Always a fun adventure with American Queen Countess! We are a very fit 73 and 72 year old married couple. Most passengers on the ship are near our ages. Many have mobility issues and there are often times of waiting particularly on the buses and getting on and off the ship.

I wrote a previous review ("Life on the Mississippi") in July 2022 regarding the American, Countess. All the negative issues that I mentioned had been corrected; the popcorn machine worked, the mid-ship elevator was in operation, and the "sign-on, sign-off" the ship device was working. There are also new and more challenging Sudoku puzzles present.

Now for the negative... The Countess was pushed by a tug, Peggy Louise, for the duration of the cruise---not a good image. The crew is understaffed. There is only one bartender for the 155 passengers (capacity 266). At times, Anthony was overwhelmed but he did the best he could. The other bartender did not arrive for the cruise. The omelet server for the River Grille did not sail with the ship. It appeared as if the ship was understaffed. The crew is all-American and many exhibit current American work ethics, work when you want and stay home when you wish. We strongly recommend hiring Filipinos for the service personnel. The most significant negative was the cancellation of the port stop in Hannibal. For many cruise passengers this port was the highlight of the trip. Ship personnel attributed the cancellation to "river conditions " and the Mississippi River being too shallow. Few passengers believed this to be true and felt that the Countess authorities were being less than truthful. This proved to be true when many barges safely navigated the Mississippi. The most significant event took place when the American Queen, a sister ship to the Countess, sailed by enroute to Hannibal. Ouch, they was revealing! Most passengers believed the reason for the cancellation was because of the Countess being pushed by the tug. We were also told that the tug was used during the previous voyage. Read more