Our cruise trip began with a night at the beautiful Historic Davenport hotel in Spokane Oregon. We boarded the American Empress in Lewiston WA. We visited Hells Canyon then Richland, The Dallas, Stevenson, Astoria and disembarked in Vancouver WA. The ship was lovely and food, service and entertainment were good. In each port we found interesting and/or scenic things to see and do - and learned much about the Lewis and Clark Expedition especially from the fun and knowledgeable riverlorian. We also enjoyed going through 8 locks. While there was lots of wine enjoyed on and off the ship - there was no wine expertise amongst the crew. The wine maker talk was a recitation of types of grapes grown in various AVAs in the area. The wine reps who came on board were marketing oriented - and did not talk in detail about the wines. The 2 wine pairing dinners were excellent - but again - no wine education was provided. We found no one on board who could answer basic questions such as - what dry red do you recommend and why. We are glad we took this trip and would consider this cruise line again- but calling this a Wine Cruise is a stretch.