Under new ownership, the 432-passenger paddlewheeler, the American Queen, has resumed operating its stately, seven-day, four-mile-an-hour cruises of the Mississippi River from New Orleans to Memphis, slightly longer than the four-day cruise that my wife and I enjoyed three years ago. Should you consider it?

The positive points, first. A Mississippi River cruise encounters no waves or unsettling movements; the floor beneath you is as steady as a rock and you are never seasick. Seated in a comfy deckchair outside your cabin (nearly every cabin faces outdoors), you gaze on the shore and activities of the Mississippi (barges with freight and produce, shore-side plantations, industrial plants in the stretch between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, but no further north), while reading Mark Twain's classic Life on the Mississippi. The atmosphere is peaceful, relaxing, full of meaning.

As for your accommodations, they are as comfortable as you'd want, the staterooms twice the size of the average cruiseship cabin, the bathrooms also. Meals are quite good, always copious, and served by a sensitive and attentive waitstaff. "Southern hospitality" is the standard.

Most surprising, the evening entertainment is clearly superior, in my view, to what you'd enjoy on most seagoing cruiseships. Because the American Queen cruises up and down the river, stopping in towns along the way, it usually picks up a city's very best entertainers for a single night's performance, and then drops them off the next morning (by contrast to the practice of employing far-less-talented jacks-of-all-trade to present an entire week's entertainment on the average ocean cruiseship).

So what are the drawbacks of a Mississippi River Cruise? Up to a third of all passengers (more, in my experience, than on most cruises) were elderly Americans, and some livelier but less-understanding cruise goers might not appreciate their presence. Another third were far more active, middle-aged Americans, and the remaining third included some families with children, some younger couples, a few singles traveling in pairs. Heavily composed of people from the south and midwest, this was about as traditionally and typically American a crowd as you can envision, and some regarded heavy card-playing as what you do on a cruise. Sophistication, wayward opinions, counter-culture viewpoints, and flirtatious matchmaking, are not what you find on the Mississippi. And some Americans might regard that combination of factors as pointing to a dull vacation.

I didn't; I thoroughly enjoyed this respite from a harsher, faster life. But don't say I didn't warn you. And for more information, log on to www.deltaqueen.com. Seven-days costs as little as $1,651 per person, double occupancy (though some dates come in at $2,689).

Write and read comments about this post.

Labels: american south, cruise, mississippi river