American Cruise Lines - Day 8 - Charleston, SC (Part 1)

Welcome to the turnaround day we didn't know we'd be having until we got on board in Baltimore! Today 40 of the 78 other cruisers we'd spent the week getting to know will leave us and 62 will come onboard bringing our new sailing total up to 92. It's funny to look back at today's Ship to Shore schedule because it lists a 6:30AM "Early Risers" (juice, coffee, and pastries in the Chesapeake Lounge) then jumps to the 10AM "Warm Cookies." Apparently, regular breakfast in the dining room this morning was all just a mirage. For those cruisers leaving, as far as I know, the time to get off the ship is up to you at least until our new all aboard time of 2PM. Except of course if you chose to take advantage of the 8AM Charleston Airport Transfer. There was a smaller crowd than usual at breakfast this morning so it looks like the bulk of our departing guests left with the transfer.

I did notice that the dining staff during breakfast seemed to be a little bit extra off their game this morning. I learned later that they all pull double and sometimes triple duty splitting up parts of the passenger cabins for each 1-2 crew members to clean. It's not just your steward and maybe an assistant like the big ships. At least on turnaround day. Here's the rundown we found taped to our door on our final morning in Jacksonville:

This morning I finally got around to trying the french toast. I rarely enjoy this breakfast choice at home so I was looking forward to indulging today. Unfortunately, it was a big let down. The toast itself had so much egg flavor, it tasted like I was eating mushy eggs. The little cup of syrup I was given had a gross film over the syrup so I elected not to use it at all.

The night before, we spent a good bit of time after returning to the cabin using the internet and the provided city brochures to seek out some sort of tour to do today. Not finding much that was either available on a Saturday or wasn't sold out already, we decided to use the shuttle into town and then seek out something once there. As it turns out, the shuttle for heading into town was the same shuttle buses and drivers as took the group to Fort Sumter the day before. As luck would have it, we ended up in the shuttle driven by Mr. Cranky that had given the other cruisers a wild ride yesterday. We missed the fact that the excursion list only shows the shuttle running from 9AM till 12PM. When this driver stopped the shuttle in front of the United States Custom House around 10AM, he announced that we had to be back by 11:30AM because he was only contracted to drive the shuttle until noon. Dad asked if he could then make noon his last pickup but the driver refused. We asked him if there was a grocery or pharmacy nearby and he insisted that there was none except for miles away from here. This guy could have really benefited from either some happy pills or the Raisin Bran from our breakfast buffet table.

Resigned to not having enough time for any sort of tour without having to rely on our own way back to the ship, we opted to walk around this downtown area and check out the craft market. Why when the ship doesn't leave until 3PM did they not contract these shuttle drivers until at least 1PM?

This market is somewhat open air but covered spanning several blocks in a straight walk through and back fashion. We passed by table after table of handicrafts, homemade goodies, and local items like cookbooks and coffee. I say passed by because I had "Mr. Hurry Up, we don't need any of this stuff, quit taking the time to stop and look at things like you're interested attitude" pushing me along past the tables. About halfway through was a small café space that had long lines of people trying to buy snacks and coffee. 

We did browse a couple candy and souvenir stores after leaving the market and Dad finally got to try a real praline. After I of course reminded him that he's mentioned multiple times about wanting to try one. If you're a praline lover, Charleston is definitely the city to get your fill as every shop was offering free samples. One such employee even apologized in pity to me like I had just revealed a horrible disease when I politely turned down her sample offer with the excuse of not eating nuts. Dad decided he liked the samples he tried so by the time we stumbled upon this landmark, we both were ready to break out the credit card.

It seems that they are now a franchise owned under the parent company "Savannah's Candy Kitchen" as the Savannah company name was on their front awning.

There was a small stand just outside the entrance to this shop selling tickets for horse drawn carriage rides so if you are interested, that's also something that probably could have been done in the short time we had to explore. 

In addition to a bottle of water to split (see we got something healthy too), we picked up a small box of pralines and gophers for Dad along with a couple single serve packs of Chuckles candy. Chuckles is Dad's favorite candy but it's tough to find in stores here anymore. I was like an 80s kid in a candy store browsing the shelves full of candy I hadn't seen since I was a kid. Eventually I settled on filling a small plastic bag from their Jelly Belly dispensers along the wall. They also have barrels of individually wrapped candies that you can make your own baggie full and pay by the weight of your bag. I first went for the sour Jelly Belly dispenser but alas, it only gave out one little spurt of a few pieces. I then went to the 40 flavor mixed dispenser expecting the same but instead got a whole avalanche of jelly beans dumped into my bag. Oops but yay screamed my inner child. It was like playing my own personal mystery game throughout the week snacking on that bag randomly stumbling upon one of the few sour jelly beans mixed throughout. Dad's chocolate treats (I told him he should come home and tell everyone he ate "gopher" just to shock them.) weighed in each at 0.360lb so together the few pralines and gophers he bought cost $16.52. A pound of either item alone would have cost $22.95. The Chuckles candy cost $1.95 each and the 20 oz bottle of water rang up at $2. My Jelly Belly avalanche ended up weighing in at 1.43lb for a total cost of $22.81. Grand total = $49.11 after tax. One of these days I'm going to have a talk with that inner child and start making them pay half the bill.

As we made our way back to the Customs House, we noticed that it's right across the street from Charleston's cruise terminal. While our ship was not docked here, it was fun for the cruise nerd in me to arrive at just the right time to see a Silversea ship pull in. 

This time, the shuttle that came to pick us up was driven by the kind driver that took us to Fort Sumter yesterday. He started making conversation with the group and Dad complained about not having the chance to take a tour as well as get what he needed at a pharmacy. This dear man took it all in stride and informed us that in actuality, there's a Harris Teeter just a few blocks away. He even offered to detour there and drop us off if we promised to be done in the 15 minutes it would take him to drop off the other passengers back at the ship. We agreed and took off running as soon as he stopped the shuttle in front of the store entrance. Thankfully the pharmacy section was right by the checkout and we didn't have to wander the whole store looking for it. A quick query of an employee who pointed out we'd actually walked right past the eyedrops and a moment at an empty self checkout register later, we had a bag of eyedrops and large Band-Aids in our hands and $21.23 less in our wallets. Unfortunately due to a parade in town closing streets and causing lots of traffic, the shuttle driver couldn't get back to pick us up until around 40 minutes later. Dad was pushing to give up on him and call an Uber but I hated the thought of bailing on someone who was being so nice. As it turned out, once he did come back to pick us up he took advantage of being off the clock and having no one but us onboard to give us a personal tour of the city on the drive back to the ship. We saw historic mansions, personal sailboats along the waterfront, and the famous pig statues adorning the front steps of the owner of Piggly Wiggly. We loved hearing about how they were named Piggly and Wiggly and the owner dresses them up for each holiday. What started out as a rough morning ended with us finally accomplishing our shopping needs, enjoying a nice impromptu private tour of the city, and plenty of a sugar rush to come. This gentleman definitely received our thanks both in words and in monetary form as he dropped us off back at the ship right around lunchtime.