DaveinCharlotte

Yes, you are correct. The paddlewheel provides 40% of the propulsion; each of the 3 Z-drives provides 20%. (This is in contrast with ACL, whose paddlewheels are just for show.)

Am booked on Harmony departing Aug 1. Am expecting the ship to depart from Hayden Island, right next to the Holiday Inn. What is the reference to 121 Everett? Doesn't sound right. I'm guessing we bring out luggage down to the lobby, the crew transfers the luggage to the ship, and we do indeed just walk across. You're probably right about the taxi from the airport, but I haven't investigated that (we are planning to take the MAX red line from PDX to downtown, then the MAX yellow line to the Expo center by Hayden Island, and walk to the Holiday Inn from there). Hopefully somebody who's already done this will chip in...

Not sure I follow. What makes American Queen/American Empress viable but Countess and Duchess not? Our cruises on the latter were pretty full.

I'll bet that's it. I remember that when they first starting using that ship in Alaska, they also offered a once-in-the-spring and once-in-the-fall cruise between San Diego and Central America.

Yes, I have noticed a lot more ACL advertising, but starting a number of months ago, not just now. This month I opened my AARP magazine, and first thing I see is a 2-page ad for cruises on the southeast coast, highlighting their new Complete Southeast cruise. The irony: I signed up for the Complete Southeast cruise early January, and this week they just cancelled it (not just mine, but all Complete Southeast cruises).

We were on the Glory several weeks ago. At that time ACL had already cancelled all the 2024 Complete Southeast cruises, but the 2025 (and 2026) cruises were still on the books. We signed up on board for the late 2025 cruise. Got home to discover no cruise on our online account. Called, and were told 2025 cruises were being cancelled, but could switch over to 2026. Before we could decide whether to do that, 2026 disappeared too. I tend to agree with your thought that there is an issue with the southeast part of Florida - no ICW there, and maybe the Gulf Stream current makes for rough sailing. We had one rough day while on the Glory, and while I did think the catamaran fore-hulls made for more stability, the waves would catch between the hulls with much slamming and shuddering.

New itineraries for the Mississippi, removal of others. Just noticed the Complete Southeast has been withdrawn, and no more Christmas program on the Chesapeake. Had been thinking maybe ACL was getting a little too aggressive building ships, but with the demise of AQV, maybe a good idea after all. Am wondering what impact AQV's closing will have on ACL. Will there be a rush of AQV cruisers coming over, with cabin prices going higher and cabin availability going lower?

OK, I bet that's it. In further thinking about exactly where ACL docks at each of these major ports, I see that in each case they do not dock where the big cruise ships dock, but at a separate pier nearby.

I'm wondering, though, why this problem doesn't crop up at ACL's major ports, where I would think there would be a union presence. For example, New York City, Boston, New Orleans.

Did not know that. Do you know which Union the crew is in?

I assume you mean Charleston to Fernandina Beach. Yes, this is mostly Intercoastal Waterway, and, in my opinion, one of the most scenic on the East Coast. No rough water. However, the could still be a remote possibility you'd see open ocean. On our cruise from Baltimore to Jacksonville on the Star two years ago, the captain did go out, and yes, it was rough. Note this was on the Morehead City NC to Charleston leg, which is not on your itinerary. I posted about this Jan 6, 2022, "Inland Passage aboard the Star -- An Adventure on the High Seas." Go back about 4 pages below; my apologies for not knowing how to post a link to this. But this, I'm sure, was an isolated incident, and your odds of encountering such are virtually zero. You will enjoy this cruise!

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.