6/10/22 American Melody-who's going & advise for new to river cruising

[OC PAT]

 

We will be booking the 6/10/22 cruise on the American Melody. We are seasoned cruisers in the Caribbean and do not know what to expect on river cruises.  Any advice is greatly appreciated.  Anyone interested in a meet and greet?  How do you go about selecting tours?  Any must dos?  Thank you for your time.

 

 

[BaumD]

Life is much slower. Entertainment is limited. Tours are usually selected the first day onboard.

 

[OC PAT]

15 hours ago, BaumD said:

Life is much slower. Entertainment is limited. Tours are usually selected the first day onboard.

 

Thank you to my fellow Marylander. So, no rock and roll band, huh?  Do you get regular TV and do they offer movies? 

[DaveinCharlotte]

On our Mississippi cruise on the Melody this past September, we had pretty good entertainment (this is subjective, of course).  We had a full slate of TV channels, although sometimes DirectTV would say "your subscription does not include this offering" (?).  A large number of movies were available.

[Globalfish]

ACL has entertainment on all their riverboat cruises; it is part of the riverboat experience.  See https://www.americancruiselines.com/about-us/entertainment

 

We had wonderful entertainment onboard Queen of the Mississippi on the Ohio River last September.  On most nights it was a band called Professors of Pop and the name was most appropriate because there wasn’t a song they didn’t know.  Each night they performed was devoted to pop music in chronological order by decade:  the sock-hop music of the 50’s; then the early 60’s; then the psychedelic 60’s; then the mellow 70’s;  then the groovy 70’s; wrapped up by the totally awesome 80’s. They also played songs that weren’t on the chronological theme, including my favorite Irish pub song, “Whisky in the Jar” and … Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” (well, heck, we weren’t on the Great Lakes!).  On the 3 consecutive nights that they weren’t performing we had excellent guest musicians, including a barbershop quartet; a jug band; and in Louisville, appropriately a bluegrass band called Kentucky Blue.

 

Although I didn’t watch them, featured movies were The Adventures of Huck Finn; Mary Poppins Returns; Little Women; Splash!; Ride with the Devil; Around the World in 80 Days; and My Best Friend’s Wedding.

 

Didn’t watch TV other than to see where we were on the river when we weren’t in port and to see what locks were up ahead of us.

[OC PAT]

Thank you, Dave in Charlotte and Global fish.  Your info was most helpful and made us excited.

[kwahl1]

We hop onboard the Melody on 5/13 in NOLA so I’ll keep my eyes on your post. We too are seasoned cruisers and this our first river cruise. 
 

ken and Janet

[OC PAT]

23 hours ago, kwahl1 said:

We hop onboard the Melody on 5/13 in NOLA so I’ll keep my eyes on your post. We too are seasoned cruisers and this our first river cruise. 
 

ken and Janet

....and we will watch yours.  Patty and Ed.