First a disclaimer, we are devoted to the Delta Queen and compare any river cruise to our wonderful experiences sailing on her. The Queen of the West resembles a paddlewheel steamer but it's an illusion. She is screw powered with a paddlewheel for looks. It's not the same.

American Cruise LInes (ACL) strives to provide the "best vacations experience ever." This is an ambitious objective and likely is not often achieved. Our week on board the Queen of the West was a great experience, from the accommodations, the entertainment and the itinerary to the jet boat to Hell's Canyon, (now the inevitable) but something was missing. I cannot put my finger on it but will try as this review continues.

Upon embarkation we received a wonderful surprise, an upgrade from a standard cabin to one marked "owner's suite." The cabin was spacious, with remarkable storage space and an extremely comfortable bed and a magnificent view to the side and forward. A brief detour here, ACL has a crew of stewards who double in the dining room and as cabin attendants. They rotate duties so there is no "cabin attendant" as on ocean cruises, or the old Delta Queen for that matter. The young crew of stewards are friendly, competent and helpful but they lack the polish of professional service personnel. One gets the impression of students on summer jobs and it detracts from the overalll experience of the cruise. Please, do not take this as criticism of the stewrds themselves; they were all great but the policy of ACL in rotating the tasks and even rotating the crews so that most are on a vessel only once does not lead to the kind of identification with the ship that makes for loyalty. Read more