Standing on shore, spectators appeared as if they doubted whether or not the gorgeous American Melody may dock in such a tiny place. Mississippi River was low. Rocks lined the water’s edge. No dock constructed right here.
However the American Melody neatly maneuvered subsequent to the shore, opened its uncommon bow and lowered a platform for passengers to simply stroll ashore.
Wonderful! No surprise individuals typically line as much as watch the riverboat dock at lots of its locations alongside America’s waterways.
“By no means seen a big boat try this,” Samuel Mitchell says, snapping photographs along with his cellphone as he stood onshore. “Considered one of lately, I’m hoping to cruise on her as a result of I do know it have to be nice.”
The Natchez man was completely proper. It’s nice to cruise on the American Melody. For our eight-day cruise, my grandson Logan and I traveled from Memphis to New Orleans with attention-grabbing stops and shore excursions alongside the best way. American Cruise Strains’ motto is “Small Ship Cruising Achieved Completely.” Our cruise actually confirmed that to be true.
Logan at Gladys’ Diner at Graceland the place diners are invited to sit down within the Cadillac to eat.
Though he’s an grownup, Logan was the youngest passenger onboard the American Melody. He by no means received bored. In spite of everything, a cruise is what every passenger desires it to be. For us, the cruise was an opportunity to see extra of America from our nation’s nice waterways and to spend time collectively.
“Cruising with my grandmother on the Mississippi River was really unforgettable,” Logan says. “From Graceland to the Peabody duck march and Vicksburg Nationwide Navy Park, every second held its personal attraction. The journey’s richness was heightened by the shared expertise, making it much more memorable.”
Boarding American Melody: Score 10/10
American Cruise Strains actually is aware of the way to make boarding a ship as straightforward as attainable. When Logan and I arrived at Memphis Worldwide Airport after our flight from Indiana, all we needed to do was decide up a cellphone at a big signal close to airport baggage declare and name The Visitor Home at Graceland to ship a complimentary shuttle for us.
American Cruise Strains has a superb program the place passengers arrive one evening early for a cruise and keep at a neighborhood resort. With the best way airline flights will be delayed or cancelled, that could be a sensible function to ensure that cruise line passengers have further time to get to the cruise departure vacation spot.
American Cruise Strains additionally presents a two-day pre-cruise “Elvis Expertise.” Meaning two nights at The Visitor Home plus admission to Graceland. That further evening or two permits passengers an opportunity to see the historic metropolis, get evening’s sleep, eat breakfast and leisurely board the riverboat.
The morning of embarkation, Logan and I put our baggage inside our Visitor Home door for switch to a cruise coach whereas we went to breakfast on the resort’s Delta’s Kitchen, so named for Elvis’ Aunt Delta, his father’s sister.
Delta moved into Graceland in 1966 after the dying of her husband and lived there the longest. Even after Graceland opened to the general public in 1982, Delta lived in a room close to the kitchen till her dying in 1993. Excursions stayed out of the kitchen and Delta’s room whereas she lived there.
The Visitor Home buffet was complimentary and provided a bounty of tasty meals. After trying out of our room, we met with different passengers in The Visitor Home foyer at 9:15 a.m. to board a big cruise coach for a three-hour Memphis Metropolis Exploration.
The cruise coach tour is a wonderful strategy to showcase a little bit of Memphis whereas the American Melody ready for our arrival. In spite of everything, passengers from the earlier cruise had disembarked that morning so I’m certain the ship’s crew wanted time to prepared the ship for us.
Stops on the tour included the historic Peabody Resort to look at the well-known duck march; Solar Studio the place Elvis recorded his first document; Beale Avenue for a fast stroll alongside the music mecca and the Lorraine Motel the place Martin Luther King was assassinated and is now The Nationwide Civil Rights Museum.
After we arrived on the American Melody, our staterooms had been prepared with our baggage already delivered to our staterooms and lunch being served within the ship eating room. No lengthy traces to board. No paperwork to do. No waits for our baggage to reach. Or to not arrive.
With a visitor capability of 180, our cruise had 166 passengers and 46 crew members. The common age for passengers was 72. States with most passengers had been Florida, Tennessee and California.
American Melody Ship: Score 10/10
Launched in 2021, the five-deck American Melody has 91 staterooms, all with personal balconies with full-length sliding glass doorways. The ship has a number of spacious lounges, health heart, giant eating room, café for informal eating, solar deck, library and a formidable four-story glass atrium within the heart of the ship.
Lovely art work aboard the American Melody
Based in 1991, American Cruise Strains makes a speciality of small-ship coastal and river cruises all through the US. Every American Cruise Strains vessel is a conventional USA-built (at Chesapeake Shipbuilding in Salisbury, Maryland) in addition to American-flagged and crewed.
The sequence of six fashionable American riverboats all have musical names – American Melody, American Jazz, American Music, American Concord, American Serenade and American Symphony.
Though that fascinating ship’s bow is actually an consideration getter, it additionally has a vital operate. Not solely is the ship a smooth magnificence, she additionally has that bow that opens like some legendary creature’s jaws. Then a retractable gangway will be prolonged from the bow for passengers to comfortably stroll on or off the ship. With its shallow draft and distinctive bow, the American Melody can dock in locations different ships might need to move by.
The vessel’s décor is elegant with a serene coloration palette, high-quality woodwork, stunning furnishings, well-planned lighting and loads of locations for a quiet time or to socialize with others. For many who prefer to stretch their legs, the higher deck presents a beautiful walkway with ever-changing sights because the American Melody cruises the river.
The Sky Lounge
On Deck 3 ahead, the River Lounge serves as leisure heart for musical performances, video games, talks by visitor speaker Jim Schweickart and rundowns of the following day’s occasions by cruise director Colin and excursions director Meg. Titled “Chart Your Course,” the preview of tomorrow’s actions was fairly helpful and to not be missed.
With no theater on the ship, the crew was stored busy arranging and rearranging chairs for various River Lounge makes use of.
River Lounge with seats organized for recreation time
Our Stateroom: Score 10/10
Opening the door to our stateroom for the primary time is at all times thrilling. Exterior our cabin door was a neat gadget that replaces these awkward “Do Not Disturb” indicators that appear to fall off door handles or get misplaced. All we’ve to do is flip the message within the gadget to “Welcome,” that means the cabin attendant can enter to scrub or flip it to “Do Not Disturb” that means precisely that.
Situated on Deck 4, the cabin that Logan and I shared had large cozy beds with high quality mattress linens and duvets, two pillows and a cushion on every mattress, nightstands and lamps beside both mattress, two comfortable chairs pushed collectively to make a small couch on the backside of our beds, a mini fridge, giant flat display screen TV, lengthy dresser with loads of drawers, two chairs and a desk with a Keurig coffeemaker.
Our stateroom 426
Even for 2 individuals, the stateroom had sufficient electrical retailers for our cellphones, digital camera and computer systems. The massive rest room had loads of sizzling water and nice water strain. That isn’t at all times the case on cruise ships so I used to be fairly completely satisfied.
‘Ship to Shore’ E-newsletter: Score 10/10
Our cabin was cleaned each day with a turndown every evening together with a chocolate sweet and a duplicate of the every day “Ship to Shore” e-newsletter. The double-sided e-newsletter contained a wealth of knowledge – when the eating room and Ellipse Cafe served meals, hours when ship companies had been open, when the boat would dock in every river city and what time the boat would depart.
The entrance web page of the e-newsletter featured climate for the day, free WiFi community and password, essential cellphone numbers for crew officers, details about the day’s shore stops, the night leisure and extra.
Particulars in regards to the numerous cities alongside our cruise route was fascinating. For instance, do you know that Graceland, house of Elvis Presley, is the second most visited personal house in America, subsequent to the White Home in Washington, DC?
The reverse aspect of the Ship to Shore e-newsletter, titled “River Rundown,” had a useful itemizing of the day’s actions aboard the ship, together with video games, leisure and visitor speaker packages.
Eating: Score 10/10
Alcoholic drinks and tender drinks are complimentary on the American Melody. A terrific thought since it may get very tiresome signing costly drink payments on cruise ships. I paid nearly $5 for a can of Coke one time (worth included port tax and gratuity). By no means once more.
The ship had a pleasant alternative of beer, wine and custom-made cocktails. My lunch favourite was Abita lager beer since it isn’t simply obtainable at house.
Eating room desk the place we dined with three different {couples}.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner had been served within the eating room. Breakfast from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m., lunch from midday to 1:30 p.m. and dinner from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Plus snacks and different meals had been obtainable across the clock on the ship.
A extra informal breakfast and lunch was served within the open-air terrace Ellipse Café on Deck 4 aft. Simply order what you need and have it delivered to wherever you’re sitting – inside or exterior.
Ellipse Café breakfast from 6:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. featured scrambled eggs, breakfast pastries, yogurt, fruit and berry salad, smoked fish platter, bacon or sausage, oatmeal or grits and the every day creation breakfast sandwich.
For lunch, the Ellipse Café served from 11 a.m. to five p.m. for contemporary baked pepperoni or 4 cheese pizza, hamburger or veggie burger, grilled sizzling canines, hen salad wrap, albacore tuna salad wrap, tortilla chips and salsa and nachos with cheese sauce or chili. All through the day, the Café Bar served complimentary drinks, gentle snacks and water.
At 5:30 p.m., it was time for cocktail hour within the River Lounge. There have been so many hors d-oeuvres and cocktails provided that it will have been straightforward to substitute cocktail hour for dinner within the eating room.
Then there was at all times one thing to eat obtainable 24 hours a day within the Sky Lounge. The setup was very useful and weird on a ship. A alternative of containers of cereal, packages of varied nuts, sweet and snack bars had been at all times within the Sky Lounge in addition to microwaveable noodle soup. Fruit and pastries had been typically set out on the bar counter. Within the self-serve fridge, passengers may at all times get cartons of milk, tender drinks, fruit drinks and water.
Each eating room menu had good choices and the meals was scrumptious. Typically I ordered half serving of an entrée and it undoubtedly was sufficient. Servers had been pleasant and did their greatest to serve meals shortly. All the pieces I ordered was tasty and cooked the best way I favored it. Chef and crew did an excellent job.
Snack space within the Sky Lounge is at all times open.
Leisure: Score 8/10
A gifted pianist, Steve Merritt was the onboard entertainer within the ship’s River Lounge which served because the onboard theatre. Different musicians had been introduced aboard at totally different stops – the Sole Shakers blues group, Mel & Leah’s “Music from the Films,” Waylon & Dwight’s “Nation Cajun Present,” and Judy Whitney-Davis’ combo of humor and vocals.
Waylon and Dwight’s Nation Cajun Present
One night, visitor speaker Jim Schweickart took passengers on a whirlwind tour by means of the historical past of the guitar. He shared songs from Chet Atkins, Les Paul, James Taylor, George Harrison and different guitar heroes.
Visitor speaker Jim Schweickart heads off for a shore tour.
Through the day, passengers additionally may play playing cards, bingo, trivia video games and an uncommon recreation known as “Two Truths and One Lie” during which passengers shared three issues about themselves. Nonetheless, certainly one of these “information” was a line and the problem was to determine which was true and which was false. Sounds easy however it wasn’t. Some very attention-grabbing of us on our cruise.
Shore Excursions: Score 10/10
The American Concord provided a superb alternative of shore excursions each time the ship docked. Logan and I had scheduled our excursions earlier than we left house. American Cruise Strains presents detailed on-line details about the excursions together with a “Bodily Exercise Stage” to let passengers know if an tour required low, average or excessive bodily exercise and the way lengthy the tour would final.
Logan listening to the docent at Oak Alley Plantation.
Every cease provided free shore excursions together with one or two excursions that value further. Logan and I took the complimentary excursions and had been by no means disillusioned. Amongst our favorites was Houmas Home and Gardens. American Melody was docked proper throughout the street from Houmas Home and it was straightforward to walk over to see the well-known 16-room plantation. We didn’t even have to fret about crossing the street. An overpass created a nice place to stroll from the riverbank to Houmas Home.
Houmas Home
However passengers who had mobility issues or didn’t need to stroll may take the cruise coach or journey on one of many ship’s onboard golf carts pushed by a crew member.
Houmas Home is the place the previous 1964 Bette Davis/Joan Crawford film, “Hush, Hush, Candy Charlotte,” was filmed. Make that the Bette Davis film. Joan and Bette received right into a struggle so Joan packed her luggage and went again to Hollywood. They received Olivia de Havilland to exchange Joan and needed to reshoot all Joan’s scenes.
A Houmas Home bed room is the place Bette Davis stayed. Her hat and purse are positioned on the mattress as if she has simply stepped out for a cocktail and plans to return.
Bette Davis’ bed room at Houmas Home
For different stops, Logan and I favored to take the ship’s hop-on, hop-off cruise coach loop journey to showcase what the city has to supply. A neighborhood information aboard the bus identified sights and shared historical past of the city. Then Logan and I’d begin the journey over once more and get off for the locations we wished to go to. The cruise coach normally would come round once more each half hour to select up passengers for different stops or to return to the ship.
The American Cruise Strains cruise coaches are straightforward to identify with purple, white and blue American Cruise Strains logos. The cruise coaches observe alongside on the cruise to ensure that transportation is at all times there when and the place it’s wanted. The coaches are very giant and cozy with air con, warmth and complimentary bottles of water.
A cruise coach follows the American Melody for transportation when the ship docks.
For shore excursions, the cruise coaches have a number of entrance seats put aside for passengers who’ve issue strolling or climbing. The motorcoach drivers stow wheelchairs and walkers within the automobiles’ under- bus baggage compartments and have the gadgets ready when passengers disembark from the cruise coach.
An uncommon and pleasurable shore tour was the “Cochon De Lait Expertise” at The Oyster Bar close to St. Francisville. For the free lunch, we climbed aboard the cruise coach for a journey to Bayou Sara for a real Louisiana deal with. Cochon de lait is the artwork of cooking a pig earlier than an open hardwood fireplace, a {custom} that started no less than a century in the past.
A complimentary shore tour provided lunch and leisure at The Oyster Bar.
Lunch was prepared after we arrived together with the pork, Louisiana boudin, potato salad, inexperienced beans, vegetable salad, bread, crackers and sauces, plus beer, wine and tender drinks. Pronounced “Boo-Dan,” boudin is a cooked sausage constructed from pork meat and rice, plus numerous greens and seasonings, all stuffed in a pure pork casing.
Lunch additionally included Cajun music from two musicians in addition to dancing which a few of our passengers joined in. Then we boarded the cruise coach to journey again to the ship with sufficient time to take one other St. Francisville tour that afternoon.
A lunch plate at The Oyster Bar at Bayou Sara, Louisiana
Our Itinerary:
Day 1 – Memphis
Day 2 – River Cruising
Day 3 – Vicksburg, MS
Day 4 – Natchez, MS
Day 5 – St. Francisville, LA
Day 6 – Baton Rouge, LA
Day 7 – Houmas Home, LA
Day 8 – New Orleans
Disembarkation: 10/10
Disembarking from American Melody was as straightforward as embarking. Solely, Logan and I didn’t need to depart. American Melody and its crew has a method of creating individuals really feel so welcomed that it was troublesome to pack up and stroll off. Actually, fairly a number of passengers mentioned that they had already booked their subsequent American Cruise Strains cruise. I can actually perceive that.
Included in Cruise Prices: Score 10/10
American Cruise Strains doesn’t nickel and dime passengers as another ships do.
On American Melody, these are the prices included within the fare:
– All onboard alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks
– All meals (no specialty eating places or added prices)
– All ship gratuities for ship employees.
– Pre-cruise resort keep
– Most shore excursions.
American Melody can dock alongside the river the place many different ships can’t.
Images by Jackie Sheckler Finch
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