Constellation July 2022

[pilot702]

We are sailing on the Constellation on 7/23/2022.  We were just informed our flight home has been changed to 5 AM.  Does anybody have experience getting off the ship that early and would the cruise line provide transportation to the airport at that time?

[BaumD]

The first thing I would check is whether the ship is overnighting the last night in the final port. If the ship is scheduled to arrive at the debarkation port at 6 AM on the final day your plan won’t work. If your flight is at 5:00 AM, you will need to leave the ship at about 2:30 AM to get to the airport by 3 o’clock or 330 in order to catch your flight. Seriously doubt the cruise line would provide transportation at that hour. Typically they have a bus that goes to the airport about 8:30 AM.

[pilot702]

Many thanks.  We were able to change our flight to 7:30AM.  I will ask the staff to arrange pick up at the dock. 

[pilot702]

We're back and very disappointed.  After cruising with American Cruise Line in 2021 on the Snake & Columbia Rivers we could not wait to book another trip. We will not sail with them again. This cruise was a series of disappointments. To be fair, the weather was certainly not their fault but the views of snow capped mountains we anticipated were obscured on all but one day. The Baranoff Hotel - where ACL put us up the night before the cruise - had a check in time of 4 o'clock. We were early - 3:00 - and hoped we might be able to check in. We were told to wait. By 4 o'clock the lobby and bar were full of cruisers who all had to wait in a long line. The room was fine, the breakfast - not so much. The cabin was very comfortable with lots of storage space. The common areas were comfortable and clean. We found the servers and stewards to be pleasant young people who worked hard to please. The Cruise Director, Christopher, however, did not. He has an inflated sense of self importance and was often facetious and off putting. The Hotel Manager, Rick, failed to follow through on 3 promises. The bottle of wine paid for by our travel agent was not delivered. I only found out about it when I received the post-cruise statement. The food was below par: the servings were small and the food was often dry. The servers had to apologize frequently for items that had run out. Rick attempted to restock the high-end cruise in the markets of small rural Alaska communities. It seems like poor planning. The cocktail hour offerings were not what they were either. Last year there were scallops, this year there were pigs-in-the-blanket and egg rolls. The Park Ranger who was to narrate our day in Glacier Bay was sick and apparently did not have a substitute - another disappointment. On our last full day of cruising into Tracy Arm - what the captain referred to as the highlight of the cruise - we had to turn around and await a Coast Guard chopper to evaluate one of the crew members who suffered an allergic reaction. We never got there. But we were glad to get home

[Izena]

Sorry about your experience.   My cruise this year out of Boston had similar issues.. staffing was an issue.  Food budget must have been decreased because there were some strange substitutions.   Plus we had a Covid outbreak.  I think it will take a few years for them to financially recover from Covid and be back up to prior level. 

[jklc123]

We’re booked on our first ACL cruise in October, on the Constitution on the Hudson. We’ll be interested to see if our experience with staffing and food will be similar.

[twototravel]

The staffing issue will never be fixed. It is too easy for crew to just walk off the ship at a port when they decide the work is too hard or not to their liking. This is a fact of life when using an all-American crew. You don't really see this on the ships that hire foreign crew.

[BaumD]

I'm sure some of the food issues are supply chain problems and the inability to source the products they need.

[pilot702]

How could I have forgotten? We also had a COVID problem.  Lots of doors with the Do Not Disturb sign displayed 24 hours a day.