This was our fifth cruise with this company. We did the cruise called, "New England Islands". As usual the food was memorable. And as usual service at meals goes at a slow pace. For the first time on a cruise I had servers dump food on me - twice! They also had a specific problem at breakfast. I believe most people are eager for the first cup of coffee in the morning. That was very very slow. They have a self-service buffet with fresh fruit available. I would take some fruit on my way to be seated for breakfast. Wait staff is in no hurry to approach the table. When they get there they have order pad in hand - but no coffee. They will take orders for food and drink - coffee. They MIGHT come back with coffee before the food is available (or they might not). The boat is one of the smaller and oldest in the American Cruise Lines fleet. When I asked if they had any note pads available I was told those are only available on the larger ships. They also have only one on-board "expert" while the larger ships (in my experience) have two of them. The larger ships have more staff and will serve you breakfast in your cabin. The other four cruises we took with this company were all on US rivers and the scenery was far superior to this trip. We saw fishing boats. We saw pleasure boats. We saw water. We saw islands. We had bus rides where we heard the names of wealthy folks who owned the houses along the road. Information about the shore excursions was limited and often wrong. Most of the passengers were (as usual) very senior citizens. Most of us would like to know: 1) how much walking on this excursion? 2) How challenging is the walk? 3) How long is the bus ride? 4) What is the availability of rest rooms on this excursion? This trip, like all American Cruise Lines trips, had organized activities on board. Unlike every other cruise we took, many of the scheduled activities did not happen. Other activities were bungled. With all my complaints, we signed up for another cruise with the company. Read Less

We chose this cruise having experienced the lower Mississippi, which was wonderful. We enjoyed the Providence city excursion prior to the cruise. The driver was very knowledge and took us to many places of interest. However, this cruise was disorganized, seemed to be their training cruise and their oldest ship. Crew members were changed throughout the cruise. For example, the first meal the servers were unfamiliar with what they were serving. By day three those that had been on the ship for a couple days had figured things out. Excursions were expensive and short, should've been complimentary. Due weather a couple islands had to be reversed, leaving limited time for the excursion, but no reduction in price. Walter, the Historian, was wonderful and seemed to help coach others. We had initially booked two additional cruises by day four which we had canceled on day six due to this experience. For the price this was a disappointing cruise. Read Less