DaveinCharlotte

Waking up this old thread to report what our Cruise Director on Glory said about this. He seemed knowledgeable about goings-on at the home office. He held a Q&A and someone asked him about this issue. His response: Problem # 1 was with the Longshoremen union at San Francisco. They complained having the ACL deckhands transfer luggage between the ship and dock competed with them, and insisted ACL pay them hundreds of dollars per passenger. So ACL abandoned San Francisco and shifted to Sacramento. Problem # 2 was with the California equivalent of the EPA. Despite American Jazz's modern waste treatment equipment, they said that wasn't good enough and the ship could not continue to sail anywhere in the Bay area. At that point, ACL threw in the towel.

But would that explain why two ships are being held up? Maybe low water problems? But "an occurrence" doesn't sound like that either... Hmmm

The ships do have safes.

On our ACL New England cruise, we did have to tender in at Bar Harbor. On our two ACL Alaska cruises, I don't remember having to tender in anywhere.

Just got back from this trip, on the American Glory -- St Pete, Marco Island, Key West, and Punta Gorda. The trip went very well. Excellent food and staff. Excursion list attached (PDF). Was a little disappointed that there was no trip to Dry Tortuga for us -- only a flight, not the boat excursion, so very expensive. Only one couple signed up, only to find it canceled due to high winds. Ship seemed very stable in the not-always-calm seas, but the waves would catch between the two catamaran hulls and make a loud slapping noise. Otherwise very impressed with these new catamarans. ACL_StPete_Excusions.pdf

Nice shot. Fortunate that you were not passing that spot at mid-day. Great timing!

Hello fellow barefoot windjammer! We too were on the Fantome, the year before the disaster, though just to visit for a couple of hours (while Captain Matt had our ship, the Mandalay, tied up alongside). I still remember Captain Casey and the huge aquarium behind the bar! There was a great book written about the ship and the hurricane; maybe you're already read it. Re side of ship. I agree with ericosmith about the south side. But a couple of other considerations: If the weather is very hot and sunny (a real possibility on the Snake, especially), your balcony could be unusable in the afternoon. And conversely, in cool weather, that would be the preferred side, of course. And if you're a photography buff, the hills on the south side will be in shade, which doesn't make for good shots. But to tell the truth, I don't think there's enough difference to worry about.

One thing to consider is the layout of the cabins, vis-a-vis the location of the lounges, how close (or not close) you want to be to them, and the relative cost of the cabin. We, for example, like to get a cabin handy to the lounges. On the paddlewheel class, the next-to-the bottom cabin category adjoins both the main lounge and a paddlewheel lounge. These cabins are relatively cheap. On the riverboat class, the relatively cheap cabins aren't near anything, and the cabins that are are much more expensive. The riverboat ships (most of them) are newer, have a nifty walking track around the entire topside, and a small outdoor cafe that we like very much. The paddlewheelers are older, but have been refurbished and are in great shape. No outdoor cafe, but they make up for this by maintaining a buffet in the sky lounge, with great food options. If cost didn't matter, I guess I'd slightly prefer the riverboats. But the paddlewheelers are the better deal, in my opinion.

True! I do think it's more likely to have trouble on a SFO-Spokane booking than on a Portland/SFO booking. But for this very reason I would want the harder part to be at the end of the cruise.Why? Having flight delays/cancellations at the START of the cruise can wreak havoc with the whole trip, if you miss the ship. Having these problems at the END of the cruise doesn't bother me so much -- the trip is over, so what if I'm late getting back home.

Another option to investigate would be Uncruise. Their ships are small but well appointed, with enthusiastic crews and a wide variety of active excursions. http://uncruise.com

Glad to hear they're still there!

This report from CruiseMapper is dated November 15th: https://www.cruisemapper.com/news/12586-american-glory-completes-sea-trials We're signed up for the Glory in early January -- I was beginning to get a little uneasy, since sea trials were originally scheduled for October, with a couple of shakedown cruises in the Chesapeake Bay earlier this month. Those cruises disappeared from the ACL website a few weeks ago. But appears the new inaugural cruise (Complete Southeast, Nov 28, MD to FL) will be starting as scheduled.

Yep - made a typo...meant to say AQV, not ACL.

Good to hear this. Have done scads of RS programs, though none on ACL, and a couple of European cruises, where the ship was 100% RS. But have done two where there were indeed groups that tended to push the rest of us aside, so I know how unpleasant that can be. Part of the problem was that the ship's hotel and restaurant management personnel would give them preferentiaI treatment (which possibly the favored passengers didn't even want). I always hoped that if WE ended up in an RS group that only had part of the ship, our group would not end up like that.

Locks and dams mitigate the effects of low water. Upper Mississippi is chock-a-block with these, lower Mississippi has none. It's the lower Mississippi cruises we should be mainly worried about, not the upper Mississippi ones. Wondering how the St. Louis/Memphis/New Orleans cruises are making out.

New to AQV, just got a catalog from them, and found a Caribbean cruise on the World Voyager that looks interesting ("Island Hopping"). For B2 cabin, two prices are shown: $5799 , crossed out, labeled "BEFORE all promotions are applied," and $2299, labeled "AFTER all promotions are applied." $350 pp port charges are cited. Then it says "PER GUEST CRUISE ONLY" and "SECOND GUEST SAILS FREE" Since the website touts "Everything is included," what does "Cruise Only" mean? Many cruise lines have a "cruise only" price vs an "all-inclusive" price, but this doesn't seem to fit here. How much should two of us expect to pay for this cruise? Can't find any further $$ info on website, just "Talk to an Expert" button. Before I do that, thought I'd check with CC and see if anyone can straighten me out.

That must have been the first (or nearly the first) cruise on a "Coastal Cat." (Sorry txfinds007 for the off-topic question.) This is the first post I've seen re the Eagle, and just curious if the experience was satisfactory.

Is taking a Douro River cruise on a small CrosiEurope ship, say, a "step down" from sailing on a large ship? I'm not familiar with the Regent line, but I believe all their ships are many times larger than the ACL ships, and they do not operate on the Colombia River. Since cruises on small ships such as ACL ships are easily twice as expensive as the big ships, the fact that they nonetheless are competitive shows that many consumers prefer the smaller ships. Take BillHana's post above as just one example.

For the same reason one would book flights directly with an airline, rather than via a TA: There is no intervening "layer" between me and the cruise line...I pick my own cruise and cabin, select my own excursions, see my account, make payments. see that the payments are received, learn directly about unexpected changes in itineraries, respond to those changes -- all without waiting for the information to be filtered through a third party. Judging by the complaints I see on travel forums such as Trip Advisor, many folks do not have as good a relation to their TA as you appear to have. When problems are reported, often the community response is " well, you didn't book direct, so you have only yourself to blame." I guess it comes down to your opening phrase..."If you trust your TA.." OK, point taken. But OP is dealing with "an online TA that offers...little information," not a good sign of trustworthiness. And even a trusted TA can slip up sometimes.

The usual...small plastic bottles of shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, and bars of soap. Plenty of extras stored below the sink -- though one bottle of each was plenty for us for the whole cruise.

No, not on every deck -- just in the lounges.

On our June Constitution cruise, we too found the Sky Lounge beer selection pretty slim (though not as bad as on nybumpkin's cruise!). But the wine selections there were pretty good and kept stocked, so we tended to stick with that. There was also a large cooler down in the main lounge, at the end of the (otherwise closed) bar. In the morning this was filled with ice and a good selection of beer. To save time, we would take a bottle of our favorites down to lunch.

It seems ironic that the initial itineraries for these new, highly-touted "go anywhere" catamaran ships have these limitations. On our our recent Constitution cruise, we had no problem docking at the Provincetown terminal area.

Wow. Are you saying that on port days the main dining room was closed -- dinner available only at the Bistro? This itinerary visits a port on most days, right? Or did you mean just the embarking/disembarking port days?

I'd say the truth is about halfway between what ACL says on their website and what your travel agent said. First, all alcohol is free. For mealtime, you can order beer and wine, with refills readily available. You can also order mixed drinks, but be advised at lunch this is a lengthy process -- the liquor is kept locked up in the main lounge; someone -- usually someone other than a server (e.g., restaurant manager) has to go up and get it. Happy hour officially starts at 5:30 PM, but usually staff tends to show up and start serving much earlier than that. Wine, beer, and a wide variety of liquor is available at happy hour. Those who want a mixed drink at dinner usually get another glass at happy hour and take it down. The bar closes during dinner, but reopens shortly before the evening lecture/entertainment starts. It remains open until after the evening activities have concluded. On top of this, the last year or so I have noticed that ACL tends to keep a selection of self-serve wine and beer available in the upper lounge between the end of lunch and the beginning of happy hour. I have no experience regarding room-service alcohol -- maybe somebody else knows.