American Empress Review
Rating by category
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We had sailed on this ship in 2006, when she was the Empress of the North, owned by a now defunct company. American Queen Steamboat Company has truly done an EXCELLENT job of refurbishing her. We had also sailed on the American Queen R/T from New Orleans in 2014 so wanted to compare the two ships. They are quite different.
The Astoria Dining Room has been redone and is quite elegant now and the River Grill is a nice change from the 'parlor' style eatery that was there before. The downside is that because the walls are made of glass panels that can be completely opened in nice weather, it still allows the cold weather to permeate the windows during cold weather (which we had in November).
Service was excellent in both. Food in River Grill was set menu and limited to 2 dining experiences per cabin. Food in Astoria Dining Room changed nightly and was excellent - made to order and nice options.
Cabin Review
The standard balcony (verandah) cabins on the American Empress are larger than the regular balcony cabins on major cruise lines and include a refrigerator, desk area WITH plug ins for phone and computer!! A swinging door leads to a fairly sizable balcony with 2 fairly comfortable chairs and a small table. Given the 50 degree weather we didn't use it much. The beds are rather tall, so for me, a challenge to get into bed. They had a plush pillow top, which also made it a bit challenging to move around in bed, but overall, we got a good night's sleep, which is what is important.
Sufficient closet space with enough hangars. Downside was that since the drawers were inside the closet, you had to completely open the closet in order to open the drawers, and then close both - extra steps, but they were soooo pretty! (dark woods with embellishments on the doors)
The one thing that was somewhat annoying was that the pipework in the ship apparently has air bubbles in them. This makes the sink gurgle/burp when someone else uses their shower or sink, so it can be a bit annoying, especially if you are trying to sleep in and others are up.
You could also hear the folks in the next cabin, so I'm glad ours were not especially loud and we tried to be respectful as well. Given the clientele onboard, there truly weren't any obnoxious people anyway.
So overall, the cabin was great - great cabin steward too! (Victoria)