We chose American Cruise Lines because of the newer ship, American Jazz and amenities such as a fitness center, singles option, and larger state rooms. We were satisfied with the room, the seating areas, and general layout of the ship. The staff were generally accommodating. The quality of the food was hit and miss with some meals good and others passable. The manager of the dining room chastised us for sitting at a table without place settings instead wanting us to sit at a larger table with strangers on the 1st day even though it's "open seating". They do not offer alternative eating areas for supper time carry your own food around. They do have a patio cafe with a few items like pizza and burgers for lunch or early dinner but that menu never changes. Another food complaint is that they did not announce that they offer room service for breakfast and we found out on the next to last day. Overall the food was unimaginative compared to other river cruises that we've been on. We paid over 2k per day for this cruise and our expectations were reasonable.

The infrastructure for cruise ships on the Mississippi are lacking so we did not fault the cruise line for that i.e. strange de-boarding situations where ramps were improvised and many passengers needed to be taken by golf carts to the busses for excursions. However, we do feel the cruise line is responsible for their tours which were lacking. The guides were courteous and a few were entertaining especially one a cemetery tour led by an actor. Our issues were the following: Several of the guides were apologists for slave owners and one of the guides actually said the following words "the slaves at this plantation were treated well" and "share cropping was a good life". A gift store owner at a cotton gin was selling black face mementos and "Little Black Sambo" books. We felt uncomfortable supporting a business that promoted this type of activity. We heard several of the tour guides talk about how awful the Union soldiers were and it felt as if we were rehashing the Civil War instead of being educated about the facts.

We were pleasantly surprised that the Mississippi river itself offers much beauty especially when you get north of Baton Rouge and out of the industrial areas. The woods with occasional estates and other interesting structures on its banks made for a great all cruising day. Read more