5.27- American Cruise Lines & "Scoots" Makeover

One of two American Cruise Lines passenger cruise ships came through Oriental today on its way up North for the Summer Season. ACL's two cruise liners spend the winter in Florida and the summer in Baltimore. In the spring, they transit from south to north, and carry passengers on a cruise of the Intracoastal Waterway, and in the fall they do the same from north to south.

They have been stopping in Oriental the past few years on these transit cruises. Last year they docked on "A" dock at Oriental Harbor Marina, but this time they anchored out in the Neuse River and sent passengers into Oriental on "Launch 5," which looks a bit like a miniature "D-Day" type landing craft.

Instead of storming the Town Beach, "Launch 5" tied up to the Dinghy Dock and sent a small army (about four boat-loads) of cruising tourists ashore for a 4 hour occupation of Oriental. I got these pics of them heading back to the ship.

I also rode past "Scoot's" restaurant and found owner Eric had closed for the day to have bead-board wainscoting installed as part of a renovation of the place. Eric says he plans to reopen tomorrow, and will have new bamboo flooring installed at night sometime next week. That's Eric on the phone behind the counter (to the right of the neon "Yuengling" beer sign).

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