<\/a>From cocktails with live music to trivia and nightly production shows, there’s always something interesting happening around the American Empress. Photo \u00a9 2016 Aaron Saunders<\/p><\/div>\n
Perhaps the biggest surprise for me here aboard the American Empress is just how much the cruising experience mirrors that of a big ship. On most river cruises, I\u2019m accustomed to evening entertainment consisting of one guy playing the same old tunes on an electric piano in the lounge; here aboard American Empress, we\u2019ve got rollicking piano music and off-the-cuff humour in the Paddlewheel Lounge, accompanied by full-scale production shows and a four-member showband in the main Show Lounge.<\/p>\n
Afternoons, even in port, hold plenty of fun diversions, from trivia to movies and craft corners to lectures from American Empress\u2019s onboard \u201cRiverlorian\u201d, who imparts the rich history of the Pacific Northwest on guests in a fun and entertaining way. From the Lewis and Clark Expedition<\/strong> to the history of the Nez Perce <\/strong>natives, the Oregon Trail<\/strong>, and John Jacob Astor<\/strong>\u2019s quest to found the city of Astoria<\/strong>, there\u2019s a lot to love about the rich and young history of this beautiful but unforgiving region of the United States.<\/p>\nNext year, American Empress returns to the Columbia River between March and November. While she\u2019ll operate a full season of voyages, I\u2019d heartily recommend the four wine-themed river cruises<\/strong> that are scheduled for next year, departing roundtrip Portland (Vancouver, WA) on March 5, March 12, <\/strong>and November 12 and November 19, 2017<\/strong>.<\/p>\nDon\u2019t let the rain keep you away; these shoulder-season cruises are jam-packed with fun, not to mention value.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The rain is streaming down the windows, and I\u2019m staring out at the massive red paddlewheel aboard American Queen Steamboat Company\u2019s American Empress as it churns up the dark-grey waters of the Columbia River. We\u2019re bound for Astoria, Oregon on this Thanksgiving afternoon; just one of four ports of call we\u2019ll visit this week. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":25801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"full-width-content","footnotes":""},"categories":[465],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rivercruiseadvisor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25800"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rivercruiseadvisor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rivercruiseadvisor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rivercruiseadvisor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rivercruiseadvisor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rivercruiseadvisor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rivercruiseadvisor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rivercruiseadvisor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rivercruiseadvisor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rivercruiseadvisor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}