Evansville area attractions and businesses are rolling out the red carpet for guests from Ohio River cruises, which in 2023 sailed back to the city for the first time in decades.
Multiple American Cruise Lines itineraries dock at Inland Marina, and the company’s boats can accommodate from 90 to 180 passengers. Most of those cruises see full capacity, says public relations manager Alexa Paolella.
American Cruises Lines already has three 2025 stops scheduled for Evansville on its Grand Ohio River cruises, 16-day one-way trips between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and St. Louis, Missouri, that start north of $7,000.
Guests typically sail into the city on American Heritage, a striking five-story vessel known for its signature three-story paddlewheel at the stern. (Although the paddlewheel churns water, the ship’s diesel engines provide the actual navigation power.) Functioning like a luxury hotel on water, the American Heritage has a crew of about 60, including a hotel general manager, excursion director, cruise director, hospitality staff, captain, pilot, crew, and deckhands.
While cruising, passengers can relax and mingle in the ship’s three lounges, dine in a modernly decorated restaurant, work out in a fitness center, and catch some rays on the sun deck. Passenger cabins boast private balconies and ample elbow room, and a recent ship-wide renovation installed new carpet and furnishings.
During local stops, cruise guests’ excursion options include an Evansville Local Loop that brings guests to the Evansville Museum, the USS LST-325, and the Reitz Home Museum, as well as to Main Street for shopping and dining experiences.
Guests also have opportunities to visit the Old Vanderburgh County Courthouse and the Evansville Wartime Museum, as well as John James Audubon State Park in Henderson, Kentucky.
The wartime museum is seeing passengers from six to eight cruises each summer, with as few as 20 and as many as 60 passengers walking through the facility, says Dona Bone, the museum’s events committee chairperson.
Museum docents lead the two-hour visits. Guests see the museum’s massive military vehicles as well as displays honoring Evansville factory workers who contributed armament to the World War II effort.
“The first couple of years, the husbands would sign up and the women would tag along and weren’t looking forward to it,” Bone says, but after touring, “they leave excited about what they’ve seen. It’s more than just military exhibits, but things that happened on the homefront.”
Bone says the museum’s display of a World War II-era kitchen and dining room receives comments from passengers who say “it reminds them of the house their grandparents lived in.”
Damsel Brew Pub off Evansville’s West Franklin Street corridor has welcomed passengers from seven Ohio River cruises. Groups as small as five and as large as 17 have taken brewery tours.
Owner John Mills gives each gathering a history lesson on brewing in the River City, dating to the robust pre-Prohibition era. Guests are treated to a four-beer flight, plus a fifth one if they want to try it — it’s what Damsel calls its “brain stout,” brewed with brains in the style of an oyster stout.
Mills worked with Explore Evansville to add Damsel as a destination option for visitors from American Cruise Lines. He says he’s enjoyed giving the tours, and the guests – many of them are age 65 and up – have seemed to like them as well.
“It’s been kind of fun,” he says. “I think it’s added to their experience. They emailed me the entire list of excursions, all their ports of call, and there wasn’t another brewery on it.”
American Cruise Lines operates 21 ships on 50 routes across the U.S. and sails on the Ohio, Cumberland, Tennessee, Mississippi, Columbia, Snake, Hudson, St. John’s, and Tolomato rivers. Although American Heritage – built in 2015, it is American Cruise Line’s oldest paddlewheeler – is the vessel that makes the most port calls in Evansville, cruise passengers who on July 2 docked in Evansville were aboard the American Melody, a sleek, modern riverboat launched in 2021. Like American Cruise Lines’ other vessels, American Heritage and American Melody have shallow drafts and are designed to pass safely under bridges at fluctuating river heights.
American Cruise Lines is happy to have Evansville among its Ohio River ports of call, Paolella says.
“This year, our cruise guests enjoyed their visits to Evansville, and we look forward to building on our partnership with Evansville more in the future, as well as the town’s surrounding cultural attractions,” Paolella says.
