American Countess: PreCruise Hotel in 2020

[diplomats]

Just a heads up.  I do not want to promise what I cannot deliver, but I suggest anyone on an American Countess voyage in 2020 check with AQSC regarding a possible policy change regarding the pre cruise hotel night, especially if you have a separately booked arrangement. 

[LDVinNC]

I do hope they are standardizing the perks across the vessels.

[diplomats]

The patchwork quilt of perks in 2020 made no sense to me from the beginning. One boat all inclusive, one with no hotels, wine and beer with dinner uncertain.  I'm surprised the TAs did not rebel. 

[DaveinCharlotte]

On 7/14/2020 at 12:38 PM, LDVinNC said:

I do hope they are standardizing the perks across the vessels.

Just got our 2021 brochure, and it looks like AQSC has done exactly that.  But rather than adding perks missing on some ships, they've simply removed perks that used to be on only some ships.  Now the only perk included on all ships is "select wine and beer at dinner."  No ship any longer offers free Unlimited Beverage Package or Prepaid Gratuities.  Old catalog's Ts&Cs  said free pre-cruise for all but Countess cruises; new catalog drops pre-cruise hotel from "what's included" for all ships.  (But the website still shows free pre-cruise hotel for some 2020 and 2021 Countess cruises.)

[LDVinNC]

Interesting.  I just looked at our reservation confirmation for July 2021 Mighty Mississippi on the American Queen and it does show the date and pre-cruise hotel "TBD Minneapolis Hotel".  Hope they do not try to back out on that.

[LDVinNC]

I looked at a few of the cruises on the website and the ones I see still show the hotel stay.

[DaveinCharlotte]

Yes, I don't think AQSC is actually changing which cruises/ships get pre-cruise hotels and which don't  -- sorry if I left that impression.  I  think they just realized their 2020 catalog Ts&Cs (which said pre-cruise included on Duchess, Empress, and Queen) was misleading, so they simply dropped that from the 2021 Ts&Cs.  Not sure what Diplomats meant by "possible policy change" and "separately booked arrangement" though.