A handful of travel sellers are among the unsecured creditors of American Queen Voyages, according to the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing of AQV's parent company, Hornblower Group Holdings.
American Queen Voyages, which operated U.S. river and coastal cruises, ceased operations on Feb. 20.
Vacation wholesaler Pleasant Holidays is listed as the second-largest unsecured creditor at $943,671. (The largest unsecured creditor is marine transport company SeaTran Marine at just under $4 million.)
Other creditors are travel retailers Vacations To Go ($570,399), American Express ($400,165) and Travel Leaders Network ($222,293).
Pleasant Holidays, which had been a trade partner of American Queen Voyages since 2012, had stopped selling AQV's river cruises in November 2023 because of repeated service issues and late payments.
When asked about the claim, Pleasant Holidays CEO Jack Richards said, "We do not discuss bankruptcy filings by suppliers as we have hired a bankruptcy attorney to represent us in the matter. All our American Queen Voyages bookings were for travel in 2024 and we had zero bookings for 2025 travel."
Hornblower filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Feb. 21 and announced it was under new ownership through investment firm Strategic Value Partners. Hornblower was recapitalized and given $121 million in new financing from funds managed by Strategic Value Partners and Crestview, the company's previous owner.
Hornblower said it was trying to find a buyer for American Queen Voyages. If Hornblower is unable to sell AQV, operations will be wound down and assets sold.
AQV's assets include its fleet of six ships and one charter/lease agreement. They are scheduled to go up for auction on March 27 if a buyer does not come forward before then.
The line's fleet consists of four paddlewheel riverboats -- American Queen (debuted in 1995, refurbished in 2013), American Duchess (built as a casino boat in 1995, reconstructed as a river cruise vessel in 2017), American Countess (built as a casino boat in 1995, converted to an overnight ship in 2021) and American Empress (debuted in 2003). The ships sailed on the Mississippi and Columbia & Snake rivers.
The company also owns two coastal ships, Ocean Navigator and Ocean Voyager, which sailed Great Lakes cruises last summer. Last July, AQV said summer 2023 would be its final Great Lakes season, and that the Navigator and Voyager would be put up for sale. Both ships were built in 2001.
American Queen also has a charter agreement for Ocean Victory, an expedition ship that debuted in 2022 and sailed in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. The charter agreement expires in 2031. Ocean Victory is owned by SunStone Ships, a company also listed as an AQV creditor in the Hornblower bankruptcy case. SunStone has a claim of $334,133.
Who might buy the American Queen ships?
Questions remain as to who might buy the AQV ships. Would American Cruise Lines, the largest U.S. river cruise operator? American Cruise Lines CEO Charles Robertson has said that while there is no certainty that ACL will be a buyer, Robertson said the company will explore all options available. American Cruise Lines owns Chesapeake Shipbuilding in Maryland, where the company builds its own ships.
Viking is not likely to be interested. Viking is new to U.S. river cruising and overcame a number of legal hurdles before launching operations in 2022 with the new, 386-passenger Viking Mississippi.
AQV's paddlewheelers are stylistically different from the Viking Mississippi; the Scandinavian design of Viking's river and ocean ships has been a hallmark of the brand, and it's difficult to picture Viking venturing away from that.
Pleasant Holidays' Richards is hopeful a buyer will come through.
"We do hope the ships are sold to new owners, and we look forward to working with them," Richards said.