Following our journey over from the UK and a few nights in Atlanta and then New Orleans we boarded the American Queen - bliss. We have river cruised in Europe, China and Russia (as well as a couple of Ocean cruises) and this beats them all in terms of atmosphere, entertainment and ambience. The boat is lovely and decorated in period style - so much so that I expected Mark Twain to be sitting in the lounge reading the local newspaper or penning his next novel. We had booked a suite with a private balcony and the room was of a similar décor, with wallpapered walls and old furniture. There was plenty of hanging and drawer space for our 7 night cruise to Memphis and a lovely comfortable bed. The cabin music was varied and relaxing with no over-the-top announcements although the aircon did take some adjusting. To open our doors in the morning and watch the world go by in bed, before breakfast, was soooo relaxing. And then to the food, all I can say is excellent, varied, great staff and make sure you take 2 cloth sizes. The entertainment was our biggest surprise and we were luck to have some great people on our trip, everyone was either very good or great but we have to say a special thank you to Greg & Lindy who were exceptional and our CD will remind us of your talent every time we play it. There were various venues on the boat from the Patio, where you could have a light breakfast, lunch or dinner to the bars which had a variety of entertainment from simple piano sing-a-long to blues/jazz/light rock with a piano and guitar/banjo duo. There was also daytime entertainment in the wonderful show theatre. There is a small fitness centre on-board along with a small pool to relax in if wanted.

The other bonus were the day trips, if you did not want to pay the extra for the 'special' excursions the hop-on-hop-off service was extremely well organsied and gave a good insight into the cities/towns visited with many prepaid entries to museums and houses. Many thanks to excursions team for this wonderful service. We did book a couple of extra trips which took you further afield and the highlight was our Blues tour of Helena and Claksdale. The Mississippi between New Orleans and Memphis may not be the most spectacular in the world but it was interesting (especially the barges) and relaxing with some wonderful towns to see on route. Overall a great and memorable trip.