Joanandjoe

So, what happened with the hoped for lock opening?

Either the ship is much higher in the water than on our cruise, or that ramp is from deck 2. Deck 1 was at the same level as the pier on our cruise. The ramp in the picture looks pretty steep.

Right, same ownership; but ACL does not own Pearl Seas. And yes, the point of having two separate lines is that Pearl Seas was built in Halifax, and does not need to have an all-US crew; since the ship sails to both US and foreign ports.

Pearl Seas is owned by American Cruise Lines; and the onboard visits are part of their corporate culture. Years ago, I visited an ACL ship in NYC, and decided to book my 1st ACL cruise, (My 2027 Pearl Seas cruise will count as at least my 8th ACL cruise.) Three cruises ago, we hosted a St. Louis-based friend on an ACL ship berthed at Alton, IL, across the river from St. Louis. Everything went smoothly. Having your SIL on Pearl Seas is just one extra person, and should not be a problem.

No, it was the Chattanooga to Nashville cruise, May 7 to 14. I believe that we boarded the ship in Florence, AL a day or 2 after Dave in Charlotte left. We did, indeed, dock in both Grand Rivers and Paducah, going through the Kentucky locks in both directions. BTW, in Florence, the ship offers an excursion called "The singing river: a Native American Experience." This is a very spiritual tour, with a guide who great-great grandmother was a native healer. She traveled the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma, then took 5 years to make it back to Florence. The guide's father, inspired by his ancestor, built a series of winding rock walls, and (although we're not New Age people), the place had a spiritual aura. This inspired a song called "A Feather's not a bird", which was written by our guide's father (the wall builder) and Rosanne Cash. The song won a Grammy-I believe her only one. We were enthralled, and spent some time with the guide. Others felt that it was boring. To each his or her own, I guess. If you're considering the tour, listen to the song. Our companions, who are into a different type of music, loved the very small group tour in Florence, "The Shoals Studio Experience." That would be great if you're familiar with the music, which they were.

It's possible that the ship was docked at a different part of the pier than the AQ ship. Otherwise, why wouldn't they have had the gangway on deck one? Yes, there were helpers; but the ramp was still scary, especially for Joan.

Obviously, you are more able to negotiate a steep incline than Joan is.

Sadly, no. Too scared of it and anxious to go up or down.

We returned last Wednesday from a mostly wonderful cruise from Chattanooga to Nashville, and plan on writing a review soon. But first, we need to discuss the good adventure at the beginning and the bad adventure at the end. Because the Wilson lock on the Tennessee River is broken, ACL has to start and end these cruises at Florence, AL; and then bus people 180 miles to or from Chattanooga. Not ACL’s fault, and the stop at the Huntsville, AL Space Center turns a long bus ride into an exciting adventure. Bravo, ACL. Boo, ACL, regarding the ship to shore experience at Nashville. Getting on or off the ship is a bad adventure, and extremely dangerous. The ship docks within inches of the shore, so close that Joe went to the first-deck midship lounge, opened the door, and shook hands with a deckhand on shore. The handshake, though, was over a solid black pipe railing that had no gate. As a result, we left the ship on deck two, down a short and extremely dangerous gangway that include a 20-foot metal ramp with no steps. Surely, ACL can negotiate with the city to have either a different landing spot, or have a gate cut into the railing so that people can go onto the shore from deck 1. This gangway is dangerous! Here is Joan’s review of what seemed like the gangway from hell: This cruise left Chattanooga on May 8. I am mobility-impaired, and my husband is 80 years old. We cannot tour at top speed anymore. ACL is a perfect fit for us - comfortable, inclusive and geared to mobility-impaired travelers. We coped nicely until we got to Nashville. The best part of Nashville is the Grand Ole Opry. The worst is the ramp you need to negotiate to get on and off the ship. The ramp is flat and steep. The railings are tied together with webbing. There's a gap at the top between the ramp and the step. I step onto the ramp, lunging forward and pulling myself up with my arms. The busses waiting to take us on tours are up high above the bluff. My husband can negotiate the 32 concrete steps to the bus. The rest of us wait for the golf carts to take us , three at a time, to the busses. Returning from the Grand Ole Opry at 10Pm, we wait for the golf carts. Most of the ship attended the concert, and they can only carry three at a time in the golf carts. Once at the ship, we must negotiate the flat, dangerous ramp upward. I’m one of the last people to get onboard. The next morning, we leave early for the airport. Morning mist has made the ramp slippery. I still don't know how I managed to get down safely.

Symphony is too large for the auxiliary lock; although it is peanut size for the broken lock. So, in both directions, people are bused between Florence. AL and Chattanooga. Hopefully, the lock will be fixed by 7/22. The Corps. of engineers says it will be fixed by then; but who knows? The activity level at the Huntington space center is theoretically moderate. In fact, it's what you want it to be. If you stay indoors other than for lunch, you can watch a lot of short videos. or even pay for a planetarium show, and not leave the building. The rockets and rocket motors are outside, and do require some walking. Lunch last Weds., 5/7, was a bit of a walk; but it started early, so there was plenty of time. Choice of pulled pork or pulled chicken, all you could eat. The lunchroom (not the public restaurant) was behind the space shuttle. Docked in Paducah, KY today. "Sea" day tomorrow, then Nashville on Tuesday. Off the ship on Weds. Lorretta Lynn tribute concert at the Grand Ole Opry Tuesday night.

We actually attended a wedding at the aquarium in Tampa about 20 years ago The bridal couple are scuba divers, and we were surprised that the didn't get married inside one of the largest fish tanks. The buffet dinner included grouper; and some wag joked that the grouper exhibit had one less grouper than it had before dinner.

Lovely aquarium visit today, although it was a rather tiring experience. That's because we couldn't find transportation to or from there (see below), so mobility-impaired Joan, and dedicated walker Joe, had to walk, slowly at Joan's pace both ways. We were a bit surprised to see no marine mammals other than (actually aquatic, not marine) river otters; but the penguins and butterflies were great. We also enjoyed some of the large river fish. A word for people who, like us, have never used Uber and Lyft: get modern, and learn to use them. Chattanooga does not have taxis that can be engaged simply by lifting up your arm, as we do in NYC. You either need to arrange transportation, or use Uber or Lyft. (We're told that Lyft is cheaper than Uber in Chattanooga). When we left the baggage area at the airport early this am, just past 1 am, more than 4 hours late, there were no cabs. We might have been stranded at the airport, but for the kindness of strangers who let us share their Uber. Lesson learned: we'll enroll with both companies when we get home. We'll board the ship tomorrow.

We booked tickets to the Aquarium.

Wow! You may have convinced us, even if there is apparently no a=marine animal show. Joan and I were trying to think of all the aquariums we've visited, and came up with: Monterrey, Georgia (Atlanta), Bermuda, Monaco, Skansen (Stockholm), Murmansk (Russia), Mystic, Florida (Tampa), Baltimore National, Brooklyn/NY, and Adventure (Camden). That's 11: more than we thought. But the Brooklyn one is the only one we've been to more than once. How's the food? Our visit to the Florida Aquarium was for a wedding. One item on the buffet was grouper; and some guests swore that there was one less grouper swimming around than there was before dinner. LOL. The Carousel sounds intriguing, if one can get there with the Walnut Street Bridge closed. Probably too much walking for Joan without that bridge.

Oh, are you on the ship now, arriving in Chattanooga on May 5th or 6th? If that's why there's no sunset cruise on the Southern Belle, maybe ACL can get us on the boat. BTW, the Hunter Museum is closed on Tuesdays. Globalfish, is the Tennessee Aquarium even better than the three Aquariums near us in northern NJ: the New York Aquarium (located in Coney Island); the Adventure Aquarium in Camden; and the one five miles from us that we haven't yet visited, the Sealife Aquarium at American Dream Mall?

Does anyone know enough about Chattanooga to suggest things to do on a Tuesday (May 6), other than the Aquarium? (We're not big aquarium fans,) The Hunter Art Museum is closed, and we can find any tours other than ghost tours that run on Tuesdays. Our only full pre-cruise day in town, and there doesn't seem as if there's a lot to do.

This was November, 2021; and they had to give us an upgrade, because the medical staff (more than one person) had taken over all of the lowest category cabins. There was no place to go but up to a higher deck.

Wouldn't the Uncruise cabins seem tiny after one has sailed in a spacious ACL cabin? I would feel claustrophobic in a room of only 140 or 150 feet.

Yes, they did that a few years ago, on a Chesapeake Bay cruise, when one couldn't even board you ship until you got a Covid test on the Baltimore pier. They took over all of the staterooms on the lower deck and as medical center, included our room. We received a nice upgrade. Normally, there's no doctor (other than maybe a passenger) onboard.

Cruise NY, I feel as if the posters here are way too negative. You know your son; so, you have a good idea of what he likes. Many 12-year-olds would be bored by being the only child onboard; but yours might relish the attention. Regarding food and excursions, no one stops you from having lunch at a restaurant onshore, or from doing something kid-friendly onshore. The local loops offered in almost all ports may take you to places that your son would love to visit. So yes, while most kids would be bored, the mere fact that you are considering this cruise means that you probably have a child who would think of the cruise as an adventure. I believe that the only real Mississippi River alternative to ACL is Viking, I have no idea whether Viking Mississippi is kid friendly. One ACL cruise that would seem to be very kid friendly is the Baltimore to Baltimore Chesapeake Bay cruise (which we've taken), or the similar cruise from Washington. Many kids love the Naval Academy in Annapolis, and the ship docks at a great maritime Museum in St. Michaels, MD, which also has a Harriet Tubman Museum. I was about your son's age when I fell in love with Williamsburg, VA; and Yorktown has a great hands-on Museum. In Baltimore, the ship leaves from a space next to the Aquarium, and the Aquarium is available as a shore excursion at the end of the trip.

Interesting comment about the manager's reception; since their web site says they have one. https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/pitsmes-embassy-suites-pittsburgh-downtown/?SEO_id=GMB-AMER-ES-PITSMES&y_source=1_Mjg1Njc1Ni03MTUtbG9jYXRpb24ud2Vic2l0ZQ%3D%3D What type of weather have you had on your two trips? We are interested in the cruise; but it's only held in the summer. We're both "heat haters", and our summer vacations are usually to places cooler than the NYC-NJ area (New England, Pacific Northwest, Alaska, San Francisco, Iceland, Scandinavia, etc.).

The excursions for my May cruise in Tennessee opened at midnight, 60 days before the beginning of the trip. Before then, we only had the inexact information on the web site for the cruise, but not actual excursions, times, and costs. Thus, you can research the options and make tentative plans; but the actual excursions may differ from what you researched. In one of our ports, an excursion is offered free without a lunch, or at a minor cost with a lunch. I hope I like the catfish lunch! I forget the exact terms; but most excursions are either "complimentary" or premium. There is a third type, with a name like "exclusive", that is costly, but that I believe can be booked well before the 60 days. FAQs on the ACL web site contain the following information: We have taken steps to make the sign-up process as simple as possible. Guests receive a link to a personalized online cruise portal 90 days prior to embarkation date. There, guests can access valuable documents and information about their cruise. 60 days prior to embarkation, guests may pre-reserve their shore excursions in their personalized online cruise portal. I don't recall ever receiving such a link 90 days before the trip - and this will be our 6th ACL cruise.

So you'll be on the cruise just before ours. I hope you have a great time. They probably will be putting you up in a different hotel than ours. My guess is that you'll be in the Mattiott, which might rrbe why we were moved from the Marriott to the Holiday Inn.

At least for our cruise, the hotel in Chattanooga was changed to the Holiday Inn. One benefit of the revised itinerary is that Paducah and Grand Rivers are now separate stops. No long bus ride between the two ports.

Here is the Chattanooga to Nashville email. If you haven't received it, call your TA or the cruise line. There is one error, which was corrected a few hours later. The Hotel is now the Holiday Inn Downton, not the Marriott. Dear Tennessee River Guest, Your cruise is just a few short months away and we look forward to welcoming you aboard American Symphony. As you may already be aware, in October of last year the US Army Corps of Engineers closed the Wilson Lock Main Chamber in Florence, AL for unexpected repairs. Unfortunately, the Corps have recently indicated that they do not anticipate these repairs being completed until mid-June 2025. While American Symphony is still able to transit the Cumberland River and most of the Tennessee River, regrettably, she is unable to travel between Chattanooga, TN and Florence, AL because of this lock closure. Fortunately, the impact to your cruise is minimal and we have developed an exciting plan that will allow your cruise to operate as scheduled. Day 1 – May 6th Overnight at the Chattanooga Marriott Downtown in Chattanooga, TN Day 2 – May 7th After breakfast in the hotel, land transportation via Cruise Coach to the world-famous U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution; a special onsite lunch will be served during your visit After lunch, continue by Cruise Coach to Florence, AL to embark American Symphony; your luggage will be waiting for you in your stateroom Day 3 – May 8th A half day of excursions and exploration will be offered in Florence, AL before leisurely cruising through some of the most beautiful parts of the Tennessee River while en route to Savannah, TN; an extensive line-up of activities and events will be presented on board Day 4 – May 9th A full day of shore excursions will be offered in Savannah, TN Day 5 – May 10th After spending the morning cruising Kentucky Lake, dock in Grand Rivers, KY for a full day of shore excursions Day 6 – May 11th A full day of shore excursions will be offered in Paducah, KY Day 7 – May 12th Continue your journey with a full day underway, cruising through Lake Barkley and up the Cumberland River toward Nashville, TN Day 8 – May 13th A full day of shore excursions will be offered in Nashville, TN before attending the complimentary show at the world-famous Grand Ole Opry. Day 9 – May 14th After breakfast and disembarkation, we will provide a complimentary transfer to Nashville International Airport While the lock closure is unfortunate, we do hope that you will enjoy the spectacular ports of call, the underway cruising time, and the personalized service on board American Symphony that is a hallmark of the American Cruise Lines experience.