I work on the American Queen

Here's one of our Picnic buffet in the Grand Salon

Hi John, Well I'll bwe on the AQ in a few days. She's my boat. Can't wait to get back on her. Good to see we still have the picnic. Ask around the boat and see if anyone remembers "THe Happy Ladies" from Texas. We're on our way to board the Queen for the tenth time. We love the boat and the crew. See if you can pick us out on the first night at dinner. Looking forward to meeting you.
Happy Lady 1

Sally Harris;5790 wrote: Hi John, Well I'll bwe on the AQ in a few days. She's my boat. Can't wait to get back on her. Good to see we still have the picnic. Ask around the boat and see if anyone remembers "THe Happy Ladies" from Texas. We're on our way to board the Queen for the tenth time. We love the boat and the crew. See if you can pick us out on the first night at dinner. Looking forward to meeting you.
Happy Lady 1

John,

Trust me. You will know The Happy Ladies within 30 minutes of their boarding the boat. And that's a good thing.

Paul

I hope too see you ladies. Look for me, I'm the only John in the dining room. I'll be the guy moving a bunch of heavy looking trays and trying to do my card trick to my tables.

I return to the boat on June 1 in Memphis. Is that when you arrive?

Here is a photo of a sunset from 3 weeks ago on the river and one of Shelia's napkin babies that she makes for her tables.

Do you all remember anyone from the boat?

I'm going to get addicted to posting photos from the boat. Is that ok, it doesn't make for slow load times does it since the photos are thumbnails?

John,
I will be on the American Queen July 21.

This will be my first riverboat cruise and I have been looking forward to it.
Can you tell me what to expect of the new menu in the dining room?

Thank you for you photo's. This trip has been a dream of mine since gradeschool and my first reading of Huck Finn. The pictures are great to help me pass the time untill I can see that sunrise and sunset in person.

Julie

John, Do we ever Who could forget Robert in the dining room. I don't think he is on the boat now but, he made a couple of our trips very fun and interesting. We are great fans of Phil Westbrook and Paul Penta. We love all the entertainers. Sometimes things start out a little slow on the boat but we have a way of getting everyone in a "Happy" mood PDQ. Our philosophy of life is "Life is fun and sometimes downright funny. We don't know everyone by name but we have met lots of great people on the MQ and the AQ. We will see you soon . Thanks for the photos.
They would make a great T-Shirt.
SAlly

Hello John Welcome!!!
According to the schedule in the Cruise Book, the AQ is suppose to be in Cincinnati on June 13th. Is this correct? Looking forward to saying "hi".
We will be doing a back to back starting June 25th Cinti/Pitts returning July 5th. to Cinti.
Marian Nusekabel

We will be there too!!

John and Julie,
We too will be on the AQ on the July 21 trip. It will be our first trip on the AQ but our 4th on the boats. We have ridden the MQ on the Grand Excursion, the Steamboat Race and the Civil War cruise last year from Nashville to Memphis. We are anxious to try out a new boat and are looking forward to the upgrades since the MQ had gotten pretty shabby in the past 3 years! Hope to meet both of you this summer. Binki

Binki,

So glad to know you will be on board as well! I'm told one of the advantages of the Queen's is the ability to get to know the other passengers, so I will be looking for you.

I have taken one Caribean cruise - but this will be my first time on the River. Any tips for a new commer? What should I be looking forward to most - besides the chance to finaly visit Hanibal, Mo.?

Julie

Julie,
Actually, as much as we fret over the menus, it isn't the food, it's the boat and the folks onboard that make a trip--well, and the river, of course. You will have a BALL! I waited some 36 years before my first trip (cruise, though that's really more a blue-water term) in March, and somehow I've now been on two! I will attempt to get time to downsize my latest pics and post them too. . Heres one taken on our first day on the Black Warrrior.
Warning--Steamboatin' (err, steamboating) is addictive, and the only known cure is to get back on the boats.
Steamcerely,
David Dewey

David,

Thank you. There is nothing that will make this a bad trip for me. I've been trying to hard to get on the river to let anything get in the way.

I was booked on the American Queen in '06 before it was pulled out of service to supply housing for clean up crews in the Gulf Coast.
Believe it or not, my re-booking was the Mississippi Queen cruise cancled due to Noro Virus.
Third time is the charm.

I can't wait to spend time walking the decks and watching the river flow by.

Anyone who is familiar with any of the towns we will be stopping at, I would love advice on what to do or see.

Julie

Julie, you'll love this stretch of the Mississippi River. It's one of the most scenic. And, you'll get to experience it on a fine steamboat. I won't be traveling with you, but I will probably be on shore waving as the boat departs. It's been far too long since the AQ visited these parts. And, if I am lucky enough, I'll be on a pleasure boat taking photos when you depart Alton the following day. You'll find Hannibal to be a very nice place. The rest of the stops are great, as well. Enjoy.

You can check out Franz and Carmen's Steamboat Traveller for detailed info on the towns, but here's a brief rundown, assuming you're planning to do the town on your own: first of all, even though it took three tries, you've got my favorite trip: the upbound UMR. It gets more beautiful as you go upriver. In Alton there is a small river museum as well as a museum/display at the locks. The Mark Twain stuff is all right downtown near the boat landing in Hannibal - walk it yourself. Be sure to see the new MT museum down the street from the MT house. Some people do the house and don't realize the ticket includes the new museum. Get a photo of the statue at the base of Cardiff Hill too. The next day, steamboating between Hannibal and Dubuque, you will pass through several locks. At 16 in Muscatine and 15 in Rock Island there will be a river fixture lurking, me. I'll be down there following the boat up from the bend at the lower end of the Muscatine harbor until she locks out of 15. I'll put the usual amount of chocolate chip cookies for the crew on board at 15. Unfortunately the boats always come through here at supper time and most people miss the largest metropolitan area on the trip. If you are out on deck, you'll see the cities of Davenport and Bettendorf Iowa and Rock Island, Moline, and East Moline Illinois. Just above L&D 15 was the site of the first railroad bridge across the Mississippi. There is a marker there. This is on Arsenal Island, which is a large military installation where the armor for the humvees is made, along with munitions. Just above the bridge marker you'll pass the Commandant's house, the second largest government house(White House is first). Then you'll pass the site of the first lock on the river and the remains of the canal wall which bypassed the Rock Island Rapids. Above the I-74 bridges on the Iowa side will be the mile long Alcoa Aluminum plant, second in size only to the Alcoa plant in Alcoa Tennessee. 10.2 miles up from L&D 15 is 14. Above that is the town of LeClaire Iowa. On shore will be the LONE STAR, the last sternwheel steam towboat on the UMR. That will do it for the daylight hours, but later in Clinton you'll pass the showboat CITY OF CLINTON, formerly the OMAR and just above L&D 13 you'll be transiting through the widest part of the entire Mississippi River, the stump fields. Its 3.5 miles wide there and very shallow outside the channel (ask the MQ about that!) The old buildings just below L&D 12 in Bellevue were warehouses for the famous Diamond Jo Packet Company of the late 1800s early 1900s. Just below the city of Dubuque will be the gravesite of Julien Dubuque ( the daylight stuff will be pointed out by your riverloriandiscoveryguide). You'll dock in Dubuque right at the wonderful museum. That's worth the entire time of the stop. But if you want, you can take a ride on the 4th Street Elevator, a cog railway. Just above L&D 10 is Lake's Landing, where Kathy Lake will have a banner out. In LaCrosse a ride up to Granddad's Bluff is neat, but if you don't have transportation, walk around the park and visit the little steamboat museum there. The JULIA BELLE SWAIN, a real steamboat, will be docked by you. Just above LaCrosse, between Winona and Fountain City - miles 725 to 733 is what I consider to be the most beautiful stretch of the river. As you head over to the Minnesota side above Fountain City, look back on that beautiful town nestled in the bend of the river, with its 3 church spires standing out. At RedWing, walk up the hill and tour the St. James Hotel. And of course, throughout the trip each locking is an experience with the local people there to watch the QUEEN come through. You'll be surprised at the crowds at all hours. This will be the AQ's first trip up here in 3? years, so she should really get the attention of the locals. There are a FEW more points of interest, but this is long enough already.

Judy,
Great tips!! I plied the DQ Wheelhouse with P-butter and Chocolate chip cookies most of the trip--I've learned to not turn them all over at once, so every watch can have some! Done in your honor, of course. Kathy Lake (or Late--um, inside DQ joke there!) is a wonderful person, she was also aboard with us. Egads, there are so many wonderful people around the boats!
Julie-- you be sure and report back here how much fun you had, hear?
OK, I"m gonna go post some pics of the Black Warrior now.
S'
David D.

We'll be boarding the AQ at Cincinnati on June 13th for the trip to Pittsburgh.
Anyone else going on this cruise?

An interesting aside to this is that we originally booked an E class cabin but MAL has upgraded us to a AA! No increase in the fare, either. I don't know why they did this but we're glad they did. It's our 4th cruise and the second on the AQ.
-Jim Herron

David Dewey;5814 wrote: ...the DQ ...the sign with our names! This turned out to be a good idea, as it kept me from opening the wrong cabin door many times!

Are there hooks on the doors of the rooms on the AQ as well?

Judy, your few points of interest are a treasure because of the enthusiasm that lurks beneath. Please write a travelogue of the entire river as you know it; I expect that you will find a publisher. I got my first legal taste of a riverboat on the OMAR in 1963 when she served as the showboat RHODODENDRON on the Great Kanawha River in Charleston in recognition of the centennial of West Virginia. My father, Dr. Jozsef Berty, took me on board to see the play "East Lynne." I must have been age 14. (The program book had a photo of Charles T. Jones as a contributor.) That visit "set the hook" for my later wanderlust and messing about in boats. During the Grand Excursion of 2004, I took a short break from serving as the River Historian aboard the motor vessel HARRIET BISHOP to attend another play aboard that boat. She still sports some of the massive hardware of a giant towboat. The CITY OF CLINTON is well worth a visit.

Hi Bela! Here's a photo of the old OMAR during her days as the Showboat RHODODENDRON. She stopped here at Louisville in 1966, towed by a sternwheeler named the MARY ALICE. That was the last year that the SHOWBOAT MAJESTIC, permanently moored across the river at Jeffersonville, was in operation by Indiana University, so we had two showboat theatres in competition with each other for a couple of days!

Dear Keith: Thank you for the quick reply with the photo. At lunch today, my dad, age 84, said that he remembered that he and I went to see that play aboard the showboat 45 years ago. I will forward the photo to him; perhaps it will be a good treat for him on Father's Day.