ACL M/V New Orleans Fate

My grandmother took one of the inaugural cruises of this vessel. It was plain and ugly. My grandmother hated the trip... from the ugly boat, to the so-so food, to the loud engines, to the unfriendly staff. By the end of her cruise, half of the crew members had gotten off. She was ready to do so, as well. It took a lot of selling to get her to do another river cruise. She did about 15 years later on the AQ and loved it from start to finish. So much so that she took another cruise about a year later. For the 'New Orleans', it just seemed that everything was wrong. Boat, crew, management, etc.

I remember the NEW ORLEANS having a number of problems. The deep sea crew didn't understand the Rules of the Road on the Inland Rivers and got into quite a lot of trouble insisting a downbound towboat on the Lower Mississippi pass them on the port "because it is the rules". They had a lot of problems maintaining schedules, too. That is the unfortunate situation with professionals in one facet of navigation being introduced to a form they don't understand. Although I hope the ACL boat does well and brings people to the river, I pray they respect the waterway they are coming into and take time to understand it and respect the difference in it.