Cruise reviews are a dime a dozen. Who believes anyone about anything? Reviewers come from travel agents wined and dined by cruise lines looking for favorable hyperbolic, phony baloney, and flowery descriptions that will spur the masses with their credit cards into action. And reviews come from disgruntled cruisers on cruise critic who look for the slightest faux pas to bitch about. Seldom do critiques come from a cruise experienced traveler with equipoise and a penchant for acceptance of human errors who celebrates the efforts and ingenuity of the staff and the increasingly complex operations that have been tainted by COVID 19.
After about three dozen cruises, Gerri and I chose a new cruise line, the American Queen Voyages. A new expedition ship, allegedly a state-of-the-art-ship that is able to skirt over the ocean with finesse using stabilizers, less fossil fuel to power, and represents a new generation of small ship expedition cruisers. The ship is the Ocean Victory. The cruise started in Sitka, Alaska and ended in Vancouver, BC taking 11 days to creep and crawl into the crevices of the Alaskan coast to traverse into waterways not physically possible by mega wine and dine cruise ships.
It’s important to differentiate between the 24/7 adult wine/dine/entertain cruise ships and those built for exploration. Exploration ships are small – the Ocean Victory holds less than 200 passengers, built strong enough to push boulders of ice at the extremes of the world to find their way to the untouched and rarely explored reaches of the word, to possess mud rooms and kayaks and zodiacs to facilitate a more, intimate experience with nature. What a difference viewing a glacier from 2 miles away as one would view in a still photo, as compared to up front and personal coursing briskly in a 10-passenger motored zodiac, wind blowing strongly enough to clutch for stability, feeling the earth shatter and tremble with each boulder of ice breaking away from the glacier - also known as calving, the cold air blowing past your cheeks and ears and ungloved hands, observing the tiniest of birds flying overhead, the peak-a-boo seals inquisitively emerging from the depths wondering who has invaded their enclave, and the signature chunks of glacier breakaway ice scooped up from the reaches of the zodiac to examine, while inquisitively contemplating what past decade the ice mass was formed in. Explorer ships cost more, generally twice as much as the wine and dine variety and I’m not sure the cost is warranted but such is life. The Ocean Victory on its maiden voyage was a great bargain and with all of the hype surrounding it newness and innovative stabilizer technology and green energy saving, it was worth the gamble. Finally, explorer ships are generally not intended to provide premium services to guests, who preferentially sign up for 5 course meals and nightly entertainment performers. Nevertheless, the most recent additions to the explorer ship brigade attempt to combine some of the creature comforts of the high-end wine and dine variety to attract a broader assemblage of guests than those pure of heart adventure seekers.
“Intimacy in nature” is the key phrase for why adventure seekers should cruise on an explorer ship……..or at least why I generally prefer this venue. Out in the middle of a fiord in Alaska, or Scotland, or Norway, skirting around ice boulders in the Arctic or Antarctica, trolling around the coastline of far out-of-reach locations assessable only to zodiacs or other small vessels, humans are minuscule and defenseless aberrations of nature cast against the natural majesty of the wilderness. Neutral in its intersection, it cares less about your history or preferences, or who you are or what you’ve done; it treats you neither preferentially nor benevolently. Nature is dispassionate. The creatures of the wild must survive on their own accord. Humans cannot outrun a mountain lion, outswim most any sea creature, or even outsmart a bear. We cannot hear sounds well, cannot see as well, cannot jump or fly or do almost anything of value for our self-preservation in the wild without tools, weapons, and technology. Even then you will need cell phone coverage which is mostly lacking. Appreciating the context of your status in the world goes far beyond how much money you have in your pocket or how many people you plausibly have control over. And then add your age to the equation and try to calculate your vulnerability index. Ok, enough of this! Back to the review.
Unfortunately, this is a mixed review. The ship is an A, the food is A-, the food and drink service staff and expedition staff are an A+, but the initial overall flow of information to the guests prior and during embarkation as well as disembarkation was lacking, contradictory, confusing, and inconsistent, earning a grade of D-. The itinerary was fun, larger cruise ships could not come close to finding their way into the many crevices of the Alaskan south west corner of fiords and waterways.
Not terribly relevant to this review, I want to give a call out to Amanda Keenan, the American Queen agent who arranged our cruise, helped us negotiate the best price and navigate two changes in cabins. She also fielded numerous calls clarifying and facilitating the details of the cruise itinerary and last-minute details. Amanda was simply wonderful! The other call out is to Preston who is the manager of the food services section. I always ask for chopsticks in restaurants, none were available but Preston took my request to heart and somehow came up with a package of melamine chopsticks to present to me.
Presenting in no particular order, below is a quick list of the PROS of the cruise.
• A brand-new explorer ship with good to excellent facilities, an attractive dining room table clothed and comfortable, and an attractive and comfortable conference room (Expedition Lecture Room) with room enough for the entire guest list. A decent observation deck, a second specialty restaurant which was a less formal extension of the main dining room that was only available for BF and lunch, a work out room and mini spa, that I did not enter, a small library, a few bars, one with a grand piano and entertainer that was excellent and very talented.
• Zodiac excursions and kayaking. Plenty to see, glaciers, steep cliffs crafted from retreating glaciers, repopulated forest green, naked rock, and animals. To be expected, we saw numerous wildlife, ranging from whiskered faced otters, owls and majestic eagles, seals and their pups, humpbacked and killer whales, deer, goats, bears (and cub), a variety of birds, and the start of the salmon run.
• We ended up with a room with a balcony including a queen-sized bed, a love seat, large vanity, big screen TV whose reception for any station was lacking, and a bathroom of adequate size including a partially open shower stall that was comfortable to use and not confining like some coffin sized stalls offered by other cruise lines.
• The food quality was good to excellent! To me there was more than enough selection, the service was cordial and efficient. We had NO complaints about the food other than the limited serving hours. For full disclosure, many of the guest gave a thumbs down to the food…..we were clearly in the minority. Differences in palates, expectations, experience could have all played a part in the differences noted, but for Gerri and myself, we were more than happy with the food. The waiters were friendly and accommodating, although the wine selection was grossly lacking and limited.
• The staff is excellent and they really try their best to serve the guests….there were many, many examples where they went out of their way to accommodate to the individual requests which were sometimes over the top. A particular call out to the expedition staff who were very enthusiastic and patient about imparting their knowledge and answering the many questions particularly from the mostly geriatric guests hovering around the staff with an endless barrage of queries. Indeed, the expedition staff interacted very well with all of the guests!
• The excursion team leader, Mark, was very complete, witty, approachable, possessed comprehensive knowledge of the area, articulate, and provided a daily recap and preview of the next day’s activities.
• Housekeeping was excellent - room tidied twice a day with change of towels and ice replenished upon request. The bartender was excellent! And the drinks were included except for premium drinks - my favorite Crown Royal sat there on the shelf looking at me longingly while I was choking on some low-grade bourbon drink. But the wine (sometimes) and beer were ok, so I should not complain.
• The bathroom is ostensibly heated from the floor up keeping your feet nice and warm. The basic amenities, shampoo, soap and lotion are provided, and there is a retractable laundry line in the shower which came in handy for hanging wet clothes.
• Two events on Deck 7 were fun; the July 4th party was nicely planned and executed.
• The cruise director Richard – from Sweden – was refreshingly affable, available, talented, socially astute, and a good listener.
• COVID precautions adequate and responsive. The staff wearing masks and reasonable mandatory mask requirements for guests, after 15 positive covid cases were reported. The staff was very transparent and covid updates were given after the daily recap.
• Great Value of cruise from standpoint of price…..about half the price point of other established expedition cruises such as Silversea.
And now the CONS!
• Yikes, who’s on first? What’s on second? Seems like nobody knows nothing about anything. You would think after 6 attempts (previous dates of same cruise), the staff would correct some of the disorganization but NO! This was the most disorganized, discombobulated and chaotic cruise I have ever been on……for sure!!!!!!! Everyone agrees with this assessment…from the very start of the paperwork, the guest information which we needed to input three times, the deluge of garbled and contradictory flyers and forms, etc, etc, etc…. it gives me heartburn to want to think back at all of the hiccups and changes in direction needed to accommodate the changing world order of the Ocean Victory!
• As mentioned above, while being promised a piano playing evening entertainer, nothing materialized, until day 4 of the cruise. When she finally showed up, she was very talented and engaging.
• The average age of the guests was probably my age, 75. Some hobbled and stumbled – one took about 3 minutes to descend into the zodiac, with the help of several staff members. Ostensibly the older age guests are a product of the American Queen Co clientele who regularly traverse the rivers of the US.
• Some of the older guests never left the ship because they did not feel comfortable getting in and out of the zodiacs for excursions or getting to the ports. There were no tenders, or dock side landings. The staff were more than helpful helping guests in and out of the zodiacs, but it remained problematic for a minority of the guests on board.
• Staircase steps are steep and more difficult to navigate than most cruise ships.
• Only one very slow elevator for guests! Yikes.
• The TV stopped working after two days….not sure why but it was not just my TV, it was the entire ship’s.
• In general, the presentations and science demonstrations were amateurish, the speakers neither sophisticated nor knowledgeable. Despite this, there was a good audience of guests at all sessions.
• While the food was generally excellent, salad selection was meager and insufficient. Salad dressings were terrible. Also, selection of wines at dinner was wanting, especially toward the end of the cruise when the “good stuff” ran out.
Frequently Asked Questions.
• The cruise includes one night at a hotel prior to embarkation in Sitka. A shuttle provided by the hotel took us from the airport to the hotel. The quality of the Westmark hotel was marginal at best. Cruise ship arranged bus from hotel the next day to the cruise ship – procedure a little disorganized.
• Electrical Plugs in the cabins were all of the 230V variety despite conflicting information elsewhere. There are USB ports behind the bed, under the TV and at the desk.
• There is mini refrigerator… which we filled at the bar with sodas and water. We were never supplied with a refillable water bottle, although there were water filling stations on every floor.
• There is no self-laundry, but we were allowed one bag of laundry washing which was more than sufficient to carry us for the 11 day cruise.
• Shore excursions- we did not sign up for any premium tours. The included tours were not quite as stated in the descriptions, ie no dance demonstration in Kake, no island excursion in Ketchikan. Local guides were hit and miss.
• Packing - forget bringing your muck boots. The ship has an ample supply of boots, and there are no wet landings. Rain gear was also provided. (and necessary if you are going kayaking).
• Dress is very casual. I brought my flip flops and wore them most of the time.
• Bring something to do!!! The internet is sketchy, the TV nonfunctional, one-hour presentations were given during seadays and down time. Presentations were so so. It depends if you like learning about sea weed and doing seaweed pressing, or checking out diatoms in the sea water.
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