DaveinCharlotte

Yes, her reference to formality at dinner was strange and off the mark, but other than this, I thought her article was very well written!

I'd like to do this Illinois River trip, as we've been on just about every other river and waterway in the U.S., and are looking for something new. But when I checked the website for future schedules, all that was shown besides this month was one in July 2024 -- nothing next year. Surprised this was all. Is this the first year AQV has done the Illinois? How fully booked does the current cruise appear to be?

True (but less time sailing). If you want to see a detailed discussion of this north-vs-south debate, switch over to the American Queen Voyages and read the recent "NOLA to Memphis or vice versa?" thread.

That was still in effect when we did our last cruise in March of this year, and I think the web site confirms this (under "Savings" or some such). We try to do onboard bookings as much as possible -- 15% plus port charges (which makes it come out close to 20% off) is a substantial savings!

Our Ohio River cruise was also credited as a one-week cruise (even though it was, I believe, an 11-day cruise).

I shouldn't use the phrase "10th free cruise." It's after the 10th cruise that one becomes eligible. And it isn't really 10 cruises, it's more like 10 weeks of cruising. At the risk of TMI, here's how it worked for us: ACL looked at the length of our past cruises, and credited us according to how long the cruises were. For example, they credited us with two weeks for our 15-day Mississippi cruise, three weeks for our 22-day cruise, and one week for the others. We applied our "11th week" to a 2-week cruise, and they knocked half off that cruise. (They looked at the cabin categories we used for our previous cruises, and came up with a median category; the cost of that category on our "free" cruise is the amount they credited us.)

Just checked ours for accuracy. Says cruises prior to 2013 not shown. List appears to be accurate, except for a Baltimore Christmas cruise being labeled as a "Tennessee River" cruise. One thing we hadn't anticipated when we became eligible for our 10th free cruise...although we were already booked for a couple more cruises, we couldn't apply our 10th free cruise to one of those...we had to call in and book an entirely new cruise to get credit.

Well, now they're announcing this as a brand new cruise, with free air if booked by Aug 31!

Also available on some of the not-so-newer ships, such as the Constitution.

Quote from Nanner's post above: "We booked direct with the line."

No, I concede Wrangell is probably not back in the lineup -- the itinerary document showing ship arrival and departure times, which now omits Wrangell, is no doubt more accurate than the website page. Also, no excursions for Wrangell on the sign-up interface. Shouldn't have posted the screen shot.

When I attempt to log into my ACL account and access excursions, etc, from there, I always get either the "can't do this until 60 days" message or the "can't do this unless from the booking email." But when I access the e-mail they sent me, it usually works. It worked this morning, when I discovered the Friday Harbor and Anacortes excursion additions. My itinerary docs have always said "embark Aug 30" for the past year. But on the website, the story for the first couple of days (and the last couple of days) has always been confusing to me.

Checked again this morning, and indeed both Friday Harbor and Anacortes excursions have just been added.

Looks like Wrangell is back in the lineup (for now, anyway), with two excursions listed.

You've already posted multiple times that you're never going to cruise with ACL again. So ACL adding another itinerary should have no impact, should it? Just asking...

Just checked again today and it appears that a Ketchikan Duck Boat tour has been added. So it seems we have to check almost daily to stay on top of this. There has been nothing shown for Friday Harbor or Anacortes. I'm wondering if maybe this is because they are near the end of the cruise, and it's still to early to book them. More reason to keep checking.

@miklinga, we are on the same 8/30/22 cruise from Juneau. Signed up for excursions first of July; noticed there were no excursions listed for Skagway. (Originally there were 4 train excursions, but three of these crossed the Canadian border and the train company dropped 3 of them.) Yesterday re-checked the web site, saw the changes you mentioned...no Skagway at all, replaced by Hoonah, with 4 excursions cited. So went back into the ACL excursion booking interface, and nothing there made any sense. Most ports missing, only one of the 4 Hoonah excursions shown, some dates for excursions before the cruise even started. I've found ACL's excursion booking interface to often be off-kilter, but this time it really seems to be messed up!

We took this cruise in 2019 on the Queen of the Mississippi (since renamed) and enjoyed it so much we are repeating it in 2023. We went westbound, since we were more interested in a pre-cruise stay in Pittsburgh than in St Louis. Highlights of the trip included Louisville, Cincinnati, and Mayfield. in Cincinnati, we were docked directly beneath the ball field during a game, and when they won the game and shot off fireworks, burning bits showered down on the ship! We were supposed to stop in Marietta, OH, but for some reason had to skip it. But on the ship historian's recommendation, we later read David McCullough's amazing best seller "The Pioneers." It is set in the Marietta area and describes what happened when this area was opened up after the Revolutionary War.

OK, must have been the 2023 cruise I was looking at. I can't find the 2022 cruise either. Maybe it's sold out so they're not showing it??

Naw, it's still there. Used to be under the Alaska cruises, but they moved it. From the top, select "Lakes and Oceans," then "Mexico and Costa Rica." Shows the full itinerary, but no excursion info, as far as I can see. Looks like an interesting trip. Considered it last year, but gave up when I saw the lousy air connections between San Jose and Charlotte (there used to be a direct flight, but that's long gone).

Curious about this as well -- what does "flat rate" really mean? The ACL website doesn't have much detail. When I click on "more info," they just take me to a search page for all cruises. I did a dummy booking to see what they would say about airfare. I picked a Cape Codder cruise next summer (Boston). Using a Charlotte NC address, the booking interface quoted me $475pp RT for airfare. (A comparison on American Airlines showed $321 to $456.) Then I changed the dummy booking to Dallas TX address and tried again. They still quoted me $475, no change. (A comparison on American Airlines showed $468 to $678.) Just FYI, a pop-up said: "American Cruise Lines Air Travel Service With our Air Travel Service, American Cruise Lines can make your next cruise even easier. Purchase round-trip air travel directly from American for the most convenient travel experience possible. After you add Air Travel to your cruise itinerary, one of our Travel experts will contact you approximately 90 days prior to your departure to confirm your Air itinerary. Our Air Travel Service provides you with: One flat rate price for your air travel Convenient arrival and departure times Economy-class seats with upgrade options at an additional cost (if available) Air Travel is subject to American Cruise Lines’ Passenger Cancellation Terms." Then I changed the dummy booking xxx

Superb video, Jim - very professionally done. You're a great narrator! Glad you focused on the water and the ports, not the inside of the ship.

Were you satisfied with the excursions in Alaska? Was the White Pass & Yukon Route Railway up and running yet? Just checked their website, and they say that due to conflicts between them and Canadian Border Control over Covid, they will only be running the short "all-in-the-US" route.

As are we! I'll go check the Roll Calls...

ACL sent us the following e-mail shortly before we left for our Great Rivers of Florida cruise last week. We arrived to find that the e-mail was correct; no internet service. Since we have no cellular devices with data plans, this was a major pain. Worse, our Hotel Manager said he believed that internet service was being discontinued on ALL ACL cruises. Can anyone who has cruised recently confirm this? "Dear Guest, We look forward to you joining us aboard American Star. We have seen a steady increase of guests bringing phones, iPads, and other devices with them on their cruise. In almost all cases, these devices have better direct connections to the internet than the shared connection of the ship. As guests increasingly utilized their own data, the shared internet became under-used and unnecessary. Knowing this, we have phased out cell-based internet service onboard. We expect this to have no impact on your cruise experience, but if you do not have a data plan already, you may wish to contact your cellular carrier to upgrade."