American Harmony Review
More time in port, less time cruising than on our European river cruises
Rating by category
Additional details
We booked the Northwest Pioneers Cruise because we wanted to visit as many sites along the Columbia and Snake Rivers as we could, and the shorter cruises required us to make too many exclusions of one excursion in favor of another! We were also attracted by the all-inclusive nature of the cruise, i.e., at least one included excursion at every port of call, no additional charges for alcoholic beverages, and no mandatory tipping at the end of the cruise. This made it very easy to budget, and we were not disappointed.
We were disappointed that the included excursion to the Johnston Observatory at Mt. St. Helens was cancelled, but we understood the reason - there had been so much recent snowfall that the buses could not get there without getting stuck! And the cruise director replaced that excursion with an equally interesting excursion to Fort Vancouver, where we saw the Hudson Bay Company's trading base for the Pacific Northwest.
Our cruise began with an overnight hotel stay in Portland (OR), also included in the cruise fare. One hiccup there related to transportation from the airport to the hotel. We thought we were on our own for that and planned to use rideshare. However, when we reached baggage claim we found that there was a free shuttle for ACL guests, which we could have booked in advance but were never informed of. In any case, we were quite happy to take advantage of it! The hotel was the Holiday Inn Portland - Columbia Riverfront, formerly the Red Lion, which ACL has been using for some time. Checkin to the hotel was very easy, and as part of that process we received clear and detailed printed information about embarkation day as well. Our room there was clean and comfortable, with updated countertops and fixtures and a lovely view of the Columbia River - when we woke up the next morning, we could see the stern of the Harmony, which had docked overnight. We would stay there again.
Cabin Review
Our cabin (204) was much more spacious than we've had on our two previous European river cruises. The bed was configured as a King and was very comfortable as were the pillows, and there were nightstands on both sides, with electrical outlets, so we had no problem plugging in our multiple devices. There were multiple outlets elsewhere in the room. There was a chest of drawers with more space than we needed for our clothing; one drawer contained a safe with a combination lock. There was also a desk with drawers and a large mirror above. A Keurig coffeepot sat on the desk, and in the drawer beneath it were K-cups in a rack that could be moved to the desktop for convenience. The closet was about 4 feet wide and had ample space for our clothing, and there were six wooden suit hangers with clips and six more with pants rods.
The bathroom was also much larger than we were accustomed to on river cruises. The shower was about 3 by 4 feet, with glass door and small narrow shelves in 2 corners. The shower head was the removable telephone type, with 4 spray settings, but was mounted pretty high - I'm 5'7" and could reach it but had to stretch a little. The vanity contained a cabinet under the sink as well as 3 drawers, one of which was pretty much taken up by the hair dryer. The hair dryer was adequate for my hair but might take a long time to dry very thick or long hair. The toilet may have been "comfort height" - we didn't think about it while on the cruise, but after we got home we both realized we had not had any difficulty getting up from it!