Writer Heather Greenwood Davis and her mother in Paris, France.Olga in Paris for Flytographer/Supplied
Until my sixth river cruise I didn’t realize that I hadn’t truly relaxed on the previous five.
It’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy them all. River cruising – with its smaller ships and centre-of-town-ports – is one of my favourite ways to explore.
But on this, my third trip with AmaWaterways, but my first on the Seine River in France, I achieved a level of ease that I’d never felt before.
This was a Soulful Experiences cruise – a sailing dedicated to exploring Black history and culture through lectures, food, music and historical landmarks. And as a result, 99 per cent of my shipmates were Black. I knew when I booked the cruise that it would make the experience different. But somewhere between doing the Electric Slide line dance at the welcome party and joining an excursion to learn about the heartbreaking fate of Senegalese soldiers during the Second World War in Lyon, I realized that it would be transformational as well.
Code-switching is when a person, intentionally or not, changes their behaviour to suit their circumstance. Everyone does it. That’s why you probably don’t twerk during a meeting at the office, even though you did it on your vacation booze cruise. For Black people, that shift is often also necessary outside the workplace. Even on vacation, you can find yourself deciding to protect your peace rather than to lash out in response to a passenger’s microaggressions or correcting the tour guide who suggests enslaved people “loved” their owners. (Yes, it’s happened to me.)
But on a cruise with predominantly Black travellers, race matters less. And on a cruise with people of various racial backgrounds who all want to learn about Black history, the stress I’ve unknowingly carried can be put down completely.
Soulful Experiences began in August, 2023. The first cruise sold out almost immediately.AMA Waterways/Supplied
The sailings are the brainchild of Jazzmine Douse, an 11-year AmaWaterways employee and Black woman who heard from Black travel advisers that their luxury-seeking Black clients didn’t feel river cruises wanted them.
“Traditionally river cruising has attracted a demographic of more mature, wealthy, retired and typically Caucasian Americans,” Douse says. “There has been a lack of representation in this particular luxury river-cruising space.”
In 2019, Douse took her concerns – and the idea that cruises could be more intentional about inclusion – to the cruise line’s owners. And AmaWaterways started diversifying their brochure and online images. Then in August, 2023, Soulful Experiences was born. The first cruise sold out almost immediately.
During my voyage, passenger Brenda Moore said that her travel agent showed her photos with “folks that looked like me” and it piqued her interest. On board, she said, the cruise lived up to the hype. “I had so much fun meeting and talking to Black folks from all backgrounds, ages and travel experiences.”
Still, as far as river cruises go, there’s no question that Ama’s offering is an outlier.
A 2017 Cruise Lines International Association report, one of very few that offers race-based statistics, found that cruisers who identify themselves as Black or African-American overwhelmingly choose ocean sailings.
Herma Greenwood in Marseille, France.The Globe and Mail
I was unable to find any Canadian race-based surveys on cruising, but travel marketing company MMGY released a report in 2021 based on a survey that canvassed 3,635 Black leisure travellers from the United States, Canada, France, Germany and U.K. They found 40 per cent of Canadians surveyed “are more likely to visit a destination if they see Black representation in travel advertising.” That number jumps to 54 per cent for Americans. Cruising is popular with Black travellers, but it’s usually done in spaces Black people have carved out; they rent the boats and sell the tickets. Radio DJ Tom Joyner’s Fantastic Voyage and travel advisor Patricia Yarbrough’s Festival at Sea are among the long-time, weeklong private cruise charters that are consistently sold out.
But the Soulful Experience offering is unique because it is a regularly scheduled sailing, created and sold by the cruise line. They are the only luxury river-cruise company doing this. The “Colors of Provence” itinerary is available throughout the year, but when it operates under the Soulful Experiences name, it overlays a Black history focus on the guided tours. Cruisers still go to Montmartre but examine its connection to the Harlem renaissance. Cruisers still visit Avignon but can choose to see African artists’ works at Fondation Blachère, as well as touring the traditional Papal palace.
Some of the cruisers on board the Soulful Experiences sailing.The Globe and Mail
Leaning into more of a region’s history means there’s an opportunity to tell harder truths.
Near Lyon, my tour group stood in shocked horror on the soil where close to 50 African men were slaughtered as part of the Chasselay massacre in June, 1940. The murdered were all members of an elite squad of Senegalese sharp shooters sent to help France during the Second World War. When captured by the Germans, white soldiers were taken as prisoners of war. But Black soldiers were literally blown apart by German tank fire. (Those who survived the shooting were run over by those same tanks to ensure the deed was done.)
“My God,” one cruiser whispers as photos of the young Black men are circulated.
Still, the horrors, so hard to hear, are somehow made lighter because we’re carrying them together.
On my sailing, all but about six of my fellow cruisers are Black. Prices start at about US$5,400 and at one point, in response to a joke about whether there was a doctor in the house, a quarter of the room raised their hand. This group belies the travel-industry myth that Black travellers can’t afford luxury travel.
Douse sails with each Soulful itinerary, acting alongside Ama’s Black South African cruise manager, Crystal August. Chef Bri Bullard, a Black Bahamian chef from Toronto, created several meals for guests, sharing the story of each dish’s Black African culinary roots as she went. Guests murmured in surprise when she mentioned that many of her menu choices were directly linked to enslaved ancestors. Jambalaya, she said, originated as a take on an African stew that combined leftover rice grown on the plantations where enslaved people laboured, with the scraps of leftovers afforded to them. This was a seemingly small touch but it resonated with guests on board.
“I have people stopping me every day, multiple times throughout the day to say, ‘I can’t tell you the last time I felt this comfortable on a vacation,’ ” Douse says. “When you hear these things you’re like, ‘Okay, we’ve got to keep going.’ ”
Writer Heather Greenwood Davis and her mother.Olga in Paris for Flytographer/Supplied
But that could prove challenging. AmaWaterways recently announced four Soulful Experience sailings for 2025, including a new offering in Colombia. However, there is no guarantee that the cruises will continue: Customer demand and corporate satisfaction will determine their fate. Without broader race-based statistics, it’s impossible to make the case that Black travellers are making a direct financial impact on the river-cruising industry. Its success may be evident to those on board, but its survival remains uncertain.
“I’m very proud of what we’ve done so far,” Douse says. “In order to protect it, we have to show up.”
If you go
AmaWaterways Soulful Experience sailings include an 11-night Egypt & the Nile sailing (May, 2025, starting at $7,974 a person, double occupancy), a 10-night Colours of Provence (August, 2025, starting at $7,164 a person, double occupancy), a seven-night Magic of Colombia (October, 2025, starting at $4,393 a person, double occupancy) and a 10-night Enticing Douro (November, 2024, and 2025, starting at $5,234 a person, double occupancy). Trips include all meals and most activities and excursions. amawaterways.ca/soulful
The writer was a guest of AmaWaterways. It did not review or approve the story before publication.