Topic starter
20/10/2008 7:31 pm
the website Maritime Matters has a wonderfully written journal-blog on a just completed St Louis to St Paul voyage aboard AQ by noted ship journalist Peter Knego. He sadly documents the many cutbacks and degrading of a once nice product and cleverly juxtaposes the wonderful young crew, all soon to be out of work, against the $3m bonus annouced for Joe Ueberroth last Friday by Ambassadors. It takes a special quality to accept a bonus from a compnay that you have run into the ground, throwing hundreds of hardworking folks out of a job. But, it is a great if sad blog and can be found at Cruises, Cruise ship news, ocean liner history: MARITIME MATTERS under 'news'.
John
ps-super photos too!
21/10/2008 1:17 am
Great article. But not for nothing, but why would anybody go to the trouble to brew their own Starbucks in a steamboat stateroom? Logic escapes me...
And I'm sure the writer is mistaken about Phil Westbrook's age (Happy Birthday Piano Man!). Absolutely no way. If it is true I'm gonna learn how to play the piano...Damn!
John, if you don't mind, here is the direct link to the article:
http://maritimematters.blogspot.com/2008/10/american-queen-fall-colors-by-peter_09.html
Along with another one on the AQ, two equally nice articles on the DQ and one on the Columbia Queen. Great pictures in those too, but not with the crew pictures like the first AQ article.
http://maritimematters.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html
http://www.maritimematters.com/deltaqueen-blog1.html
http://www.maritimematters.com/dakes_deltaqueen-blog1.html
http://maritimematters.blogspot.com/2008/06/up-river-without-paddle-by-peter-knego.html
I also get a sincere kick outa the eagle that's still on the front of the Columbia Queen...Now if they'd just put the eagle back up on the American Queen...
21/10/2008 3:39 pm
So you want MAL to give the bird to all the boats, eh Bruno????
21/10/2008 4:03 pm
[QUOTE=Bruno Krause;13193]And I'm sure the writer is mistaken about Phil Westbrook's age (Happy Birthday Piano Man!). Absolutely no way. If it is true I'm gonna learn how to play the piano...Damn!
QUOTE]
Oh, I guarantee he's gonna LOVE this.
:O)
Paul
21/10/2008 10:22 pm
Ok, it's rant time...It IS October 21st and I'm not in the best of moods, and it has nothing to do with the prediction for wet snow...and I apologise for it not really being the right thread...
The bird? Judy forbid, did Majestic do that to all their boats?... 😉 Now as for me, yeah, my friends at Majestic America Line, I got a return digit right here for my bestest buddies, both hands... What a piece of work these people are...
I'll say it again, they weren't perfect and the way they treated the entertainment wasn't very nice, wasn't very friendly, wasn't very human, but if Katrina hadn't happened I suspect we rabid repeaters would be a lot happier with the three Mississippi boats being still owned by Delaware North...I still feel strongly the exemption for the DQ would not be an issue, at all, if the boys from Buffalo were still in charge, and Katrina hadn't had a tizzy....Then again, there is American Classic Voyages, if they only hadn't had visions of meglomania.
You know as somebody that has to constantly prove that his instincts, that his experience, his skill has led up to the proper design decision, I am at a loss at how Majestic in their infamous, bottomless wisdom determined that going non-union was a going to be a good thing. Did anybody in the company look into this? Wait, I remember now, they didn't give a rat's about the DQ from day one, did they? Ok, I'm with you again, this un-unionizing was a way to get rid of her, to get rid of "that old boat", we don't need no stinkin exemption. And then there is the Let's completely gut our other boat, whadaya mean we have no money...? Another moment in sheer wisdom that we can all stand back and be silenced, be humbled, in awe...
How much money did the Legendary One make for you this year, Majestic? So much for "that old boat" (notice the quotes, twice, the exact words spoken by Majestic and non-Majestic people, people that were only repeating what they heard). Did the Delta Queen make enough to cover the bonus? And how 'bout that flagship? She came through, in spades once you got your act together and the people listened. Too bad it was a little tardy...Deb and I love the AQ, and wonder what it was like before you got your mitts on her...
And the doubly sad thing is that your company's ineptitude has probably destroyed the near future of all the Queens and an Empress, too, all six of them...Such a great bunch of superb crews, how very sad...
Thank you, time to return you to your normally scheduled forum thread, feel free to edit, I feel about 5% better now. Move along folks nothing to see here...
22/10/2008 7:12 am
the flagship AQ
Yes, Rep. James Oberstar has been demonized here many times... but didn't anybody else get a lump in their throats when it was announced that the American Queen was the flagship of the line? If MAL had really wanted the DQ to survive, she would have. Oberstar and the SIU have conveniently taken the heat off the real murderers: Uberroth and company. They hanged themselves with their 1000 count sheets trumpeter swans mentality, and even if they did finally realize the value of the DQ, it was beneath them to reverse their field -public pronouncements to the contrary being just fluff to appease those rabid idiots on .org and around the country trying to save the DQ. One can only hope that the rumor that they have a COI for 49 or fewer passengers is true, and that somehow when Congress reconvenes, the exemption might go through and then somehow the COI could be raised to the 174 again and THE QUEEN would survive once again. And then she could be sold to someone who cares about running her, not about finagaling a 3 million dollar bonus for compete business ineptitude, arrogance, and incompetence and a total lack of respect for American heritage. Let's hope the old girl has one more miracle left in her!