American Queen Voyages is starting new 12-day cruises sailing out of Jacksonville, but the company and its small-scale ship are no strangers to the city.
The second of American Queen's cruises aboard the 202-passenger Ocean Voyager left the Jaxport cruise terminal on the St. Johns River on Monday, setting sail for stops in Savannah and Charleston before turning back south and visiting Brunswick, Ga., Amelia Island, Port Canaveral and Freeport in the Bahamas. The company has plans for 11 more cruises out of Jacksonville this year.
The ship bears little resemblance to a traditional cruise ship. It has no water slides, no go-kart tracks, no casinos. That's no surprise, since it has about 1/10th of the capacity of the Carnival Miracle, the large cruise ship that also homeports in Jacksonville. Cabins aboard the Ocean Voyager for the 12-day Southeast USA cruise start at $5,599 per person.
Read the rest of this story at WJCT News partner The Florida Times-Union.