Clay went
out with his camera and said it was lock #18. So we went through 16-17 last
night and slept right through it again! I guess that is a good thing, but
neither of us actually thought we were that sound of sleepers before. It seemed
right past the lock was a fancy new suspension bridge and then we could see the
Port of Burlington. We were arriving at our 12:30pm port before 7am. They
turned the boat around again today and docked on the port side facing upriver.
There must be some reason they do that but we don’t know why. Anyway, it looked
like maybe the local rope catcher wasn’t on duty or something because we didn’t
actually get tied up until after breakfast.
There were no dead little flies in the shower this morning,
so I have my fingers crossed that it was some bizarre convergence of fly life
and breeding cycle that we were caught in for the past 2 days. Our balcony door
does not close fully or properly and the bugs get in here whether we are in and
out a lot or not. I have reported that and the broken hall entry door exterior
frame piece to housekeeping and management and they have all been in and taken
looks and notes and we are assured it will all be taken care of today. When I
walked up to the office to let them know about our cabin problems, the chef was
in there telling the others that corporate had contacted him and told him ACL
would not sail north on the MS River again. Not north of St. Louis, that this
was it, Queen of the Mississippi would not be back upriver and that he could sever his supplier
arrangements because he wouldn’t need them again. I guess time will tell if
that happens.
I had another self-made mocha this morning from the
Paddlewheel Lounge and we went to breakfast at 7:30am. Clay had his usual. I
had another delicious raspberry/granola/yogurt parfait and pancakes with
applesauce and apple cider syrup with bacon. It was interesting. I ate it all.
After breakfast, they had the gangway out and we could see
all of downtown Burlington so we went out walking. Queen of the Mississippi provided city maps for
the last 2 towns that we either had no free time or they were a mile+ walk
away. Here we are 4 hours early and staying until 6am tomorrow and no maps or
any orientation information of any kind. How annoying is that? I can only assume it is because this port was not on the original itinerary and maybe they haven't been here before and so don't have any maps or other literature. We tried to find one online and we failed, so I guess the office here couldn't find one either, since they have provided those kind of printouts for some ports too.
We walked around
to the front of the Port of Burlington building where there were signs for the
Iowa Store and the Iowa Welcome Center, but both were closed due to flood
damage. We walked the majority of downtown and back in about 30 minutes. Like
Dubuque, there are a lot of churches. Not a lot else. We were back onboard in
time to attend The American Experience reception. They gave red lap blankets to the
repeat cruisers, up to 6 cruises. The woman who had 7 past cruises got an umbrella as
well as a lap blanket. (Clay is obsessed with the red lap blankets. He says he has to have one since I plan to pack my own on Oceania Insignia's world cruise because the category cabin we booked is too lowly, read O is too cheap, to have its own lap blanket. Somehow he believes that O management will learn of another cruise line's logoed blanket in their balcony cabin for 6 months and be shamed into changing their policy. Really? So Clay says!) They asked each person or couple what their favorite
past ACL cruise and while there were a few other favorites, the number one
favorite by a long margin was the Columbia and Snake Rivers. I am still unclear
about the Eagle Society. I thought I had understood from Davina, our CD, that
for the next segment we would get new name tags because they would put stars on
showing we had past cruises and were Eagle Society members. So, I thought
membership was automatic and involuntary. During the little film, they
instructed us to join by filling out a card in our cabins in the folder and
mail it in from home. There is nothing like that in there. The only card to be filled
out is with a request for booking information with onboard booking benefits,
though it does mention immediate Eagle Society enrollment. That does not sound
like the same thing. Oh well, if they don’t enroll us automatically then it is
not likely to happen. I don’t remember if I mentioned that there was an ACL
tote bag on our bed when we arrived. So even as first timers, we got a gift.
They told us that they have launched and are finishing the top 2 floors of a
larger sister ship to Queen of the Mississippi that will only do the lower Mississippi River starting in
2015. It will be much larger and yet add only 10 passengers by moving
passengers up to deck 5 and staff down to deck 1 so all passengers will have
balconies. I understand that to mean that our cabin category would now become the lowest priced on the boat instead of the 2nd lowest. They have not named it yet and are soliciting us for suggestions. The
man, Mr. Robinson, or Roberson, or Robertson (Gerardo said something different every time!) who owns ACL is starting a new line flagged out of the
Marshall Islands that will do international cruises which looked to mean Canada
and the Caribbean. These will all be new build small ocean-going ships of about
200 passengers. It will be Pearl Seas Cruise I think they said. (Ah, Robertson.)
It is a slow morning here with everyone just laying around
in the public spaces because it is chilly and windy and brightly sunny and no
one knows what to do here. But, to get your cabin cleaned you have to be out of
it. There are 2 tours today but both are at 2pm so everyone is just hanging out
waiting. There were 2 Riverlorian lectures today, but interest seemed limited.
Mike was completing his subject lecture about the formation of the Mississippi
River since this was part 2 or 3, I guess interest has waned. His wife was to
talk about birds and the Mississippi which I might have been interested in but
not enough to sit through the last of the river formation subject to catch
hers. The last talk today is on deck 4
at 4:15pm about how Muscatine, IA became the pearl button capital of the world.
That is not one of our stops and since they never handed out or made available
any kind of overview map of our route, or the region through which we are
traveling, I have no idea where Muscatine is or if we have passed it or
will. So, kind of strange. Not sure if I’ll try to make that one either. I
guess it depends on how long the 2pm tour goes. So far they seem to try to make
them in 2 hour increments. Given what we’ve already seen, they will have to go
some to give us a 2-hour Burlington City Tour. We’ll see. So far this seems
like another pretty weak day and evidently Burlington is our replacement port
for skipping Red Wing and LaCrosse and St. Paul. (You'd have thought we were owed some port charges refunded at the least, right?) Since they got here early and we’re here
overnight, it is too bad they didn’t either pick a better place or learn more
about this one to put more on for us here. Kind of a disappointment. It just
kind of seems that the staff and crew are too young and are overwhelmed. They are
mostly pleasant and enthusiastic, they just seem kind of clueless though.
Also, I will say in hindsight from this cruise to the next that most of the staff and crew just seemed to be avoiding the passengers and I have to assume because they were afraid of having to account for our experience vs. what we paid for. Again, not what one expects at the per diem ACL charges. I guess they have been
having a rough summer on Queen of the Mississippi though with altered itineraries and lots of busing
passengers here and there and I guess they just haven’t gotten their heads back
in the game yet. Not that there are any excuses for this, just theorizing based on my experiences.
At lunchtime we found they had finally put out maps. As they
were announcing the buses for afternoon tours during lunch, one of the
entertainers was announcing that the local tourism people were going table to
table in the dining room with information and to answer questions. The dining room was already
half empty and when they announced that half the people who signed up for the
City Tour would have to wait until 3:30pm for the one bus they hired to come
back and unload and get a second load it really emptied in a rush. What a
bumble.
They just came on the loudspeaker with the announcement of
the pearl button lecture. I will definitely take my nap now.
Clay came back and I woke up. I didn’t get much of a nap. I
didn’t really have my heart in it. We went to get drinks during cocktail hour.
I went in and put a piece in the difficult jigsaw puzzle and then we sat on the
balcony and watched an hour of boat, train and car traffic.
