6/23/26 New Orleans – Partly Cloudy – 94F

 6/23/26 New Orleans – Partly Cloudy – 94F

It was a quiet night (a super quiet AC unit helped) and I was up early as always – enough time to even take a shower.  Went down for breakfast to Pete’s – I had some cereal with milk and scrambled eggs (I actually don’t remember exactly but it would be close).  I went down with Ellen and had some coffee while she has breakfast – 

they collected vouchers so no one would go through the buffet for more food – for hotel guests, that buffet was $25.00. The place was full so we found a table outside the venue.

Our welcoming packet had us in Group 3, which left for the ship at 11:35 AM.  There was no rush today.  To cap off a good morning, my Amazon shipment arrived at 9:00 AM. I won't have to wash underwear every night and hang it on the veranda to dry.  

I took a picture from our hotel room before we left. Not the greatest view but we're not here for the view.

I wanted to keep the wooden room key but I turned it in after taking a picture of it.

Our luggage was put on the bus – tagged with our Cabin Number.  We walked around the corner from the hotel entrance and got on the American Cruise Line Bus (the line has its own busses) and drove a short way to the Thalia Street Wharf (near the Julia Street Wharf for the big ships). We checked in via a QR Code on the lanyards we are supposed to wear all the time.

Our bags were brought to our room during the afternoon.  There is only one elevator and having the guests drag their suitcases in to that one lift looked like a disaster in the making.

Here’s the 411 on the American Cruise Lines American Heritage Riverboat

Ship Information

Built: 2015 (by Chesapeake Shipbuilding in Maryland) – Originally “The Queen of the Mississippi”
Capacity: 150 passengers
Refurbished: 2022
Tonnage 3800
Length 295 ft

Beam 52 ft

Staterooms: 84

Crew: 40

Hybrid propulsion system featuring a stern-mounted paddlewheel and three modern, diesel-powered Z-drive azimuth thrusters.

Average Speed: 8 knots; Maximum Speed: 12 knots

Paddlewheel. Weight approximately 29,700 pounds.

It is constructed almost entirely of fiberglass, with aluminum channels and steel bolts to maximize rigidity and impact resistance.

Bathrooms: Not usually included as a specifications but this is an usual boat. Public washrooms: three but I only was able to find two of them, a Powder Room on Deck 1 next to the elevators and a small one on Deck 5 next to the Guest Laundry.  The thirds is still missing. 

Here's the Officers of American Heritage

American Heritage looks like it stepped right out of a Mark Twain novel – all white with fancy stacks.  It has five decks and here is the layout.

Deck 1 – passenger deck plus Restaurant (there is an office there where the crew hands out for information and help)

Deck 2 – passenger deck plus River Lounge forward (where all the entertainment and enrichment happens. The Paddlewheel Lounge is aft and is only worth going to when the ship is docked - the wheel makes a lot of noise and the room has serious vibrations.

Deck 3 – passenger deck

Deck 4 – passenger deck plus Sky Lounge where the breakfast and lunch buffets are and 24/7 snacks, soft drinks, and beer are located. 

Deck 5 – passengers and a huge covered Deck Aft.  Lots of comfortable chairs and couches underneath the overhang.

We went to the Restaurant for lunch. I am wearing one of my fancy NOLA shirts from the liquor store.

There was nothing on the menu but they made tuna wraps and a foofoo salad. For some reason there was no Ranch dressing and only one serving of thousand Island.  There are a lot of servers but the service slow. 

Cabin 303 is a nice large cabin (on the port side forward) with a king sized bed and a pretty big shower with an accordion door. 

There are nice amenities – body wash, lotion, conditioner (all in large pump bottles).  The bars of soap made from goat’s milk (yes, goat’s milk).  The Cruise Director Ben Reid came on the all ship PA and introduced himself and told us about the upcoming evacuation drill.

He has kind of a hee-haw approach to things (maybe put on but amusing at times). There are no life boats on the ship – even though there are life jackets. Ben asked people to give them a try to see if people could figure out how to use them.

We attended the formal Egress Drill 1:45 PM. Captain Nathan Radney spoke and it was pretty basic – the ship would unload from Deck 5 down – the boat (not ship) would get as close as possible to the shore and we would hightail it to dry land. The Enrichment speaker, Tom Struve, introduced himself and that was it. At 3:45 PM, we met with the Restaurant host to go over dietary restrictions. We download the American Heritage web app, which has all the information you will need on this cruise – menus, events during the day, etc. Every day after 6 AM, you fill out lunch and dinner requests and modify as needed. We did that today even though 10 am is the turn in deadline.

Before we left the port, I wanted to see what the paddle wheel looked like.

Dinner was at 5:30 PM. We wound up sharing a table with a couple from Ohio. We had seared Red Snapper with scalloped potatoes in a heavy blue cheese sauce. Another foofoo salad w grapes tomatoes and feta cheese. NY cheesecake for dessert (why can’t the cheesecake ever be cold and firm). As best I could remember, I had never had snapper before – not a great fish but the potatoes were good. Also, whenever we eat with other people, I don’t really get into the dinner.  We will work with the seating host to get a table for two – it won’t be easy because this crowd likes to share tables and chat. 

American Heritage departed just after dinner - she doesn't have long way to go to the first stop.

We were tired and passed on Dante, the magician (magic shows are not our favorite).  We hung out in the Sky Lounge until about 9:30 PM. Although they looked comfortable, the bed and pillow made sleep tough for some reason.