Columbia & Snake River – ACL vs Lindblad/NatGeo

[Host Jazzbeau]

Thinking about doing a Columbia & Snake River Cruise (paired with Puget Sound & Vancouver Island).  The two operators I am looking at are American Cruise Line (ACL) and Lindblad/NatGeo.

 

ACL has newer ships with huge cabins.  NatGeo has old ships with tiny cabins, but reputation for more active excursions (and their Columbia/Snake touts food and wine focus).

 

Looking for any help in choosing.  Thanks!

[AroundWithMAPTravels]

We have traveled with both for other itineraries. Our choice is going to be Lindblad/natgeo for this itinerary due to activity level and culinary focus.  Even without culinary focus we prefer Lindblad/natgeo for food.  ACL wasn’t “bad”, but there were several small things that left us disappointed (use of disposable napkins and utensils at times to not terribly inspired menu options)

Although not brand spanking new the L/NG ships are very comfortable and functional for their activity level (have been on Sea Bird).  The L/NG overall activity level is MUCH higher than on the ACL trip we took (and my assumption is this holds true for all ACL itineraries, given the very different demographics of target audiences of the two operators). ACL ship we were on is American Symphony. Mobility and fitness needs to be taken into consideration in decision. (We are both mid 60s and prefer “expedition “ style trips that are more active). 
granted, the price points are a bit different too, so that needs to be taken into consideration.   While we thoroughly loved the ACL onboard lecture/entertainment we think that L/NG comparables may be better (given our prior experiences). I could be wrong on this (because we thought that was one of our highlights from the ACL trip). But that is part of the price difference.  Both have full American staff/crew.  Both were spotty at times. 
If you have any specific questions or want clarification I will be happy to provide more info.

(FYI  part of our motivation for doing the ACL Tennessee river trip was to help us decide who to do the Columbia river with.)

[AroundWithMAPTravels]

I just realized that my previous answer may be construed as a negative towards ACL.  Definitely NOT the case.  We are looking forward to traveling with them again.  It is just this specific itinerary that we have chosen otherwise 

We have several ACL itineraries in the early planning stages 😀