In Transit Blog: New Cruises for Rollin’ on the River

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 27 Desember 2013 | 17.35

A lazy cruise down the Mississippi River, sipping cocktails while watching the paddlewheel turn: it's not just a vision of bygone days. Europe's boom in river cruising has reached the United States, in the form of luxury paddlewheelers.

Little more than a year after rolling out the Queen of the Mississippi, the first new paddlewheel boat to be set in the river in almost 20 years, American Cruise Lines has announced that it is building four more, the first two of which are already under construction. The new paddlewheelers will be set afloat in the Mississippi and the Columbia and Snake River systems, between spring 2015 and the end of 2017.

"There is a longstanding history of riverboating in America," Timothy Beebe, the vice president of American, said in a statement. "Since the 1800s, each new riverboat has sought to outdo the last by offering more amenities, comforts and service than its predecessors. The Columbia and Snake Rivers have not seen a new riverboat in over 10 years, so the upgrade is overdue."

Like its current riverboats, the new ones will accommodate 150 to 200 guests and will be outfitted with luxury amenities, including private balconies in "the largest staterooms ever," according to the company.

The cruise along the Columbia and Snake will take passengers 500 miles inland from the Pacific Coast, to the Idaho border, in rooms decorated with fine art portraying the expeditions of Lewis and Clark, following an itinerary similar to that of the company's Queen of the West, which has been sailing that system since its renovation in 2010.

Destinations on the Mississippi itinerary lie between St. Paul, Minn., and New Orleans. Those riverboats will join the American Queen on the river, a paddlewheel cruiser built in 1995, which fell into disuse in 2008 and was revived by the Great American Steamboat Company in April 2012.

The river cruise appeal is making the destination the focus, Britt Rabinovici, a spokeswoman for American, said in a telephone interview. "European river cruising is very popular, and people want that kind of experience here in America," she said, adding that most of their passengers had already done the large ship cruises and were looking for an intimate, more personalized experience, full of history, in places travelers wouldn't typically think of as "cruising ground."

American also operates coastal cruise ships in New England, Alaska and the southeast, but the company's fastest growing market is river cruising, Charles Robertson, American's president, told USA Today.

"Certainly the coastal cruises are growing as well, but the rate of growth is faster on the river operation, and we have an extraordinarily high repeat rate," he said.


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