American Song Lower Mississippi From Memphis

[Darrell6t]

We took the new Ameican Song from Memphis on November 10, 2018 heading to New Orleans.  The cruise was a mixed experience of good and disappointing.  The new boat is very nice.  The cabins are large for such a boat, with bigger than usual bathrooms.  Some beautiful lounges for sitting and shows.  Very easy to get around with 2 elevators and an open stairway.  The disappointment was the food, which was usually OK, but nothing special and the waitstaff is amateur.  They try hard and are pleasant, but it isn't like on a big cruise ship.  The cocktail hour in the lounge was very popular and quite a success.

 

Out cruise was made less wonderful by the unusual cold weather.  It was too cold to sit on our balcony or enjoy the beautiful top deck with all the seating. And two days we had some rain too.  The coldest November day in Memphis in 25 years when we left.  Another thing was the lack of scenery on the lower Mississippi.  You see vitually nothing except muddy water and scrawny trees most of the time.  The levees block the view of anything on the land.  The last stretch from Baton Rouge to NoLa is more interesting, including a lot of large ships and barges.

 

The excursions were all good, though the Vicksburg Battlefield tour dragged on too long for me.  Others enjoyed it.  We only took the included tours.  The staff was very good at helping those passengers who needed extra help.  The lectures were mostly interesting..And the entertainment was mostly excellent.  We were delayed because of loose barges and had the same duo 3 evenings (instead of 2), but they did 3 different shows and were wonderful.  Dan Knowles and Eddie Coffey on banjo and other instruments. 

 

This was our first experience with ACL and we loved the boat, but found the entire cruise to be somewhat disappointing.  I expected excellent meals and more scenery.  The weather didn't help, but I realize ACL can't be blamed for that. 

[bhopal21]

Sorry to hear that your dining experience was less than exemplary as that is usually not the case on ACL; at least not in our past cruises.   In our experience the food has always been much better than any we have had on the mainstream cruise lines.

 

Thanks for your review,

 

Mike😊