Think twice before booking with American Cruise Lines!

For an entire day about half the passengers were expected to sit on the boat in the middle of the inner waterway outside of Fernandina Beach, FL. We were told that we will not be taken ashore due to the outboard motor on the launch boat being unreliable to keep running.

Half the passengers were taken ashore earlier today so they could go on their shore excursion tour. After they were delivered ashore, we were told the launches were cancelled for the day - - however they were running them to bring the shore excursion passengers back to the boat at the end of their tour.

An entire day of our six day cruise was lost and wasted because the Captain and crew did not aggressively pursued resolving the problem. Anyone with simple problem solving skills and a little motivation would know that the problem of an unreliable outboard motor can be overcome with other solutions. Instead we are expected to just sit on the boat all day and believe that because it's a Sunday NOTHING can be done. We had no other option but to remain sitting on the boat.

I discussed my dissatisfaction and voiced many suggested solutions numerous times today with the Captain, Tour Director, and several other staff. All fell on deaf ears and I was told to voice my concerns with the main office of the cruise company. I called the 800 number, spoken to customer service and was then told to voice my issue in an email, send it to customer service, and it will be taken from there. After three weeks of my continuing to follow up on my complaints, ACL has now told me that if I take another cruise with them they will give me a 20% discount. Why would I choose to waste my time and money on another cruise with this company?

This was an expensive cruise, the last thing I expected was for a situation such as this to have arisen and to be dealt with in such a unsatisfactory manner.

In further notes, the ship is old, worn and terribly in need of updating and refurbishing. The so-called "management" on the boat are immature, very poorly trained and not at all suited for their jobs. Messages left for "management" on the boat were never answered.

The Captain and "management" chose to make any announcements during the cruise at the nightly Happy Hour. I guess they assumed that everyone on board would be their drinking and would hear their announcements. Either that or they didn't care whether the announcements were heard by all the passengers or not.

At the time of booking this cruise I specifically asked about signing up for shore excursions prior to the cruise. I was told that all signing up for shore excursions are handled on the boat during the cruise. Much to our surprise, when we started the cruise we learned that this was not the case and there were indeed shore excursions that had to be signed up ahead of time online. Those excursions were all filled by those passengers that happened to be lucky enough to get the correct information.

I've cruised many times before with other cruise lines and have never had problems such as I have had with American Cruise Lines. Save your money, time and frustration - - book a cruise with another company!