Operator of riverboats and small cruise ships in the United States, American Cruise Lines, has been voted this year’s leading North American cruise line by travel excellence organization, World Travel Awards. (Referred to as “the Oscar’s of the travel industry” by the Wall Street Journal). Long established in cruise travel, American Cruise Lines has most recently received world-wide attention as the first to revive paddlewheel river cruising in America, particularly on the Mississippi River, a cruising region that had been dormant for several years.