On the heels of news that a major competitor is up for sale with its parent company declaring bankruptcy, American Cruise Lines opened the 2024 season with five riverboats cruising the Mississippi, in its largest season ever. This year, it will sail 16 itineraries on the Mississippi and its tributaries, the Tennessee, Ohio, and Cumberland Rivers.
American Cruise Lines has nearly tripled its US fleet over the past five years, introduced a new ship every year since 2018, and recently announced that it has five more ships under construction. Rival Mississippi steamboat company American Queen Voyages, meanwhile, has failed to fully recover from the pandemic, its parent Hornblower has announced, leaving Viking River Cruises as its only competitor on the river, at least for now. Hornblower last week entered chapter 11 and shut down operations at American Queen (for more on this see American Queen Is Up for Sale as Hornblower Files for Bankruptcy | Travel Research Online.)
In May, American will begin sailing several new Mississippi River itineraries, including an exclusive 12-day cruise in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on a sailing from Knoxville to Nashville, cruising the Ohio, Tennessee, and Cumberland Rivers. Also coming in May is a 35-Day Civil War Battlefields cruise on the Mississippi, Tennessee, and Cumberland Rivers and Chesapeake Bay, visiting more than 20 Civil War battlefields. In August, American will sail the longest river cruise in US history—a 61-day Great United States cruise—down the Mississippi, passing 20 states, 3 national parks, 4 rivers, and on to the Hudson River, visiting New York, Boston and Bar Harbor.
