American Cruise Lines - Balcony Cabin Photo Tour

For this cruise we booked cabin #321 as we were told it was the only cabin left to book. At least it's a super easy number to remember. It's classified as an AAC with Private Balcony, one classification below the Owner's Suite with Private Balcony. This is a connecting cabin with #319 but the connecting door was locked by a regular key. We kept it locked the entire time. The occupants of #319 changed after the first week but both weeks you could hear them talking, showering, flushing, or watching TV. Especially if we had our balcony door open for airflow. There is A/C and heat with your own controls in the cabin but on days when we came in from tour, we needed to leave the door open for some fresh air. We always closed it when leaving the cabin. In comparison, if I was in our bathroom or lying in bed which was against the other wall, I could hear the flushing and showering of cabin #323. Not enough to be bothersome except when our connecting neighbors chose to watch an action movie. It was up so loud I was tempted to go over and introduce myself since they obviously felt we should be watching this movie together.

The location of the cabin was great for the most part as it was just one cabin length's away from a door to the balcony space lining the aft of deck 3. I loved slipping out there for some private viewing and picture taking as rarely anyone else utilized the space. Walking past a few cabins in the other direction took us to the midship entrance to the open top deck or the 3rd deck lounge. Often trotted down to the lounge for checking in with email/social media during down times. Main downside is that to come back from anything else, it means climbing 2-3 flights of stairs. My knees were not happy by the end of these 2 weeks but it was fun using my Iphone's health app to see how many flights I climbed each day.

We've had several stewards in our cruising experience. Some were like secret ninjas swooping in and out before you could blink. We've had some that were efficient on time but weren't the best at cleaning. For the first several days, our steward Emma was great at taking care of our cabin within an hour or two of us heading down to breakfast. Then we started noticing that our cabin was still not done by the late morning/early afternoon. Not much of an issue when there's something else to do on the ship or at the very least, another bathroom option! When we next saw Emma, Dad asked her about the change and she told us that Deck 2 had complained that their rooms weren't being done first. I can see if this was on the other ships where suite cabins could get some priority but what makes Deck 2 think they should get special treatment? I did notice that after asking her, she'd do just a couple cabins on Deck 3 including ours and then go finish with Deck 2 before completing Deck 3. Unfortunately it often meant a rush job in our cabin and the obvious messes remained on several days.

There are railings lining the passenger cabin corridors for mobility help but they also make great places to momentarily hold our drinks while we opened the cabin door with our magnetic key cards. The few times we went out into open ocean, we felt it so much more in our cabins than on the bigger ships. Desk drawers were constantly flying open and closed until we wedged things in front like the desk chair. One night I got up to use the bathroom and I had to wait for a wave break just to go from holding onto the desk to opening the bathroom door. Once I turned the handle on the bathroom door, it flew open with so much force it slammed against our main cabin door. Thankfully that was the opposite direction of where I was standing at the time or I wouldn't have needed to go into the bathroom anymore.

This is just inside the entryway of our cabin. Main door has the magnetic "Do not disturb/Please Make up my room" sign. It was about 3 days into the cruise before I realized that the sign was proof our walls were magnetic just like the big ships. The tip of using magnets to hold important papers up on your cabin walls will also work on this ship. We got a folder of information left on our desk for each leg of the trip so I just took to storing papers in the folders. Those hanging knobs between the two doors came in handy when I needed to hang up a soaked raincoat. The bathroom door is on the right of this photo and opens out toward the main door. We quickly learned to open both cautiously because the open bathroom door blocks the main door when opened and heaven help you if you're standing in the entryway when either swings open. 

Let's enter the bathroom next. Usually the big ships have a raised entry requiring you to step up into the bathroom and this one did not. It's a pretty straight shot to walk into the shower or over to use the sink or toilet. There is a little bit of a step into the shower. Tons of grab bars both in the shower and along the interior wall. One giant mirror lines the wall behind the sink and toilet. Decent counter space and a couple drawers on the left side of the sink. The cabinet under the sink held extra tissues, toilet paper, and toiletries. Dad stored his gallon of distilled water in there between uses. 

We heard from other passengers that trying to take a shower in the morning was nearly useless because there would be barely any water pressure. I found that I'd have to turn the handles on the sink faucet all the way up to get more than a small trickle when washing my hands. Dad and I took to showering either in the late afternoon or before bed in shifts because we only ever had one set of towels like you'd find in your own bathroom at home. This way, we'd have had a towel refreshment in between the afternoon person's shower and the bedtime one. Major downside was the lack of cleanliness consistency. There would be days when you could tell the bathroom floor was cleaned, other days you could still see the hair, powder, and random gunk still on the floor. Worst part was that, cleaned or not, about 3 days in we had ants start appearing coming out of the baseboard and occasionally in the shower. 

The top drawer in the bathroom housed the hair dryer. This didn't seem to be connected within the drawer so you could take it out into the cabin where there's more room for styling.

For those who like knowing what brand toiletries are so you can decide whether you need to bring your own, the ship had Judith Jackson Spa branded bar soap, lotion, shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, makeup remover wipes, and the little things like cotton balls and Q-tips. That is also their supplied Purell which was also in dispensers before entering the dining salon.

It is a fixed showerhead and I'd suggest turning it on to warm up before you climb inside the shower. No room to escape the icy spray if you don't. I did use the shower gel and the shampoo but found that the shampoo would still feel like it was on my hair making it tough to comb through after showering.

The rest of the cabin with my back to the entryway - I heard other passengers talk about opening their window but I could never figure out how. Took me back to public school classrooms trying to coax those venetian window blinds into submission. They did fold closed but you could still see a nightlight's worth of light around the window frame. They say you can fit suitcases under the beds but one of the beds had the life jackets taking up all the room. Those beds not only slid on their frame with the slightest of touch but also would fly up if you plopped down on one end with too much force. 

There was a narrow path between my bed by the desk and the desk itself so I got really skilled at the sideways shuffle by cruise end. I also became very aware of letting any body parts hang over the side of the bed during open ocean nights because those drawers when open come right in line with the bed.

We asked Emma for water and she brought us a couple of these tiny bottles. Really missed the fact that none of these cabins have mini fridges so we could keep these water bottles cold. 

There is cold storage available if you have to store medicine like insulin. I witnessed the dining room manager retrieving a passenger's insulin supply each night at dinner and would stand by waiting until she was finished so he could take it back to put away. Also noticed another passenger asking the manager about getting a sharps container since the steward only supplied an empty soda can for them to use in the meantime. In ACL's defense, the passenger admitted that they hadn't let the line know in advance that they'd be needing medical supplies. If you need certain things like that to be on hand, take the time to not only note it on that form to send back pre-cruise but also follow it up with a phone call to customer service to make sure it's noted on your reservation. 

There is a main light switch on the wall by the main door to control the one overhead fluorescent light panel. The lamp on the desk and the lamp on the nightstands are individually controlled. We had to get our nightstand lamp replaced when we noticed the socket was loose. To the back left of this picture is the only closet space in the room. There was regular hangers and skirt hangers with a shelf on top holding a second tissue box and the ice bucket. No door to the closet.

The desk has 3 drawers on the left deep enough for clothes and 3 drawers on the right. The top drawer on the right held paper coffee cups and various coffee making options for the Keurig on the desk. We never used any of that but stowed any extra snacks and drinks in that drawer. Great plan until we realized that we had no ice for the drinks unless we trekked back down to the one ice machine.

The dresser drawers underneath the TV were plenty of space for Dad to store his clothes. The TV has a small slot on the side for putting in one of the DVDs you can help yourself to from the shelves in the lounges. One of the TV channels was dedicated to ACL themed programming so part of our scheduled activity options was tuning to that channel for Ali's movie of choice in the afternoon. To her credit, she did try and pick ones that fit the theme of our itinerary. Gone with the Wind - sure I can see that fitting a southern town itinerary. Forest Gump - absolutely since we heard several times about the places we passed where the movie was filmed. Frost/Nixon though? Or as Ali wrote it in the schedule, "Front/Nixon?"

Just behind the lamp on the desk in the far right of this picture, there is a big red knob labeled as the medical emergency button. Otherwise, there is no source of communication (i.e. phone for calling other cabins or down to the office/kitchen) inside the room.

Dad brought along an extension cord just in case for his CPAP machine but was pleasantly surprised that the clock on the nightstand had outlets and USB ports on top of it.

There is a small step up to head through the door onto the balcony. We learned to make sure that we heard the door click when closing or it could fly back open. 

Decent sized balcony though. Plenty of room to move past one another or around the chairs. A little odd though that it was lined with this sort of blue AstroTurf style carpeting. Those are only slats on the balcony railing, no glass in-between so keep an eye on any youngsters who could slip anything through those slats. The balcony divider shown in this picture would rattle repeatedly with any decent wind or rockiness. 

Overall, better space wise than we expected for a much smaller ship. Do I miss the extra comforts and space of the cabins we're used to on the bigger ships? Most definitely! Besides a fridge the biggest thing I missed was having a space that had room to sit down a drink and relax while watching TV or reading. We took to moving over Dad's CPAP machine to the other nightstand until he was ready for bed so we could at least have space for our drinks while lying in our beds to relax during the day. A couple times when playing games on my tablet, I even took to laying down on the floor in front of the chairs. Then again, I've been known to do that in any cabin because I'm just a big kid in an adult's body. :)

American Cruise Lines - Embarkation Day (Part 3)

One of the best things about cruising out of Baltimore other than it being 20 minutes from our house and one of the easiest terminal check-ins we've ever experienced, is that you get a unique view of both the Francis Scott Key Bridge and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge that is much cooler than the view you may get stuck in traffic while driving across these bridges. I think whoever's job it is to check on bridges and arrange maintenance and repair should work it into their contract that they have to be on a cruise periodically to do their job. I bet that would go over as well as asking my doctor to write a prescription saying I have to go on more cruises.

One of the nicer things about this ship is that there wasn't 100 other people crowding the top deck waiting to see us pass under these bridges. Even though mentally you know these ships have passed under these bridges hundreds of times without issue, it's still exciting to see the perspective as it looks like it won't and then suddenly fits. Doesn't hurt that I'm fascinated with photographing and viewing bridges and lighthouses. Guess I should have known all along that I'd be a cruise fanatic then!

How to not have to deal with chair hogs - Step 1: Have no pool on board. Step 2: Be only 40-60 degrees outside with high winds.

Getting closer...

Hmm, that looks too high?

 We made it!

Even with all the jokes that Grandma needs little Tommy to show her how to work her computer, there were a lot of passengers that hung out in the respective deck lounges constantly not for the reading or game playing but for the best connection to the ship's included wi-fi! It looked like someone took a stereotypical picture of millennials all in a room together and never interacting with each other and applied that face aging app to it. There were three wi-fi routers on board, each named for their deck. A couple times we'd find it easier while in our cabin on deck 3 to connect to the router on deck 2. However, the other nice thing about always being in the USA, it didn't leave us with a surprise roaming phone bill by going on cellular most of the time. Never go on cellular while on a bigger cruise ship or you'll connect to one of their "Cellular at sea" towers and be charged a whopping fee for roaming.

As you may recall from my previous trip reports, there's two ways to make Dad's taste buds happy. Offer some sort of meat and potatoes meal and provide plenty of cookies. Dad jokes that he needs me around to translate the fancy terminology on menus and whether or not it's something he would like. I've tried explaining what the cooking terms mean but he usually just interrupts to ask "Yeah but do I eat that?" I guess my foodie nature skipped a generation. On this cruise, they would provide twice daily these trays of fresh baked warm cookies at 10AM and 3PM. Princess has a similar offering which I have yet to encounter where they feature a rolling cart of cookies and pitchers of cold milk to enjoy with it. I never bothered to ask but I believe the only time I saw milk on this ship was in pitchers for breakfast cereals. On this first day, the kitchen only brought out a total of 6 cookies. I had a fellow cruiser once joke that trivia games was the only time she sees this many people out of their cabins and then they scatter back away. Apparently in the absence of trivia games on this ship, it's fresh warm cookie time (aside from cocktail hour) that brings out the masses. People we hadn't seen all day would suddenly appear in the Chesapeake Lounge, get their cookies, and leave. Dad went down to get his first try of these cookies and reported that passengers were even knocking each other out of the way to get to the cookie tray first. He mentioned it to our guest speaker Rachel and she took it upon herself to tell the kitchen to make more cookies at a time. When she stopped in the hall later to let me know that, another woman nearby told me about being the passenger that a gentleman nearly knocked over. The waiters would try to combat this as the cruise went on by moving around the room and offering one cookie to each person. Downside to that is when they don't have enough to offer to everyone in the room or they only offer to the people on whichever side of the room they chose to walk to first before leaving the tray behind on the counter by the coffee. Next day we did see more cookies made but it was obvious by the size difference that they'd simply made the same amount of dough and rolled them smaller. If you're going on this ship and desperately love cookies, bring your own. Or perhaps pay for your excursions by operating a cookie selling side business in the back of the lounge.

Next up was our standard 5:30PM nightly cocktail hour in the Chesapeake Lounge. We're not normally drinkers. I like the blended drinks and am just as happy with a smoothie version of a pina colada than ones with alcohol. Dad likes the occasional light beer but only drinks and very rarely so on cruises. We were definitely in the minority as the line for the drink table often snaked across the room and out the door. There was also always a table of finger foods and usually one or two trays of something served by other wait staff walking around the room. Over the cruise we noticed a lot of repeats like cheese cubes and more fancier options like mussels in white wine sauce. Tonight was our first cheese board and grilled teriyaki salmon. It became a running theme during the cruise of spotting how they reused the same ingredients over and over. One night's spinach and artichoke dip became artichoke crostini another night.

Tonight we got to meet Tony and Phiz from Australia who were making the most of their time in the US visiting New York first and then continuing on to Miami once the cruise ended in Jacksonville. When the waitstaff came around offering our first of many "fill in the blank" on a crostini, Tony asked if it was gluten free. The response was "Umm, I think so?" While Tony did try the crostini, I personally would not have felt comfortable with the waitress' uncertainty. At the very least, I would have answered "I'm not sure, let me go check with the kitchen first." Shoutout to this sweet young lady pictured above setting up this night's snacks. We had some nice chats and it made me smile to see her grossed out reaction when I used my phone to help us both find out exactly what is in the falafel she was serving another night. She was scheduled to have her wisdom teeth taken out when this cruise ended so hope she's doing well!

The cocktail hour itself runs from 5:30PM to 7PM. Many people would bring their latest cocktail (no one cared if you had 1 or 5 in that 90 minute time frame) down to dinner around 6PM or 6:30PM. Dinner itself was scheduled from 5:30PM until 7:30PM where you could get as much wine or beer as your heart desired. Then at 8PM was considered "Late Bar" back in the Chesapeake Lounge to coincide with the evening entertainment. And yes it was just as popular then too. Not sure how some of these people were still upright and walking by 9PM. While there is no room service, if requested, a wait staff member would bring you up your choice from the menu on a tray to your room. I recall one night a passenger with balance issues doing just that because the ship was too rocky and she didn't feel safe leaving her room. A couple other times we were in the dining room and a waiter apologized for having to step away and deliver a tray to someone. Never an issue but appreciated them saying something first.

This is the wine list that was available for the entire cruise at lunch and dinner.

My appetizer tonight was the Maple Brown Sugar Scallop with a Red Onion Marmalade and Shoepeg Corn Risotto. It was fairly good though the maple became a little too caramelized with the brown sugar making a hard crust on one edge.

Dinner entrée was Chicken Marsala with Balsamic Wild Rice Pilaf and Roasted Asparagus. Can't go wrong with chicken and mushrooms. The chicken was nice and tender and cooked evenly.

I try not to make anyone else at my table have their food picture taken, even Dad, so only occasionally will I include shots of his meals. His dinner tonight was the Tenderloin of Pork with Dirty Rice, Roasted Red Pepper Demi, and Green Beans. He liked pretty much everything but the green beans. Funny thing is I don't like asparagus from the can so he never realized I'll eat asparagus until it came on the side of a restaurant plate. For him, he only likes vegetables like asparagus and green beans when they're soft from a can. Just like with your kids, sometimes you have to pick your battles.

And for dessert, I went with the option of orange sherbet. Super sweet but tasty.

The wait staff and kitchen staff during meals were super accommodating for any special requests at mealtime whether it is for food allergies or intolerances or you simply wanted something else. If you don't like anything on the menu, they whipped you up a burger or grilled cheese. Tablemates would ask for main dishes with other sides and once I wanted to try both things so I got just the sandwich part from one entrée and then the pasta in the other dish.

Each night around 8PM or 8:10PM, our Cruise Director Ali would hold an overview to learn about the next day's excursions and answer questions. This usually only consisted of her reading the "Ship to Shore" one page daily schedule put into our cabins during evening turndown service. A lot of the times, the offered tours were the only thing scheduled for the bulk of the day so that is also when she'd cover times to meet and where to meet. Normally on the big ships, you get a tour ticket delivered to your cabin that tells you an excursion start time, an earlier time to meet, and where to meet whether it be a lounge on the ship or on the pier. Here I had to ask where to meet since she hadn't bothered to cover it and found that everything except for our tender port called for meeting up on the pier. One of the pro tips I have for anyone sailing on ACL in the future, use your phone to take a picture of the Ship to Shore so that when you're out and about you can refer to it for activity times, time of departure for the next port, and the address of where the ship is docked in case you end up using your own transportation to get back to the ship. Ali also always included her phone number and Hotel Manager Cheree's phone number on the schedule. I'm guessing they were both ACL provided phones given the similar numbers.

The nightly entertainment for tonight was the first of many singing acts - the husband and wife duo of Robert and Stephanie. Many other cruisers recognized them from previous sailings. They both are from New York and trained as Broadway singers so they performed a few shows throughout the first week with somewhat different themes. Tonight was dubbed "Hear their renditions of classic Broadway Musicals."

For the evening entertainment, they'd lower the blinds and move the couches out to sit like the rows of chairs while the performers stood at the front of the lounge. Each act brought on their own equipment except for microphones.

We're used to having more of a variety of cruise ship evening entertainment shows from singers, production shows, magicians, and comedians so having singers every time was waring. We ended up chatting with them later in the week and learned that Robert used to work for ACL as someone who trains cruise directors. That is until they decided that such training was no longer needed and eliminated his position. He also shared his own stories of the inconsistency between corporate ACL and those having to interact with passengers on the ships. It gave us a new insight and appreciation into the struggles Ali had been facing when planned things wouldn't happen or she'd promise something only to say something else when asked about it. Robert and Stephanie were contracted to stay on the ship doing more performances through to Jacksonville but ACL sold their cabin to someone coming on for the second leg. They had to move all their stuff into the 3rd deck lounge and left the ship when it docked at midnight to drive down to Savannah in order to catch a flight back to New York. They do have another business running tours and being concierges to people in several cities based out of their hometown of New York but honestly I'm not sure I'd be as ready to accept bookings on ACL ships in the future if I was treated like they were.

Aside from the Late Bar, the waitstaff would come around with paper lunch sack style bags of popcorn and a few ice cream sundaes in fountain soda style glasses. There was only a few sundaes on the tray but people would bum rush the staff for those bags of popcorn. Dad had been looking forward to the promise of root beer floats that we'd read in other reviews. He asked after a couple days of nothing but sundaes and they finally prepared a couple glasses worth. I also noticed that they took another passenger's request for strawberry ice cream sundaes (making just the one) and seemed disappointed when it was the same night she was too full to have any dessert.

American Cruise Lines - Embarkation Day (Part 2)

Deck 1 had a small set of passenger cabins as well as the dining salon. As you rounded the corner to head into or out of the salon, there was a set of bulletin boards full of information. First posted was a list of our itinerary:

Next item was a little surprising to us, a list of every passenger's name, hometown, and cabin number:

Also on this side of the board was a list of crew members and their main assigned areas of the ship. I appreciated being able to see the proper names of the staff we thought did a good job so that I could make sure to name them properly in my post cruise survey praises. The final item that was up all the time was little cards showcasing by name how many people had that specific number of "stars" or sailings with the line. That's my name as the sole 1st cruise person on that top left card. On the 2nd week, these cards were changed out and I got to be on a list with a couple people under "2nd cruise." Note that these cards refer to me as "Ms." which is how I listed my name on the paperwork. As the cruise went on and we picked excursions with multiple time slots up to Ali to assign, we found us listed on those schedules as Mr. & Mrs. At some point along the way, I started noticing my name written as Ms. again. Who knew I would get married, go on a honeymoon cruise, and get divorced all in a 2 week period?

I'm a planner by nature, in case it wasn't obvious by all the detail in these blogs, so it was odd to me to have to wait until we were onboard to not only book but even to learn about our shore tours options. In our cabin we had been left a folder with general ship information and the list of tour options. For this meeting where everyone gathered in the Chesapeake Lounge, we were instructed to bring said folder with us. Ali introduced all of the main onboard officers and the guest lecturer Rachel Perkins before getting a good amount of help from Rachel going over the excursion choices. We soon learned that Ali had never done this itinerary before so questions like "Is there anything nearby to walk to?" was lost on her. To her credit, Ali did know her passenger demographic and described each tour option based on the amount of walking and the availability of bathrooms. 

One snafu we soon learned is that we were only given one copy of this sign up sheet. Not an issue as far as filling out both our choices since the last column asked for how many attendees but it was an issue for remembering what tours and what times we had chosen. There is no tour tickets delivered to your room that you turn in to the tour operator like on the big ships. Real quick before turning in this paper to Ali at the end of her talk, we used the back of one of the other papers in our folder to jot down our choices. This was improved the 2nd week when we discovered 2 copies of the sign-up sheet in our new folder. With no casino, shops, or upcharge restaurants on board, there is no other fees on your onboard account except for excursions. Then in theory at the end of your sailing, they put a bill in your room and have you settle with the hotel manager on the last day. You can choose the few complimentary shuttle options or just get off the ship to do your own thing in every port and have a zero balance at the end. Or you can have sailed enough to get free excursions and choose to sign up for everything. The theory is that they have a checklist when you show up for the tour based on your cabin number and if you decide at some point not to go after all, then you shouldn't be charged. On the big ships, they require you cancel any reserved excursions within a certain time frame, usually 48 hours in advance of port arrival. We took the time to let Ali know the few times we changed our minds about a tour but alas, the bill we were given at the end of this first week charged not only Dad despite his comped tours but both of us for the ones we chose not to go on. Dad took his trip confirmation showing the comped tours to Hotel Manager Cheree and she cleared his charges and the ones for tours we didn't attend. 

With the only other item on our schedule for this afternoon being a 3:30PM time slot for anyone with dietary needs to meet with the Executive Chef, I took the time to walk the ship and grab photos of each public area. Our cabin was the 2nd to last cabin on the port side of deck 3. A short walk to the right led to a door leading to a small deck space. There is a little bit of a step to go over as you pass through the door. Nice quiet spot to watch the wake and look over the ship's only tender boat. This tender boat hung just outside deck 2's aft door which is why deck 2's door was marked as crew only. When they used it, it was lowered to deck 1 just outside the dining salon where you climbed down a couple steps to reach the long narrow platform before boarding. Tons of railings and deck hands there to help make the transition if anyone needs assistance. 

From this 3rd deck space, you could climb the stairs up to the open top deck area. This is where you have the putting green, gym machines, and lots of seating and loungers. There is one elevator, an old apartment style elevator with a gate between you and the door. The elevator does go all the way up to this top deck but some people had trouble using it because the latch on the outside door would stick from the inside.  This gym space had 1 elliptical, 1 machine for your arms, and one exercise bike. The area was surrounded by a plastic tent covering. 

Putting Green:

Outdoor Seating - no chair hogs when the wind made it freezing to be up here. That white wall in the left side of this picture is the elevator.

Right across from this elevator is a small set of stairs that also lead back down to deck 3 putting you back in the middle of the ship.

View back toward our cabin from where those stairs lead from the top deck Our cabin is the 2nd of the 2nd set of doors on the right of this photo.

To my left in this photo is the 3rd deck library/lounge. Both the 2nd and 3rd decks had these lounge spaces with seating, a table, and sources of personal amusement like books, puzzles, and games. Each lounge also had an internet router so 85% of the time, the space would be filled with people who brought their devices to be closer to the internet signal. Later in the cruise, Ali would list in the schedule self led games of bridge, gin, and dominoes in each of the lounges. This deck had a computer and printers for passenger use - one here in the lounge which Dad had to fix for them to connect to the internet, and one outside in the landing. Note the door across the room leading to the outside. Each lounge had these doors that led to a small outdoor platform. Great for viewing during the cruise but as it turns out, these platforms became gangway entrances/exits dependent on how high the tide was. They did have deck hands available to help anyone maneuver the gangway no matter where it was but it was definitely a glutes workout the higher the incline became. 

The rest of the decks had the elevator doors by each stair landing midship. Wasn't much walking to go from whatever spot to an elevator and back again. The stairs themselves had railings the entire length and were wide enough to have people going up one side and down the other at the same time. Did pinch my fingers a couple times sliding my hand along the railing. Shoutout to steward Heather who we saw many times wiping down the stairwell railings. We told her the criteria we learned the big ships have to do if sickness gets too prevalent onboard and she said "Wow, my job doesn't seem so bad anymore." Who needs walking tours when you can just climb 3 flights of stairs every time you wanted to go back and forth to your cabin?

The last space on deck 3 is the bridge or pilothouse all the way at the front of the ship. Pictures from there to follow in a future post.

Deck 2 has more passenger cabins and some crew cabins. One of the funniest random moments I recall from this cruise is sitting alone in the 2nd deck library/lounge and hearing one of the crew members trying to find Ali by knocking on her cabin door. I couldn't help but chuckle as I heard *knock knock* Cruise Director Ali! *knock knock* Cruise Director Ali! a la Sheldon on Big Bang Theory. 

Another oddity I found on this ship is that the only "public" bathroom outside of one's cabin bathroom is a single user powder room located in the deck 2 stairwell. It's right across from the deck 2 lounge and down the hall from the Chesapeake Lounge. It can be a great location if you just want to run out real quick and back to the activity but you really feel the inconvenience when it's taking a while for your cabin to be cleaned and only one person at a time can use the one public restroom. 

If you turn right after stepping off the stairs on the 2nd deck, you find the ship's office. The first day it was said that someone would be manning the office all day but we soon learned that there's only certain office hours, 9AM-11AM and again from 8PM to 9:30PM. 

The 2nd deck library/lounge featured a larger table and only a couple large chairs (on the other side of the room):

Turning left from the stairs eventually dead ends into the Chesapeake Lounge. This is where all of the main entertainment was held, all of Rachel's daily talks, the few art classes led by a guest artist, and the cocktail hour. This is also where you would find a self serve coffee/tea/hot cocoa machine, the one onboard ice machine, the sodas and snacks, and the remnants if any of the twice daily cookie delivery. 

These big tables in the back of the room were used during the art sessions:

The rest of the room had couches and chairs scattered throughout so there was tons of seating even if everyone showed up for an activity. Only downside is these chairs have the end of the arms curve back in and connect on the inside edges of the seat cushion so anyone with curves like mine had those ends digging into my legs leaving bruises. Most of the time people went for the chairs first so it wasn't too tough to find a couch to sit on instead.

There was a door from this room leading to the outside bow of the ship where passengers could step outside to admire the anchor mechanisms. The back of this room always housed the ice machine, the snack baskets, the water dispenser, cans of soda and small bottles of orange, apple, and cranberry juices. Some days I wished they'd just store the sealed drinks in the ice machine but there was always cups to fill and pour out the drink over ice. The beers and wine bottles in this picture are only there because they were setting up for cocktail hour at the time.

When it was time for cocktail hour, they set up a long table in front of the ice machine and one of the managers stood behind the table filling orders as people lined up to get their evening drinks. This was quite the popular spot as some people would down their drinks on the way to their seat and be right back in line.

I often see people caring as much about their coffee creamer and sugar choices as they do which wines are available. Here's what ACL had to offer:

There were pots to pour your own drip coffee or this machine where you could make cups of specialty coffee. Or if you're like me, use the hot water spout on the side to make hot cocoa from the packet.

I'm not sure why a loon needs to smoke this much but here's the most popular brand of wine offered:

There was also a couple bottles of champagne mixed in the neighboring barrel holding other wines:

And if your tastes lean more toward the finest beers ACL has to offer. Dad was pleased to see Michelob Light as he only drinks beer when he's on vacation if then.

Deck 1 - Essentially just a deck of cabins, the gangway when the tide lets it be at street level, and the dining salon. There was a nice map on the magnetic wall that marked out our route here but I missed watching our current location and progression on the cabin TV like I can on the cruise liners.

The dining salon had a few chairs around the room that didn't have arms but for the most part, I had no issue fitting in the ones with arms either. I usually don't have an issue with dining chairs on any ship though I did have one already snotty hostess question whether I should move to a chair without arms instead on a previous ship. I'd rather you let me ask if I feel the need, not push for it when I'm already seated just fine in the chair with arms. The dining staff was great about helping those with mobility issues get to their seats and then moving their assistive devices out of the way until they were ready to leave again.

Up next - our first cocktail hour, dinner, and evening entertainment. Still to come - a photo walkthrough of our cabin!