North American River Cruise on American Empress:

Positives-Lovely Riverboat. Very wide hallways. Large staterooms. Staff very customer-service oriented. HOHO buses in every port. Delightful cruise director team. Bikes available for slow times onboard. Bus drivers and tour guides friendly. Buffet option for breakfast and lunch. Evening shows were very entertaining.

Negatives-Cost is very high compared to other vacation options. A lot of 'add-ons' increased the total cost. There was a 3 hour lag time after checking out of hotel and boarding the boat...only options were to pay for a premium excursion. Food on this very expensive vacation was B-B+. Not great. Tho presentation was A. Dining room very crowded with servers pushing between chairs to move around. Many people were unhappy with the late 7:45pm dinner seating. The highest cost rooms had no privacy on the balcony. This was the only walkway on the ship for exercise, and you walked right past, and could see into those rooms. The rooms on the 2nd and 3rd floors in the back half of the boat could hear the music and singing from the Paddlewheel Lounge late into the nite. Many little errors on the premium excursions. Overheard a few negative comments by staff on the last morning, regarding 'the boss'. Read more