ACCL - U.S. Historic Rivers - April/2010

[Love Cruises]

Are there any Cruise Critic members cruising on ACCL's NIAGARA PRINCE for either the New Orleans, LA to Knoxville, TN cruise or the Knoxville, TN to Nashville, TN cruise. Would love to meet you if so. :):):)

[rafinmd]

As of 5/4, things look quite "interesting". I know Captain Zanaria is looking at his options and may not decide how far he can go until Friday, so we both may have a bit of an adventure this weekend. We should have some stories to swap on the Grand Caribe.

[Love Cruises]

We are at Pickwick again today. Things don't look good ... We cannot go on the Cumberland River. Capt. Dave Sylvaria will tell us more this evening at suppertime. We have to leave the ship a day ahead on Friday afternoon to get home for our granddaughter's Holy Communion on Saturdar morning.

 

We'll let you know more when we hear anything.

 

Barbara and Dan

[rafinmd]

ACCL just called me today to let me know that Grand Harbor Marina would be picking me up Sunday. It's a long way from Nashville, but these are extraordinary times.

[rafinmd]

Soon after my arrival at Nashville Sunday I was met by First Officer Bob and Engineer Sean. The arriving passengers were split to 2 vans and Sean drove my group to the Niagara Prince at Grand Harbor Marina at Pickwick Dam on the Tennessee-Alabama border, about 3 hours away. We stayed at the marina Monday as the final arrivers joined the shipl We left Pickwick Tuesday morning and headed down the Tennessee. The river had been officially at flood stage but had receded just below it. This stretch of river was actually supposed to be part of the previous cruise, but had not been navigable at that time. We made an unscheduled stop at Cuba Landing shortly after passing under I40. They had a floating dock where we tied up, but with the water level so high, the section of dock connecting to land was still flooded, and we used our skiff to get from the dock to land. The marina store was on the dock and I bought a mug and ice cream. We left Cuba Landing about dinner and sailed all night. Wednesday morning we circled several hours above the lock at the junction of the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers with a broken water pump on one of our engines. When repairs were completed we continued uneventfully down the Tennessee and Ohio rivers and turned upstream on the Mississippi.

 

We had been scheduled to stay overnight at Kuttawa at the junction of the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers (originally on our way down from Nashville) but our marina is still flooded so that wasn’t possible.

 

We again diverted from Alton to Grafton for our St. Louis stop but had a nice tour of St. Lewis anyway.

 

We did have a successful bow landing in Havana and while the group is touring the Lincoln site, I'm enjoying wifi at McDonalds. We should be on schedule from now on.

[Love Cruises]

Thanks Roy for filling us in ... we were wondering what the Captain was doing as far as the next segment. We were told that there were only going to be 20+ people on the trip to Chicago. I guess quite a few cancelled when they heard of the flooding and knew they weren't boarding in Nashville.

 

Last year when we were at Havana, the capt. could not do a bow landing because of flooding. Glad you were able to do so.

 

We thought we would never experience a bow landing. It was cancelled twice last year and again at Waverly Plantation this year. But, when we had the additional time in Grand Harbor Marina, the captain navigated the ship to the Pickwick Park and intiated the bow landing. Yeah ... we did one!!!

 

Our shuttle bus driver to the Nashville Airport the day we disembarked was an 1 1/2 late in picking us up. It took us 3 hrs. 20 min. to get to the airport. We got to the gate with only 23 minutes to spare. Needless to say, we were very concerned about making our flight home. As I told you we had to leave a day early to make it back for our granddaughter's First Holy Communion on the 8th. There were 5 other fellow passengers on the bus with us but they were not leaving Nashville until the following morning, staying at a hotel overnight, since there flights were real early on Saturday morning. This was not ACCLs fault --- simply the bus driver was just not familiar with the area!!!

 

Give a big hello to Al and Joan Cole and Les and Mary Ormsby and Loren and Joyce (from Peoria, IL) for us.

 

Let us know more about your trip when you can.

 

 

Barbara and Dan

[rafinmd]

A couple of things have happened late in the cruise. In Joliet, the Captain of a yacht docked near us was mugged, and we (including me) prety much cancelled plans to leave the ship after dinner. Just before dinner yesterday, a very tipsy young lady decided to take a swim in the Chicago Harbor, and found herself swimming with no way out of the water. One of our deckhands (Forest) threw her a line and pulled her out of the cold water, but could not save her from the ride away from the scene in handcuffs.

[Love Cruises]

Have a safe trip home !

 

Stay in touch!

 

 

Barbara and Dan

[rafinmd]

My review of the Niagara Prince is now published:

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=67460