Trip report (long!) Columbia river on American Pride Aug-Sept 2021

[DevilsFan38]

I recently returned from a Columbia river cruise on the Pride, and thought I'd write a detailed report for those who might be interested. I'll start with a big overview, then do more details by port. First off, I'm not your typical river cruise passenger (I'm in my mid 30's). The trip was with my brother (early 30's) and mother (mid 60's). The three of us shared a cabin (cabin 113), which actually worked fairly well, and was much more cost effective than having one person in a single. Three twin beds fit fairly well into that cabin (I understand it's slightly bigger than some of the others on that floor). The first floor doesn't have balconies, so that allows more room for beds, and we didn't miss the balcony at all (we'd never done a river cruise before, usually on ocean cruises we do a balcony). There were always plenty of chairs available up on deck when I wanted to sit outside with my book.

 

The food was very good. I'm a vegetarian so that was a bit more of a challenge on a smaller ship. They were able to accommodate me, but often times dinner was whatever the side dishes were for the main dishes on the menu (which most nights was fine, I had some nice risottos and veggies, and I certainly didn't go hungry!). Overall the wait staff was very good, despite being short staffed, but they all worked very hard. We all enjoyed the open seating and meeting different people almost every meal, it made for interesting meals and made the ship seem very friendly as you kept seeing people you'd already met.

 

The entertainment was okay. We obviously weren't expecting fabulous shows, but the musicians ranged from good to mediocre at best. After the evening show ends at about 9:30 there's not really anything to do. I'm a morning person so that was fine with me, but my mother and brother are night owls so they were a little bored at night. The gentleman (David Miller) who did the educational talks on Lewis and Clark, the Columbia river, etc was fabulous - I'd say his talks were better attended than the nightly entertainment.

 

Excursions were well organized, and it was very easy to add or cancel them (I made a last minute change one evening and the excursion director was very helpful). The Pride has three buses for excursions/around town shuttles that follows the ship from port to port, so you had the same three bus drivers in each port. The three drivers (Joni, Mike, and Deidre) were all fabulous, they didn't just drive from point to point but gave lots of information about each of the stops, which very much enhanced the excursions.

 

I thought the ship did a good job with COVID-19. Every single passenger we talked to was vaccinated. Mask wearing was required except when eating or drinking (so sitting down to meals, or when drinking/snacking in the lounges), and that was generally very well adhered to by the passengers. Sometimes people wouldn't have their mask on all the time when on deck (I admit, myself included), but if you're outside and socially distanced I don't see that as a problem. Crew was overall good about wearing masks, but I don't know what the vaccine requirements were for them. 

 

Generally I thought the ship itself was good, though I wish there was a deck were you could walk a complete circuit around the ship for some extra activity. There was a TINY exercise room, which I don't think a single person used. There was a washer and dryer on the ship with complementary use, which was nice, though I didn't use it. 

 

Overall all three of us enjoyed the trip, and I think all three of us would do a river cruise again. However, I don't think my brother and I would rush to do another one - not because we didn't enjoy it, but because vacation time and money are limited, and I think we'd prefer more active vacations at our stage of life. 

 

Now for more day to day/port details. We did the west to east itinerary, so started in Portland and ended in Clarkston. We ended up staying an additional two nights in Spokane after the cruise, and actually stayed at the hotel the cruise line uses for the pre trip hotel stay when you go east to west (the Historic Davenport, in Spokane). There is a VAST difference between the Davenport hotel in Spokane, and the Red Lion you stay at pre cruise in Portland. The Davenport is a gorgeously restored historic hotel right in downtown Spokane, easily walkable to restaurants/stores/Riverfront park. I would stay there again if I visited Spokane. The Red Lion Jantzen beach that the cruise uses in Portland is acceptable, but it's nothing special, and the only thing it is conveniently located near is the cruise ship dock. It's about a 20 minute uber ride to downtown Portland. There is a shopping center with a Target and some other stores not too far from the Red Lion (I actually visited it, and bought a two sweaters for the trip, since I didn't pack enough cool weather clothes!), about a 5-10 min walk. The walk is easy but there is a pedestrian underpass below the highway to get to it, and I think after dark it would be a rather sketchy walk though there.

 

So we arrived in Portland the day before the cruise departed, and took a taxi from the airport to the Red Lion to check in. After that we got an uber and went to Washington Park in Portland, and spent probably 2-3 hours viewing the Rose garden (free) and Japanese garden (paid, with timed entrance slots). All that was excellent. Then we took another uber to a brewery for dinner, and then another uber back to the hotel.

 

Breakfast the next morning at the Red Lion was fine. We got our rapid COVID-19 swabs done, and then boarded the ship. FYI, they wanted your large luggage ready to go by 8am if you wanted them to take it aboard the ship (otherwise you could drag it on yourself, it wasn't far at all). Lunch was good, then the afternoon was cruising up to Astoria, with some lovely scenery along the way. We docked late that night in Astoria.

 

The next day we were in Astoria. Since we docked the night before you could get off the ship very early, which I took advantage of. I had brought my running clothes with me, and I got off the ship at 6am and went for an 8 mile run. There is a paved path right along the riverfront that goes for miles (my entire run was on that), and at sunrise with fog over the river it was gorgeous. I got back in time for a quick shower and breakfast, and then we headed off to the Fort Clatsop excursion. The fort (though it's not the original) and museum were interesting, and I think they spent an appropriate amount of time there - enough to see everything, but not too long. We got back to the ship about 11am, so we decided to go straight into the Columbia maritime museum, which is literally right where the ship is docked. Admission is included with the cruise and the museum was excellent, I think maybe the most interesting museum of any we went to on the trip. After that we had lunch on the ship, then it was back aboard the tour buses to go to Cape Disappointment. The views from there were beautiful, and we saw a bald eagle in a tree nearby. The exhibit was good as well. Then back to the ship for dinner after a very full day of exploring.

 

The following day we "docked" in Kalama. I say "docked" because the ship doesn't actually dock, it literally just beaches the bow of the ship on a small beach there, and the gangway goes off the front of the ship on to the sand. There is a riverfront pathway there as well but it only goes about a mile. I went for another walk there when we got in around 8:30am. We then had a leisurely morning since the only excursion that day was the drive to Mt St Helens, which left after lunch. There was really nothing of interest to see in the port. The drive to Mt St Helens is long (and on windy/hilly roads, FYI, if you're prone to motion sickness), and I didn't think we had enough time there. There was certainly enough time to walk around, take pics and stop in the gift shop, but there were also some trails where it looked like you could have gone on a much longer walk, and there were multiple other people I talked to who wished we had time for that. I did suggest to ACL that they should have one bus that left the ship earlier (all three buses went, since it was the only excursion of the day) for those who are more active and wanted additional time to do some hiking. Hopefully they take that into consideration. We lucked out on weather (actually the whole trip) because we had perfectly clear views of Mt St Helens. The bus drivers also played a very good informational video on the eruption on the bus ride there.

 

The next day we docked in Stevenson. We went to Multnomah Falls in the morning, which is a beautiful waterfall. If you want there is a path to hike up to the top of the falls, which my brother and I did (I'd say about a half dozen others from the cruise did as well). It's a little over a mile hike to the top, with an elevation gain of nearly 800 feet (wear your sneakers). It took us 33 minutes to get to the top (moving at a steady pace, but not hurrying), and actually a little longer going down since we stopped for pics on the way down. The falls view isn't any better from the top, but what is beautiful is the fabulous vista looking out over the Columbia river. Then when we got back to the bottom we browsed the gift shop (which is enormous!). I felt for us we spent the right amount of time at the falls, but if you just wanted to walk to the bottom of the falls and look up you probably felt like we were there too long. In the afternoon they had a hop on/off bus around Stevenson. The first stop was the Bonneville dam. If you have seen dams and fish ladders before, this probably is not interesting (but the center has some fabulous orange shag carpet from the 70's!). If you haven't it's worth a stop, but you won't need to spend much time - you can catch the next bus. The next stop is the Columbia Gorge INTERPRETIVE Center (note: different from the Columbia Gorge DISCOVERY Center you'll go to the next day). For me, this was not that interesting, and I could have skipped it. I do love a good museum, but this seemed like a rather eclectic conglomeration of exhibits that just didn't speak to me. If I remember correctly (I'm already forgetting!) the last stop was in Stevenson, and you could easily walk back to the ship from there if you wanted (or take the bus all the way back).

 

The following day we were in The Dalles. There was a hop on/off bus going around both in the morning and afternoon. In the morning there was also an excursion to the Maryhill Museum of Art (we didn't do that) and in the afternoon there was an excursion to the Maryhill winery (we did that). We did the shuttle bus in the morning, and stopped at the Columbia Gorge DISCOVERY Center. That was interesting, the exhibits were good, and we actually didn't have enough time there. We caught their raptor presentation which was very good (they have it twice a day), that day they brought out a red tailed hawk to talk about. I found out later that there is actually a paved path that starts along the river, goes right past where you are docked, and leads up to the Discovery Center. It's about a 5 mile walk from the dock to the Center (slight uphill), if I'd known about it I'd have gotten off as soon as we docked and walked to the Center. I forget what the second stop on the shuttle was, but we didn't have time for it in order to get back in time for lunch and our winery tour. The final stop again was in downtown, and again was an easy walk back to the ship from there if you wanted to. Or of course, you could just get off the ship and wander around downtown. The winery excursion in the afternoon was good, there was a little talk on the process of making the wine first, and then of course there was tasting.

 

The following day we docked in Richland. Those doing the Pendleton excursion actually went off the boat earlier (we docked briefly just to let them off, then continued underway), and we docked midday. I went to the REACH museum, which I thought was excellent. It had two main exhibits, the first about the formation of the area (geologically speaking) as well as the flora/fauna of the area. The second was about the Manhattan Project and the plutonium enrichment that went on in Hanford, which I knew nothing about so I found that quite interesting. Again the ship was docked so that you could easily walk right into town, and there was also a riverfront walk (not sure how far it went, I didn't have that long after the excursion to walk before I had to get back to the boat).

 

The next day we were in Clarkston. We did the Hells Canyon jetboat excursion (the "long" one). You don't need to worry about getting wet, or thrown around much (just a little bit of bumpiness when we went through some small rapids). It does get a little cool when the boat gets going 30-35 mph. You stop for lunch along the river, which was very good. I wish I'd known in advance that you stop for 90 minutes at the lunch spot, and there is a little beach there. If you wanted to (and were dressed appropriately) you could even have gone for a little swim in the river. But none of us were in bathing suits or had towels or changes of clothes, so we had to content with just a little wading. Then of course we were docked in Clarkston overnight, and off the ship there the next morning. I didn't see that much to do where we docked, though there was a large Walmart close by if that's important to you. We took the free shuttle to Lewiston airport, and rented a car from there to drive to Spokane. The drive to Spokane was easy. Make sure you rent a car in advance if you're planning on doing that, it is a tiny airport with not a lot of rental cars on site.

 

If anyone actually made it this far, thanks for reading! I hope this was helpful, and if anyone has other questions I can try to answer them.

 

[jebhoward3]

Thank you for posting this.  We will be doing the opposite direction on 10/29/21.

[nybumpkin]

Thanks for your review. Our TA had suggested this trip to us, but we opted for Puget Sound instead. David Miller was speaker on our trip, and I completely agree - he's excellent.

[Joanandjoe]

Great review.  Everything is in the timing.  When we went on this route a few years, we had a lot of rain - which was welcome for the parched forests, not so good for us.  We were at Bonneville during spawning season, so the fish ladder was one of the most fascinating things we've ever seen.  Without the wall to wall salmon, it's probably a dull place.  All in all, a great trip.

[CarolynFH]

Many thanks for this report - we're doing the longer version of this cruise in April 2022, and like you, we plan to drive to Spokane to catch our plane home.  How long did it take you to drive from Lewiston to Spokane?  How long did it take to go through security at the Spokane airport?  Just wanting to be sure we're allowing enough time for the drive, etc., and don't need to spend the night in Spokane!  (We've already booked our flights and our rental car, but we can change them if need be.)

[Ski Mom]

Thank you so much for this great review! I’m just starting the planning process for this trip. It will be my first time on ACL and a smaller ship. Your review was very informative!

[adstz]

Thanks for taking the time to post this review. I have copied and saved it to use in the future. I plan on taking this cruise possibly in 2024.

[Ski Mom]

On 9/6/2021 at 1:01 PM, DevilsFan38 said:

I recently returned from a Columbia river cruise on the Pride, and thought I'd write a detailed report for those who might be interested. I'll start with a big overview, then do more details by port. First off, I'm not your typical river cruise passenger (I'm in my mid 30's). The trip was with my brother (early 30's) and mother (mid 60's). The three of us shared a cabin (cabin 113), which actually worked fairly well, and was much more cost effective than having one person in a single. Three twin beds fit fairly well into that cabin (I understand it's slightly bigger than some of the others on that floor). The first floor doesn't have balconies, so that allows more room for beds, and we didn't miss the balcony at all (we'd never done a river cruise before, usually on ocean cruises we do a balcony). There were always plenty of chairs available up on deck when I wanted to sit outside with my book.

 

The food was very good. I'm a vegetarian so that was a bit more of a challenge on a smaller ship. They were able to accommodate me, but often times dinner was whatever the side dishes were for the main dishes on the menu (which most nights was fine, I had some nice risottos and veggies, and I certainly didn't go hungry!). Overall the wait staff was very good, despite being short staffed, but they all worked very hard. We all enjoyed the open seating and meeting different people almost every meal, it made for interesting meals and made the ship seem very friendly as you kept seeing people you'd already met.

 

The entertainment was okay. We obviously weren't expecting fabulous shows, but the musicians ranged from good to mediocre at best. After the evening show ends at about 9:30 there's not really anything to do. I'm a morning person so that was fine with me, but my mother and brother are night owls so they were a little bored at night. The gentleman (David Miller) who did the educational talks on Lewis and Clark, the Columbia river, etc was fabulous - I'd say his talks were better attended than the nightly entertainment.

 

Excursions were well organized, and it was very easy to add or cancel them (I made a last minute change one evening and the excursion director was very helpful). The Pride has three buses for excursions/around town shuttles that follows the ship from port to port, so you had the same three bus drivers in each port. The three drivers (Joni, Mike, and Deidre) were all fabulous, they didn't just drive from point to point but gave lots of information about each of the stops, which very much enhanced the excursions.

 

I thought the ship did a good job with COVID-19. Every single passenger we talked to was vaccinated. Mask wearing was required except when eating or drinking (so sitting down to meals, or when drinking/snacking in the lounges), and that was generally very well adhered to by the passengers. Sometimes people wouldn't have their mask on all the time when on deck (I admit, myself included), but if you're outside and socially distanced I don't see that as a problem. Crew was overall good about wearing masks, but I don't know what the vaccine requirements were for them. 

 

Generally I thought the ship itself was good, though I wish there was a deck were you could walk a complete circuit around the ship for some extra activity. There was a TINY exercise room, which I don't think a single person used. There was a washer and dryer on the ship with complementary use, which was nice, though I didn't use it. 

 

Overall all three of us enjoyed the trip, and I think all three of us would do a river cruise again. However, I don't think my brother and I would rush to do another one - not because we didn't enjoy it, but because vacation time and money are limited, and I think we'd prefer more active vacations at our stage of life. 

 

Now for more day to day/port details. We did the west to east itinerary, so started in Portland and ended in Clarkston. We ended up staying an additional two nights in Spokane after the cruise, and actually stayed at the hotel the cruise line uses for the pre trip hotel stay when you go east to west (the Historic Davenport, in Spokane). There is a VAST difference between the Davenport hotel in Spokane, and the Red Lion you stay at pre cruise in Portland. The Davenport is a gorgeously restored historic hotel right in downtown Spokane, easily walkable to restaurants/stores/Riverfront park. I would stay there again if I visited Spokane. The Red Lion Jantzen beach that the cruise uses in Portland is acceptable, but it's nothing special, and the only thing it is conveniently located near is the cruise ship dock. It's about a 20 minute uber ride to downtown Portland. There is a shopping center with a Target and some other stores not too far from the Red Lion (I actually visited it, and bought a two sweaters for the trip, since I didn't pack enough cool weather clothes!), about a 5-10 min walk. The walk is easy but there is a pedestrian underpass below the highway to get to it, and I think after dark it would be a rather sketchy walk though there.

 

So we arrived in Portland the day before the cruise departed, and took a taxi from the airport to the Red Lion to check in. After that we got an uber and went to Washington Park in Portland, and spent probably 2-3 hours viewing the Rose garden (free) and Japanese garden (paid, with timed entrance slots). All that was excellent. Then we took another uber to a brewery for dinner, and then another uber back to the hotel.

 

Breakfast the next morning at the Red Lion was fine. We got our rapid COVID-19 swabs done, and then boarded the ship. FYI, they wanted your large luggage ready to go by 8am if you wanted them to take it aboard the ship (otherwise you could drag it on yourself, it wasn't far at all). Lunch was good, then the afternoon was cruising up to Astoria, with some lovely scenery along the way. We docked late that night in Astoria.

 

The next day we were in Astoria. Since we docked the night before you could get off the ship very early, which I took advantage of. I had brought my running clothes with me, and I got off the ship at 6am and went for an 8 mile run. There is a paved path right along the riverfront that goes for miles (my entire run was on that), and at sunrise with fog over the river it was gorgeous. I got back in time for a quick shower and breakfast, and then we headed off to the Fort Clatsop excursion. The fort (though it's not the original) and museum were interesting, and I think they spent an appropriate amount of time there - enough to see everything, but not too long. We got back to the ship about 11am, so we decided to go straight into the Columbia maritime museum, which is literally right where the ship is docked. Admission is included with the cruise and the museum was excellent, I think maybe the most interesting museum of any we went to on the trip. After that we had lunch on the ship, then it was back aboard the tour buses to go to Cape Disappointment. The views from there were beautiful, and we saw a bald eagle in a tree nearby. The exhibit was good as well. Then back to the ship for dinner after a very full day of exploring.

 

The following day we "docked" in Kalama. I say "docked" because the ship doesn't actually dock, it literally just beaches the bow of the ship on a small beach there, and the gangway goes off the front of the ship on to the sand. There is a riverfront pathway there as well but it only goes about a mile. I went for another walk there when we got in around 8:30am. We then had a leisurely morning since the only excursion that day was the drive to Mt St Helens, which left after lunch. There was really nothing of interest to see in the port. The drive to Mt St Helens is long (and on windy/hilly roads, FYI, if you're prone to motion sickness), and I didn't think we had enough time there. There was certainly enough time to walk around, take pics and stop in the gift shop, but there were also some trails where it looked like you could have gone on a much longer walk, and there were multiple other people I talked to who wished we had time for that. I did suggest to ACL that they should have one bus that left the ship earlier (all three buses went, since it was the only excursion of the day) for those who are more active and wanted additional time to do some hiking. Hopefully they take that into consideration. We lucked out on weather (actually the whole trip) because we had perfectly clear views of Mt St Helens. The bus drivers also played a very good informational video on the eruption on the bus ride there.

 

The next day we docked in Stevenson. We went to Multnomah Falls in the morning, which is a beautiful waterfall. If you want there is a path to hike up to the top of the falls, which my brother and I did (I'd say about a half dozen others from the cruise did as well). It's a little over a mile hike to the top, with an elevation gain of nearly 800 feet (wear your sneakers). It took us 33 minutes to get to the top (moving at a steady pace, but not hurrying), and actually a little longer going down since we stopped for pics on the way down. The falls view isn't any better from the top, but what is beautiful is the fabulous vista looking out over the Columbia river. Then when we got back to the bottom we browsed the gift shop (which is enormous!). I felt for us we spent the right amount of time at the falls, but if you just wanted to walk to the bottom of the falls and look up you probably felt like we were there too long. In the afternoon they had a hop on/off bus around Stevenson. The first stop was the Bonneville dam. If you have seen dams and fish ladders before, this probably is not interesting (but the center has some fabulous orange shag carpet from the 70's!). If you haven't it's worth a stop, but you won't need to spend much time - you can catch the next bus. The next stop is the Columbia Gorge INTERPRETIVE Center (note: different from the Columbia Gorge DISCOVERY Center you'll go to the next day). For me, this was not that interesting, and I could have skipped it. I do love a good museum, but this seemed like a rather eclectic conglomeration of exhibits that just didn't speak to me. If I remember correctly (I'm already forgetting!) the last stop was in Stevenson, and you could easily walk back to the ship from there if you wanted (or take the bus all the way back).

 

The following day we were in The Dalles. There was a hop on/off bus going around both in the morning and afternoon. In the morning there was also an excursion to the Maryhill Museum of Art (we didn't do that) and in the afternoon there was an excursion to the Maryhill winery (we did that). We did the shuttle bus in the morning, and stopped at the Columbia Gorge DISCOVERY Center. That was interesting, the exhibits were good, and we actually didn't have enough time there. We caught their raptor presentation which was very good (they have it twice a day), that day they brought out a red tailed hawk to talk about. I found out later that there is actually a paved path that starts along the river, goes right past where you are docked, and leads up to the Discovery Center. It's about a 5 mile walk from the dock to the Center (slight uphill), if I'd known about it I'd have gotten off as soon as we docked and walked to the Center. I forget what the second stop on the shuttle was, but we didn't have time for it in order to get back in time for lunch and our winery tour. The final stop again was in downtown, and again was an easy walk back to the ship from there if you wanted to. Or of course, you could just get off the ship and wander around downtown. The winery excursion in the afternoon was good, there was a little talk on the process of making the wine first, and then of course there was tasting.

 

The following day we docked in Richland. Those doing the Pendleton excursion actually went off the boat earlier (we docked briefly just to let them off, then continued underway), and we docked midday. I went to the REACH museum, which I thought was excellent. It had two main exhibits, the first about the formation of the area (geologically speaking) as well as the flora/fauna of the area. The second was about the Manhattan Project and the plutonium enrichment that went on in Hanford, which I knew nothing about so I found that quite interesting. Again the ship was docked so that you could easily walk right into town, and there was also a riverfront walk (not sure how far it went, I didn't have that long after the excursion to walk before I had to get back to the boat).

 

The next day we were in Clarkston. We did the Hells Canyon jetboat excursion (the "long" one). You don't need to worry about getting wet, or thrown around much (just a little bit of bumpiness when we went through some small rapids). It does get a little cool when the boat gets going 30-35 mph. You stop for lunch along the river, which was very good. I wish I'd known in advance that you stop for 90 minutes at the lunch spot, and there is a little beach there. If you wanted to (and were dressed appropriately) you could even have gone for a little swim in the river. But none of us were in bathing suits or had towels or changes of clothes, so we had to content with just a little wading. Then of course we were docked in Clarkston overnight, and off the ship there the next morning. I didn't see that much to do where we docked, though there was a large Walmart close by if that's important to you. We took the free shuttle to Lewiston airport, and rented a car from there to drive to Spokane. The drive to Spokane was easy. Make sure you rent a car in advance if you're planning on doing that, it is a tiny airport with not a lot of rental cars on site.

 

If anyone actually made it this far, thanks for reading! I hope this was helpful, and if anyone has other questions I can try to answer them.

 

Thank you so much for your very informative cruise report! My husband and I are doing this cruise on July 9th to the 16th but in the reverse from Clarskson Washington to Portland. I’m a bit worried about the heat factor because from what I read July and August are their hottest months. Any additional tips on the tours you would skip and a must do? Thanks again I feel a little better about taking this cruise because you’re much younger than me but I was afraid this was geared for a much older clientele.

[Ski Mom]

On 12/15/2022 at 6:43 PM, Ski Mom said:

Thank you so much for your very informative cruise report! My husband and I are doing this cruise on July 9th to the 16th but in the reverse from Clarskson Washington to Portland. I’m a bit worried about the heat factor because from what I read July and August are their hottest months. Any additional tips on the tours you would skip and a must do? Thanks again I feel a little better about taking this cruise because you’re much younger than me but I was afraid this was geared for a much older clientele.

Hello I know this is an old review but I really appreciate your feedback and review. We are taking this cruise in July and considering taking the tour of the Maryhill winery for $50 a person. Can you please tell me what’s included in the $50 I looked this winery up on Yelp or TripAdvisor and it states that there’s a $35 wine tasting fee. Is this in addition to the $50 for the tour? That seems kind of expensive to me.If so , did you feel lthe tour was worth the money? Thanks for any input you can give me!