A Feast For Your Senses: Fuel for your sense of wonder and sense of humor: American Cruise Lines - Day 11

Savannah was the first of our unique port visits in that we arrived here at 8PM the evening of November 11th and stayed in port through November 12th leaving at 7AM on November 13th. I've personally been to Savannah twice before. Once as part of a long family road trip where we continued on to Savannah after dropping my brother off in Huntsville for space camp. Being a family involved in scouting, Mom and I spent a good part of the day in Savannah exploring the former home of Girl Scout founder, Juliette Gordon Low. Fast forward to my teenage years and someone in the local scouting organization arranged large bus trips for individual troops and their chaperones to travel together to various points of interest. The first one we did took us through a stop at Gatlinburg, TN and Dollywood at Pigeon Forge, TN before visiting Savannah and Juliette Gordon Low's former home again. The other bus trip we were able to do as teenage scouts was to Niagara Falls with a stopover in Corning, NY and you may soon be seeing references to that destination on this blog. If you're a follower of mine over on Twitter, you already know what we booked for our next trip. And if you're not following me over there too, well you should be! I try and share there in real time while traveling and in the future hope to add some more interactive opportunities and giveaways.

A representative from the trolley company came to give us a rundown of how the tours would go. When he explained that a perk of taking the morning organized trolley tour would net you a sticker that you could use to ride the trolley the whole rest of the day, I decided to attend the morning tour after all. Dad elected to keep his morning free and attend the afternoon excursion to the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum.

Here's today's rundown of the 3 ACL excursions:

Historic Savannah Trolley - $40 per person - wheelchair accessible, activity level of 2, cameras permitted, and restrooms available. The icon on our excursion explanation sheet says 1 1/2 hours but Ali noted a 3 hour span of 9AM to 12PM on today's schedule. The trolley has open windows and seats for 2 people each down each side. The windows have plastic that can be rolled down should the weather turn bad. The description reads: Visit Savannah's Historic and Victorian Districts including Factor's Walk, the Cotton Exchange, and the city's beautiful streets and green squares. Visit the historical Massie Heritage Center. Built in 1856, this Greek Revival home was the first public school.

Savannah Exploration - $20 per person - wheelchair and scooter accessible, 2 hours long, activity level of 2, cameras permitted and restrooms available. This was a 1.5 mile walking tour led by Rachel. Highlights include Colonial Park Cemetery, Savannah's Squares, and the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. This tour will be focused on viewing the local gardens and architecture, learning about the vast city history, and specific group interests. This tour ran from 9AM until 11AM.

Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum - $30 per person - wheelchair accessible, level 3 in activity, and restrooms available. This excursion started at 2PM so you could easily do one of the morning choices and this one. There is a 20 minute ride to the museum where guests will have two hours for self-guided tours. Guests will load the motorcoach at 4:30PM to return to the ship. This museum offers a range of exhibitions from the 1940s through today, focusing on the Eighth Air Force's impact on WWII.

But first, there's breakfast!

For comparison's sake - I was so early to the lounge to meet for the Historic Savannah Trolley Excursion, that I finally saw what was put out for the "Early Riser's Breakfast" offering:

A tried and true favorite - eggs over medium with sausage:

For the trolley tour, we were led outside a couple blocks up to a bridge overhang where the two trolleys sat waiting. Ali was there to check people off and help direct them to whatever trolley still had room. As you boarded your trolley, you were given a small postcard that was stamped with today's date on one side and featured a survey to mail back to the company on the other side. This was your main ticket they gave everyone no matter how they booked a trolley ride to show the driver on future rides. Those of us on the ship tour also got stickers to put on as another option to show the driver. We also got a map of the trolley route identical to the one the ship had out for anyone to pick up sitting just outside the dining salon by the stairs. The drivers also gave each person a little $3 off coupon to use if we chose to also visit the American Prohibition Museum as it is one of the stops on the trolley tour circuit. On the back of each coupon, they wrote their names so I guess they get credit if one of their coupons gets cashed in. Since this was a ship tour with the Massie school visit included, it was more of a narrated ride through town than a true hop on/hop off trolley. It was still a very informative and entertaining tour as we drove through the beautiful city and learned about geographic highlights and historical buildings.

In the above picture, the price for an adult ticket is $30 and $14 for a child's ticket. This would only be for the guided trolley transportation option. ACL charged $40 per person for this and included the Massie school visit. That's pretty comparable considering most of the big ship tours are highly marked up and you can often find better booking privately if you do your research. This trolley company was Old Town Trolley Tours which operates in several cities and offers a small discount if you book tickets with them directly.

Both trolleys arrived at the Massie school at roughly the same time but we had to circle around again for a bit because both could not be parked in front of the school at the same time.

Once we returned, they had started the first trolley group so they had moved on to another area by the time we entered. We were kept in a large room featuring a mockup of the city in the center. It was cool to see not only a dramatic retelling option to listen to on this mockup but also it would light up the area of the city as it talked about it. We also had a guide employed by the school who gave us a very lengthy explanation incorporating these features as she talked. While it stayed sunny all morning, it was also very humid so several of us were waning being stuck in this room together while she talked on and on. The few places to sit were essentially parts or corners of exhibits and several of the older crowd took seats as she continued to lecture.

If you spend any time in person with me, you'll find I have a sarcastic sense of humor, especially at this point when we all feel ready to drop. Our guide had been telling a story about a general meeting with an Indian chief and joked about it being like their first date. Later on she circled back to another meeting between the two and it leading to the marriage of the female from the tribe who had been helping the general. I quipped "Oh guess that was their second date" which got a few chuckles from nearby folks. A day or two later we joined a table for dinner and one of the ladies points at me, calls out "Their second date! You're the one who made that joke, that was funny!" By then I'd long since forgotten what preceded the joke but she couldn't remember either. Wish I could remember exactly what the guide had said which led to my punchline. Just glad the guide didn't hear me or I might have been sent to stand in the corner.

Rachel and Ali had both accompanied us on the tour so Rachel took the initiative to also point out the pictograph on the floor showing the city's arrangement of squares to designate the different areas of town.

A school tour group and the echo of their excited voices resonated throughout the entire area but the staff did their best to redirect the children to another part of the building while we finished down here. Once they were clear from their time upstairs, we were led to the school room setup upstairs where we met another guide. Thankfully, we were all able to find seats at the classroom desks to rest for the time being.

Here we learned about the classroom layout with the teacher standing on a small platform at the front and the principal's office located just behind this stage so that the principal could watch over the students the entire time.

We learned that the boys and girls were kept completely separate except for being in the same classroom itself. They had their own bathrooms, their own courtyards to line up in and play before and after school, as well as separate entrances they were to enter the classroom from before sitting on opposite sides of the classroom. Our new guide explained that this only became the case because in front of each connected desk was an inkwell. The boys sitting at the desks behind girls would take the girl's hair and dip it into their inkwells.

One of the points I found interesting having worked in an elementary school myself is that even back then, the teachers tried to follow a protocol for avoiding the kids' germs. With the added issue of many families not having enough to even afford a pencil for their child to use at school, the teacher would designate one pencil for each child to use. The pencils were assigned slots in a wooden board with a handle. The teacher would hold onto only the handle as they walked around to each student for them to pick up just their pencil. The process would be repeated in reverse at the end of the day. This way the teacher never had to touch the student's used pencil and no other student touched it either. Our group was very surprised to learn that after all this effort, each classroom only had one water pail for everyone including the teacher to drink from during the day. I'm going to go out of my way to avoid touching what you touched with your hands but happily swap spit all day long.

The buckets used for drinking water are stacked under the chalkboard in this picture.

After a brief interlude of the school group having to weave through the classroom on their way to the next stop, we were able to head back downstairs for a restroom break. Once back on the trolleys we headed to see the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. We were allowed inside for around 15-20 minutes before the trolley would circle back and pick us up.

A lot of our group was done quickly in the cathedral and gathered outside chatting. The other trolley arrived and several of us went to board it only to realize it was the wrong one. Even Ali was getting restless wondering why ours wasn't here too and asked the other driver to call ours. The other driver even came out a few times to ask the gathered crowd if anyone else was part of her group but no one budged. Finally, she walked up to an older couple and asked them outright if they were supposed to be on her trolley. Once she did that, they realized their mistake and followed her back to the trolley so she could now leave. Shortly after that, our trolley arrived and drove us back to the pick up point under the bridge. This spot was only for the private tour pickup and drop off and not part of the usual route.