Charleston, SC

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Bad news is that as we sailed from Wilmington yesterday, the Captain announced that we were headed again to open ocean and not the intracoastal waterway for which this cruise is named. Once again, no excuses or reasons were offered. He warned that last night was 3-4 foot seas and tonight they'd be bigger at 4+ foot swells but pushing the stern and shouldn't feel any rougher. We didn't book this cruise until a week after Hurricane Florence to check that the ICW was open and undamaged. We still can't find any news of closures, so we are concerned about the open ocean sailing. We'd never have booked the southeast coast cruise in hurricane season in this small a ship. In fact, we'd didn't. But, we booked and now we're going where they're going. We'd just really hoped that any alteration like this, would be unavoidable and not just because they can. I don't suppose we'll ever know the justification. Adding that we had lunch with people who had breakfast today with Harold who told them we were sailing in the ocean because the ICW was filled with storm debris and needed dredging. One told me she didn't think I should be disappointed about ocean cruising on a trip titled "East Coast Inland Passage." She ordered a BLT for lunch and came unhinged when it arrived without tomatoes. I guess it is all about managing expectations! She apologized without any irony to the table and the waitress, but said if it has tomatoes in the name, I expect tomatoes. Amen, sister, I feel ya.

We were scheduled to arrive in Charleston at noon today. So, that was an unpleasant morning at sea. The good news is that we arrived 2 hours early! We are docked at Megadock on the starboard side. It is closer to Historic downtown Charleston than we'd been informed. You could walk but it looks about twice as far as Wilmington. Since we'd already ordered lunch onboard, we stayed onboard. We had a 9:15am port briefing for the next week's port talks and tour booking. That was happening as we docked, so when Q&A came, we asked about where the complimentary shuttle would drop & pickup in downtown Charleston. We had the same pushback as in Wilmington, but this time from Harold. He eventually got it, as Anne had, that it was a reasonable expectation to walk in now and avail yourself of the included shuttle to return and if you did not ride over, you needed an address to get the shuttle back. I haven't been down to see if maps with addresses and timetables have appeared yet, but we did bid farewell to some walkers who already left. Editing this afternoon to add that at 1:20pm when we left to meet the 1:30pm first shuttle that a sign was stuck on the wall by the gangway. It said the shuttle point downtown was at 173 Meeting St. That was at Meeting & Market, in front of the historic city market and right where I'd have expected it to be. It was definitely tourist central! Clay bought me 2 Christmas  presents there and informed me that I could not expect a new Surface because me keyboard broke! Anyway, maps did not appear at the exit until we returned about 4 pm. Better late than never, I suppose.

We are docked here until 6 pm tomorrow. We booked the free downtown shuttle, the complimentary Magnolia Plantation tour at 9am tomorrow and the $35 each Fort Sumter tour tomorrow afternoon.

We learned at the tour briefing for next week that we have 2 more tender ports in Hilton Head and Fernandina. We will cruise all day Wednesday the 14th from 4:30 am to 6:30 pm. There was no mention if that was going to be "scenic" ocean cruising or if we'd finally get into the ICW. We'll see. I expect that it will be at least another 4 years between ACL cruises for us! The service issues we had in 2014 have been largely fixed on this sailing, but the seemingly indiscriminate route change is unacceptable to us. We would not have booked this itinerary on this size ship as an ocean voyage. Adding here that our lunch companions had said farewell to the ACL trainer that has been onboard with us. The waitress mentioned that all the service staff had been working harder than usual the apst week because the trainer was onboard and she would leave so and they could go back to their own ways. I laughed out loud and told her we weren't looking forward to the staff 's planned backsliding. She said she did not mean it to sound that way. One woman told her that the trainer had in fact already left and the waitress heaved a big sigh and looked around in relief. Good grief!

In a spot of bright news, based on info gotten this am, we've booked Segways in Savannah. We learned we don't have enough information to book them in Hilton Head or Fernandina yet. Waiting and seeing.

I don't think I've mentioned before and typing is so hard now... dolphins or porpoises! Here and in Beaufort. We've only seen one bald eagle, in Yorktown. We've seen too many herons, egrets and cormorants to count everywhere including in canals at night sailing.

We are docked here overnight, so we'll hope for a calm night! We have no plans except dinner onboard so I'll post this now.

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