Why go as far as the ocean for a cruise? According to The Seattle Post Intelligencer, Seattle cruise line Cruise West is planning Mississippi River excursions next year with routes between New Orleans and Memphis, TN, and between Memphis and Nashville, TN. They’ll be the first overnight cruises on the river since 2008.

The company will send its 207-foot Spirit of America – formerly used in Alaska as The Spirit of Glacier Bay – off from New Orleans on March 19, 2011, for an eight-day trip to Memphis. It will leave Memphis for Nashville via the Mississippi, Ohio and Cumberland rivers, on March 26. The trips back will leave Nashville on April 2, and Memphis on April 9.

Cruise West will begin a second set of trips starting April 16, 23, and 30, and May 7.

They’re not exactly Huckleberry Finn-cheap. Each cruise costs $3,499 to $5,099 and includes five stops. Between New Orleans and Memphis, they are Vacherie and St. Francisville, LA, Vicksburg and Natchez, MS, and Helena, AK. Between Memphis and Nashville, the stops are New Madrid, MO, Paducah and Smithland, KY, and Dover and Clarksville, TN. Something tells me you haven’t been to a lot of those places!

The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America…but have you seen it?

(Image via: Wikimedia Commons)