When you get cruises online, what is your primary motivation? Do you want to join the crowd and head to Hawaii or Alaska? Or are you thinking of something a bit different. At Cruise Direct you can get cruises online that have a difference.
What about a cruise on the Columbia, Willamette and Snake River systems on a Sternwheeler? What about a Sternwheeler that is environmentally sound and a real hoot, to boot?
The U.S.-flagged, 230-foot Queen of the West is currently the only overnight sternwheeler cruise ship on the Columbia, Willamette, and Snake Rivers. Like sternwheelers of the past, the Queen of the West is propelled solely by her three-story-high churning paddlewheel. But unlike those earlier craft, the Queen doesn't rely on a steam engine. Instead, she is powered by a revolutionary hydraulic propulsion system that uses environmentally safe biodegradable hydraulic oil. Her 45-foot-long bow ramp allows passengers to go ashore anywhere along the river, much as the 19th-century vessels did. Launched in 1995, the Queen of the West is the first overnight passenger sternwheeler to be built and operated in the West in 80 years.
When you get cruises online, you can go the standard route and there is nothing at all wrong with that, but if you want to get cruises online that have a difference, check out Cruise Direct.