Globalfish

Whatever on earth could explain their financial obligation to Elevation Africa Destinations? Were they considering offering an expedition along the west coast of Africa or around the Cape of Good Hope?

And even more far-fetched, Elevation Africa Destinations.

Apparently Hornblower’s pure unbridled greed has done itself in. Alas, the Hornblower Group itself has just filed for bankruptcy: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/bankruptcy-law/hornblower-group-files-for-chapter-11-to-be-acquired-by-svp and more to the matter at hand: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hornblower-group-to-be-acquired-and-receive-significant-new-equity-investment-302067034.html

They’ve been “obfuscating” the truth for almost a year, if not more. In Aug. 2022 I put down a deposit on a 14-night Great Lakes cruise on the Ocean Voyager starting Aug 10, 2024 beginning and ending in Chicago. On March 28, 2023 I was informed by AQV that my cruise had been cancelled because they are temporarily taking the Ocean Voyager and Ocean Navigator out of service next year because they are revamping their Great Lakes itineraries. We know where they wound up…

Very sad. They expanded without thinking. A lesson to all never to bite off what one can’t chew. As a person who has taken over 100 Road Scholar trips (albeit not cruises), I feel especially sorry for all those who had 2024/25 Road Scholar cruises on AQV ships — on the Mississippi, Ohio, and Columbia Rivers, as well as their Alaska expedition.

A similar article appears at https://www.travelweekly.com/River-Cruising/American-Queen-Voyages-cancels-February-sailings. Methinks that greedy venture capitalists took a long-standing company with a fine reputation and ran it right to the ground. Not sure it can ever recover but wishing it the best. The first step should be to get back to their roots on the Mississippi and chuck the expedition stuff (i.e. Alaska) and other “flotsam and jetsam.”

In other words, AQV’s problems are a case of venture capitalism gone terribly awry.

AQV’s Response dated 11 Jan 2024: https://www.travelweekly.com/River-Cruising/American-Queen-Voyages-response-to-travel-agency-groups

https://www.travelweekly.com/River-Cruising/American-Queen-Voyages-advisor-groups-preferred-supplier

Different strokes for different folks, but as a big city girl (Manhattan), I found Alton, IL; Fort Madison, IA; and Red Wing, MN the travel equivalent of “make work.” In other words, fillers. My cruise didn’t go to St. Louis and Minneapolis, but I’ve been there before and I agree with you that they are great places to visit. In fact, I spent 3 nights in St. Louis on my own prior to the cruise at the Drury Plaza at the Arch, an excellent location. Yes, I liked Hannibal (see attached image of Mark Twain and I) and the thing that saved Dubuque from nothing burger was the National Mississippi River Aquarium (after all, I am “Globalfish”). My biggest disappointment about the Upper Mississippi River cruise was that I deliberately booked it for October to see the fall foliage and unfortunately there was no foliage (ironically, a month later I took a land tour to Hokkaido, Japan to see fall foliage and it was over and done with). Because the Mississippi region had such a hot summer, the foliage was quite delayed this year. I am a very picky eater so it’s not surprising that I didn’t like the food in the dining room, but many others on the cruise didn’t like it either. ACL seriously needs to improve it (an understatement). The Serenade did not have the fine French chef we had on the Pearl Mist in June 2022. However, I definitely didn’t starve. Most nights I would skip the dinner in the dining room and fill up on all the wonderful snacks at the happy hour, especially the shrimp.

Since the first few stops don’t excite you, any particular reason why you opted for the expensive 16-day Alaska Inside Passage Cruise as opposed to the cheaper 9-day Southeast Alaska Cruise or the 12-day Alaskan Explorer Cruise? Both begin and end in Juneau. I took the Alaskan Explorer Cruise in July 2023 on the Constellation. It too was my 4th time in Alaska, although my first Alaskan cruise. I spent 3 days in Skagway on my own before the cruise began because when I originally booked the cruise in Sept. 2021, Skagway was included in the itinerary but was subsequently eliminated. I live on the opposite side of the country from you (NYC), but have been to Seattle, Friday Harbor, etc. many times and like you, I didn’t feel the need to repeat them, which is why I chose the Alaskan Explorer Cruise. It went to ports that I had not previously visited including Haines, Glacier Bay, Petersburg and Wrangell, all of which I enjoyed very much. The highlight of the cruise was the Signature shore excursion the Wild Bears of An An from Wrangell, which one has to book the first day ACL opens up reservations for the shore excursions because it sells out almost immediately. I definitely liked the Alaskan Explorer Cruise much better than ACL’s Upper Mississippi River Cruise that I took 3 months later. The Alaskan itinerary was way more interesting; the towns along the Upper Mississippi were, for the most part, nothing burgers. My only disappointment with the Alaskan cruise was that I wasn’t impressed with the dining room food (and the meals served in the dining room on the American Serenade on the Upper Mississippi were even worse). Neither compared with the wonderful meals I had on Pearl Seas’ Great Lakes cruise that I took in June 2022. I will say though that out of the 2 cruises and 15 land tours that I took in 2023, my cruise experience on ACL’s Explorer Cruise on the Constellation was my favorite trip of the year. The bottom line is that I think you should stick with an ACL cruise of Alaska, but change it to one of the shorter (and cheaper) ones mentioned above that doesn’t begin or end in Seattle.

Thanks also for the explanation. Never knew exactly how to quote before. I winged it and sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. Now I know.

Road Scholar (RS) is not offering any Great Lakes cruises next year. For whatever reason RS doesn’t seem to have any business relationship with ACL so I doubt if the Pearl Mist is in its plans for future programs on the Great Lakes. I took the Pearl Mist in June 2022 from Midland, ON to Milwaukee as a 70th birthday present to myself. I am also a veteran of 116 RS programs (albeit none of them were cruises). I like booking directly through the cruise company and don’t see the need for a middleman.

Road Scholar doesn’t use ACL; it uses AQV for its Mississippi and Ohio River cruises and previously (past tense) for the Great Lakes. For Alaska it uses American Dream Cruises.

They will have to wind up selling them for scrap.

https://www.travelweekly.com/River-Cruising/Cindy-DAoust-out-at-American-Queen-Voyages

I spoke to my cruise director today on the American Serenade. She said that American Cruise Lines has NOT needed to skip any ports this year on its Lower Mississippi cruises, as opposed to its competitor that uses larger ships.

Am currently on the American Serenade from St. Louis to Red Wing. No issues with water level whatsoever. All ports and all shore excursions on the itinerary are a go.

Taking Upper Mississippi cruise next week (starting Oct. 5) from St. Louis to Red Wing, MN on the American Serenade. Will let you know, but I think low water levels are more likely to affect the Lower Mississippi.

Hi Bob, Sorry AQV never reached out to you, but I tried to warn you about the Great Lakes cruise cancellations in this AQV forum on April 3 under the subject “Great Lakes cruise—am I going to be sorry I booked this?” Apparently you didn’t see the message, where I wrote as follows: To Bob Brown and anyone else who has a Great Lakes cruise scheduled with AQV in 2024 (NOT 2023): In Aug 2022 I put down a deposit on a 14-night Great Lakes cruise on the Ocean Voyager starting Aug 10, 2024 beginning and ending in Chicago. Last week I was informed by AQV that my cruise has been cancelled because they are temporarily taking the Ocean Voyager and Ocean Navigator out of service next year because they are revamping their Great Lakes itineraries (what I don’t know is whether they are also refurbishing the cruise vessels). I requested a refund of the deposit because there is no alternative AQV voyage that I’d like to take at this time. AQV told me that because I made my deposit by AMEX, it might take up to 60 days to be refunded. I can live with that, but the posts in this forum about people waiting 4-1/2 months for a refund from AQV are scaring me. For now I am taking AQV at their word and have not asked my credit card company to take any action, but will keep an eye on it. Anything after 60 days is beyond the realm of reasonability. But the main purpose of this message is that if you have an AQV Great Lakes cruise scheduled for 2024 on the Ocean Voyager or Ocean Navigator and have not yet heard from them, you need to get in touch with them. The only consolation is that the cruise was too far in the future for either one of us to have paid in full. In that case it might have been harder to get a refund because AQV would have certainly put pressure on us to apply it to an alternative cruise. In any event, hope your deposit is refunded on a timely basis without you having to resort to contacting your credit card company.

On August 15, 2022 I made a $500 deposit on a 14-day Great Lakes cruise on the Ocean Voyager for August 10, 2024 beginning and ending in Chicago. I was notified by an AQV reservations agent on March 28, 2023 that the cruise was cancelled because the Ocean Voyager and Ocean Navigator will not be operating next year. No reason was given so the news in this thread that these two vessels are being sold is extremely interesting. The AQV reservations agent told me it will take 60 days to receive a refund. When I still hadn’t received the refund after that time, I called AQV on May 30 and spoke to a different reservations agent, who told me it can take up to 90 days for the refund and that it was processed on March 28, 2023. 90 days came and went and I still haven’t received a refund. So I just called my credit card company and upon investigation they credited my account accordingly. Good luck to any of you in a similar situation with a cancelled AQV Great Lakes cruise.

Wow, they REALLY like that tour!

Sounds obvious, right? Well yesterday, when I was choosing my shore excursions for ACL’s Alaskan Explorer cruise beginning in July, one of the ones offered was: The Astoria Walking Exploration View Full Detailspremium Excursion Thursday Jul. 20, 2023 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM Price Per Person - $25 My cruise begins and ends in Juneau and does not go anywhere near Astoria. That’s for the Columbia & Snake River cruise. ACL, if you are reading this, please delete that excursion from your Alaskan Explorer cruise.

Yesterday was 60 days before my Alaskan Explorer cruise beginning July 12 (not including the complimentary pre-cruise hotel night in Juneau). I had just arrived in Warsaw, Poland to begin a group tour (not a cruise) and after I retrieved my luggage at baggage claim, I wanted nothing better than to get to my hotel after the long flight from NY. However, I had an even higher priority. Yesterday was the first day that shore excursions for my Alaska cruise became available for booking and not wanting to take any chance that they would sell out immediately based on fudgbug’s experience, I found myself a seat in the baggage claim area of the Warsaw airport and sat down and booked them. That took an hour because I wanted to be sure I picked the right excursions and that the dates and times didn’t conflict with one another. No problem! Done! Feeling of relief! Only then did I stand in the long line to get a taxi to my hotel.

Ironically, I was originally booked on the Viking Octantis, but switched to AQVs Ocean Voyager because 1) I prefer a cruise over an expedition (including on-board entertainment); and 2) the Viking expedition was too scientific-oriented for me. But ironically, AQV’s 14 night Great Lakes cruise turned out to be even more expensive than the Viking Octantis expedition, although on the other hand it was twice the length. That all being said, the 10-night Ponant expedition (Thunder Bay to Milwaukee or the reverse) looks nice and will consider it for the future. The itinerary is exactly what I want, focusing primarily on Lake Superior; I did the other Great Lakes last summer on the Pearl Mist (Pearl Seas Cruises) as a 70th birthday present to myself.