My First River Cruise: American Harmony Cruise Review - Columbia River

After 52 ocean cruises I finally had the opportunity to sail on the Columbia River and Snake River with American Cruise Lines, on their ship American Harmony.
This was a beautiful cruise with very interesting scenery as the ship made its way from the desert conditions in Clarkston, Washington, to the cooler, wetter coastal environment in Astoria and Portland, Oregon.
None of the video clips you'll see here were provided by the cruise line... I shot everything you'll see in this video myself... during a 7-day cruise in August of 2021. I made a special arrangement with American Cruise Lines to cruise at their expense in exchange for giving them a copy of all the photos and videos I shot during the cruise, so that their marketing department could use them.
This was a very different kind of cruise than the ocean cruises I've previously done with Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Princess, Norwegian, MSC, and Viking. A small river cruise ship has some interesting advantages over the big mega cruise ships... such as a complete lack of any crowding, no need for security x-ray inspections when boarding, ice makers and laundry facilities that passengers can use at no additional charge, soft drinks such as Coca Cola readily available any hour of the day or night, as well as cookies and other snacks that you can pick up anytime. On the other hand, a small ship can't compete with the wide number of dining and entertainment choices on a mega cruise ship.
Video Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:37 Day 1 - Clarkston
2:00 Holiday Inn
3:12 Embarkation
4:49 Dam
8:39 First Night
10:48 Tri Cities
14:49 Hood River
17:26 Stevenson
18:01 Music + Trains
18:49 Kalama
19:30 Astoria
21:14 River Day
22:24 Food
25:40 Activities
27:17 Portland
28:04 Travel Agent
Music Credits:
"Family Montage" (The Jim Zim theme song) by Biz Baz Studio
"Under The Wire" by The Mini Vandals
"Come With Us" by Nat Keefe & Hot Buttered Rum
"Let's Do This!" by Nat Keefe & Hot Buttered Rum
"Vanity Reprise" by Leviathe
"Surrender" by Dan Lebowitz
"Take Your Time" by Dan Lebowitz
"Arkansas Traveler" by Nat Keefe & Hot Buttered Rum
"Firefly" by Chris Haugen
"Lazy Afternoon Sun" by Dan Lebowitz
"Everything Where It Needs To Be" by Nat Keefe & Hot Buttered Rum
"Quarantine Waltz" by Nat Keefe & Hot Buttered Rum
"Sailors Lament" by Audionautix
"Birds In Flight" by Dan Lebowitz
"All Hail The Queen" by Dan Lebowitz
"Happy Mandolin" by Media Right Productions
"Campfire Song" by Chris Haugen
"Stranger Danger" by Francis Preve
"Sailors Lament" by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Artist: audionautix.com/

[@tesscot]

The raising of the railroad bridge is so cool!

[@pkheine]

We just returned from an 8 day lower Missippippi cruise on the American Jazz. This line will accommodate any dietary requests. We eat whole food plant based and the chef made us wonderful dishes every lunch and dinner. All you have to do is ask and the chef will meet with you

[@CapitalG222]

Thank you for this detailed travel experience

[@alwaysdream7642]

Wow!! to funny, I live very close to you apparently. Really enjoyed the video, so I just subscribed to your channel. It's kind of cool knowing that the guy's voice making these lives right near me. "Small world" hahaha 🙂

[@itdadof3]

Jim, I have to give you credit for your excellent videos. Great video quality, excellent drone camera work and excellent narration. It's never boring with smooth transitions.

[@JimZim]

Thanks very much!

[@alphaxg1]

Jim Zim's cruise videos are simply the best on KZbin.

[@ac5aa]

I’ve done 8 cruises on ACL and enjoyed every one of them. I much prefer them to the mega ships for all the reasons you mention, even the ones you consider not as impressive. I’ve met many wonderful people and have created photo books and slideshows from each one. Your videos and narration are top notch - keep up the great work!

[@JimZim]

Thank you very much!

[@TravelTipsbyLaurie]

Great job and comparison!

[@tommyedodson2412]

Thanks for taking us along. Have wondered about American Cruise Lines (get a lot of their brochures for this itinerary) and this helped me decide it's not the cruise for us. Good honest content.

[@Davidsavage8008]

I miss it there.i moved from Lewiston clarkston .in 2017. I remember the American empress and a smaller river paddle boat. It was nice to see the confluence and golf course. Nice work.

[@susananderson618]

Lovely video Jim....thanks so much for doing this....river cruising has been on our interest list for some time. We also are avid ocean cruisers. I hope you will be able to do a future video showing the interior of the ship as well as the rooms. We are not fans of crowds on ocean cruises and we would love the relaxation of watching the scenery as we cruised the river. After viewing this video a river cruise will definitely be on our bucket list. As for the food, we don't need all the 100+ choices at this point in our life, now that we are retired. Thanks again, looking forward to your additional videos on this cruise!

[@JimZim]

Thanks! Yes, I still have quite a bit more material to share in some upcoming videos, including a full tour of the ship, including several different cabins.

[@kahnnee]

Love your video!

[@tomithot261]

Excellent video ... good info, excellent camera work, and a great teasedr to get us river cruising. Have it on my list.

[@kyleehmig5018]

This is a fantastic video. I was glued to the screen the whole time. Great job Jim!

[@JimZim]

Thanks! I enjoyed the cruise, and did another one with American Cruise Lines (on the Mississippi) about a month later. If you haven't already seen that video, take a look here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZnuzZH1jZ6t5jrc I'm looking forward to doing more cruises with ACL in 2022.

[@eriknervik9003]

I love that you mentioned the political issue about the dam, another aspect that people don’t realize, is that those locks allow the easy and cheap shipment of Idaho potatoes and eastern Washington and Oregon grain to the terminals in Portland Oregon where it is loaded on the ships to be exported. One tugboat can move five barges of Grain, And five barges of grain, would take over 5000 semi trucks to move it. So the dams reduce the amount of carbon emissions many thousands of times, probably hundreds of thousands of times over a year, since most barge convoys reduce truck trips by 5000 and there is not enough rail cars to replace these barges.

[@JimZim]

It seems crazy to me that the idea of removing those dams is even being considered. The benefits from those dams are tremendous.

[@chirstinegarcia8866]

This looks great.

[@rickibelden986]

Very cool 👍✌❤

[@rickeypeace5666]

Love American C.line

[@kimhowe4739]

very good narration very good video

[@dirtroadking4x424]

Awesome video. 👍👍

[@lucianogama398]

Fantastic, my dear....wonderful landscape....amazing documentary....

[@suzanned1673]

2:43 🙂🙂🙂 oops! Ah. I wondered how you got these good shots! Thanks for the info! I wonder if you saw other cruise ships - this seems like a very busy river.

[@tcmw779]

Mr. Jim thank you for your videos. I too am a Railfan, have done a couple Ocean Cruises, BUT; want to do more River Cruises and Rail trips. I like your videos due to your nice, calm narrations and reasonably good videos. I was born and raised in Cincinnati OH and as noted above want to do more river and rail trips, any additional advice would be appreciated. To me it seems like river cruises are a lot like Amtrak i.e. you go for the experience NOT the destination.

[@art4marion]

We had a fabulous cruise on the American Harmony in June 2021. The crew was wonderful, the bar top shelf, the music lively and Todd was a terrific “riverlorian”. This video helped remind me of our journey. The advantage of the food being “Ok” was it was easy not to over eat. We skipped Mt. St. Helens because we had already been there. Relaxing on board was very nice. The Covid protocol was non intrusive. I highly recommend this cruise.

[@brayoshomediys9686]

This is amazing.

[@cjconter]

Thank you for the very informative video. Looking forward to watch your excursions video next.

[@JimZim]

In case you didn't already find it, here it is: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hYiUY6qEbKp-hLc

[@Alec_Becker]

So cool had no idea you were also from Washington as well! You stopped off at my home city of Kalama! We now have a nice brand new dock that is right by McMenamins Kalama harbor lodge

[@JeffAlanRule]

Fabulous documentary. In my opinion, your best video ever and worthy of a spot on a travel channel. I think you missed your calling, Jim. I'm looking forward to the excursion videos. For some reason, and at first I thought maybe it was on my end, I reloaded the video and it did the same thing on my computer and phone, but it could still be on my end with my service provider, the video begins freezing for 1 second shots and resuming at 22 minutes and 22 seconds in all the way until the end. I would put the freezes at about a 5 second interval.

[@JimZim]

Yeah, I think KZbin had some kind of glitch when they processed my video after I uploaded it. What they really need is to give creators a way to replace an existing video with a new version. Unfortunately, they do not offer that feature. At this point, I can't really just delete that one and upload a new copy... because I've got a whole bunch of links out there in social media that point to that video at that URL. So, I guess I'm going to have to live with it glitching like that.

[@art4marion]

No glitches 8/27/21

[@bridgetdavis9752]

Well done, thank you. I appreciate that they have a veggie burger with their limited resources.

[@Brianrockrailfan]

great video

[@tommytube268]

Jim, I was always under the impression that travel was based on seniority. First came ships, than Railroad, then cars. I worked on trains and we went first and tried as best we could to accommodate cars but especially Ambulance, Firetrucks, and Police but they all definitely waited for the Railroad. Conversely we waited for ships and raised bridges to reset and allow us to proceed.

[@JimZim]

That definitely wasn't the case when our ship reached the Tri Cities. As I mentioned in the video, our ship came up to the railroad bridge and then stopped. After a few minutes, a train came and went across the bridge. Then we waited some more. After a few more minutes, another train came and went across the bridge. Then the bridge lifted up so that we could pass through.

[@WarriorPrincess615]

I never knew anything like this existed but now that I do, I MUST go on all of them! So awesome! #BucketListUpdated

[@adventuresofamtrakcascades301]

27:18 hey! There's the bridge from Portland Oregon to where I live. Vancouver WA

[@tesscot]

Runs the ship up onto the sand and raise the bow deck! Amazing. This is so much fun to watch.

[@wandamora2505]

Great video!

[@ellishoover3868]

If you really want to take a "all inclusive" river cruise, try Viking River Cruises on the Rhine, Danube and Volga Rivers, as well as the Duro River in Portugal. Fantastic food, excellent service and beautiful rooms, some even with verandas. We cruised the Rhine and it was fantastic. The shore excursions were included at each stop and wine and beer were included with lunch and dinner.

[@DanielLukeFields]

looked great Jim

[@larrygrimaldi1400]

We took a similar cruise on the American Empress. If you are a geologist, you will be really enthralled with the desolate volcanic scenery on each side of the rivers east of the Cascades. Population so thin there are stretches with no cell phone service. There are a few scattered towns, which are shockingly neat, but old-fashioned. River cruises are great if you never want to be out of sight of land--- Mega cruise ships, in addition to all the amenities he mentioned are much cheaper, you can get a cruise on one of them for a thousand dollars as opposed to paying 8 thousand for the same size cabin and similar trip on a river boat. I prefer something in the middle, like the Queen Elizabeth in the Mediterranean or Baltic with a stop every day, for only 3 or 4 thousand..

[@adam1660]

Would the river be unnavigable without the dams?

[@rickeypeace5666]

Wonderful show 🎉

[@TheYukonner]

If you like train bridges check out the High Level bridge in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

[@JimZim]

Oh, wow! That's a really cool bridge! I just watched a couple of KZbin videos about it, thanks to you.

[@robertsilva1016]

Does the boat have gift shop aboard

[@williamjameslehy1341]

I'm with you, Jim. Dams, locks, riprap breakwaters, trains, autumn scenery, nuclear plants, and native wildlife are WAY more entertaining to me than comedians, cover bands, or Cirque du Soleil.

[@bakasaAzure]

nice video

[@MavicAir2TW]

Awesome river cruise trip! I am wondering what kind of drone crashing into the tree. Hope everything is fine. Thanks for sharing!　👍😊

[@JimZim]

It was the DJI Mini 2. It survived that crash, and one more crash later in the cruise, just fine. All the aerial shots you see in this video were shot with this drone.

[@MavicAir2TW]

@@JimZim Amazing shots ! Your video reminds me that I need to take a cruse vacation ^_^ Thank you Jim ! 😊

[@leslindelgado6124]

Thank you for explaining why river cruises are so expensive. I can cruise with my family of 4 for 7 days and 3 ports of call and spend only $2,100. The cheapest river cruise I saw was on sale and cost $4k for each passenger! I will eventually be able to experience this, but I’ll have to wait to my kids are grown, unfortunately. ❤

[@JimZim]

Yeah, I think most people don't end up sailing with American Cruise Line until later in life, when the kids are grown. It's just out of the financial reach of the average person until later in life. Also, once people are in that "later in life" stage, they've probably already done the typical Caribbean or Mexican Riviera cruises and are ready to try something a little different.

[@Wyzerwizardness79]

Saw the ship here in Vancouver, Washington today 😃

[@Archie583]

How many ocean cruises have you been on? I don't think you mentioned it! 😂😂😂

[@miguelgabriel7568]

Os. Montes emirros aí sempre foram de pura terra desertos de areia??isto é na saída.

[@LaszloBagi]

Sounds like a great cruise! How was your cabin?

[@art4marion]

The cabins are lovely with full sized bathrooms & a comfy mattress.

[@xcluenic]

How is it working for this company?

[@miguelgabriel7568]

Porém as paisagens e seguir são bonitas

[@joelt5680]

Hope you were able to visit Fort Vancouver historical site and officers row in Vancouver

[@ameliaerin1544]

Jim, you are correct, we do not have to travel to Europe.

[@redghost3170]

Agree with you on the dam part, if the tree huggers were to get their way they would kill as many humans as possible to save a snail. Except for them of course.

[@andyd7374]

You should have flown the drone over your house.

[@sswan9689]

I have wanted to take a river cruise for years but it's not for the "faint at heart" - money wise!! TOO EXPENSIVE!! But I have been on several "regular" cruises 🧳🛳🏖🍹

[@JimZim]

You've got that right! You can do several ocean cruises for the price of one of these river cruises. I think the folks that go on these river cruises have saved and invested money all their lives and are financially comfortable to the point that they are able to spend more than most people on a vacation like this. The fact that this cruise is entirely within the United States and does not require any foreign travel may also be a factor. That may be worth something to some people.

[@ameliaerin1544]

Money talks!

[@jimgood1949]

How do passengers get to or from Clarkston, WA? I assume Clarkston is not a major airline hub.

[@JimZim]

Usually through Spokane, and then on an American Cruise Lines bus from Spokane to Clarkston.

[@art4marion]

The bus trip from Spokane to Clarkston was quite impressive. Beautiful, strange landscapes in the Palouse…

[@markmark8156]

No cabin tour?

[@JimZim]

That's coming later, a few videos down the road. A full ship tour, actually, plus a cabin tour.

[@renee4495]

I just today found your channel. My husband and I binged watched four of your Columbia River shows. Most excellent! We will be traveling as a group of 12 on that cruise next spring. I’m in charge of finding out the ins and outs. So… what is the attire for the dinners/evenings? Does it get cold? Do we need jackets?

[@JimZim]

What is the date of your cruise going to be? Which direction will you be doing it... from Clarkston down the river to Portland, or from Portland up the river to Clarkston? Compared to most cruise lines, the dinner attire is fairly casual. If you find the video clips of people at cocktail hour... that's what they're going to wear to dinner. Dinner is right after cocktail hour. For example, kzbin.info/www/bejne/oKPLhXawlqtgqbs You'll notice that a few of the men are wearing a dinner jacket, but none of them are wearing a tie. The dinner jacket is totally optional, too. I certainly never bring one on American Cruise Lines.

[@renee4495]

@@JimZim Thank You! That is very helpful!

[@ameliaerin1544]

I always bring a jacket on any trip. You can never predict the weather.😁

[@debbiec4126]

Do they cater at all to special diets? Nice video...thanks for sharing.

[@JimZim]

Oh, sure... that's no problem at all on a ship like this. There are so few passengers, it's easy for them to accommodate someone with special needs.

[@allenheaps2084]

Great video, thanks for sharing! My wife and I are thinking to do one of these cruises in 2024. We are wondering between Harmony, Jazz, or Song what one would have an advantage over the other? Also what deck would you recommend on one of these ships?

[@JimZim]

Harmony and Jazz are nearly identical, and Song is very similar. There's really nothing about one that would cause me to recommend it over the others... any of the three will be good. On all three of these ships, the more expensive the cabin, the more space there is inside the cabin. So, which type of cabin you chose is just going to boil down to how much you're willing to spend. The more you spend on the cabin, the more space you'll have inside your cabin. The River Lounge and the Sky Lounge are both located on deck four on these ships... so, that fourth floor is really a convenient place to have your cabin. But, if you're the kind of person that likes to take the stairs instead of using the elevator... a cabin on a lower floor involves less stairs. If you do end up booking a cabin on the fourth floor, try to be more towards the center of the ship than the ends of the ship... so that you're not right next to one of the lounges. But really, the decision about what floor to be on should probably be a secondary concern. I'd start be looking at the prices and deciding "what's the largest cabin we can afford?" The larger the cabin, the better... but for almost everyone it will come down to price versus your budget.

[@allenheaps9190]

Thank you for your prompt reply. We will follow your advice.

[@pcortes20]

Are river cruises kid friendly or allow kids?

[@user-jj1uy5qg6n]

We are going to do American Cruise Line All three New Englabd cruises Providence Boston and Portland

[@timothymorrison2214]

You never showed your room or rooms. Why?

[@JimZim]

That's coming up in a future video... a full ship tour, including three different cabins.

[@xfhnhhgjbvcfg]

In my area, river cruise is about 400% more than ocean cruise. Not sure why

[@ameliaerin1544]

They usually have less than 200 passengers and they can not buy the food at the bulk rates like the ocean cruises.

[@thomascomeau9271]

It's Jim Zim's first river cruise after 52 ocean cruises! What are you going to do next? As always, I am Thomas Comeau and I will see the replies from you, Jim Zim!

[@thomascomeau9271]

You, Jim Zim, spend a seven day river cruise on the American Harmony cruise ship of American Cruise Lines plus the two night pre-cruise package, and that includes a jet boat excursion to Hell's Canyon. On the left, that's Lewiston, Idaho and on the right, Clarkston, Washington. Named after Lewis and Clark, the two explorers to explore the Pacific Northwest by the third president of the United States of America, North America, Thomas Jefferson in 1804. The railway bridge also known as the Joso High Bridge is where the Palouse River merges in to the Snake River where the Canadian Pacific diesel locomotives pulling freight cars crosses over the spot a few months ago during the daylight. There are also Burlington, Northern and Santa Fe Railway locomotives and Union Pacific diesel locomotives all along the Columbia River in Washington and Oregon states. The Twin Sisters were also shot during the daylight. The volcano Mount Saint Helens has erupted in 1980, the same year Mike's Train House For Electric Trains was founded. You and your wife have met a nice couple in particular, Bob and Joan, just delightful and you can't wait to see them again. As always, I am Thomas Comeau and I will see the replies from you, Jim Zim!

[@tylermcintyre1454]

I see the ship

[@thebadasstimes]

No casino?

[@ramblingrose5125]

Seems this would be a biased review if they paid for your trip and put you in a suite

[@JimZim]

I find this comment to be a bit perplexing! Did you actually watch the video all the way through, and listen to what I had to say? Because the majority of the video was just a very straightforward recounting of exactly how the trip unfolded. I wasn't expressing a bunch of opinions... just telling you and showing you what all you'll see and where you'll visit on this cruise. It wasn't like I was shouting out that this was the greatest cruise ever and American Cruise Lines is the greatest cruise line in the world. And then towards the end of the video, I did actually speak quite candidly about the lack of food choices onboard... about how on a mega cruise ship you might have 100 things to choose from at all the various restaurants aboard... and how this ship just has one dinner restaurant and literally offers only two choices of entrees each night. And then I went on a rant about the lunch options, complained that they don't even have a deep fryer to make French fries to go with hamburgers... and also warned that the ship didn't have any tables for two... so, you were quite likely going to end up eating at a table with other passengers whether you wanted to or not. So, that's why I find it odd that you would say that this was a biased review! Also, I'm going to guess that this is the first time you have ever watched one of my cruise ship videos. I've made a LOT of them over the years, and I think I have a reputation of being a pretty straight shooter no matter whether I paid for the cruise or the cruise line invited me aboard at their expense. I tell the good and the bad things I experienced on the cruise. A lot of cruise ship KZbinrs absolutely do not do that... because almost every one of their cruises is paid for by the cruise lines, and they don't want to bite the hand that feeds them. For me, it's actually fairly rare for a cruise line to invite me aboard at their expense. I've paid for over 50 of the cruises I've been on... and no matter who paid for it, I call it like I see it. Sorry you thought it was biased just because ACL was nice enough to host me at their expense. But I really do think you probably didn't even watch long enough to get to the part where I said all the things about the food and dining aboard.

[@atmakali9599]

When I see locks it always makes me believe the flat earth people.