Instead of at the Maryland cruise port like RCL's Grandeur and Carnival's Pride (at least for a little while longer), Independence and its sister ship the American Star dock at the Pier 5 Hotel or rather behind it. Dad decided to hire a car to get us to the hotel so we wouldn't have to deal with parking. When we pulled up around the side of the hotel, the road turned from asphalt to more of a brick path and our driver said he wasn't allowed to drive on the brick. The brochure in our welcome packet says "Upon arrival, you will see American Cruise Lines deckhands in bright red shirts ready to assist you." We saw no one other than someone jogging and a panhandler. I headed into Pier 5 Hotel to inquire as to whether we were supposed to check in somewhere inside and then they'd come help with our bags. Their front desk staff was the ones to confirm that we needed to walk all the way around the back of the hotel to reach the ship at the physical dock. I had spotted the ships off in the distance but Dad was still expecting someone to be meeting people at their cars. It was about walking two blocks in physical distance carting all our luggage but at least the inlaid bricks made for an even walking surface. There was a lot of people with physical challenges on our cruise. I can't imagine them carrying their luggage even this short of a distance. Thankfully we were physically able to roll our two big and one small suitcase between the two of us. The brochure states boarding runs from 10:30AM to 12:30PM. Since it also stated that rooms aren't ready until after 11:30AM, Dad booked the car service for 11AM.
This is the view from our balcony looking back at the American Star on embarkation day.
Once we reached the ship itself, there was a table set up outside and a female crew member helping to check in a couple who seemed to have issues with their paperwork. Soon a male crew member stepped up to check us in and I must say it is much simpler than the big lines. We showed him our boarding passes and passports (we choose to use passports but I think any photo ID for this type of cruise would have been fine. The airport perhaps would be a different matter.) I noticed how he took the extra time to look us over and confirm we really did look like our passport pictures. Then we got handed ACL branded lanyards with the clear plastic pouch hanging down. Inside the pouch already was their version of a nametag - a little piece of white cardstock pre-printed with our full names, our hometown, whether or not we were Eagle Society members, and a varied list of stars printed underneath to show how many ACL cruises we'd been on before this one. There was quite a bit of "look how many stars are on my nametag" from other cruisers but it made for a great conversation starter. After rolling our bags the 10 feet to the other side of the gangway where several other bags sat waiting, we were ushered onboard with nothing more than a comment about our rooms still not being ready but we could visit the Chesapeake Lounge for snacks in the meantime. No ding at the gangway scanning the barcode on our cards letting the ship know who was on and who was off. No having to scan any bags through an x-ray machine or step through a metal detector like you do upon returning to the big cruise ships. In fact, we didn't even see a barcode/metallic strip style card until arriving in our room the first time. Our cabin door was open and the cards were on the desk inside. These had the ACL logo on the front and the magnetic strip on the back. Otherwise, there was nothing on them to identify room number or passenger name. The only thing they were good for is unlocking your cabin door. We noticed later in the cruise one of the passengers was having trouble getting her card to work. Cruise Director Ali used her card to open the door and then gave it to the passenger for future use when it worked. She referred to it as "her card" when she gave it to the passenger so I'm not sure if that meant those cards opened anyone's cabin door? Dad chose to keep his in his wallet (with no safe in the rooms he didn't feel comfortable leaving his wallet or our passports in the room while we weren't there) and I slipped mine in the back of the lanyard pouch.
Once onboard we headed over to the Chesapeake Lounge but found most of the snacks picked clean. We did take advantage of the self serve cold water dispenser and the cans of soda that you are welcome to take as you please. No need for a drink package on this ship! We decided to check if our room was ready and found that it essentially was and our luggage had already been put inside. As we dropped off our carry on luggage, our room steward Emma knocked on the door to introduce herself. She had brought the gallon jug of distilled water Dad had requested pre-cruise for his CPAP machine and it was the perfect amount for our two week stay. Dad asked for bottled water to keep in the room and she rushed right over to grab him a couple of the small water bottles. We each had a decent sized ACL logo tote bag on our beds. I saw many people using these to carry their stuff while on tour.
While we were hanging out in the cabin, our Captain came over the ship intercom (unlike the big ships where you'll only hear the announcements inside your cabin if it's an emergency) and gave a speech to welcome everyone, go over safety, and demonstrate how it would sound if we were ever called to our muster stations in an emergency. In case you're wondering, it's literally the same bell ringing sound you'd hear in a fire station of yesteryear. The bells are mounted on the walls of each deck in the passenger hallways. We were expecting to now be told to go line up at our station or visit a lounge to be accounted for but all that this ship required was to make that announcement, do a sample ringing of the bell, and then encourage everyone to watch the video on our cabin TVs. As with the big ships, there's always that one TV channel dedicated to ship videos and information. The only time I ever noticed where our life jackets were was when I happened to spot the whistle sticking out from under the bed.
After we freshened up a bit, we headed down to deck 1 for lunch. Aside from cocktail hour snacks and the chips/granola bars that are always available in the Chesapeake Lounge by the sodas, any meal service is done on deck 1 in what they call the Dining Salon. Not sure I could ever get used to calling it anything other than the dining room, or Main Dining Room (MDR) like on the big ships who have other restaurants as well. It's all open seating which means you're going to nearly always share a table with others and frequently have table mates at different parts of their meal than you. The bigger ships do have the option of sharing tables with your fellow cruisers but also can seat you at a table for two if you don't mind potentially waiting for one to be available. We did meet several different people this way including some that we sought out their dining company as the cruise went on. The one tip they tell you on day 1 is that if you find someone you want to sit with in the dining room, go down and put your lanyard over the chair to reserve it. Only once did we encounter someone doing that (and someone using the easier method of draping the table napkins over the chairs) and just moved on to a table that had enough seats left for us.
The way ACL does things in this dining room is to have a menu at each person's place at breakfast (or in today's case lunch) where breakfast is listed on one side and then the other side had a menu of choices for lunch and dinner. No multi sided menu of choices here. You could choose between 2-3 appetizers and usually around three entrée options. There was a space at the bottom for writing in any special requests or dietary concerns. This was simply to let the kitchen staff know a ballpark amount of food to prepare. There was no rule that said you had to still order come lunchtime what you chose on the card and several times they had no problem with us asking for something like a different salad dressing or a cheeseburger/grilled cheese when none of the options suited us. And just like on the big cruise ships, there is no issue if you want to try two appetizers or seconds of an entrée.
If you've read my earlier trip reports, then you know how much of a vacation foodie I am. I always aim to try new things on these trips and have tried a lot of odd things over the years. I'm no stranger to eating just as many vegetables as desserts but I soon became tired of the repetitive salad options as the days went by. On the plus side, the salad greens were always fresh as the cruise went on. That can sometimes be an issue on the big ships if they don't have a vendor to get to as easily. Today's lunch food porn is brought to you by the Mixed Green Salad and the Poached Atlantic Seafood Salad.
Unfortunately, our service at this first meal by Marica was really slow. We had other meals with Marica as our waitress so I think all the staff was extra busy on this first day. Sadly, service issues would show up frequently but we soon learned to seek out great servers like Kevin, Andre, and Kevin's new trainee, Ashley, who handled her own tables after the first day of training. Meals in the dining room were only during scheduled times and because of that it made having to be up early enough each morning to get breakfast a bit annoying on days we didn't have any plans until an afternoon tour. Occasionally, Ali would schedule an early timed breakfast service if the morning tour had an early start time. Today's lunch was scheduled from 12PM to 1:30PM but by the time our 2PM Excursion Overview meeting rolled around, we were still sitting at the table waiting on dessert. The couple who came last to our table still hadn't gotten their appetizers before we elected to leave for the meetup.
I was impressed with the attention and consideration I witnessed from the dining staff in regards to the few passengers we met who have dietary restrictions. When one passenger was hesitant about whether the fish dish she'd ordered would be okay to eat, both the waiter and dining room manager came over to offer to prepare a special dish of what she was sure would be safe and then followed up with going over the next menu choices so they'd be prepared for next time. Another passenger was gluten and dairy free so the staff went out during one of the port stops and bought her her own pint of Ben & Jerry's dairy free ice cream. One of the other nice touches I rarely see on the big ships is the option to get any appetizer or entrée as a 1/2 portion. Want to try just a little of two options? Get a 1/2 portion of each. We noticed several couples that opted to order different things and then split them between their two plates giving each a little of both choices. We suggested they use the 1/2 portion option to make that easier and you could see the imaginary light bulb go off above their heads. For lunch and dinner, you can order any drink they have whether it's ice water, soda, wine, or beer.
Once onboard we headed over to the Chesapeake Lounge but found most of the snacks picked clean. We did take advantage of the self serve cold water dispenser and the cans of soda that you are welcome to take as you please. No need for a drink package on this ship! We decided to check if our room was ready and found that it essentially was and our luggage had already been put inside. As we dropped off our carry on luggage, our room steward Emma knocked on the door to introduce herself. She had brought the gallon jug of distilled water Dad had requested pre-cruise for his CPAP machine and it was the perfect amount for our two week stay. Dad asked for bottled water to keep in the room and she rushed right over to grab him a couple of the small water bottles. We each had a decent sized ACL logo tote bag on our beds. I saw many people using these to carry their stuff while on tour.
While we were hanging out in the cabin, our Captain came over the ship intercom (unlike the big ships where you'll only hear the announcements inside your cabin if it's an emergency) and gave a speech to welcome everyone, go over safety, and demonstrate how it would sound if we were ever called to our muster stations in an emergency. In case you're wondering, it's literally the same bell ringing sound you'd hear in a fire station of yesteryear. The bells are mounted on the walls of each deck in the passenger hallways. We were expecting to now be told to go line up at our station or visit a lounge to be accounted for but all that this ship required was to make that announcement, do a sample ringing of the bell, and then encourage everyone to watch the video on our cabin TVs. As with the big ships, there's always that one TV channel dedicated to ship videos and information. The only time I ever noticed where our life jackets were was when I happened to spot the whistle sticking out from under the bed.
After we freshened up a bit, we headed down to deck 1 for lunch. Aside from cocktail hour snacks and the chips/granola bars that are always available in the Chesapeake Lounge by the sodas, any meal service is done on deck 1 in what they call the Dining Salon. Not sure I could ever get used to calling it anything other than the dining room, or Main Dining Room (MDR) like on the big ships who have other restaurants as well. It's all open seating which means you're going to nearly always share a table with others and frequently have table mates at different parts of their meal than you. The bigger ships do have the option of sharing tables with your fellow cruisers but also can seat you at a table for two if you don't mind potentially waiting for one to be available. We did meet several different people this way including some that we sought out their dining company as the cruise went on. The one tip they tell you on day 1 is that if you find someone you want to sit with in the dining room, go down and put your lanyard over the chair to reserve it. Only once did we encounter someone doing that (and someone using the easier method of draping the table napkins over the chairs) and just moved on to a table that had enough seats left for us.
The way ACL does things in this dining room is to have a menu at each person's place at breakfast (or in today's case lunch) where breakfast is listed on one side and then the other side had a menu of choices for lunch and dinner. No multi sided menu of choices here. You could choose between 2-3 appetizers and usually around three entrée options. There was a space at the bottom for writing in any special requests or dietary concerns. This was simply to let the kitchen staff know a ballpark amount of food to prepare. There was no rule that said you had to still order come lunchtime what you chose on the card and several times they had no problem with us asking for something like a different salad dressing or a cheeseburger/grilled cheese when none of the options suited us. And just like on the big cruise ships, there is no issue if you want to try two appetizers or seconds of an entrée.
If you've read my earlier trip reports, then you know how much of a vacation foodie I am. I always aim to try new things on these trips and have tried a lot of odd things over the years. I'm no stranger to eating just as many vegetables as desserts but I soon became tired of the repetitive salad options as the days went by. On the plus side, the salad greens were always fresh as the cruise went on. That can sometimes be an issue on the big ships if they don't have a vendor to get to as easily. Today's lunch food porn is brought to you by the Mixed Green Salad and the Poached Atlantic Seafood Salad.
Dad chose the Galley Steak Sandwich
Unfortunately, our service at this first meal by Marica was really slow. We had other meals with Marica as our waitress so I think all the staff was extra busy on this first day. Sadly, service issues would show up frequently but we soon learned to seek out great servers like Kevin, Andre, and Kevin's new trainee, Ashley, who handled her own tables after the first day of training. Meals in the dining room were only during scheduled times and because of that it made having to be up early enough each morning to get breakfast a bit annoying on days we didn't have any plans until an afternoon tour. Occasionally, Ali would schedule an early timed breakfast service if the morning tour had an early start time. Today's lunch was scheduled from 12PM to 1:30PM but by the time our 2PM Excursion Overview meeting rolled around, we were still sitting at the table waiting on dessert. The couple who came last to our table still hadn't gotten their appetizers before we elected to leave for the meetup.
I was impressed with the attention and consideration I witnessed from the dining staff in regards to the few passengers we met who have dietary restrictions. When one passenger was hesitant about whether the fish dish she'd ordered would be okay to eat, both the waiter and dining room manager came over to offer to prepare a special dish of what she was sure would be safe and then followed up with going over the next menu choices so they'd be prepared for next time. Another passenger was gluten and dairy free so the staff went out during one of the port stops and bought her her own pint of Ben & Jerry's dairy free ice cream. One of the other nice touches I rarely see on the big ships is the option to get any appetizer or entrée as a 1/2 portion. Want to try just a little of two options? Get a 1/2 portion of each. We noticed several couples that opted to order different things and then split them between their two plates giving each a little of both choices. We suggested they use the 1/2 portion option to make that easier and you could see the imaginary light bulb go off above their heads. For lunch and dinner, you can order any drink they have whether it's ice water, soda, wine, or beer.
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