Globalfish

Will also be on the RA from Vancouver to Nome starting 4 Aug 2024. Cabin 721. It will be my first expedition, but not my first cruise. See you in Alaska!

Everyone’s happy: https://www.travelweekly.com/River-Cruising/American-Queen-Voyages-ships-find-new-life

The sale of the four AQV riverboats to ACL was just approved by the Bankruptcy Court in Houston. The sale of the Ocean Voyager and Ocean Navigator to a different buyer is still pending. https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/finance-legal-regulatory/19m-winning-bid-aqv-coastals-court-oks-6m-sale-river-vessels

I’d like to see it return to Alaska. For prospective repeat Alaskan cruisers, ACL could use a more innovative Alaskan cruise itinerary in addition to their wonderful Alaskan Explorer cruise that I took last summer (or the longer and shorter versions of it that they offer). I’m thinking along the lines of Metlakatla, Misty Fjords, Kake, Endicott Arm, Dawes Glacier, Elfin Cove. In other words, something similar to Ponant’s July 2024 9-day Inside Passage itinerary, albeit hopefully cheaper. ACL, if you are reading this, hint, hint. Would do it in a heartbeat!

Yes, if the Ocean Voyager and Ocean Navigator purchase goes through and the vessels are appropriately brought up to “ship shape” to ply the Great Lakes once again, Road Scholar is likely to be one of John Waggoner’s first customers.

Aegean Odyssey. $&#*!

The charterer isn’t mentioned, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it is US educational study program provider Road Scholar which used the same ship in Alaska with AQV.

Ocean Voyager and Ocean Navigator rescued from the scrap heap? https://www.travelweekly.com/River-Cruising/American-Queen-Great-Lakes-cruise-ships-sold-at-auction

What transpired with this? Don’t see anything online about it. Has the auction been further postponed?

Agree. If AQV’s competitor ACL had sensed more of a market for AQV-style cruising, they would have commissioned their 3 newest boats plying the Mississippi (the Melody, the Symphony, and the Serenade) to be built as [pseudo] paddlewheelers instead of sleek modern design.

Definitely BS. If it were Covid, ACL and possibly even Viking would be “on the rocks” as well.

For university business schools — a classic, textbook case on how NOT to run a company.

Ditto!

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.