Time to dally around in The Dalles

We return to Oregon this day for our next port stop called The Dalles. Since we didn't arrive until 1PM, Cruise Director Rhiannon organized a morning stretch class, a "Bubbles, Berries, and Bookings" opportunity to imbibe while you were encouraged to book that next ACL cruise, and a team trivia game. Today we also had the unique port visit where we stayed docked until 8AM the next morning. We attended the latter and paired up with a couple on their first ACL cruise. Rhiannon brought several logo branded items plus a couple themed to the itinerary books in a branded tote bag and had each member of the winning team pick one item from the lot. 

There were four options for today's excursions. 

Bonneville Dam Experience (Four Hours Duration/Premium Excursion at $40 per person/Moderate Activity Level)

Witness how nature, technology, and humans intersect on a self-guided exploration of the Bradford Island Visitor Center. Learn about the cultural history of the region, dam construction, the development of navigation along the Columbia River, and the life cycles of salmon and Pacific lamprey. Come enjoy seasonal views of migrating fish through underwater windows that allow you to peer into the fish ladder. A rooftop observation deck provides a panoramic view of the Columbia River Gorge. After, visit the Oregon icon Herman, the sturgeon, the state's most famous fish, measuring approximately 10' long, 500 pounds and over 80 years old. There is a restroom on site. There is a lot of walking for this excursion.

Maryhill Winery Exploration and Tasting (Three Hours Duration/Premium Excursion at $50 per person/Low Activity Level/Partial Wheelchair or Scooter Accessible)

Enjoy an exploration and tasting at the renowned Maryhill Winery, one of the largest wineries in Washington State. Begin on the terrace overlooking vineyard and the Columbia River, with the majestic Mt. Hood serving as a stunning backdrop. On a guided walk to the vineyard, learn about the history of the winery and the grapes that are used to make Maryhill varietals, as well as the fermentation process. Upon arrival, you will have a 30-minute, guided winery exploration followed by a wine tasting and cheese. After, you will have the opportunity to explore the grounds and visit the shop on site. The coach ride is about 30 minutes. 

Maryhill Museum of Art (Three Hours Duration/Premium Excursion at $35 per person/Low Activity Level)

Visit the Maryhill Museum of Art featuring four floors of world-class collections ranging from American paintings and an extensive Native American collection, to early 20th-century European works. Examples would include the Theatre de la Mode French Fashion and Auguste Rodin who is considered to be the father of modern sculpture. Venture outside to explore the sculpture garden before enjoying a cup of coffee on the balcony of Loie's Cafe where you can view the scenic Columbia River framed by a backdrop of majestic mountains. Upon arrival, you will hear a brief introduction to the museum before exploring on your own. It is a 30-minute coach ride each way. 

The Dalles Local Loop (Continuous Loop Duration/Complementary Excursion/Low Activity Level)

This was the excursion we chose as we didn't feel compelled to visit the art museum and had no interest in the winery. The latter was as you might expect on a cruise line that counts daily cocktail hour as a selling point, the most popular excursion. Dad would have also liked to visit The Bonneville Dam with an interest from the engineering standpoint of it but most all of the excursions were in the same four hour afternoon time slot. 

The stops included on this loop were the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center, Downtown, Fort Dalles Museum and Anderson Homestead, and the Neon Sign Museum. Approximate times and the order in which the stops fell on the route could be found amongst the information on the table outside the office. We chose to visit the latter two destinations. 

The Dalles Local Loop was basically another equivalent to the Hop On/Hop Off (HOHO) Bus city tour except it was solely using ACL buses and drivers. Our Excursions Director Lindsay had smartly arranged the bus departures so that they were staggered by around 30 minutes apart from each other leaving the ship. This plan would have worked great despite making the 2nd wave of passengers who had to board the 2nd bus wait a short while, because it would have meant one of the buses was always arriving back at the one of the four stops every 15-20 minutes. You could pick and choose what stops you wanted to visit and how long to stay at each one. The last bus was set to return to the ship at 5:05PM.

What Lindsay couldn't have anticipated was that bus driver #2 (we had arrived early enough to be on bus #1), would decide that he wasn't in the mood to wait, pulled out from behind bus #1, and sped off to the first stop. Our driver on bus #1 double checked and was told to go ahead and leave as scheduled. The town isn't very big so a lot of the stops were close to each other. 

The Fort Dalles Museum is housed in the former Surgeon's Quarters, the only remaining officer's quarters of the 1856 Fort Dalles military complex. The museum within the building first opened in 1905. Once we arrived, the caretakers gathered the latest small group in the main room to give a brief talk about the history of the building. After that, we were able to wander the museum and the nearby barns that held antique vehicles on our own. The Anderson Homestead is a short walk down and across the street from the museum. There is a ramp access up into the building's main level but the upper level's exhibits require walking up stairs.

The museum was full of tons of historical artifacts from the time period but the most recent addition was a sweet cat who lived on the grounds. In talking with one of the caretakers, we learned that this cat had been left behind by a couple owners before them and all the owners since have considered taking care of her as part of taking care of the property itself. We saw where she had a small outdoor shelter with fresh food and water always available. I may have spent just as much time sitting on the walkway snuggling her as I did wandering the museum. 

Old slot machine

Antique Vehicles a short walk away behind the museum:

One of the first hotel shuttles:

The most popular vehicle among our passengers was the hearse with the see through window on its side to view the casket.

As it was pretty close to the next bus' timed arrival, we opted not to walk down to the Anderson Homestead. Around 10-15 of us were waiting for the "next" bus to arrive as we sat by the fence surrounding the museum. When that 15 minute scheduled time became 30 minutes, one of the group called Lindsay to let her know that no bus was showing up. We got to hear Lindsay's side of the conversation and heard her tell the other passenger that she'd already heard from passengers at another stop and is trying to reach the drivers to find out where they are. After 40 minutes, bus driver #1 shows up and gripes to everyone not to blame him; he can't help being delayed as now he is the only driver. 

We next headed to the National Neon Sign Museum, a stop on this itinerary that tons of past passengers said was not to be missed. As we stepped off the bus, our driver warned that it could take an hour for him to return. He wanted us to know that before deciding whether to stay and visit the museum.

Our admission to the museum was included by ACL but it would otherwise have cost $10 per adult, $8 for seniors aged 65+, and $8 each for groups of 10+. The building was mostly accessible except for a large staircase to access the ballroom display of neon building fronts. Our tour was given by museum founder David Benko. 

We started off the tour watching a short video in a theater style room that covered an artist's process making a neon piece. 

Then David led us through the main level's exhibits showing some of the first neon pieces and explaining how the science was discovered and works to produce the colored lighting. 

The upstairs ballroom space made to look like a town:

In case you need a breather after climbing those stairs, Ronald McDonald is waiting to talk to you about your car's extended warranty:

Several of our current group at the museum opted not to climb the stairs. The few seats in the lobby quickly filled with our older and mobility challenged passengers. David suggested to many that if they were able and didn't want to wait, the ship was merely a few blocks walk away. Dad chose to wait as he didn't feel up for the walk. Even though our bus didn't arrive for another 20-30 minutes, we still made it back to the ship before those who had taken David's suggestion of walking back. 

As it turned out, which we didn't find out fully until we were back on board when Excursions Director Lindsay asked us how we liked the tour, she had dealt with the second bus driver while we were out and he was either relieved of duty or quit. She would only say to us that she'd heard about the trouble, spoke to the driver, "And now we're down to only one bus driver." This meant that only bus driver #1 was doing the shuttle service for the entire route and amount of passengers. I've been on trips in the past where there has been bus timing issues and the cruise line made alternate arrangements like calling for the next available taxi to take small groups at a time or at least those who couldn't make the walk. I'm sure with such late notice there wasn't going to be time for ACL to get another bus driver on site but the communication with passengers could have been a whole lot better. 

Onboard food and more in Kalama

Breakfast was from the Back Porch Cafe today and I went for their breakfast sandwich option. I'm usually a pop a thawed Jimmy Dean biscuit in the microwave kind of girl so it was nice to see that they assembled one from freshly cooked ingredients. 

The lounge adjacent to the cafe always had pastries, coffee, and fruit. Plus a bar of self serve options like milk, tomato juice, orange juice, apple juice, and V8. Here is where you also could grab little packets of creamer, sugar packs, and condiments. I like the labels and dates method they were using for these carafes but I'd much rather have seen them left in the passenger accessible mini fridge so they stay cold between uses. 

One of the best outside the box ways of using a dip serving tray:

And you know I got the answer for the oft asked "What kind of sugar substitutes do they have on board?" question. The little Smuckers packs on the end are honey and there were several tiny jars of jam available.

One of the things I always notice is the types of cereal offered onboard. As you might expect, any cruise line that focuses on family travel will have those Lucky Charms right next to the Raisin Bran options. The more adult a cruise line, the more likely you'll find an assortment of bran, corn flakes, and any other sugar free fiber rich cereal you can imagine. Happy to see that ACL offered a mix of both:

Tonight's dinner menu:

Shrimp & Sausage Gumbo Soup - got a little bigger bowl this time but it was still mostly broth. Was looking forward to trying gumbo but I could barely find anything in the bowl besides broth and onions.

Braised Short Ribs of Beef with Whipped Potatoes, Broccolini, and Braising Jus. I seem to recall a similar dish on my ACL cruise in 2019 that featured this huge hanging off the bone hunk of meat that just fell apart the second your fork touched it. This version was more rationed with what appeared to be slices off a single short rib to spread among many plates. However, the meat was cooked well and tasted good.

Ended the evening with a portioned out bag of popcorn and the evening entertainment of Cowboys & Curmudgeons, the comedy and musical stylings of Kevin Neil. We found his show the most enjoyable of the guest entertainers and stayed for the entire performance.

The Ride to Mt. St. Helens is nothing to blow your top over!

Our next port stop brings us to the town of Kalama, WA. We were in port from 12:00AM until 10:00PM. Early risers could join Cruise Director Rhiannon for a 7:00AM walk around Kalama. Neither of today's two tour options started until mid morning and later so the morning also featured a presentation onboard at 9:30AM about all the other itineraries American Cruise Lines offers. Usually you'll see this presentation listed in an ocean cruise schedule as the Future Cruise Talk. Those with the afternoon excursion were encouraged to try out one of the board and card games offered for independent play. 

Both of today's excursion options were complimentary options. The first to leave at 10:00AM was to visit the Port of Kalama Interpretive Center. This low activity level excursion is listed as "at your leisure" during a five hour time frame. This was another museum where ACL had taken care of admission and you only needed to wear your lanyard for entry. We did not visit the center ourselves but ACL describes it as a "short walk from the ship" and ADA compliant. 

Port of Kalama Interpretive Center 

Explore this new facility that celebrates Kalama's unique place in Pacific Northwest history as a transportation and commercial hub and is designed to replicate a traditional waterfront warehouse of the 1800s. Exhibits track Kalama's first inhabitants, the Cowlitz Tribe, and the settlers that followed over the next hundred years, including renowned Oregon Trail writer Ezra Meeker. Displays illustrate how Kalama's particular landscape gave birth to a booming transportation system, impacting the area both culturally and economically. 

The second option we did choose was the Mount St. Helens Scenic Drive. This excursion does have a long coach ride but stops at a couple places along the way for a total of 4.5 hours. The excursion is classified as moderate. 

Mount St. Helens Scenic Drive

Enjoy a scenic ride to Mount St. Helens. Mount St. Helens, located in southwestern Washington about 50 miles northeast of Portland, Oregon, is one of several lofty volcanic peaks that dominate the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest. It is the youngest of the major Cascade volcanoes, in the sense that its visible cone was entirely formed during the past 2,200 years. Take in the beautiful views of the landscape and the crater left behind by the eruption. 

Growing up in the 80's I was fascinated with the story of the Mount St. Helens eruption as a kid. This is one of those landmarks you'll find that everyone says to make sure you visit at least once when visiting the area. The bus ride featured some commentary and a video of an educational special was shown on the bus monitors. While our tour buses couldn't go all the way up toward the closer viewing area due to a landslide closing the road, it was still worthwhile to visit the two places we did. Unless you're our bus driver who missed the turn on the way to our first stop and had to go all the way to where the road was closed to turn around and come back. Gave new meaning to scenic drive and got us to the right venue minutes before the informational movie we all were told to go watch first was to start. 

Our first stop was to the Mount St. Helens Visitor Center. The $5 per person admission for adults was included for our group. The Visitor Center's website lists a charge of $200 per tour bus. This small center featured a movie viewing room with a couple options, a series of displays to peruse, and an interactive network of paths and a tunnel between the exhibits so you can experience what it was like inside the volcano space wise. The only downside was that the place was packed on the day we visited. Several of our senior aged tour group were left to stand at the back and along the side of the theater since the 15-20 rows of seats were filled with families. Thankfully some of the parents were kind enough to offer their seats to our more differently abled group members. My suggestion to ACL for the future would be to arrange a reserved time for the movie as our tour group would have filled all the seats ourselves. The interactive displays were mobbed since everyone went from the movie to the displays so we chose not to stay inside too long. 

As my Dad always says "Never pass up a bathroom opportunity!" so we left the crowds to use the restrooms located toward the back of the building. I got a good chuckle out of this sign on a few of the stalls:

We ended up having great luck with the weather on this day and spent the bulk of our time outside in front of the building where they have a viewing platform for Mount St. Helens.

Our second stop was to another viewpoint closer to the volcano at the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. This observation deck was a great spot for clear views and photos.

I asked Dad to help create a photo to look like he was putting his finger on the top of the mountain. He could have a future as the stand in for "I'm a little teapot."

Snacks were provided and handed out at this second stop by our Excursions Director Lindsay. American Cruise Lines is definitely consistent as our provided snacks was bins full of chip packs and individually wrapped almost melted cookies. The same arrangement of chip packs is always available in the lounge onboard:

These also make great options to carry in your excursion tote/backpack as there are no rules about taking food ashore when you've never left the USA. 

The even smaller gift shop at this second location had a couple handcrafted wooden magnets so I added another souvenir to my collection:

The buses dropped us off at the end of the road leading up to the pier so it was a bit of a walk along the waterfront. The crew always had a golf cart available to pick up anyone who needed assistance walking back down the dock. 

Back on board in Astoria

What's fun about returning onboard after a physically demanding tour in town? Finding out that there's still plenty of fresh baked cookies left on the tray from the 10AM offering! Plus the nice thing about cruising as an adult is there is no one to say no when you start your lunch with dessert.

I wasn't finding much appealing on the menu for lunch in the dining room today. Unlike ocean cruises, the dining room does open on port days for lunch so you can partake whether you stay onboard or return from a morning excursion. I also like how they put out the menus from lunch and dinner at breakfast so you can plan ahead whether you want to come back for lunch or eat in town.

Opting for more casual fare, I chose to have my lunch today from the Back Porch Cafe. Normally, the procedure is to grab a table outside by the cafe (or inside at the few tables if you'd rather) and a crew member will come by to take your order. This rarely worked well due to limited available crew so many times we ended up just ordering at the counter and getting a numbered sign to take to a table. The one to two crew members doing the cooking at this small griddle space were also overwhelmed. It gave one a lot of time to enjoy the view waiting up to an hour for even part of your order to arrive. Many times I saw crew members wandering around with plates yelling out "Who had the burger?" "Who had the pizza?" looking like lost souls because the passengers had long since given up and left. 

I wish every cruise line that offered a cafe or poolside grill eatery would stay open past 5 or 6 in the evening. There is always going to be a day where a passenger has been on an all day tour and wants something quick, light, and casual. Or they are having so much fun onboard that they only have time to grab a quick burger or hot dog.

My order of Nachos - I was a little surprised by how some of the multicolored tortilla chips had their own flavor or slight spiciness to them. For the love of all that is cheesy...why is it always one huge glob of cheese in the center soaking three chips and leaving the others to hear "Nope, Nacho Day Today!" Would rather see a small cup to hold the cheese for dipping into if you're going to use the ladling melted Velveeta method.

My pepperoni pizza order - But wait? Is this the new invisible kind of pepperoni? They really tasted lighter than air and in this case, the calories really didn't count. I'm sure it was simply a matter of them bringing me the first pizza that was ready without checking the order slip. I'm all for flame kissed but this crust was char-broiled! The taste of the middle part of the pizza was good with plenty of cheese pull and flavor balance. 

Dinner time in the dining room:

Wedge Salad appetizer - Bacon, bleu cheese, shaved red onions, cherry tomatoes, and bleu cheese dressing. This is the kind of "just lettuce and tomato" type of salad Dad enjoys. This dish tasted very fresh and was a great start to our meal.

We both ordered the Bleu Cheese Crusted Beef Tenderloin - Herd (I sure hope that's a typo on the menu) Roasted Red Skinned Potato, Carrots, Asparagus, and Brown Butter Béarnaise. Must have been a sale on bleu cheese at the store.

Here is the dish as it was first presented to both of us despite our different requests at level of doneness:

You can see how it was so medium rare that the bleu cheese crumbles sliding off have turned pink. Dad insisted on sending his back to be cooked to the medium well he wanted. The entire table, us included, got a good laugh out of how much the piece of meat had shrunk to reveal the vegetables underneath.

For dessert we chose the Bananas Foster Bread Pudding - A little overbaked but I liked the balance of the creme sauce instead of more caramel sauce. 

After dinner we headed up to the River Lounge to hear our historian Doug's introduction to our next port of Kalama, WA and learn the plan for tomorrow's activities from Rhiannon and Lindsay. We stayed for a good portion of tonight's entertainment - Songs and Stories from the Silver Screen with Mel and Leah before heading back to the cabin.

I stepped outside on the small deck behind our cabin to watch the sunset over the wake: