ACL Constellation Alasken Cruise, June 14-24, 2021. BELOW PAR

[MSEm]

Off the  Constellation June 14-24, 2021 Alaskan Cruise. This was ACL's 2nd Alaskan Cruise for 2021.

Safe in bottom draw of desk.

Bath: nice layout with vanity.  Cabinet under sink contained extra tissues, soap, shampoo, etc.  Also 2 drawers for storage with a Hair Dryer. 2 small shelves in shower.

NO INTERNET or TV.  Ship does not have satellite connection.  Only had some internet connections when in port.

Food  Below par with any other cruise line.  (this was cruise 39.  We have been on a 78 passenger sailing ship for 4 cruises.Small ships with less than 100 passengers can have wonderful food. Almost no veggies; lunch and dinner were meat and potatoes. Last night dinner , 2 round pieces of (New York Strip STEAK????) with large baked potato and 2 pieces of fresh steamed Asparagus. Another night I got the beef tips??? in peppercorn sauce with about 1 1/2 c cubed potatoes and 2 small pieces of carrot. Salad every night, the same mixed greens with 3 halves of graph tomato.

First night I ordered Grilled Halibut. tough, cold and tasteless. Remained me of a frozen microwave fish dish.

Alternated Entree was HAMBURGER, no chicken breast.

Ran out of Vanilla, chocolate ice cream on day 3.  Then ran out of butterpecan, strawberry and coffee ice cream.

I took pictures of the Salmon and Shrimp being served.  On our Alaskan cruise, ACL served Alantic Farm-raised Salmon and Farm-raised Shrimp. Seems like ACL could have purchased Alaskan Salmon while in Alaska

The wait staff and housekeeping staff were very good and tried to please.  I cannot fault the wait and housekeeping staff. They very hard working and cheerful.

2 special extra cost excursion not do take place because no one arranged transportation from ship to tour locations. One was a raft trip out of Haines and the other was an E Bike and hiking in another location. These tours were offered through the ship.

I enjoyed the walks in the towns with local guides, especially the Petersburg Commercial Fishing Dock tour. Guide was a retiree (30 years in Peterburg) US Fisheries Manager for the area.

I went to the  office to learn about transportation from ship to airport. We had a Delta 5:10 am departure.  Cruise director told me," I don't know what we are going to do. i cannot find any tour company to supply a bus, Guess we will have to call taxis for everyone." (I told this to the guest lecture on board. He normally works as a bus driver and tour guide in Juneau. He said he could call his boss in make arrangements for a bus).

Best meals on our trip were in Juneau, Fried Halibut with fries and coleslaw at the Hanger at the Wharf and our meal at Vic's Cellar Door. At Vic's we got the Mexican-Korean fusion Nachos. Both were excellent meals.

I would estimate that about 70% of passengers had only cruised with ACL.

 

[chengkp75]

12 hours ago, MSEm said:

I took pictures of the Salmon and Shrimp being served.  On our Alaskan cruise, ACL served Alantic Farm-raised Salmon and Farm-raised Shrimp. Seems like ACL could have purchased Alaskan Salmon while in Alaska

Just a comment here, the Alaska salmon catch for 2020 was down nearly 50%, so I'm sure prices have reflected this, and it was cost effective to use other sources.  Also, ships covered by the USPH VSP, or the FDA's ship sanitation program (for US flag ships), requires verified sourcing of proteins, so you cannot just go to the local fish market when the ship arrives in port.

 

Running out of things seems like it is the new normal, in everyday life, from food items at the grocery, screws at Home Depot, or paper goods at Target, so I don't expect cruising is not facing the same problems.