Great American Journeys cancels June sailings

Financially troubled Great American Journeys cruise line has cancelled its June sailings and will likely scrap its July schedule as the company continues to seek new investors, according to co-owner Douglas Toms.

The Seattle-based company operated the luxury 160-passenger Columbia Queen riverboat along the Columbia, Snake and Willamette rivers in the Pacific Northwest until it ran into financial problems following a bankruptcy filing by co-owner Don J. Simplot last January.

Toms said he's in negotiations with two groups of investors, one from Portland, Oregon, and another from the East Coast, about buying a controlling stake in the line.

"One group expressed a strong interest in getting the ship back on the water for August,'' he said, but admitted that would be a long shot, even if the financing falls into place.

In the meantime, Toms said the ship has been moved from its winter dock at Sundial Marine in Troutdale, Oregon, to the Cascade General shipyard on the Willamette River in Portland.

Passengers who paid for cruises or put down deposits are being reimbursed through an escrow account set up at Washington's Frontier Bank.

"As customers call in, we're paying them,'' Toms said.

Travel agents and former employees will have to wait to be reimbursed for commissions and back pay. Great American laid off most of its staff late last year.

"If we get a new group going, we'll be cutting checks for those folks. It's a priority,'' Toms said.

Great American Journeys is a division of a larger hospitality and travel group owned by Simplot and Toms, which ran Glacier Bay Cruiseline. That company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization last year. Toms said thaGreat American would not file for Chapter 11.

The company launched its first season last spring on the boat that Toms and Simplot purchased and refurbished in 2004 after its owner, the Delta Queen Steamboat Co., ceased operations.

Carol Pucci: 206-464-3701 or cpucci@seattletimes.com