Boarding ACL's Independence

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We slept in til about 7am. Forget everything I said about that Fairfield Inn room. The bed was too hard, I heard loud sirens all night and there was a flashing green light on the smoke alarm on the wall above the bed that looked like a strobe in the dark room. We were tired but it wasn't a great sleep.

Complimentary breakfast was good with a wide variety from fruit, yogurt, breads, eggs, waffles, etc. We ate and were ready for a walk by 8:30am or so. Our documents said we could board Independence by the National Aquarium at 501 E. Pratt St. between 10:30 am and 12:30 pm but our stateroom wouldn't be ready before 11:30am. No rush then. We walked around and saw the Holocaust Memorial, the Shot Tower, and the Carroll Mansion. Yesterday and today we saw loads of brass sidewalk markers for a Heritage Walk but not knowing about it before hand, we didn't try to follow it.

We went back to the Fairfield and got our luggage and checked out. A cold front came through overnight with that rain. It was in the mid-70s F when we arrived in Baltimore and in the 40s and 50s today. The wind was stiff and the the sun was shining with nothing but blue skies. By 10 am or so, I think all last night's puddles had dried up. So we walked to the ship. We had seen it from our walk to the Holocaust Memorial. It was only about 4 blocks and all level so an easy walk with rolling bags.

We presented our boarding passes and were informed that we'd been upgraded to deck 3 and the owner's suite. This was a gross exaggeration since there is no owner's suite and all the deck 3 cabins are the same as deck except for HC cabins. Anyway, we had debated booking a balcony cabin and rejected the extra $2K for the balcony. On a ship this small you can always get to the view you want quickly anyway and it wasn't worth it. The other reason is that on any ship, I want to be low to avoid excessive motion. So, I kind of balked because we had reasons for picking deck 1. She asked us to try it and if we wanted our original cabin we could move because deck 1 was empty. It turns out that there are only 43 passengers onboard. Capacity is 100 passenger.

We are in cabin 309 on the port side. It is a nice cabin with a narrow balcony and a waist high window with a solid door. Unless you are out on the balcony, the view is probably no better than cabin 109's would have been. I forgot to bring my little stack of magnets to put each day's handouts on the metal walls. We'll be missing them! The other thing we should have brought was a power strip for the desk. The only outlet is behind the desk and we had to move it to get to it. There are plenty of drawers but the closet is a very small open cubby. There was an ice bucket on the top shelf. There is a self-service 24/7 ice machine in the lounge on deck 2 along with drinks and coffee machine (all included). There are 2 upholstered chairs and a desk chair. Two bed side tables and a TV table. There are 2 chairs out on the balcony with a small table between them. The bathroom holds a shower stall, toilet, 1 sink and 2 drawers. There is a full size hair dryer in a drawer. There is a 2 plug outlet there.
There is one trash can in the cabin and it is beside the TV outside the bathroom. There are no washers and dryers on this ship that I can find. If that changes, I'll make a note. Also, unlike Mississippi which was our past ACL experience, excursions are not included. Though according to the website, after this cruise we are entitled to free excursions as a repeat customer perk.We had to fill out and turn in our week 1 tour request after lunch.

Sailing had been scheduled for 1:30pm. We were told when we checked in between 10:30 and 11 am,, that she expected us to sail by 11:30am if we were all aboard. There went our waterfront plans. We took a quick walk around the 2 piers holding the National Aquarium and were back aboard before 11:30am. At noon they held the mandatory safety briefing in the lounge. We learned that we had delayed sailing until 2:45pm due to the strong winds. Lunch was served at 12:30pm. We filled in order cards for dinner at lunch. It looks like they took all the small tables out of the dining room because all the 8-tops that are there are separated by 4-6 feet of space. The Mississippi ship was much tighter and had no 2-tops but plenty of 4 and 6 top tables. This time it is 8 or nothing. A 2 + hour lunch ensued. I can't imagine we'll be able to have any meals onboard this ship/sailing in less than 2 hours. Since they are at less than half capacity, it appears that the service staff was halved as well. You may remember that ACL's service employment policy of 90 day terms was the reason we had not returned so you may imagine we are not pleased. It is only 2 weeks but still. Anyway. At 2pm there was a briefing with the CD, hotel managers and our onboard lecturer about our choices of excursions for the 1st week. Our order forms had to be turned in by 4:30pm.

5:30pm is cocktail hour. 6:30pm is dinner. Beer and wine are complimentary at lunch and dinner and cocktail hour. We've already seen one person be overserved. It should be an interesting trip. Since I gave up wine with dinner at home over 6 months ago, I've found my alcohol tolerance has become more limited. I had a glass at Angus Barn for Clays' birthday and last night. In both cases, I drank too much wine waiting for food and regretted it. So, I am planning to avoid cocktail hour.. We'll see.

There is an 8pm port preview introduction about tomorrow's event scheduled. I doubt dinner will be over! At 8:15pm they have entertainment and snacks so blink and you'll miss it anyway.

WiFi is included throughout the ship and seems adequate so far. Another change since Mississippi is that they say gratuities are included and onboard tipping is not allowed.

Back from dinner with some happy news. They reconfigured the dining room and all the 8-tops became 6 tops plus an added 2-top set up for 1 woman who dines alone. We sat at the same table as lunch time with one couple from lunch and one couple who had joined us at cocktail hour. We had a different server and we were out of dinner within 1 hour! If that happens every meal, we'll be thrilled. As to our 41 fellow passengers, it is a very white group and so far we have met a very intolerant few.

The time changes tonight. The ship has made no written notification or reminder of this. When asked tonight, the CD shrugged and said the bedside clocks should change automatically and your smartphones should too, why would we mention it. Uh... Anyway. An extra hour is good because we have an early start tomorrow morning in Yorktown. I'll write about that tomorrow!

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