American Queen Steamboat Company and Victory Cruise Lines, both part of the Hornblower Group, released their 2023 programs, the earliest ever.
"This is the earliest we've ever released it, and there are a lot of reasons for it," said John Waggoner, founder and CEO of the sister cruise lines. "Number-one is we're getting an awful lot of demand for both 2021 and 2022. What we also find, especially with our international groups, is they ask if we can start giving schedules two and three years out. We're maturing as an organization, so it's great we can start releasing them three years out."
The company is marketing the American Queen river cruises as a way to "Come Home to America," especially at a time when COVID-19 restrictions may prevent overseas travel for some time.
"It's a unique opportunity. Some guests I talk to say they probably won't be traveling to Europe this year and they say they might go on one of our boats." Waggoner said in a virtual call with TravelPulse. "Stay close to home and come see America. We just think there's a lot of pent-up demand and a lot of reservations even for 2021, especially July, August, September and October. People want to cruise and now everybody knows the vaccine is here."
Highlights of the 2023 program include the introduction of the 200-passenger Ocean Discoverer, the second of two expedition vessels for Victory Cruise Lines. The first, Ocean Victory, is still tentatively scheduled for a July 2021 debut.
The Ocean Discoverer will open 2023 with a repositioning voyage from Puerto Caldera to San Diego, departing May 12, 2023. Then it will head up north for a season of 11- and 12-day adventures between Sitka and Vancouver or Sitka and Seattle.
In its third season in the fleet, Ocean Victory will operate similar Alaska itineraries between Vancouver and Sitka throughout the summer.
Including Sitka as a homeport means the small ships will be able to visit places that large megaships can't get to.
"They're places on the itineraries nobody else gets to see," Waggoner said. "None of the big cruise ships get to go there. They'll get to see unbelievable wildlife."
The cruises will have marine biologists from Cal Poly Luis Obispo onboard, traveling with guests in the Zodiac boats, conducting experiments and giving talks in the evenings. (Waggoner's first degree was in marine biology.)
Meanwhile, the first two Victory ships, Victory I and Victory II, in 2023 will operate 11- to 16-day voyages embarking in iconic locales like Chicago's Navy Pier, downtown Toronto, Detroit and Montreal, on voyages that visit lakeside gems such as Marquette, Mackinac Island and Soo Locks/Sault Ste. Marie.
The identical 202-guest vessels will also visit Southern ports including Savannah, Charleston and Fernandina Beach, while the Victory II will also head south to Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula for roundtrip sailings from Cozumel.
In 2023, the American Queen, the world's largest steamboat, will sail the Lower Mississippi route with 28 departures between Memphis and New Orleans. It also will sail a Thanksgiving cruise from Memphis to New Orleans and three New Orleans roundtrips over the December holiday season.
The new American Countess, scheduled to enter service in March 2021, will operate Mississippi voyages from St. Paul to New Orleans in September and churn up and down the Ohio, Cumberland and Tennessee rivers throughout the 2023 season.
The boutique paddlewheeler American Duchess will showcase the Ohio River with six sailings between Louisville and the line's easternmost point of Pittsburgh.
In the Pacific Northwest, American Empress will begin her season March 23, 2023, and sail nine-day, one-way voyages between Portland (Vancouver, Wash.) and Spokane (Clarkston) through Nov. 26, 2023.
The cruises include a one-night pre-voyage hotel stay and hop-on-hop-off excursions organized by Shore Excursions of America, which was recently acquired by Hornblower Group.
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