Since we did not arrive in port until 10AM today, Cruise Director Rhiannon filled the early half of the morning with the conclusion of the cruise long Step-a-thon, a morning stretch session, and a presentation on Jean Baptiste "Pomp" Charbonneau given by our onboard guest speaker Doug. Following the presentation, Rhiannon added to the previous concept of a "book your next cruise with us" cocktail hour by advertising today's session as "cocktails and small bites featured from each region that we sail." For those curious about whether there's any benefit to booking your next cruise while onboard, our sailing offered a "15% exclusive onboard discount."
As this was our last full day onboard and we didn't have a tour until the afternoon, we decided to try breakfast in the Restaurant. On my last ACL cruise, the Restaurant had a table set up with various items you could serve yourself such as fruit, yogurt, and pastries. Here, if it weren't for joining a table already in the middle of their meal, we wouldn't have known that you can ask your server for cups of fruit etc.
I rarely get to eat things like homemade waffles, pancakes, or french toast when I'm at home so I was really interested in trying the French Toast on today's menu. From what I understand from my tablemates, this was a fairly standard breakfast menu and didn't change daily like the lunch and dinner menus.
The French Toast was a plentiful portion that I wasn't able to finish. I paired it with sausage. I liked how the syrup was brought in a little dish for me to add myself.
The fruit cup brought by our server when I requested one. The bite size pieces were appreciated since I didn't have to try and cut them up on a syrup covered plate but unfortunately the honeydew melon was a little tough.
Today's lunch options that we were not onboard to partake:
Today's dinner menu:
The Lobster Bisque appetizer - Good portion size though I was a little surprised at the mustardy yellow color. This wasn't very thick as you might expect in a bisque and did not have any pieces of lobster.
Caesar Style Salad Appetizer - Asiago Crisp, Croutons, Anchovies, Romaine Heart, and Caesar Dressing. This picture is sans anchovies because this was Dad's appetizer choice.
Surf and Turf Crab Stuffed Lobster Tail - Beef Tenderloin, Drawn Butter, Asparagus, Lemon Zest, Idaho Baked Potato. This plentiful presentation was a welcome surprise. You'd typically find that lobster tails that are included once or twice a voyage on ocean cruises are quite small with the bigger offerings reserved for an upcharge or specialty dining. Especially now with several cruise lines adding an extra charge if you order more than one of those included entrees. My only critique of this entree would be the lack of any baked potato toppings to use. I used more drawn butter trying to flavor that baked potato than I did the lobster.
I thought it was very smart and clever the way the chef and culinary team arranged tonight's menu to feature a lot of similar ingredients. If you didn't want seafood, you could choose the middle option that is everything in the above except for the crab stuffed lobster tail and the drawn butter. A peppercorn sauce is listed only with the second dish but it was also added to the Surf and Turf entree. Or if you wished to avoid red meat, you could choose the third lighter option of a Maine Lobster Tail with Ravioli Florentine.
Our evening schedule featured a Q&A session with the Hotel Officers panel, a briefing on debarkation procedures, and a performance by the Nez Perce featuring storytelling, song, and dance titled "The People."
No cruise is complete without that sad last morning where they kick you off. ACL offered two airport options to fly out of after the cruise, Spokane, WA and Lewiston, ID. The crew, especially Lindsay who coordinated the airport transfers, are very vocal throughout the cruise about the difference between these two airports but make sure to check all your options when booking flights home post cruise.
With the cruise ending in Clarkston, WA, Lewiston, ID's airport is the closest airport. However, it is also such a small regional airport that it's one runway and one central building for checking in and waiting at your gate. Due to this, there were no nonstop flights and the flight times were very limited. There isn't even any concession areas at this airport so ACL was providing coffee, snacks, and box lunches for the passengers who chose this airport. Transfer bus service to Lewiston, ID's airport was complimentary and ran at 4:15AM, 6:00AM, and 8:30AM.
The exit where you cross the state line to enter into the town of Lewiston is literally about two blocks up from the port. We chose to take the transfer to Spokane, WA's airport instead so we could book a direct flight. This just over two hour drive cost us $120 per person and had the one time of 7:00AM. As we drove past the "This way to Lewiston, ID" sign, I heard several passengers start to panic that they'd boarded the wrong transfer bus convinced that it meant we were heading to Lewiston even though we'd turned in the opposite direction.
Two bus fulls of passengers chose this option and we ended up with the driver who'd never done this run. He got us there safely and within the expected time following bus #1 the whole way but there was a good bit of confusion with where he should stop for each airline and whose bags needed to come off. First the driver would say he'd be moving up to stop at each airline and stay on the bus until he got to ours, then the next minute he would say this first one was the only stop he was making. He started unloading everyone's luggage onto the curb and we chose to hop off and wheel our luggage down to our correct airline ourselves. So thankful we weren't trying to fly Qantas! With such an early arrival and a quick jaunt through security (TSA Pre-Check is worth every penny), it didn't take us long to reach our gate for a late morning flight home.
Thank you for following along on my American Cruise Lines redo on American Harmony as we explored the Columbia and Snake Rivers region of the Pacific Northwest! Coming soon will be the tale of our second river cruise of the year - an eleven day itinerary hotel and river cruise package on the Viking Mississippi.
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