American Cruise Lines Mississippi review: charming or retiree snooze?

Trip Reviews
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Just got back from an 8 day Mississippi River cruise with American Cruise Lines (Memphis to New Orleans) and figured I’d share since I couldn’t find many honest reviews before I booked.

The good: the boat (American Symphony) is brand new, cabins are bigger than any river cruise I’ve been on in Europe, and the balconies are actually usable. Staff were genuinely lovely. Vicksburg and Natchez were both way more interesting than I expected, especially the history tours.

The not so good: y’all, the average age was 78. I’m 52 and my wife is 49 and we were the babies by a wide margin. By 9pm the lounges were empty. The food was fine but “cruise ship fine,” not the southern food pilgrimage I was hoping for (the gumbo was honestly sad).

Included excursions were hit and miss. The plantation tour was done thoughtfully, which surprised me. Some of the small towns just had you walking around Main Street for 90 min.

Would I go again? Maybe in 20 years lol. If you want a chill, very American, pretty slow river cruise, this delivers. If you want nightlife or foodie fireworks, nope. Happy to answer questions.

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My parents went on a Mississippi River tour with them from St Paul to New Orleans and enjoyed it. My daughter is graduates Tulane next week so the end point was a bonus for them. I know a few years back in the fall, the river level was too low for the boats so around Vicksburg (I was driving through there from east Tennessee to southwest Louisiana), there were buses transporting passengers.

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Thanks for this, it was really useful. I would definitely be more of a baby compared to that average age.