DaveinCharlotte

On 4/6/2023 at 9:49 AM, American Queen Voyages said:

Hi! We allow guests to book on our website. You can find our voyages here: https://www.aqvoyages.com/

True - You can pick the cruise specifics on the website, and then complete the booking over the phone.  Unless things have changed, however, not sure you can complete the payment online.  

Seems like this short inaugural season is over almost before it begins.  Jazz is at a marine engineering dock in Richmond.  Per the current catalog, Jazz is supposed to begin first Columbia & Snake River cruise April 10th, but this cruise and the next one have disappeared from the website.  Next cruise per the website is now April 24th.

What seems really odd is that ALL of the Nov 2023 through Apr 2024 Napa Valley cruises have abruptly been disabled on website.  No bookings possible.  Not sure what this means for those (like me) already booked on one of these cruises.  Yet a complete set of sailing dates have been added for 2025, all of which are bookable. 

I’ve been tracking Jazz throughout cruise #3, and am having trouble figuring out the itinerary.  The cruise started as advertised, heading down the Sacramento River, then up the San Joaquin River to Stockton.  After leaving Stockton, the ship headed back west, passed Vallejo, and anchored on the west side of the Napa River, just above the bridge on the north side of Vallejo.  There it remained that night and all the next day (this was probably when passengers would have been motor-coached to San Francisco).

But the next day Jazz retraced her route back east, stopping for the night at Isleton (pop 800), not too far from Sacramento.  This was the day advertised as “Cruising Napa River” day.   Next day she retraced her route back west, again passing Vallejo, and continuing a little farther north on the Napa River to Cuttings Wharf.  Cuttings Wharf is a boat launching spot about 7 miles south of Napa.  The ship remained there the next day (this was probably when passengers would have motor-coached to the Napa excursions).

Now the ship is retracing her route back east yet again, for the final stop in Sacramento.

So it seems the two “Cruising” days are really “Retrace our Same Route” days

At no time did I see Jazz continuing farther west to San Francisco Bay, Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, etc., as shown on the website map.  Another oddity:  The website map shows two motor-coach trips:  A  short one between Vallejo and San Francisco, and a long one between Vallejo and Sacramento.  No idea when the long one would be for.

I wonder if the bad weather California has been experiencing is affecting the itinerary.

19 hours ago, bob brown said:

It’s all very nice, but on most river itineraries, I just use my unlimited Verizon data.

Good for you.  But for those like me who have no data plan, Starlink is much appreciated.

Posted in the American Cruise Lines forum, December 22, 2022:

After extensive testing this year, American Cruise Lines is pleased to announce that Starlink satellite internet is being added across the fleet. All ships are equipped with satellite internet and will sail into 2023 with high-speed, consistent, and complimentary WiFi.

Have been checking Jazz position on Marinetraffic.com for many days; their transponder has always  been off -- last time I checked was a couple of days ago.  So suddenly now it's turned on -- I see it's docked at Tower Bridge near Capitol Mall.  Radical change in itinerary it appears. No idea what's going on.  Don't see how March 3 cruise could happen.

On 2/24/2023 at 5:15 PM, Kay S said:

We will be doing this cruise in March.  

When in March?  Has ACL indicated that your cruise is still on?

rms492rm -- do you know anything about this strike that appears to have canceled the first cruise?

15 hours ago, Pfitzy said:

Cruise has been canceled due to strike at dock

Oh no.  I see the ship is still down at Pier 2, where it has been the past several days.  Could ACL not just contact pax, telling them to go to Pier 2 (or wherever)?  Half will be at Four Seasons, with buses ready to take them to ship.  What kind of strike?  Checking local SF news on internet, found nothing yet...

17 hours ago, Pfitzy said:

I'm not thrilled with going to Stockton, but I will enjoy other parts of the voyage.

That's the second negative comment on this thread about Stockton.  Just curious, what is it about Stockton that should concern me?

23 hours ago, rms492rm said:

Oh right, well even if it does take the deep water channel, the huge bridge at Rio Vista will have to lift, as that is before the junction of the deep water channel and the Sacramento River.

Thanks for the Google link.  That is a beautiful steel bridge.  Zooming way in, there looks to be a pedestrian walkway that I'm thinking might be accessible from the Rio Vista fishing pier (or maybe the pier itself could be a good vantage point?).

On 1/28/2023 at 8:48 PM, rms492rm said:

I assume it will go via the Sacramento River (vs. the Deep Water Channel), because that means it will arrive into Old Town Sacramento, and the Tower Street bridge will have to lift. (If it were to take the Deep Water Channel, that ends in West Sacramento, and passengers would need to be bussed into Old Town).

I don't really know, but given Jazz's unfortunate (and expensive) encounter with a sand bar on its inaugural cruise, I bet they stick with the deeper water and accept the extra bussing.

For much of the Mississippi River, the east bank is definitely more interesting than the west (high bluffs vs lowland).  Southbound, you'd want a cabin on the port side.  (But you may not be spending as much time on your  balcony as you think -- most viewing is best up top, where side doesn't matter.)

Just got off the Constitution.  Yes, the internet was fully operational.  Signal strong, all over the ship, and available all the time.  They also had a passenger-accessible PC with internet.  What a relief for those of us who have no smartphone/data plan!

You might also want to check out ACL's competitor, American Queen Voyages.  The AQV experience is much the same, but they provide a theater and a troupe of professional entertainers for nightly shows,  Meals are somewhat fancier, and they do a bit better on the excursions, in my opinion.  Price point is even higher than ACL, but if you can live with an inside cabin (we do, and don't mind it all), it is less than ACL.

AQV website also has been updated to say vaccinations not required.  Agree with ericosmith - on the cruise we just got off had to fill out and sign form with all vaccination dates.  So it's a very recent change.

Just got off the Countess.  Riverlorian gave a nice history and description of how the ship came to be (converted casino boat).  She confirmed paddlewheel provides about 40% of total propulsion, with three Z-drives providing 20% each.  During Q&A I asked about the pushed-by-a-tug situation described above, and she said yes that was true, except that 2 of the 3 Z-drives had to be replaced.  And she confirmed that it cost roughly $12,000/day for the tow-boat. 

Just got off the Oct 27 Chattanooga-to-Memphis cruise that got changed to Chattanooga-to-Louisville.  The ship is sailing to Nashville next.

Heads up to anyone booked on the three November cruises I mentioned above.  Just received this e-mail from AQV:
 

"Due to historic low water on the Mississippi River, we must change the itinerary for your upcoming voyage due to river traffic and closures beyond our control. Your voyage on the American Countess^®  departing Chattanooga on October 29 will now conclude in Louisville, KY on November 8, 2022 instead of Memphis, TN."
 

I fear those November Memphis/New Orleans cruises are in jeopardy too, unless the low-water problem magically goes away.

59, 262 posts?  Good lord!

We have been on the Star three times, Baltimore to Jacksonville once, and Jacksonville-Jacksonville twice.  Each time, we embarked/disembarked at the same spot:  Downtown Jacksonville, East Coastline Dr, in front of the Hyatt Regency.  We stayed at the Hampton Inn across the river, relatively inexpensive room and parking, about a 3/4 mile walk to the ship.  The ACL cruise docs will specify where the ship will be.

I see that Countess is running Memphis/NOLA throughout November, but I can't see anything scheduled through Dec, Jan, Feb, or Mar.  Wonder if AQV is pulling it out of service for major repairs.  Wasn't it the Countess that was photographed being pushed by a tug this summer, and word was engine had failed?

How did AQV notify you or TA cruise was cancelled?  Or did you just go on their website and see that it was no longer there?  Since it's not on their website now, I can't tell where this cruise was supposed to have been.  What a big disappointment, and on such short (or no) notice!  We're booked on the Countess end of this month, guess now I'll have to check almost daily to make sure it's still on.

Yep. those are the ones!  One other person of note I forgot to mention in my original post was our naturalist/lecturer, Ranger John.  He also did an excellent job.

Just a quick report.  Back from our Alaska Inside Passage cruise, and happy to report it exceeded our expectations.  When we arrived at the pre-cruise Baranof Hotel at 1:30 PM,  we got right into our room (despite prominent notices that no check-in before 4:00 PM).  The hotel's extensive morning buffet was excellent, and the transfers to the ship and included Mendenhall Glacier excursion were efficiently handled.  We were pleased to find that the ship was fully staffed (there were 17 stewards on the crew roster!).  Food always came out super fast.  Hotel Manager Rick did a great job, and Cruise Director Christopher was a hoot.  The excursions were interesting and well organized.  We got our fill of whale, eagle, seal, and bear sightings.  Unfortunately, we endured heavy rain for almost the half the cruise, and this did put a damper on things -- the glacier views were very disappointing.  But of our 15 ACL cruises, this was one of the best.