Whether you want to stave off the wait till your next cruise or someone who still has yet to achieve the dream of cruising, sit back and relax as I share my personal experiences both on land and at sea!
Caesar salad starts off tonight's dinner meal and the anchovies were back in full force. Again it was funny to see the different amounts of anchovies on other people's salads. Maybe there's my picture in the galley with a notation - "this gal seems fishy."
I also wanted to try the BBQ Braised Pork Belly with Caramelized Onions and Spring Greens. We've tried various versions of pork belly on other cruises and haven't really found one that was good. This one unfortunately followed suit.
That's horseradish in the little cup but someone didn't believe me that it wasn't sour cream and doused his baked potato with it. A little disappointing in general that aside from the butter always on the table for the rolls, there was no sour cream or fixings for the baked potato. I'm guessing that shiny stuff on the brown outside strip of my meat was the artist formally known as Au Jus.
And for all you Carnival chocolate melting cake lovers - here is ACL's version known as the Chocolate Bomb. It's hard to tell in this picture but the center is the consistency of chocolate syrup.
We decided to skip the scheduled entertainment of Jazz pianist David Duckworth and headed back to our cabin to relax. While Dad watched TV, I stepped out on our balcony to watch the sunset sail away from Hilton Head and our arrival into Savannah, Georgia a mere three hours later.
I'm not sure what this little boat was that seemed to be parting the sea for us to follow but the large line in the water it formed created such a beautiful color contrast between the water behind and in front as well as with the setting sun.
Admission to the Harbour Town Lighthouse costs $4.50. You pay at the entrance and they give you a little wristband to wear. The last lighthouse I'd actually climbed (versus just seeing from the ground or a ship) was the 185 steps of the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse in Bermuda and that was a lot of winding steps with different variations in width. At the top (before the actual light) is a very small opening to step out onto the platform. I was glad no one had a camera on me then because it was less than graceful to crawl through that little opening. I had to stop and catch my breath about halfway up but when I came back down after enjoying the view from the top, our guide said "Did you go all the way to the top? I can't believe you're back already!" Now at the Harbour Town Lighthouse I was ready for the same challenge. Alas, this one was much easier since the steps were more like small flights of stairs in a building. The steps were broken up in 5-6 step increments and were wide, even, and straight lined up. They were still just narrow enough that it was more practical to step aside and wait if someone else was already walking by that set of stairs.
Just like Gibbs Hill, there were sections every so often where you could stop on a landing, catch your breath, and peruse various displays of historic photos and information. Benches and ottoman style seating was available on many landings.
The tribute to the Coast Guard was interesting.
Bottles from the Civil War era that had been excavated near Fort Sherman:
I was about halfway up when I realized the wall had painted measurement markings showing your progress.
Anyone else find the placement of this part of the Coast Guard exhibit humorous?
An example of the longest set of stairs in the lighthouse - And no, none of the stairs collapsed in to form a chute to slide back down on despite what the angle of this picture suggests.
At the top before you step outside into the open air Observation Deck, there is a small gift shop. Unfortunately, there was no one up there manning the shop and I was unsure about taking anything from it back down to the other gift shop area where I entered the lighthouse. Even though I'd have to pass by there anyway when I left the lighthouse. And to be honest, the last thing I wanted to do was climb all the way back down just to ask the woman that sold me my admission only to have her tell me I had to climb back up and bring her down what I wanted to buy.
For this lighthouse it was a full size normal door to step outside and the deck was wide enough to fit a few people side by side. My 114 step climb had some beautiful rewards from this vantage point.
I liked that each corner of the deck featured a directional explanation of your view from that point.
And of course who could resist the great view of our ship from here:
Just because we never left the USA doesn't mean I won't get my picture of the local flag for this trip! This is one of the flags that is flying from the observation deck.
I found the top inscription here a little ominous:
In case anyone's in the market for a yacht, I found some in Hilton Head for you:
Moving around the observation deck we next encounter the 18th fairway of the Harbour Town Links.
And a look back at all the ants on the dock where we came in on the tender:
Bring your quarters if you want a telescopic view of your view from the lighthouse.
Once back at the bottom entrance, I briefly browsed the gift shop there but it was mostly large items and fragile items like ships in a bottle and other trinkets. Now off to browse the shops in search of a wooden magnet for this port. One of the things we find, especially in Caribbean ports, is that the tourist gift shops might offer some sort of deal, discount, or freebie offer for cruisers. I was a little surprised here though to find a little shop out of the way down around the corner that featured a sign on the door advertising a discount to anyone with an ACL ship badge/nametag. The shop, I'm guessing after some research that it's Kilwins, mostly sold homemade gifts like jars of jelly and 1/2 of it was taken up by an ice cream shop. Would have loved to take advantage of the discount offer but I didn't see anything I wanted to buy.
A perfect example of what it must be like to live here year round:
I wandered around the shops along the waterfront for a while and finally succeeded in finding a wooden magnet for this port. While the small gift shop about 20 feet behind the lighthouse had several such magnets, I picked out this one since it showcased the lighthouse I'd just climbed:
Checking the picture of the Ship to Shore tender schedule on my phone, I realized that I'd finished exploring and shopping with about 5-10 minutes to spare before the next tender was schedule to leave. I rushed back to the top of the dock and saw this large crowd of my fellow cruisers gathered so I stuck around thinking it was the line for the tender. I soon realized it was actually the group waiting for the next alligator tour and I ran back down the ramp to our tender with the crew pulling up the ropes right after I hopped on. Shoutout to Kathy who I met on this tender ride back and enjoyed many a conversation with for the rest of the trip.
Once back on board, I took advantage of being reunited with my long zoom lens to get some pictures of the lighthouse from the ship:
Hotel Director Cheree came up with the idea of playing Two Truths and a Lie during the Cocktail Hour. In case you've never played the game, the person tells three things about themselves. Two are true and one is a lie. Everyone else then has to guess which one of the three things is the lie. And then of course it's a great conversation starter because there is always someone who comes up with something so wild, you ask for the full story. The first night or so this was promised to be run, they cancelled because not enough people bothered to fill out the little form with their answers. When they finally did run the game, I was amazed at how many people had answers about meeting presidents, foreign leaders, and celebrities as their truths! Should have had a follow up game of "Guess Their Age" based on which president they revealed to have met.
Next up: Dinner and a picture perfect sunset sail from Hilton Head and arrival into Savannah!
Today was another late arrival as we didn't get into Hilton Head until 11AM. This time Ali scheduled a talk by guest speaker Rachel about Hilton Head and this week's future cruise sales pitch, I mean talk, for the time between breakfast and our arrival into port.
First things first as we head down to fuel up before one of the few days I'd really been looking forward to this trip.
Picked up a little fruit and these little quiche muffin looking things from the buffet table. Fruit was really tough and the muffin things were dry.
I went simple today with a cheese omelette and sausage. I appreciate the fencing sword lookalike fruit garnish placement. You could tell that they were using two different brands at least of breakfast sausage and I wouldn't be surprised if one was pork and one was turkey. Be mindful of that if you have dietary restrictions.
Hilton Head was our first and as it turns out only tender port so the daily schedule delivered to our cabins the night before had a chart at the bottom detailing the times you could catch the "launch" both from the ship and at the dock to come back to the ship. According to Ali, Beaufort N.C. was also supposed to be a tender port but we were able to dock after all. Definitely take a picture of this chart with your phone or camera so you can refer to it once on land.
The secret word for today's excursion choices is animals! Animal interaction and lighthouses - these are a few of my favorite things! Now if only there was time for a food tour it would be the perfect trifecta of port experiences. Because of the tender and that each of these excursions could only hold so many people per session, we were all assigned a time slot by Ali. Both excursions cost $50 per person and were for the same time frames (1:30PM, 2:30PM, & 3:30PM) so I don't think anyone tried to do both options.
Option #1: Alligator and Wildlife Excursion- Wheelchair accessible, one hour length, activity level 1, camera permitted, and restrooms available. After a 5-10 minute van ride, you will embark a boat for a tour of the 600 acre Sea Pines Resort Forest Preserve. The tour is narrated by an experienced lowcountry guide. I heard from different people who went at different tour times that while some saw several alligators, the other group only saw birds and plants. The first session at 1:30PM seemed to be the most active this day.
Option #2: Dolphin Discovery Cruise - wheelchair accessible, one hour length, activity level 1, camera permitted, and restrooms available. A guide will share bottle nose dolphin facts as you cruise around the water. Boat is boarded directly from the same dock that the tender drops off. This is the one I wanted to do. We've done about 3 different alligator themed boat tours in our cruising history so I really wanted the chance to see dolphins. We were assigned the 1:30PM time slot.
With less wind and slightly warmer temperatures, the open top deck was the place to be today as our ship was greeted by dolphins galore! On a cruise ship, you might get lucky depending on location and time of year to see a pod of dolphins playing in the wake so I was amazed to see how active and prevalent they were for us today. It was like they were happy for the audience and had been desperately waiting to put on a show. You needn't wait more than a few minutes before a dolphin would either come up for air, jump, or play. I think the appearance of so many dolphins even surprised the crew because they repeatedly joked that the tender ride would be like a free dolphin tour.
Here's some pictures of what boarding and riding the tender is like as I watched the pre-tour group head over to explore the town:
We decided to try and get a quick lunch before our tour time so of course service was as slow as possible. It did pick up a little bit when we mentioned being on the first tour but we had to wolf down the food when it finally showed up.
We both went with the Roasted Turkey Club though I was a little surprised Dad (Mr. Bland) didn't ask about the roasted garlic mayonnaise. When it came, he started complaining about how "the sauce" on it didn't taste right. I said "It's the mayo." "No, it can't be the mayo." "Yes, it was roasted garlic mayo." "What?!" *Looks back at menu in disbelief* The sandwich tasted fine to me but then I'm the kind of person who uses salad dressings as sandwich condiments. A little ranch or Caesar dressing on your turkey sandwich or a little French dressing on your corn beef sandwich, try it, you'll thank me later.
Once Ali called over the intercom for the 1:30PM tours to start boarding the tender boat, we swallowed the last bites of our sandwiches and joined those who were already lining up. The crew was great about helping everyone transfer onto the tender and soon Ali joined us for the ride over so she could check in everyone on the tours.
The ride was about 10-15 minutes and very smooth on the calm waters. The dock was easy to step up onto and then we had to walk up a long ramp to reach the main level where all the shops and restaurants are located. Ali organized us to stand in groups based on whether we were the alligator or dolphin tour and then fetched the dolphin tour boat driver to let him know we were ready. We headed back down the ramp to where his boat was tied up on the other side of the same dock. The boat was fairly easy to step into but featured a long step to go from where you step in to the actual floor of the boat to walk to your seat. This was because when not getting in and out, this space was covered with a cushion and used as another seat.
Since we had reached the boat first and went as far into the boat as possible, we ended up with the first seats along the front of the boat. It gave us some great views almost all the way around without having to look around someone else. Pro tip - don't listen when your traveling partner says you don't need to bring the bigger zoom lens. We had great sightings of dolphins eating, jumping, and playing throughout the entire tour but if you want that National Geographic style shots, you need the bigger zoom lens. One of our tour mates joked that he'll look back on his vacation photos wondering why he has 50 pictures of water because he was always just a little too late in catching the dolphins on camera before they dipped back underwater.
There was another group out enjoying a sailboat tour and I'm a sucker for taking pictures of other ships/boats.
It was fun to watch their reaction when the dolphins started popping up around their boat as well.
The importance of perspective:
This was the side our balcony cabin was on:
Once we returned to the dock, I was determined to climb the lighthouse so Dad opted to grab the next tender back and return to the ship. All throughout the area are bright red rocking chairs so you can choose to simply sit and people watch or grab that drink and snack watching the water before returning to the ship.
Stay tuned for the next post to see what it was like climbing the Harbour Town Lighthouse!
