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My Big Fat American Empress Trip Report


Cyberchomp
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For our voyage down the Columbia and Snake Rivers, July 12-19.  

 

Excuse the excess verbiage.  It is a wee bit long.  If you get to the end of it, thanks for reading!

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=681773&et_cid=3449005&et_rid=16683874&et_referrer=June 2008 Boards Mailing

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Excellent review!  I read every word!  We arrive October 31, 2021 and are so excited! I'm a little worried about the thin walls because my sweet husband can't hear well and is a loud talker!  Most of my group will be on deck 2, so hopefully we won't bother many others.  I think the only extra excursion I want to do is the falls also.  Thank you!

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  • 11 months later...

What a great review!!  I’ve read every word, and you have answered many questions we had. One of my main concerns was the smoke impact from wildfires in much of the northwest. I’m terribly allergic to smoke, and yours is the first review I’ve seen that seems to address that. Do you think late September or sometime in October would be less smoky?  Will it be too cold then?

 

Surely hope someone can share thoughts on this. 

Barb

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  • 1 month later...
On 8/11/2022 at 1:25 PM, wandb said:

What a great review!!  I’ve read every word, and you have answered many questions we had. One of my main concerns was the smoke impact from wildfires in much of the northwest. I’m terribly allergic to smoke, and yours is the first review I’ve seen that seems to address that. Do you think late September or sometime in October would be less smoky?  Will it be too cold then?

 

Surely hope someone can share thoughts on this. 

Barb

Barb -

 

The Northwest will be a bit chilly in October.  September's not so bad.  But with climate change, trying to get to non-smoky weather in the Far West is a crapshoot these days.  We happened to sail at a time when wildfires were charring Northern California and Oregon.  It has been well over a year since I posted my AmEmpress review and we're seeing wildfires year-round.  Glad you enjoyed my review!

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14 hours ago, Cyberchomp said:

Barb -

 

The Northwest will be a bit chilly in October.  September's not so bad.  But with climate change, trying to get to non-smoky weather in the Far West is a crapshoot these days.  We happened to sail at a time when wildfires were charring Northern California and Oregon.  It has been well over a year since I posted my AmEmpress review and we're seeing wildfires year-round.  Glad you enjoyed my review!


Thanks for your comments. We have decided to try and avoid the extensive summer/fall fire season. So we have booked the June 4th cruise, hoping any smoke issues will be a lot less at that time. Hoping for good weather, no smoke, and a great cruise!

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  • 1 month later...

Thank you, @Cyberchomp , for writing up your and the Missus's experiences! We're sailing on the American Empress for a r/t Portland (Vancouver) cruise next week and I'm happy I came across your review.

 

If you happen to read this in the next day or two, could you please let me know about tipping on the boat? I know that "pooled" gratuities are automatically added to our onboard account daily, but is there a customary standard for tipping extra? For example, room service delivery, waiters in the dining room, cabin steward, bartenders? On ocean cruises, we normally give a few dollars to delivery if we order room service for our beloved morning coffee and croissants, but what about room stewards and waiters? I'm expecting we'll have different waiters each night, so I'm not quite sure how that will work. Any suggestions or knowledge you have would be appreciated. 

 

Thank you again! Hope you soon have the chance to do another river cruise!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi -

 

Very sorry to have missed your post!  I hope your Columbia River cruise was enjoyable and memorable.

 

For the record, we only tipped our cabin stewardess extra.  We appreciated her efficiency.  

 

Many thanks for reading my review!

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