much less expensive than the big cruise lines. Expect between 20 and $50. Signature excursions can be very pricey and won’t be available in most ports. These excursions are very limited in capacity when they do have them. I have seen signature excursions for $175 up to $480.

I am on the March 15 glory cruise along the gulf coast. That was supposed to be a cruise from St. Petersburg to DC now the ship has a two week opening in his schedule after my cruise to get to DC for the revolution cruises. As you indicated, they have canceled all the complete Southeast cruises. Looking at the schedule, the cruise in November was deleted from the schedule and replaced with a cruise from DC to Amelia Island. That will leave the ship three or four days to go to Saint Petersburg without passengers, I am guessing ACL saw an issue with going down the East Coast of.Florida with passengers. as far as American queen going out of business, supply and demand. More people, less cabins, expect prices to go up, even though they only had a few ships.

Typically, the American cruise lines ships do not dock at the major cruiseports with the “big cruise ships”. They embark and disembark in such places as Alton, Illinois, Redwing, Minnesota, Hayden, Island, Oregon, Amelia Island, Florida,. Most of their docking locations have a single dock, or docks that serve the general public boats. Doubtful there are any longshoreman at most of these locations. Maybe the San Francisco area cruises had a different situation. Many times, when on the river, the ship will just pull into the side of the river, open up its bow entrance, and let the passengers exit the ship. In those situation’s, all docking and line handling is handled by the ships deckhands.

You should notify them by email before the cruise. The first afternoon of the trip, the chef meets with any passengers with dietary needs. That should address your issue.

360 videos on the website

Have eaten at the McDonalds and Burger King near the Sanford Station