Riverboat cruises are scheduled to visit Baton Rouge at least 65 times this year, according to the cruises scheduled to set sail to Capital City.
The American Queen—one of those cruises—docked in the Port of Baton Rouge the weekend of the Baton Rouge Blues festival with 393 passenger on board. The boat can hold 450 passengers.
“During their time in port, they conducted hop on hop off tours of the downtown area. Some of the passengers also stopped by the Baton Rouge Blues Festival,” says Philipa Blair, Director of Destination Services, in an email sent through a Visit Baton Rouge spokeswoman. Visit Baton Rouge says they have 60 visits on the calendar for this year.
Via a spokesperson, American Queen Steamboat Co. President and COO Ted Sykes says the boat was in Baton Rouge 14 times in 2015. The river boat cruise is expected to make 15 stops in Baton Rouge this year.
Liz O’Shaughnessy, spokeswoman for American Cruise Line Inc., says the company’s riverboat cruises anticipates stopping in Baton Rouge 50 times this year and 60 times in 2017.
“Baton Rouge has always been a popular stop along our Lower Mississippi and Full Mississippi itineraries, and it would be very rare for us to miss this port,” O’Shaughnessy says.
Daily Report previously reported that there were 57 dockings in Baton Rouge in 2014 and 51 in 2013 while there were 26 in 2012, the year cruises returned to Baton Rouge after a some operators stopped offering trips in 2008. 2015 started with 84 dockings on the calendar, but the city only had 62 dockings at the end of the year.
—Alexandria Burris
