American Anthem

American Anthem does not exist yet. She is a hull under construction at Chesapeake Shipbuilding in Salisbury, Maryland, announced for delivery in early 2027, and the honest thing to say about her is that everything below is a plan rather than a description. Nobody has sailed on her. Nobody has walked around her. She is being sold, and she is being sold hard: her Columbia and Snake seasons are open for booking here, several of them stacked one behind the next, for a hull that is still a set of drawings and a berth in Maryland.

What is announced, and what that is worth

The line has said she will carry 180 guests, the same as the rest of its modern riverboat series, and that she will begin cruising in the spring of 2027 on the Columbia and the Snake, on eight-night runs between Portland, Oregon and Clarkston, Washington calling at Kalama, The Dalles and Richland. The design notes released so far describe a multi-story glass atrium, more than one dining venue and a fitness center, and a reworked layout in which the River Lounge moves down to the lowest deck and a signature suite is added, changes she shares with American Encore, delivered in 2026, and American Grace, announced for 2028.

That is the whole published record. There is no gross tonnage in the box above because none has been registered; the line has quoted a round six thousand tons, which is a press figure rather than a measurement. There are no dimensions, because none have been published. Anyone quoting you a length, a beam or a deck count for this ship is reading it off a sister, and sisters in this series have differed from one another in exactly those numbers.

The case that she will actually appear

American Cruise Lines owns the yard that builds her, which removes the most common reason a small-ship newbuild slips. The recent record supports it: American Pioneer was delivered in October 2025 and sailed that month, American Patriot in June 2025, and American Encore completed sea trials in March 2026, ran down the East Coast, through the Panama Canal and up to the Columbia in time to open a sold-out inaugural season on the fifth of May 2026. The line has said publicly that it intends to deliver a ship every four months.

None of which is a guarantee for a specific hull. It is a reason to think the 2027 date is realistic rather than aspirational.

Where she actually sails

One river system, and she never leaves it. Every departure she has begins at Portland, Oregon, and the announced deployment and the sold one agree, which is not always the case with a ship this far out.

The backbone is the eight-night Columbia & Snake Rivers cruise, one-way upriver from Portland to Clarkston, Washington, repeated week after week from April to the middle of November. It is the classic Northwest river itinerary and there is barely a weak day in it: Astoria where the Columbia meets the Pacific bar, Kalama, The Dalles, a scenic transit of the Columbia River Gorge, Richland in the Tri-Cities, Pendleton out on the Oregon high desert, then Lewiston and Clarkston facing each other across the state line at the head of navigation, eight lock chambers above the sea. Winter is dark. She lays up from late November until spring, as everything on this river does.

Two variations sit on top of that week. The National Parks & Legendary Rivers cruise runs a fortnight-plus from Portland to Jackson, Wyoming, which is not a river port at all: the standard week upriver, then an overland leg through Glacier, Yellowstone and Grand Teton, sold as one booking. It is the reason a boat whose standard product is eight nights shows a fifteen-night maximum. The other is a fortnight round trip out of Portland that stays on the water the whole time and adds the stops the one-way week has no room for, Stevenson, St. Helens, Burbank and Walla Walla out in the Washington wine country.

There is also a short form: a six-night Columbia River Gorge cruise, round trip from Portland, working only the near half of the river as far as Hood River and The Dalles. It is the one thing on her calendar that does not require a week off work.

Who she suits

Anyone who wants a brand-new riverboat and is comfortable booking a description. If the modern riverboat product is already familiar to you from American Harmony or American Symphony (every stateroom with a balcony, one open seating, an American crew, a shore excursion included) then you know most of what you are buying, and for the season she arrives in she will be the newest example of it working this river.

She does not suit anyone who wants to read a review first, because there are none and will be none until the middle of 2027. She does not suit anyone depending on a fixed date for connecting travel; a first season is the worst time to have no slack in the plan. And she is not the only way to buy this river: American Encore, American Harmony, American Song, American Jazz and American Pride run the same Portland-to-Clarkston week, several of them with the same national-parks extension on the end, and every one of them is afloat and carrying passengers today.