American Cruise Lines - Day 7 - Charleston, SC (Part 2)

One of the unique things about this sort of small ship cruising is the ability to view the pilot house (or the bridge as it's known on the big ships). When it comes to the big ships, there is a ton more security and you only get the chance to tour the bridge if you get invited or in our case, sail in a suite on a line that allows that sort of thing as a perk. You have to be on an approved list and sign next to your name so they have a log of who has been on the bridge. Then you get wanded by security before going in. Here, the only criteria was waiting for a time when the ship was in port, and the Captain approved it being put on the schedule. The ship information literature left in our cabin on day 1 refers to simply checking a list posted by the pilot house for times and days of when it is open for touring. We checked it out and never saw any list. Today, it appeared as a scheduled activity on the Ship to Shore but it was scheduled for 5PM. Our Fort Sumter tour did not return until at least 5:30PM if not closer to 6PM.

There seemed to be a theme built around the pilot house tour because right after was a scheduled appearance by Captain Gillian in the Chesapeake Lounge during cocktail hour. Since we got back as cocktail hour was in full swing, we opted to head straight to the cabin and get ready for dinner instead. The final part of this theme tonight was that Captain Gillian would join passengers for dinner tonight. Some of the big ships will feature what they call Captain's Table which is solely by invitation (and usually reserved for those with the highest loyalty levels) and is usually a more secluded private table. In this case, it was more the Captain just followed whomever had been talking his ear off at the cocktail party down to the dining room and sat at their table.

Since it was the last night before half of our passengers would be disembarking, one of our go to tables was full of nametags draped over the chairs. A group had decided to ensure they got to dine all together one more time before several of them left the ship the next day. We simply moved over to the next table. During dinner, Cheree came by our table to help with refilling glasses so we asked her if there was plans to do the Pilot House tour again. She offered to talk to the Captain about scheduling a tour for us.

What kind of Marylander would I be if I didn't try the Crab Cake tonight? However, that's either a lemon on steroids or a super small crab cake.

And sometimes you need a little extra warmth in your bones so I also tried the Chicken Corn Chowder.

One of the things every cruise line seems to do to some degree is fancy molded butter. Here's ACL's version:

And for the entrée, Dad and I both went for the Braised Short Rib. We both rate this as one of the best dishes we had on board as the meat was tender and juicy.

Polished it all off with a dish of mint chocolate chip ice cream. The chocolate syrup was upon my tablemates insistence that I try it this way.

Since we were staying in Charleston through tomorrow afternoon, Ali's evening port talk was instead Cheree going over disembarkation details for those leaving us. The entertainment listed on today's schedule says the low country guitar playing of David Archer. The name sounded familiar so we decided to check out the show. What we saw being set up was a man sitting behind the small piano housed in the Chesapeake Lounge so we thought maybe he was going to play both? Then when Ali came on to introduce the entertainment, it turns out that our performance tonight was actually a local woman named Star who would be singing accompanied by this gentleman who wasn't David Archer on the piano. No mention of why the change in act. After the first song we decided this show wasn't for us and headed back to the cabin to relax.