DaveinCharlotte

18 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Did you ever find out why they cancelled the 2023 cruises?  And will the same problem not affect 2024?

No, rep would not say why Jazz Sacramento cruise schedule curtailed in 2023 and early 2024.  Am gambling no problem for late 2024; am booked on one of these cruises.

Yes, as Joanandjoe notes, Jazz is currently in operation as scheduled.  Minor oddity:  Am planning on a National Parks trip in 2024, and for a long time I could choose between Jazz, Song, and Harmony.  The website still lists these three at the top of the cruise description, but when you look at the details you can't book the Jazz.  Originally Jazz was scheduled for 6/19/24, 7/17/24, 8/14/24, and 8/28/24.  Now the first of these is unselectable and the others have disappeared altogether.  Maybe this means nothing, who knows. 

Agree with BaumD.  These answers pretty much apply across all the ACL cruises (and AQV cruises too, for that matter).  Regarding your one question (#5) unique to this particular cruise:  Yes, there are hotels in the downtown Sacramento area, some within walking distance of the ship.

First cruise was early April 2023.  But after a couple of weeks all of the remaining cruises on Jazz were abruptly cancelled.  But I tracked the ship before that happened and saw where it docked in Sacramento.  Use Google Maps to find "Tower Bridge," just to the left of the Capital Mall.  The ship docked just on the south side of the bridge, so you can measure from there to the various hotels in the area.

After a few weeks, ACL rescheduled all of the Jazz cruises to 2024, and I signed up for one of those.   

On 5/25/2023 at 7:37 PM, bob brown said:

Another idea would be for AQV to acquire a ship or boat small enough to navigate the Erie Canal.

The Blount line used to offer that, but seem to have ceased operations.

Good idea! The Grande Mariner and Grande Carribe must still be around somewhere in mothballs.

26 minutes ago, carolina cruisin said:

Does the train get you close to hotel or do you need to grab a taxi from the station?  No issue with luggage?

Unfortunately, hard to answer that until you know where your hotel is located.  The Red Line stops at Pioneer Station, right in the heart of downtown. We stayed at downtown hotels twice - different cruise company - not AQV.  Both times we were just a couple of blocks from the river and the ship - easy walk. No issue with luggage.  We had just carry-on luggage, but the rail cars were roomy.

On one of our trips, we went a day early, stayed at Best Western Pony Express (free shuttle from PDX, not as expensive as downtown hotels) then next day walked a short distance to the Red Line and caught a ride to our cruise hotel.

We take the MAX light rail service (Red Line).  It's fast, cheap, and leaves right from the airport.

http://trimet.org/max/index.htm

Both.  At the sink they stock the usual trio of shower gel, shampoo, & conditioner.  But there's also a bar of soap.  It's not big, but is large enough to last the two of us a week.

Easy way to find out:

1.  Under Cruises, select the Hudson River cruise.

2. Scroll down to "Ships" where each ship doing this cruise is listed.

3. As you click on each ship, a pop-up tells the year ship put into service.

Note that a couple are ships are yet to start...e.g., the coastal cats.  So depends on when you intend to sail.  If in 2023, jklc123 is correct about Constitution.  If in 2024 or later, would be Eagle or Liberty.

15 hours ago, Billybob79 said:

I think the outage may well have been a ransomware attack and not a going out of business event.

You're correct.  We received an e-mail from Vantage late yesterday confirming that they had suffered a ransomware attack.

Haven't been on Serenade, just the Melody, St Louis to Minneapolis, so just partial answers.

Laundry:  we had access to free washer/dryers on the upper deck

Tipping:  no tipping.

Safe:  we did have a safe on the Melody

Refrigerator:  no refrigerator, but good chance the cabins on Deck 4 would

Disembarkation:  We got off the ship in Red Wing and were transferred by bus to the airport.  The previous day we had a bus tour from Red Wing to Minneapolis and back.  Not sure why ACL map shows dotted line from Red Wing to St. Paul.  Maybe the day before departure you get a tour to St. Paul and back. The text seems to imply St. Paul is just something for you to do on your own.  (The airport has an excellent light rail system that goes to both downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul.)

Exact embarkation/disembarkation docks are not cast in stone, but 4-6 weeks before sailing date you should be able to log into your ACL account and see a listing of ports and times that can be trusted.

Hopefully someone with actual Serenade experience can clarify this...    

On 4/3/2023 at 9:24 AM, DaveinCharlotte said:

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. 

My 4/12/24 cruise abruptly vanished from my ACL Account, confirming that these cruises have in fact been cancelled.   Went to the website, and found that it has just been updated.  All of the now-invalid Nov '23 through Apr '24 cruises are gone, along with the 2025 cruises.  What appears now is a weekly cruise schedule starting 8/05/24 and continuing through 12/30/24.  The first two are disabled, but all starting 8/19/24 onward are bookable.  Cruises from 11/04/24 on are slightly cheaper.

Called and got rebooked on one of these.  Agent said "we would have notified you in a week or two, but you got to us first."  If you have a reservation for this cruise, act soon to ensure you get a suitable new date.  

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.