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Great Rivers of Florida


SteelMagnolia9
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Will be on cruise #5 with ACL in March, Great Rivers of Florida.

 

Have completed:

Upper Mississippi-2017

Historic South & Golden Isles-2016

Columbia & Snake Rivers-2015

Lower Mississippi-2014

 

Have enjoyed all of the itineraries. Looking forward to booking another for 2019 while onboard. Suggestions?

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We've done most of the ACL trips you've done, and enjoyed them all (including Rivers of Florida). We're starting to run out of ideas for future ACL trips. Recently we signed up for a Grand New England (Boston-Boston) trip, and when we're on that, we plan to sign up for a Pittsburgh-to-STL trip -- we have not been on the Ohio River. Have heard good things about the Chesapeake Bay trip, but we've been to about all those ports numerous times. Because ACL has such a great book-while-aboard discount, would hate to sail without any future booking in mind. But soon we'll be at that point.

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I’ve not been on an ACL cruise to Alaska. I went to Alaska once in 2015 with Princess. If I return, I’d also be inclined to go with ACL as I think it would be a completely different experience from the large ships.

 

The Chesapeake Bay cruise is a contender for me in 2019 as I also heard positive comments from other passengers on my last cruise about it.

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Have either of you been to Alaska on ACL?

Mike:)

 

No, we haven't. Have taken two trips to Alaska, both on UnCruise. UnCruise features small ships only. Both of these trips were excellent. One was a long relocation cruise from Seattle, very much like ACL's 15-day "Alaska Inside Passage" cruise. The other one was similar to ACL's 8-day "Southeast Alaska" cruise. Loved both of them. Although we can't vouch for ACL's Alaska cruises specifically, we certainly recommend going there on any small ship over a big one!

 

(Just an anecdote: One day after arriving at the Ketchikan pier, we walked into the town center past a huge cruise ship. There was a long queue of passengers waiting to get back on the ship. One guy stood out because he had on a bright orange and yellow slicker. After strolling the town, we returned along the same route about an hour and a half later. There was the same guy! Only now instead of being near the back of the queue, he had progressed halfway to the front. That's what I think of when I consider big ships in Alaska.)

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I worked on the ACL Spirit in Alaska and I cannot even begin to tell you how incredible it was. Being on a small ship allows you to get so very close and personal with all the wildlife, nature, and glaciers. We saw whales twice a week and always very close to the ship, once a week we passed by an island covered in hundreds of sea lions, and a handful of times we we're lucky to watch bears feeding along the water. You'll also visit some incredible towns like Petersburg (no large ships head there) and Skagway while spending hours floating in front of glaciers and waterfalls in-between ports! I highly suggest adding this cruise to your future cruise list!!

 

Sent from my LG-H901 using Forums mobile app

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I worked on the ACL Spirit in Alaska and I cannot even begin to tell you how incredible it was. Being on a small ship allows you to get so very close and personal with all the wildlife, nature, and glaciers. We saw whales twice a week and always very close to the ship, once a week we passed by an island covered in hundreds of sea lions, and a handful of times we we're lucky to watch bears feeding along the water. You'll also visit some incredible towns like Petersburg (no large ships head there) and Skagway while spending hours floating in front of glaciers and waterfalls in-between ports! I highly suggest adding this cruise to your future cruise list!!

 

Sent from my LG-H901 using Forums mobile app

 

Having been to AK many times we are looking for new experiences so I booked the brand new Constellation for July 28, 8 day Southeast AK which includes Juneau, Petersburg, Kake, Haines, Skagway along with both Tracy Arm and Glacier Bay. This should be an awesome trip. Thanks for your input.

 

Mike:)

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Having been to AK many times we are looking for new experiences so I booked the brand new Constellation for July 28, 8 day Southeast AK which includes Juneau, Petersburg, Kake, Haines, Skagway along with both Tracy Arm and Glacier Bay. This should be an awesome trip. Thanks for your input.

 

Mike:)

Absolutely, happy to help! Im excited for ya, and hope you have a fantastic trip! Definitely wish I could be coming with haha

 

Andrew

 

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Absolutely, happy to help! Im excited for ya, and hope you have a fantastic trip! Definitely wish I could be coming with haha

 

Andrew

 

Sent from my LG-H901 using Forums mobile app

 

Thanks. Are you working on a large ship presently?

 

We have had such great staff on our ACL cruises and I still maintain contact with a few.

 

Mike:)

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Thanks. Are you working on a large ship presently?

 

We have had such great staff on our ACL cruises and I still maintain contact with a few.

 

Mike:)

That's great! And not yet, I'm finishing up my business degree, but upon graduation in May I will be shipping out to a large ship for four months to start! Looking forward to it!

 

Andrew

 

Sent from my LG-H901 using Forums mobile app

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Will be on cruise #5 with ACL in March, Great Rivers of Florida.

 

Have completed:

Upper Mississippi-2017

Historic South & Golden Isles-2016

Columbia & Snake Rivers-2015

Lower Mississippi-2014

 

Have enjoyed all of the itineraries. Looking forward to booking another for 2019 while onboard. Suggestions?

 

We thoroughly enjoyed the New England Islands cruise.

 

Mike:)

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We thoroughly enjoyed the New England Islands cruise.

 

Mike:)

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I looked at the itinerary and it looks like a beautiful cruise. It’s a contender.

 

When I return from Great Rivers of Florida cruise this month, I’ll post a brief review. 🐊🌞🍹

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Thanks for the suggestion. I looked at the itinerary and it looks like a beautiful cruise. It’s a contender.

 

When I return from Great Rivers of Florida cruise this month, I’ll post a brief review. 🐊🌞🍹

 

Please do as I am interested in that one due to the travel time.

 

Mike:)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am back from the cruise. Look for my mini-review later this week. I have company arriving today for a couple of days. Just to keep you on the edge of your seats, we had an itinerary change due to a railroad bridge being under repair and could not go down the St. John’s River.

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Leaving tomorrow for Jacksonville. Will be onboard Saturday!

 

I am back from the cruise. Look for my mini-review later this week. I have company arriving today for a couple of days. Just to keep you on the edge of your seats, we had an itinerary change due to a railroad bridge being under repair and could not go down the St. John’s River.

 

Looking forward to your review. We left Jacksonville the same day as you did (aboard ACL's Independence), heading up to Charleston.

Our cruise was quite enjoyable, but not as satisfying as our first ACL earlier. We have two more booked with them this year and were planning on booking some additional ones whilst aboard. We decided to wait until our next one (in June) before booking additional ones (we have about five additional itineraries in mind). Hopefully our somewhat disappointing aspects on this last cruise was only an anomaly, and not the "real" ACL experience.

NRayH

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Sorry to hear that Ray. Care to elaborate any on the JAX /CHS cruise?

 

Mike:)

 

 

Hi Mike,

I sent a reply last evening, but it seems to have vanished???

A bit of background on our cruising experience. We have been on about 120 cruises (about 5 a year) on a number of different cruise lines. I think that gives us a decent database on which to judge (according to our preferences) whether a cruise experience meets our desired level of satisfaction.

This was our second cruise with American Cruise Lines (ACL). We enjoyed the first one so much that we booked three additional cruises. The recent sailing on Constellation was number two -- a somewhat different (less satisfying) experience.

The pre-cruise hotel stay and transfer were fine, embarkation went well, then the "differences" began to show up.

This was the first cruise of the season and it seemed as though many of the crew were new to the ship/company/cruising. This was especially noticeable in the dining room staffing. A couple of the servers admitted that this was their first experience -- everyone has to start some where - some time. What seemed strange was that there was not any visible support for these folks. we seldom saw either the Hotel Manager, or her Assistant, in the Dining Room. The staff being new, seemed overwhelmed at times, and some even apologized, and said this was their first experience. They seemed enthusiastic, just unprepared/undertrained/under supervised. When this was mentioned to the Hotel Manager, she told us to let her know when these things happen. We did not feel that we should personally put the staff "on report" -- it seems that staff management should handle this, once it is brought to their attention.

The food was delicious, and the servers really seemed to want to get things right, but seemed unable to get things right. The Hotel Manager and her Assistant seemed not to spend much time in the Dining Room (perhaps they were getting "involved" in the Galley area?).

Again, with this being the first cruise of the season, might explain the frequent "Tweaking" of the itinerary (changes of timing and or ports of call).

The Cruise Director was not very visible, except at her presentations, after which, she usually turned it over to the "Guest Lecturer" and disappeared (usually to the, almost hidden, back part of her office). We had three somewhat significant itinerary "adjustments" (either in timing and/or ports), on a seven night cruise.

One segment of the cruise (in addition to the wonderful menu/food) that was outstanding was the Housekeeping. The ship always looked brand new, and our Cabin Attendant, Amber, was outstanding. The entertainment was also very good, despite the "shuffling" of the itinerary. Fortunately, the entertainers were able to make the necessary changes (an advantage of the ports being somewhat close to each other.

The overall experience was different enough, from our only other previous ACL cruise, to give us pause to book another future cruise with ACL. There are a number of itineraries that we are interested in doing, but will now wait until, at least, our next ACL cruise in June.

Disembarkation was also disappointing. We fully understand the need to clear the passengers from the ship, to allow time for the crew to get ready for the new group of passengers arriving. We were asked early on to make post-cruise transportation needs known for departure. Since we were staying a couple days post-cruise in Charleston, we were under no time constraints, and just asked them to schedule us for a taxi to our hotel.

Passengers were told what to have their luggage outside their cabins before retiring the night before disembarkation -- No Problem. The luggage was gone from the hallway before breakfast, as expected. We were docked at the City Marina (Mega Pier). This was about 200 yards from the meeting place for taxi/shuttle pick-up. There was one golf cart (3 pax) to get the luggage and whatever passengers needed assistance to get from the ship to the meeting point. Most of the pax were able to walk the distance, but there was quite a line for those wanting a ride. ACL requested everyone to disembark by 08:30. Unfortunately, the taxis and shuttles did not start to arrive until 09:15. Unfortunately there was no place to comfortably wait for the taxis/shuttles, just an open area adjacent to the parking lot. There was no communication concerning this deviation from previous announcements.

As previously stated, we still had a good experience, just not as good as we had expected. We will see what the next two cruises, with ACL, provide before committing to scheduling addition itineraries that have captured our interest.

I hope this helps.

NRayH

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