American Countess, May 16; New Orleans to Memphis

[CruiserFromMaine]

Hello!

 

I wanted to start another Countess report. In know TravelinGert has a thread going for another cruise and I didn’t want to hijack that one.

 

My wife and I have been on two other river cruises, both in Europe. One on AMA and one on Crystal. We loved them both but international travel is not in the cards for us this summer, so here we are in New Orleans!

 

We got in late Wednesday and checked out of that hotel (The Higgins) this morning and checked in at the Hilton Riverfront that AQSC uses. We had a 2:15 Covid test and we checked in at the same time in a function room in the conference wing. The process took maybe 15-20 minutes including the test. And we got the results back in about an hour—that’s great! Both negative; now we can sleep tonight! 
 

I’ll post more as we go along. If you’ve got questions, ask away. I’ll try to post daily. 

[graveytrain]

Looking forward to your posts! Have a wonderful cruise!

[CruiserFromMaine]

Thanks graveytrain!

[PlumeriaLover]

Looking forward to your postings.

[Evesham]

Once you’ve had the Pre-cruise COVID test, are there any restrictions on your movements before boarding the next day?
 

[CruiserFromMaine]

No, and New Orleans looks like 2019. 

[CruiserFromMaine]

The Hilton Riverside is a typical large convention hotel that’s had a lot of use, and it shows. It’s OK but a smaller hotel would be more in keeping with the onboard experience. 
 

Since AQSC knew everyone tested negative they didn’t ask for our test results in the morning. Which makes sense too because the test results page just shows date and result with no name so it’s easily copied and shared. Breakfast at the hotel was disappointing. 
 

The staff seemed to have problems getting people checked in and then they said they were having IT issues. Our boarding cards have no logo but someone added handwritten names and cabin numbers to our otherwise blank cards. The shore excursion sign up was largely manual too.

 

Otherwise, checkin and embarkation was easy. The shuttle to the port from the hotel was right on time and took five minutes. We were welcomed on board with a glass of bubbly. 
 

The ship looks great! I’ve got some photos to post later. We have the second seating for dinner so went to the show at 6:00. The enter staff and cruise director are great! My wife and I are both very impressed; these folks would fit right in on a much larger ocean cruise ship. 
 

I would say 75% of the pax signed up for early seating. We had the dining room to ourselves, it seemed. The theater too. Service in the dining room was good with a couple hiccups and the food was quite good. 
 

The safety drill was done in the hall outside your cabin. 
 

I should add that the hallways are the widest we’ve seen on any cruise. 
 

The bar got quite busy before dinner and the lone bartender finally got some assistance. It was not as busy after dinner and closed up around 10pm. The band stopped playing then too. 
 

Many people I talked with wished for a 7pm dinner time rather than the choices of 5:30 and 8:00. We feel the same way. Given the distribution of pax I’m glad we picked the later time though since I suspect we got better service.

 

Our cabin, #215, is quite large by river cruise standards. The bathroom is spacious as well. The towels are nice and fluffy, there are two robes and pairs of slippers. The bed is quite comfortable although a little short; my feet hang over the foot of the beef I stretch out. There is a comfortable love seat,  it no table. The balcony is a nice size with a table and two chairs. 
 

The internet service is weak. 
 

More later with pictures! 

[CruiserFromMaine]

Day 2 saw drizzly weather and a stop at Nottoway Plantation. It’s a somewhat interesting tour of a plantation in Louisiana. The river is quite high so we stopped at an alternate dock about a 10 minute ride away. 
 

Breakfast in the River Grill was quick and good. It’s set up as a buffet but it is all served,  not self service. Same for lunch in the main dining room, although there some items are cooked to order.

 

We spent the afternoon. The internet is poor especially when a lot of pax are on line. The evening show was fabulous again and dinner was excellent again. We dined with a couple on the first night then added another couple tonight, which the staff accommodated. They expect you’ll dine with the same people every night so they had to set up a new table for six. I suggest that if you change arrangements to let them know before dinner. For the late seating that should be easy to do, not sure how to do that before the doors open for the early seating. 

 

Music trivia was fun in the afternoon and the Riverlorian was very good as well. He was educational with a good sense of humor. 
 

The wine selection is OK but not great. 
 

The cruise director said that AQSC signed a contract in February  with the CDC that required masking in public places. The CDC has obviously updated that guidance significantly but the contract hasn’t changed so lax are asked to mask up on board, on tours, etc. and stay in our bubble on shore excursions. However, compliance and enforcement recognize the changed guidance so there is a lot of unmasked time aboard. Yesterday’s tour had lots of masks on the bus and on tour. 
 

 

[CruiserFromMaine]

I’ll try to add some photos. 
 

Our cabin and bathroom. 

 

[CruiserFromMaine]

Public areas. Sun Deck, Grand Dining Room, River Grill and Lobby Bar. 
 

Not shown are the chart room, library and game room. There are plenty of quiet spaces on board. 

[Seamus6]

I am happy to see another cruise review in progress.

 

Thank you!

[LHT28]

Thanks  for sharing

[PlumeriaLover]

Quick question:  Are there safes in the rooms?

Thanks.

 

[cozzello]

How often are you actually wearing masks please?

[CruiserFromMaine]

Seamus69 and LHT28, you’re welcome!

 

There is a safe in the closet but my wife’s laptop won’t fit. An iPad, etc would fit. 
 

Masking is an interesting topic. Mask wearing on the buses for tours is universal or nearly so. Same in the hallways and entering the dining room. However, people are certainly not wearing masks at the bar, at dinner or even at the shows/lectures. Even the crew compliance is somewhere in the 60% range. AQSC is in a tough place with the agreement with the CDC conflicting with the new CDC guidance. 

[cozzello]

Cruiser from Main thank you.  We are traveling on the Empress so I wonder if it will be the same.

[CruiserFromMaine]

20 hours ago, cozzello said:

We are traveling on the Empress so I wonder if it will be the same.

I suspect it will be. 
 

We had a conversation with the cruise director yesterday (not about masks) and he said the crew cannot go ashore as part of their CDC contract. 

[CruiserFromMaine]

Days 3 and 4.

 

The food continues to be very good. The lobster tails that are always available at dinner are a big hit at our table, and as a Maine resident, I give them a big thumbs up. The evening entertainment is also excellent, the talent rally shines through without any elaborate sets or costumes. The Riverlorian is very good too, educational with a bit of humor.

 

The service lacks some polish that we’re accustomed to on other cruises, river and ocean. There seems to be a lack of training or perhaps direction. The fact that the early dinner seating has perhaps 70% of the passengers but the same staffing as the late seating with about half as many passengers is apparently making the service then slow. We’re at the second seating but have heard this. The bar needs another bartender to help out. Somet8mes, the buffet line (not self service) at lunch has only one person working at it. Once the ship sails at full capacity these problems will get worse. We have yet to meet our room steward; I’ve never had that experience on any other cruise.

 

The excursions are average to very good. The excursion to Angola Prison, an actual operating prison, was very good. The tour to the cotton gin was average. Those were both premium tours.

 

The method to get the included tours is to line up at the excursion desk around 4:30 to get timed tickets when they are placed on the desk for pick up at 5:00. This is a ridiculous way to distribute tour tickets. Apparently AQSC has been experiencing computer issues since Saturday and that’s a part of the problem, perhaps a big part. But yesterday was Wednesday, that’s five days to fix the issues and it’s still not resolved.

 

The WiFi on board is quite poor. Some websites or services won’t load. Email and basic websites seem to work though.

[40yearcruiser]

Thanks for the helpful information. We will be on the Duchess, but not until August 1. Do you know if there is any end date for the contract that AQSC has with the CDC? Surely they didn't intend for the restrictions to go on indefinitely. Since the vaccine is required starting July 1, we can hope the mask-wearing restrictions will ease after that. Enjoy the rest of your cruise!

[PlumeriaLover]

Many thanks, CruiserfromMain, for all of the helpful information!  Enjoy the remainder of your trip.

[CruiserFromMaine]

Thanks, PlumeriaLover!

[CruiserFromMaine]

The cruise continues with the same characteristics. The meals are very to excellent. I should clarify that to pertain to lunch and dinner. Breakfast is ok. 
 

There is a room with self-serve(!) ice cream, popcorn cookies and iced tea and coffee. There are any savory snacks at the bar but we’ve arranged for a cheese and meat tray to be delivered out to us in the bar area around 7:00 each night, between the show and dinner.

 

The included tour of Vicksburg was quite good in my opinion. I have a big interest in the Civil War so I might be biased! There was a stop at Avery small museum at the end that was supposed to be for an hour but by consensus on the bus we changed it to half an hour, which was plenty of time.

 

We missed our stop in Greenville and the BB King Museum because when we left Vicksburg the gangway could not be raised and moved to sailing position. When the announcement was made, the gangway was called the “stage” which is probably the correct nautical term but caused confusion until passengers  who talked with the crew cleared it up.  
 

So yesterday was a “sea” day. The crew added a Match Game in the morning and a margarita event in the afternoon to help compensate and this morning we added a stop in Helena, Arkansas to help compensate as well. Stuff happens and the crew did what they could on short notice. 
 

The entertainment staff, singers and musicians, are the highlight of the cruise! They do an excellent job. 

 

[Seamus6]

21 hours ago, CruiserFromMaine said:

So yesterday was a “sea” day. The crew added a Match Game in the morning and a margarita event in the afternoon to help compensate and this morning we added a stop in Helena, Arkansas to help compensate as well. Stuff happens and the crew did what they could on short notice. 

 

The entertainment staff, singers and musicians, are the highlight of the cruise! They do an excellent job. 

 

 

Adding a margarita event is a good distraction from missing out on anything.  Not my favorite cocktail but a fun one to drink in a crowd!

[CruiserFromMaine]

After our unexpected sea day, the line scheduled a stop in Helena, Arkansas. It was a short stop with a visit to the library/museum and the Delta Cultural Center. The town was a mixture of some very nice homes and some depressed areas. According to our guide, many people moved away as farming became more mechanized. The town has a prosperous history, though. I could’ve spent more time at the Cultural Center. 
 

One aspect of this cruise that warrants highlighting is the scenery in comparison to a European river cruise. Along the Mississippi there are lots of trees (pun intended). It is very rural. There are very very few old towns and no castles or vineyards. The only place of note we sailed past without stopping was Baton Rouge, which is close to New Orleans. 
 

On our next to last night, the band and singers put on a great show in the Lobby Bar after dinner. It was great fun! 
 

The show on the last night was not introduced by the cruise director, which was odd. Nor were the passengers thanked and invited back. And there was no introduction of the officers at any point. 
 

At 12:30am on our last night, an alarm sounded! Then the captain announced it was a mistake and apologized. Very odd, never had that happen before. It certainly woke us up though. 
 

Disembarking was fairly easy. There were several options of tours or transportation. We docked at Mud Island which they said was  hard to get taxis or a ride share. So we took the bus to the AQSC hotel for $10 each and then a ride share to our hotel. Bags were to be left in the hall by 11pm and rooms vacated by 8am. Breakfast was 6-8am in both venues. When it was your departure time you claimed your bags by the bus and then they were loaded. 
 

One comment on the River Grille. There is outside seating there but it was never used because when underway it got spray from the paddle wheel and when we were stopped nobody dried it off so it was still too wet to use. I don’t know how they planned to use that area. 
 

I’ll summarize final thoughts in a day or so.

 

Let me know if you have any questions!

Edited May 24, 2021 by CruiserFromMaine
More detail

[gardenbunny]

Thanks so much for sharing your cruise experience.  We are doing our very first of any kind of river cruising July 31 on American Countess for 9 days Memphis to NOLA.  Very excited.  While all our oversea cruising trips are postponed for another year, we decided to start on our America bucket list items!  

Did AQSC have any issues with regard to the crack in the bridge at Memphis?

Really looking forward to Memphis, Vicksburg, Natchez and NOLA. 70 years old, born and raised in Atlanta and have never been to any of those cities!  My husband loves Civil War History and I love the old antebellum homes.  Can’t wait to go to Graceland either.  Lots of things to check off my bucket list all in 1 trip!!

So how do optional excursions work?  Similar to ocean cruise ships?  Are they listed on their website?  

Look forward to reading your final thoughts.