[Times photos: Robert N. Jenkins] The Cape May Light is tied up in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, where crew members handed out more than 500 fliers one Sunday to people stopping to inquire about the new ship.

By ROBERT N. JENKINS

© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 24, 2001

A cruise along the historic coast of the Chesapeake Bay on the new ship Cape May Light doesn't live up to expectations - or the price tag. But the line says it is working out the kinks.

Good upbringing suggests you look for the positive aspects and make the best of the situation. You know: Focus on the personality, not the physical or intellectual aspects.

You could also record your thoughts in a diary. I did both, and here is the summary of a week aboard the new ship Cape May Light, which takes slow-paced voyages to historic ports along the Eastern Seaboard:

Cabin size -- adequate.

Frank Pryor, of Colorado Springs, Colo., works on a steamed crab at a picnic featuring regional cuisine; the lunch came during an excursion to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, Md.

Cabin noise -- worst I've encountered in almost 20 cruises.

Itinerary -- strong.

Shore excursions -- some problems.

Tenders to and from shore -- problems, though they are being addressed.

Food -- portions, menu variety and taste, average. Breakfast and lunch were buffets, though waiters would bring diners the same items from the kitchen.

Crew -- personable and mainly aiming to please.

Entertainment -- how much can you expect from a three-person talent pool over seven nights?

Onboard activities -- minimal. Also, no pool, no casino.

Physical aspects -- subdued decor in the four public rooms, just one elevator, just one open deck; the only doors into top-deck cabins are open to the weather.

Cost -- too high for the overall experience.

Like a lot of blind dates, my time with the Cape May Light seemed full of promise. Compared with most new cruise ships, this vessel is cozy -- a passenger capacity of 224 on a ship just 300 feet long, about a third the size of the current generation of vessels.

The pedigree also is strong: The Cape May Light was built in Jacksonville for the well-regarded Delta Queen Steamboat Co., acclaimed for its paddle-wheel boats plying the nation's rivers.

The Light is designed to resemble a late-1800s steamship that would have plied the U.S. coast. It is even named for a lighthouse on the New Jersey shore.

The vessel began its weeklong voyages along three rivers and the Chesapeake Bay on May 5; it is now sailing from Portland, Me., to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Going ashore presented problems

The dramatic statues of the Korean War Memorial, one of four brief stops made in the bus tour of Washington, D.C.

My trip was from Philadelphia to Norfolk, Va., with port calls in such historic cities as Baltimore and Annapolis in Maryland and Alexandria and Jamestown in Virginia. The ship sailed this southerly direction for a week, then reversed course.

It will be shifting to a New York-New England itinerary soon, followed by longer cruises in Canada, some time back in the shipyard and then along the Central American coast.

The company dubs the itinerary I sailed Charms of the Chesapeake Bay. The destinations are charming, full of history and a touch of small-town nostalgia.

But there were problems getting to land at two ports, and almost every shore excursion tried to cram too much into too little time -- even as we seemed to waste time aboard ship.

"Our first desire is to tie up to a dock," Delta Queen executive Jim German told me by phone after the cruise. But the company knew that the size of the vessel would twice prevent that on the Chesapeake itinerary, requiring that passengers be moved to and from shore on smaller vessels, called tenders.

Moving between two ships bobbing even slightly can be difficult; on these port calls, the steps between the tenders and the gangway of the Cape May Light were fairly steep.

The vast majority of the Light's passengers were seniors, some with mobility impairments. Two of my shipmates used wheelchairs during the shore excursions, and another used a tripod cane. Several passengers were quick to accept the helping hands offered by crew members during the tendering stages.

German, who helped create the "coastal steamers" itineraries and shore excursions, said that the line was aware of the problem and plans to carry onboard a floating platform that will be put over the side when tenders are needed. The pontoon-supported platform can be raised or lowered in the water to better meet the level of the tender vessel.

Too much was too little

Passengers aboard the Cape May Light have lunch in the lone dining room.

Once ashore, our excursions mixed satisfaction with frustration. Guides making historic interpretations were quite good. But, as many of my shipmates complained, the enticing trips would not stop often enough or long enough.

For instance, what was billed as a four-hour "Welcome to Washington" tour included in that time the boarding of buses leaving the ship, which was tied up in nearby Alexandria, and motoring to and from Washington.

Once in the nation's capital, the buses stopped for a walk-through of the imaginative FDR Memorial. Then we re-boarded the buses with a stop at the equally impressive Korean War Memorial, with the opportunity to walk across the street to visit the Lincoln Memorial.

We again boarded and inexplicably left this area to cross the Potomac River for a photo opportunity of the Iwo Jima Memorial statue. That put us adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery, but this was not even discussed by the guide.

Then the bus recrossed the Potomac to park a short way from the Lincoln Memorial so that we could walk along the Vietnam Veterans Memorial -- the Wall. (As the bus parked, our guide to the District said, offhandedly, "Is everyone ready?" No, no one is ready for the Wall.)

The rest of our "Welcome to Washington" consisted of narration as we rode past the White House, Capitol, Supreme Court and Jefferson Memorial. We crossed the Potomac one last time and returned to the ship.

At that point, roughly 4 p.m., passengers were free to wander through Alexandria's Old Town shops and buildings, or they could get a cab to the nearest Metro station and take the subway back into Washington. The ship was tied up overnight, so the passengers could spend their time on their own.

Or they could pay an additional $32 for a three-hour tour of Washington by night. The printed description of this excursion came with the truth-in-advertising note: "While many of the sites are a repeat of the morning excursion, viewing during the evening gives a totally different perspective."

German said that when the itinerary was discussed by executives, it was decided that a shuttle would operate from the ship, "for those who want to spend more time on their own in the city."

But no mention of a shuttle was made on our voyage; German had no explanation for this apparent change in plans.

On another morning, we hurried through the Jamestown Settlement living-history area and then bused the few minutes to Williamsburg, where we had two hours almost to the minute to experience this remarkable attraction.

Williamsburg consists of more than 60 buildings, museums, taverns and shops; a few are originals, the rest detailed reconstructions. Two hours is barely enough to understand where you are, much less take time to watch the costumed re-enactors portraying everyday events in 1774. Sure enough, our groups walked right past the "militia" volunteers marching and firing their muskets.

After a simple, set-menu lunch in one of the taverns, we returned to the buses and then the tender for the Cape May Light.

While a small and large ship had been used to tender us to shore for the beginning of the day, only the small vessel was used for the return, necessitating three trips. More time wasted that could have been spent in Williamsburg. What's more, this was the end of the cruise: The Cape May Light merely steamed down the James River and tied up for the night in Norfolk, with no shore excursions.

German said, "It is a delicate balance (between) giving the (bus) tours for a sense of what a city is like, and . . . "organized independence' so that the consumers have a certain amount of control and can explore on their own. Mature travelers want that sense of flexibility."

Another balance, he said, is between those who "want to be in port and others who want to be on the water."

He added: "Any time you start something new, you learn," and so the cruise line will be making adjustments.

About the noise

I had my travel agent book me into one of the two single-bed cabins on the ship. Its space and furnishings were fine for one person. Some double-occupancy cabins I looked at seemed a little snug. One of my shipmates, a travel agent, complained that the queen bed in her cabin was so close to one cabin wall that she could not get out of the bed there but had to crawl across it.

Another travel agent complained to me that the unit shower stall was so small he kept hitting his elbows when in it.

The one problem I had with my cabin was the noise. Typically on cruise ships, the insulation between cabins and the exterior corridor is modest enough that passengers can hear that conversations are being held on the other side of the wall. Seldom are the words audible.

Not so in my cabin. Located next to the midships stairway, I could understand the conversations of those on the stairs.

I could also hear the chatter of crew members, the sound coming through the cabin's air vent. I was told that my cabin was above the crew's dining room; somehow their conversations were coming through the air system, which had no on/off switch.

I could hardly ask the crew to be quiet when they were in their dining room. But I did tell the onboard hotel director that at 6:45 a.m., his housekeepers were making plenty of noise. They were scooping ice from a large machine into wheeled cooler chests. They did this with the double doors to that ice room wide open, letting the sound into the cabin corridor.

The officer agreed the workers should not leave the doors open. But the next two mornings the ice-chipping and -scooping noises continued, at the same 6:45.

More frequent were the mechanical noises that pulsed around my cabin day and night, whether we were cruising or in port. I presume they had something to do with fluids in pipes. I don't mean the vacuum-toilet system; that's a factor of shipboard life. But nothing explained the noise I liken to yanking the starter cord of a gas-powered lawn mower, only the mower won't catch. This was the final insult -- literally: It woke me at 3:20 a.m. as we were tied up in Norfolk, just hours before we were to disembark.

I had chosen that night to forgo the earplugs I had been wearing to bed. Another shipmate told me she had been given earplugs by one of the engineers, after she complained of the noises in her cabin.

German said that while there had been few sailings from which to gather substantive passenger comment, the issue of noise was a common complaint.

What the cruise line is aware of are vibration problems at the aft (rear) of the ship; one passenger told me the walls in her cabin on the third deck sometimes shook with the vibrations. Hoping to remedy such matters, the company will substitute new propellers when the Cape May Light goes into dry dock later this year.

And perhaps while the Light is in that Jacksonville shipyard, workers can find some more insulation to stuff into the walls of Cabin 121.

If you go

Click here for larger map

Some of the problems noted here may be fixed in the shipyard or with more training for the crew, but considering the high fares charged, passengers should not have to put up with such aggravations.

For my seven-night trip, the Times paid $2,690 for a one-person cabin -- the cheapest rate on the ship.

There are four other cabin categories, all double-occupancy, and the ship's brochure lists the per-person prices for those running from $3,090 to $3,990, including $105 in port fees.

For the sake of comparison, recent ads in the Times have offered a seven-night cruise in Alaskan waters onboard a Holland America ship for $549 per person, seven nights in the southern Caribbean aboard Renaissance for $975.

OTHER OBSERVATIONS: One of the pleasures of traveling on the Delta Queen's beloved paddle-wheel riverboats is settling into one of the many rocking chairs positioned on the various open decks and watching the world drift by. However, the Cape May Light had only two dozen or so metal patio chairs and four tables to accommodate up to 224 passengers.

THE ENTERTAINMENT: Each cabin has a TV with limited satellite reception and a VCR; the ship has a library of videotapes (and books) to borrow. Each night a different theatrical film would be shown once on the TV's closed circuit.

The satellite feed faded in and out, and the reception usually included the major networks' New York City affiliates, even when we were tied up in Baltimore and outside Washington, more than 200 miles south of New York. That denied passengers forecasts of the uncertain weather experienced during our voyage.

On the Cape May Light, there is one lounge for the three-piece combo and the live performers, with a small stage area that doubles as, well, a small dance floor. The three singers on my trip could have stepped out of one of those Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland let's-put-on-a-play films: lively, energetic and with pleasing voices. The three performed together twice in revues lasting about 55 minutes, and each had a 45-minute show singing solo.

The best voice belonged to Tampa's David Valentine, graduate of Robinson High, Hillsborough Community College and the University of Mobile, Ala., where he earned a degree in theater and vocal performance.

Probably reflecting the passenger demographics, just 28 of the 170-plus passengers were in the lounge for Valentine's 9:45 show the final night of the trip. There were no other organized activities offered at that hour, any night.

While Valentine and his colleagues filled five of the seven nights, the cruise line brought aboard interesting entertainers the other two nights, even as the ship offered optional-for-a-fee shore excursions.

Worth noting: In Baltimore, David Keltz performed his somber and eerie impersonation of Edgar Allan Poe. Keltz is scheduled to perform two shows Oct. 28 at the Renaissance Vinoy Resort, an appropriate pre-Halloween event.

Daytimes, a historian offered minilectures on the waterways and ports of call, a tradition on the riverboats. Dr. Bill May, a retired dentist and native Virginian, was filling in on my voyage and was charming. He told me that even he learned things during our narrated shore excursions, a pretty good recommendation for those outings.

ITINERARIES: The Cape May Light's remaining schedule this year includes:

Seven-night voyages between Portland, Me., and Halifax, Nova Scotia; between Quebec City and Buffalo, and between Cancun, Mexico, and San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Ten-night trips are scheduled between Charleston and Cancun, and between San Jose, Costa Rica, and Panama City, Panama. There are also 14-night trips between Halifax and Buffalo, and between Charleston, S.C., and Philadelphia.

A twin ship is scheduled to be delivered sometime this summer and would sail the same itineraries.

When German spoke with me earlier this month, he was calling from Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where he is scouting potential Great Lakes itineraries for next year.

PRICES: There are five cabin categories including the two single cabins; rates depend upon sailing dates and itineraries.

For more information or to make reservations, contact a travel agent or the Delta Queen Coastal Voyages, toll-free at 1-800-846-8000. The Web site, www.coastalvoyages.com, currently lists discounts through mid-August of several hundred dollars per person off the brochure rates.

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