New article on Queen of the Mississippi

More time in port

Thanks Matthew for posting the article. This has been discussed before but one line in the article caught my attention. They talked about the more powerful diesel engins would cut their travel time and give them more time in port. Wasn't that one of the serious concerns of passengers under the previous ownership of the DQ & AQ? I wonder if the owners of the Q of the M have really done their river homework. Do the majority of the modern day steamboat travelers want more time in port at places like Helena, AK, Cairo, IL, etc.? Half a day at some places like that was usually way more than enough. To me there was nothing more relaxing that a full day of cruising.

Amen, brother! Wondering if the AQ is doing the same thing. I especially like the mentioning of Helena. I don't remember us landing there except to take care of some sort of business, and then we landed at the mat casting field, far away from town. Once, we dropped some Soviet Russian diplomats off there to be picked up by car. As we steamed away, the sun was sinking in the Western sky, and no car was in sight. Just 2 Russians amongst slabs of concrete, in the land of rednecks. The DQ was the only real sign of civilization, and, from their perspective, it was fading off into the distance.

Lexie, was that the "Mississippi Peace Cruise" in the 80's? If so, I remember when the DQ locked through #25 at Winfield...there were several Russians onboard and one was waiving the Russian Flag. I snapped a photo or two and was given a specially made post card of the bow of their cruise ship spliced with the stern of the DQ.

More time in port

Did you happen to notice the comment posted by River 3 which referred to this situation, and also corrected a few other errors in the story?

That was probably something different, but I don't know.

Where is that comment? The article itself had no comments.

Lexie, underneath the headline it had comments 1 click on comments and it comes up

My page had 0 comments, yesterday. I'll try again.

I'll save you some time Lexie

Here is what I wrote in the comments:

River3 at 9:41 PM May 09, 2012
"Finally, with more powerful diesel engines, the Queen of the Mississippi will cut travel time in half, giving passengers more time in port." They didn't check with the QUEENS' repeat passengers on that one - it is a river CRUISE. The idea is to cruise and enjoy the moving scenery, not to sit in one spot all day. Furthermore, the lock systems on the Ohio and Upper Mississippi will cause more delays - they can zip between locks at 15 mph or whatever they will run, but if there's a double tow at the lock, that speed will only give a longer delay while the 2 hour lockage proceeds. Prices quoted are not for both boats - the lowest price for a 7 night AQ trip is $1995, not $3995 which is for the QoM. It will be interesting to see if the market is there for both boats, only one of which is a steamboat: the AMERICAN QUEEN. While there has been no overnight cruising for 4 years, there certainly have been 2 large steamboats still operating excursions: the venerable BELLE OF LOUISVILLE with a capacity of 1000, and the NATCHEZ in New Orleans with a capacity of 1600. Neither of these would be the small boats referred to in this article.

The comment was there today. River 3 knows what they are talking about. The only advantage I can see to all that zooming is to make up time due to a tight schedule, swift water, fog delay, etc. But then, if they base their schedule on warp speed, they'll be back where they started when delays occur. Which, in the long run, will create more cruising time and less time sitting and sitting. I wonder if any of this has occured to the intinerary composers?

Port stay and stay...

Yes, they are bragging about their higher speed so they can spend more time in ports. That alone is not a bright idea, as we know. But as you say, then what when there is a problem and you've already killed time in port? No ability for speed will get you through a closed river due to a navigation accident (see MV. WASHINGTON hitting the Lansing bridge, breaking its tow and delaying the upbound DQ; or the Keithsburg bridge falling into the river, or the AQ killing time above Davenport because L&D 15 is closed but then a towboat runs aground and blocks the river so that the AQ can't then get to Davenport so she sits in the channel by Albany for hours...) and on and on. But I see that the AQ will be extending their stay in Davenport too, which used to be 8 to 1, because one of their superior tours is bussing to the Amana Colonies. That alone is over a 3 hour round trip plus whatever time is spent touring the colonies. So I'm guessing the AQ will be sitting at Oneida St. from sunrise until at least 3 PM - when river traffic is requested to not require the opening of the Government Bridge span, which could mean a 5 PM departure and there goes the day of cruising down the river. I haven't seen the speed demon's planned shore tours here in the QC, but I suspect it will be here just as long, if not longer. And the Wonder Bakery is closed now, so crew can't go across River Drive to stock up on Hostess Cupcakes, DingDongs, etc......