Topic starter
08/03/2012 7:49 pm
There is a new river cruises brochure available online for the QoM and QoW. A couple of tidbits:
Someday, they’ll build the biggest steamboat the world has ever
known; and she’ll be long, white and gleaming in the sunshine.
And that one shall be called the Queen of the Mississippi.
—Mark Twain
Matthew, you had asked a question about the naming of this boat. Here is the company's reasoning. Two little problems with it however: 1) she's not the biggest and 2) she's not a steamboat... but who cares about these little details today?
There's a pix of their riverlorian, one Toots Maloy. Word was she had retired. Word was wrong!
The itinerary for a 7 day trip between St. Louis and St. Paul includes stops in: Hannibal, Burlington, Davenport, Dubuque, LaCrosse, Winona and Redwing... there will be precious little cruising in daylight on those cruises....but again, who cares about cruising on a cruise anyway?
I'm sure glad I got my DELTA QUEEN trips in back when the river was the thing, not the shore stops, cuisine, staterooms just like home, fluffy bathrobes, private balconies, etc. etc.!
09/03/2012 4:08 pm
I saw the brochure and thought the same thing. Not the biggest. And from looking at
the pictures no outside room just to walk around and enjoy the scenery. But, hey I'm prejudiced.
Topic starter
09/03/2012 5:02 pm
Outer decks
Sally, that was one of my bigger gripes about the MQ - lack of deck space to walk around and sit with others. When she came out in 1976, she did have the Promenade Deck which was walkable the entire boat, but then they superglued those rooms on there in 1984 and that meant there was no deck which was open the entire circumference of the boat. In the QoM brochure they also promote room service bringing breakfast to your balcony - one of the greatest experiences from my DQ travels was meeting interesting and wonderful people, many of whom I still am in contact with after 30 years. But if today's market has people who'd rather be by themselves, so be it. I'm looking forward to sitting out on deck on my July AQ trip, enjoying the scenery and talking with fellow passengers and crew.
09/03/2012 10:03 pm
Judy Patsch;29077 wrote: I'm looking forward to sitting out on deck on my July AQ trip, enjoying the scenery and talking with fellow passengers and crew.
Judy, when in July will you be on board? I will be there from the 5th to 11th, then I rotate home.
Paul
09/03/2012 10:07 pm
Paul Penta;29083 wrote: Judy, when in July will you be on board? I will be there from the 5th to 11th, then I rotate home.
Paul
And, oh by the way, in case anyone is wondering, I'm going back to be in one of the AQ bands this season. Just got my travel documents in email for rehearsals in NOLA and then the first two cruises. Didn't want to say anything out loud until I had the reservation in hand. The boat business is too fraught with unwelcome surprises to jump the gun in these matters (said the person who was supposed to the the Cruise Director on the MQ in 2007).
So, I hope to see many of you this season.
Paul
09/03/2012 10:35 pm
Well, Paul I for one am glad hat you are back on the AQ. It really is beginning to look like home. 🙂
Topic starter
10/03/2012 5:03 am
AQ trip Pittsburgh/Cincinnati
I'm going to be with JoAnn Schoen's group on the Pittsburgh to Cincy trip July 18-22, so I'll miss you - but I suspect you'll be around on some of the UMR trips this fall when I drop off the cookies!
10/03/2012 6:44 pm
but American Queen has no stops for Winona,MN this year
But American Queen has no stops for Winona,MN this year but Queen of the Mississippi will for people who want to see a riverboat come to their town.
11/03/2012 11:41 pm
Judy Patsch;29095 wrote: I'm going to be with JoAnn Schoen's group on the Pittsburgh to Cincy trip July 18-22, so I'll miss you - but I suspect you'll be around on some of the UMR trips this fall when I drop off the cookies!
Cookies were a condition of my deal with the company. No cookies = no me. :O)
12/03/2012 12:40 am
Well Paul, I can testify she goes to great lengths to make sure those cookies are delivered. Uh, trespassing? What sign, officer? 😉
12/03/2012 11:43 pm
Bob Reynolds;29119 wrote: Well Paul, I can testify she goes to great lengths to make sure those cookies are delivered. Uh, trespassing? What sign, officer? 😉
As a steamboatin' veteran, Bob, I am well acquianted with the wonderfulness of the baked goods. Trust me.
Paul
Topic starter
13/03/2012 1:54 am
Bakery expansion
since there hasn't been a steamboat up here for a couple of years, I've had to find other outlets for the cookies, to keep in practice. On Mondays I take some to my bingo contestants at the nursing home, and if for some reason I don't bring them, I hear about it. I also baked them for our basketball team for long bus rides last year - the year we became State Champs. Today some went to church for a funeral luncheon. But in all of these circumstances, the delivery is a no-brainer, unlike meeting the boats as they traverse the UMR. Besides walking the flat rung ladder out to the DQ in Muscatine at 2:30AM, the other delivery which stands out was the drop from the Centennial Bridge to Capt. Butch Karnath on the AQ in the early morning hours when I had to get to the PGA golf tournament and couldn't meet the boat at the lock...While my cookies were put on in or near L&D 15, there were other treats along the UMR: someone in Clinton supplied cakes or pies and Steinikes delivered peanut brittle and apples up in the LaCrosse area. Of course over on the Ohio were fudge and cookies and who knows what else. And back in the days when the shore stops weren't the high roller corporate entities they now are, remember how the donuts and copies of the Des Moines Sunday Register won the boat for Prairie du Chien and Villa Louis?