Mississippi River Cruise Ports: New Orleans to St. Paul

The Mississippi is the only major cruise river where the ship regularly parks by driving its nose into a muddy bank. There is no pier and no terminal, just a ramp lowered from the bow onto a levee and motorcoaches waiting on the gravel above.

That single design fact explains most of what confuses first-timers about Mississippi river cruise ports. The town is almost never at the landing, and the bus is not an upsell, it is the only way in.

My quick take

This is the American river cruise that people either love or quietly regret booking, and the difference is almost entirely expectation management. If you want European-style walk-off ports with a cathedral square at the top of the gangway, you will spend three weeks disappointed.

My default is the lower river in spring or late fall and the upper river in September or early October, as two trips rather than one 22-day marathon. The thing I would not do is book this as a first-ever cruise, because it is expensive, slow and heavily structured ashore.

The quick facts

• Where you land: a mix of city wharves and bare riverbank. New Orleans, Memphis, St Louis and St Paul have real waterfront berths; Hannibal, St Francisville, Tunica and Greenville are landings on a levee with a road behind them.
• How you get ashore: a walk off every time, because river boats do not tender. On this river the walk off is often down a ramp from the bow onto the bank rather than sideways onto a quay, and rafting alongside another ship is rare because the fleet is small.
• Into town: Almost always by motorcoach, included in the fare.
• Currency and language: US dollars and English.
• Getting around cost: the four big cities have taxis, rideshare and public transportation. The small towns have no rideshare at all, so the ship motorcoach or your own legs are the entire menu.
• Time zone: Central Time for the whole river, UTC minus 6, shifting to UTC minus 5 during daylight saving.
• The operators: American Cruise Lines runs the largest schedule, with riverboats carrying no more than 180 guests, and Viking runs one ship, Viking Mississippi. Both sell eight-day segments, fifteen-day half-river runs and full-river runs of 22 or 23 days.
• How often the call is missed: Medium (about 5–15%): unusual local conditions can make safe entry impossible.

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Why Mississippi river cruise ports are not really ports

On the Danube or the Rhine, a port call means a quay in a town with a church spire visible from the sun deck. On the Mississippi it frequently means a sloping bank of grass and rock, with a ramp swung down from the bow and matting laid over it.

At the top of the ramp there is a motorcoach, and it takes you to the town, the plantation or the battlefield and back. People who like wandering off alone find this claustrophobic, and at a rural levee landing there is no independent alternative.

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The lower river: New Orleans to Memphis

The lower river runs year-round, and it is the half that most people sail. It starts or ends at New Orleans, which the Port of New Orleans describes as the sixth largest cruise port in the United States, so the terminal end of things is properly organized.

St Francisville is my favorite on this stretch, a hill town with an intact historic district above the landing. Natchez, farther up, has a bluff that makes the walk up from Under the Hill a genuine effort.

Vicksburg is the serious history day, and the national military park above the town is the reason to be there. Oak Alley, Greenville, Tunica and Cleveland fill the gaps between.

Memphis is the northern end of the lower river and the one stop here where I would skip the ship’s plan. It is a real city with a functioning downtown and a short drive from the landing to Beale Street.

One structural point. The US Army Corps of Engineers St Louis District calls the Mississippi a locking river north of St Louis and an open river south of it, which is why the lower half of your trip involves no locks at all.

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The upper river: St Louis to St Paul, and the locks

Above St Louis the river changes character completely. It becomes a staircase of pools held back by dams, and the boat spends a real share of each day in a concrete chamber going up.

The Corps of Engineers Rock Island District alone operates twelve lock and dam sites on the Mississippi and maintains 314 miles of nine-foot navigation channel. Its own pages note the system was built in the 1930s with an estimated fifty-year life span and still runs 24 hours a day.

Above that, the St Paul District runs thirteen more lock and dam sites and maintains 243.6 miles of nine-foot channel between Minneapolis and Guttenberg, Iowa.

The stops are smaller and, to my mind, better: Hannibal for Mark Twain, Muscatine and Dubuque in Iowa, Winona and Red Wing in Minnesota, and St Paul at the top.

La Crosse, Wisconsin appears on some upper river schedules and not others; the American Cruise Lines upper river itinerary I checked uses Winona instead. Check your own port list rather than the brochure photography.

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Low water, high water, and the substituted port

This is the part that catches people, and it is worse here than in Europe. Neither line promises a specific port, and American Cruise Lines says so directly in its own itinerary text.

Low water is the fall problem: the channel narrows and a landing usable in June becomes exposed mud with no safe ramp angle, so the call gets swapped or turned into a longer motorcoach day. High water in spring does the same thing for the opposite reason, dropping bridge clearance and making landings unsafe.

The action to take before sailing is simple: look up the river gauge readings for your ports on the National Weather Service river forecast pages. My piece on what low water actually does to a river cruise covers the mechanics.

The other useful habit is to book anything nonrefundable ashore only in the four big cities. Those calls almost always happen; the small landings are the ones that move.

The stops I would actually spend time on

Roughly south to north, and ruthlessly. These are the calls where the day justifies itself.

• New Orleans: the one port where you should arrive a day or two early rather than treat it as an embarkation formality. The French Quarter and the Garden District are worth more than any excursion the ship can sell you.
• St Francisville, Louisiana: a small hill town above the landing with an intact historic district. Short call, high hit rate.
• Natchez, Mississippi: the antebellum house town, with the landing at Under the Hill and the old town on the bluff above it. The climb is real, so take the shuttle up and walk down.
• Vicksburg, Mississippi: Vicksburg National Military Park is the reason to come, a siege landscape with a driving tour and the recovered ironclad USS Cairo. Best history day on the river.
• Memphis, Tennessee: Beale Street, Sun Studio, Stax and Graceland is a lot for one call. Pick two, not four.
• Hannibal, Missouri: Mark Twain’s boyhood town, small enough to walk and self-aware enough to be funny about it. The most charming small stop on the upper river.
• Dubuque, Iowa: the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium explains the river you have been sitting on for two weeks. A working town rather than a preserved one.
• Red Wing, Minnesota: a compact riverside town with bluffs behind it and one of the shortest walks from landing to main street on the river. Good last small stop before St Paul.

Fun fact: the lock and dam system you climb through above St Louis is running long past its design life, and the US Army Corps of Engineers Rock Island District says outright that structures built in the 1930s with an estimated fifty-year life span are still operating around the clock. You are being lifted by nearly century-old machinery, which is either reassuring or not, depending on temperament.

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How I would plan the day

On a small-town call, take the included tour. There is no independent option worth the risk, and the local guides are usually retired teachers and museum volunteers who are better than the format suggests.

In Memphis, St Louis and St Paul, do the opposite. Leave the motorcoach behind, take a rideshare, and build your own two-stop day.

Ask reception the night before for the landing location, not just the port name. And watch the motorcoach return time, because there is no taxi stand on a Mississippi levee.

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A realistic word on accessibility

The ships are the good news. American-built riverboats on this river are new, have elevators serving most decks, and are designed to American accessibility standards in a way that European river ships often are not.

The landings are the bad news. A bow ramp onto a sloping levee is, by definition, an incline of variable angle, and the angle depends on the river level that morning.

A landing manageable on Tuesday can be too steep on Thursday, and no crew can flatten a riverbank. Some calls are not usable for wheelchair users, and you will hear that on the day rather than in advance.

Motorcoaches vary too, and not every excursion bus here has a wheelchair lift. Say what you need at booking, repeat it at check-in, and see my roundup of wheelchair-friendly cruise ports.

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When to go, and the weather

The lower river operates year-round, the upper river roughly April to late October. That asymmetry drives most itinerary planning on this river.

Lower river summers are brutal. New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Vicksburg sit in the low 90s Fahrenheit in July and August, with humidity that makes a plantation lawn feel worse than that.

March, April, October and November are the sensible lower river months, with highs in the 70s Fahrenheit. December to February runs in the low 60s Fahrenheit in New Orleans and is a legitimate option if you dislike heat.

The upper river peaks in July in the mid 80s Fahrenheit near St Paul and cools fast. Late September and early October give you roughly 60 to 68 Fahrenheit, plus the bluff country in fall color, which is the single best week on this river.

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Quick answers

Who actually cruises the Mississippi now?
American Cruise Lines, with the larger fleet and the wider port list, and Viking with the single ship Viking Mississippi. Both publish their itineraries on their own sites, and both cover the lower and upper river.

Do Mississippi river ships tender?
No. Every call is a walk off, but on this river the walk off is often a ramp from the bow onto a bank rather than a gangway onto a quay.

Are the shore excursions included?
On American Cruise Lines, yes, meals and excursions are part of the all-inclusive fare. Viking’s inclusions differ by itinerary, so check with your line before you budget.

How many locks are there on a St Louis to St Paul cruise?
Enough to fill several afternoons. The Rock Island District operates twelve lock and dam sites on the Mississippi and the St Paul District thirteen more.

Can I do the whole river in one trip?
Yes, both lines sell full-river runs of 22 or 23 days between New Orleans and St Paul. I would rather do two separate segments in the right seasons.

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The last word

The Mississippi is not Europe with better air conditioning, and it does not want to be. It is a slow, motorcoach-led, deeply American trip through towns shaped by one river for two hundred years.

My New Orleans cruise port guide covers the terminals and the getting in and out, which is the one part of this river that behaves like a normal cruise. Everything upstream is a different sport.

People coming off ocean ships should read my comparison of river cruising against ocean cruising before committing. If the American river format appeals but the Mississippi does not, the Columbia and Snake river ports run the same style of trip in better scenery.

Book the season, not the brochure, and treat the port list as a hopeful sketch. The river has been rearranging itself for far longer than the cruise industry, and it is not about to start consulting you.