La Crosse Queen Cruises

Fun to get out on the river and paddle wheel boats are very cool! You enter and leave through the gift shop… of course. :)
We were on a catered evening party and the beer was awful and they served dominoes pizza. But I don’t know who brought the food?
The boat ride was fun… up the river to the next lock and dam then we turned around and went back to the dock. It was evening so the sun was setting and the moon coming up. Very nice to be out on the top deck of the boat!

Really enjoyed our cruise; staff was very nice but could of had a bit better meal. Served roast and turkey which were tender but could of used a gravy. Roasted potatoes were dry and burnt and the carrots were good but need another vegetable for those that don’t care for carrots. Salad or bread would of been nice but can’t go wrong with the carrot cake we had.

I was in Minnesota and had a day to kill and wanted to cross Wisconsin off of my bucket list of states to visit. La Crosse is right across the border so this is where we came. I was expecting it to look a lot like Minnesota or Iowa with lots and lots of cornfields but this place was beautiful!
We wanted to see as much as possible so we had seen an advertisement for this cruise company in a magazine. We called ahead and if you want to join a brunch cruise, you need to make reservations in advance. If you just want to come for the boat ride, then no advance calling needed. The boat was crowded but not sold out.
This cruise was really cool because it floated down the Mississippi River and you get a narrated tour of the area. We did the brunch and down below, it was hard to hear what the guy was saying. It was also a little hard to see anything out of the windows so we frequently got up from our brunch table to go outside.
The brunch food was MEH. We had ham, turkey, roasted potatoes and carrots, fresh fruit and eggs. I didn’t particularly like much about it — but it was edible and served its purpose.
The cool thing about this cruise is that we got to go through the locks and see how they worked. Once you go through, you turn around (literally right away) and head back through again.
The whole cruise took about 2 hours, and I’d highly recommend it if you’re from out of town. The scenery is beautiful and worth it.

Landmark Review:
Another scenic option if you are traveling through La Crosse. One of the few boats that operates on weekdays which meant this was our only choice of traveling up and down river. The staff member gave a great recap of the history of the river during the tour. The only downside is during weekdays there was a lot of kids from schools which they warned us about so they placed all tourist in the back of the boat. Scenic and peaceful otherwise
Hidden deals:
None

The only boat operation running on weekdays which made it easy for us to choose the La Crosse Queen for the Tuesday after Labor Day. It is a brand new (one year old) boat and has actual functional paddlewheels in the back. Pretty cool really but since it is at the back and out of sight it is not something that you notice. Diesel powered hydraulic and a split set of paddlewheels allow the captain to maneuver. The college kids who man the microphone and the bar are both very nice. The seats on the top are open air and mostly under the canapy and the lower level seating is inside and air conditioned. We took the 1.5 hour sight-​seeing cruise at 1.30pm and went north to the lock and turned around and came back. You can walk around the boat during the cruise. There is a one dollar off coupon if you go in the adjacent visitor center and look for a brochure.