nightmare for the delta queen boats

I am disappointed about the direction the Queens are going as far as Outward appearance but, if they keep the overall feel of the river and the time period then I will be happy. It's not the vessel so much as it's the experience . I love the people on the boats from the cabin attendents to the entertainers. that's what makes my trip. When those things are gone then I will be very very sad.

Sorry, but to many of us,the vessel IS the main part of the experience. Food, drink, entertainment, rooms, you can get anywhere. And most of us cherish the historical significance of steamboats. While changes are obviously necessary over the years, such as steel superstructures, air-conditioning, other amenities - to strip away traditional things just to give it your brand's image is sad. Steamboats, with a yellow SIDNEY, and the metallic PRESIDENT and ADMIRAL as notable exceptions, have always been painted white. What was the Mark Twain quote about a steamboat looking like a giant wedding cake? So Sally, if you don't mind a pink boat with purple polka dots, that's fine for you, but for many of us who look at these boats as a continuation of the proud steamboating tradition, it is sad to see the unnecessary desecration MAL is inflicting on them.(Nobody has posted about the non-red AQ paddlewheel yet. The gambling boat on Lake Pontchartrain has a mauve wheel, and Corps boats had reddish-orange, but paddlewheels are RED, bright RED.) Yes, Nick, you have a very good handle on what that blue reminds you of, and you are not an old fogey poster. Thanks for your insightful youthful input.

I know I am sticking my neck out here, but anyone want to offer to do a fund raiser to retore the Delta Queen to her appearance as she was 63 years ago?

Contact the US Navy, they've probably got some spare gray paint...

All I'm saying is why beat a dead horse. These people couldn't care less about what we think. I don't like the new colors but that in itself will not stop me from riding. Now when they redo the interior to look like a cruise ship then I will have to look elsewhere for my trip back in time.

"All I'm saying is why beat a dead horse. These people couldn't care less about what we think. "

EXACTLY!!!! Jack up the prices, reduce the quality of the product, erase the uniqueness, and screw anyone who cares! That's the new 'gold standard'! Whatever happened to "The customer is always right"??? Now, the fact is: the ownership is always right, and we've just got to learn to live with it. Doesn't sound very conducive to making much of a profit and keeping the QUEENS running long to me...

I'm looking at this picture (which didn't scan well) that I took the last time I saw the DQ, and I don't see the smile

Classic

Wow! Thanks for the scan. Must be at least 35 years ago; maybe longer. Cool. Looks like Captain Harry Louden out there on the port wing bridge. Where was it taken? The stack crown looks so clean and fresh. Y/T must have been the Mate. That's Captain Wagner's personal signature Golden Eagle on front of the pilothouse. "Back in the goodle daze."

Yep Sam, from the "goodle daze" as John Hartford would sing. I wish Big Cap's golden eagle was back on the pilothouse too. That "whatever it is" on there now, obviously done with a crayon or magic marker, is downright deplorable! Certainly not fitting for a Queen!!!!

Regarding the age of the scanned photo and the 'unsmiling eagle' here's what I know: The eagle in the photo is a small gold one that was purchased by E.J. Quinby and placed on the boat in 1965. This small eagle was replaced a few years later, perhaps when ONA bought the boat. The 'smiling eagle' was hand carved by a artist/craftsman unknown to me nor Mary. It was about five times as large as the former and multi-colored. A great improvement.

Sally Harris;4598 wrote: All I'm saying is why beat a dead horse. These people couldn't care less about what we think. I don't like the new colors but that in itself will not stop me from riding. Now when they redo the interior to look like a cruise ship then I will have to look elsewhere for my trip back in time.

Sally, the people that love the steamboats better speak loud and clear. If we don't there wont be any overnight steamboats left. This honestly reminds me of the Lutheran Priest Martin Niemoller whom penned the words about the N****s, "They came after the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew....Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me."

Sally, you're right! It is the homey interior that makes the steamboatin' experience. (Although I've been on many wonderful bluewater cruises, I have no set idea of what a cruise ship's interior is supposed to look like.) It's also the way a steamboat looks gliding over the river on a sunny day that makes the experience, and the crew aboard that makes a trip special. And MAL is changing it all!

Read the posts! No second line, no Vox Calliopus awards, no tables on the Cabin Deck, no music during dinner, no choice of entertainment options after dinner, no sing alongs, soon no picnic lunches in the Orleans Room, no kite flying, no proud eagle on the pilothouse, and the list can go on. Then there is the yes list. Yes, to higher gratuities, yes to higher per diem fares, yes to painting the outside of the boat to look like a Celebrity Cruise Line ship,and here too the list can continue. I will promise you that the interiors will not be sacred, and the changes to come there will happen. It's just a matter of time. Let's see how the MQ looks when, and if, she comes out of lay-up this September.

We need to express ourselves, and for the sake of overnight steamboatin' to continue MAL better listen. I'm going on the QUEEN ELIZABETH 2 for a transatlantic crossing in a Princess Grill (ultra deluxe) stateroom for only slightly more per diem than a room with bunk beds on the DELTA QUEEN. I maintain that other savy travelers will be doing the same when the sub standard cruise experience of a MAL boat becomes widely known. So yes we'll keep on beating.

Shipyard Sam;4601 wrote: Where was it taken? "Back in the goodle daze."

Since the film was processed in Watertown MA, my best guess is that this was Memorial Day weekend 1986. It would have been right after the 1986 Division III College World Series at Pioneer Park. I drove out from Boston that year. The previous year I flew from Connecticut and would have processed the film in Connecticut (unless I didn't get the film processed until after I moved to Boston).

The area in the background is Williamstown West Virginia. The bridge is the Williamstown / Marietta / Ohio River bridge that turned left towards Front Street as you crossed into Marietta. By this time it had been closed to traffic for safety reasons. I honestly thought the new bridge would be straight, and was surprised a couple of years ago when I saw that the new bridge had a right turn in it.

I guess that since the Livery Stables were gone, and the only traffic by Don Drumm Stadium was going to Don Drumm Stadium they felt they could use the field for the bridge approach.

Anyway, the reason that the Delta Queen caught my eye enough to take these pictures was that I had never seen the DQ and the other sternwheelers at the Marietta landing at the same time. The Clarie E was a regular visitor, and I remember a flood season where I was walking down Seventh Street and the DQ went by at street level just like the cars on Pike Street.

I found these pictures while packing for our move. I am looking forward to our cruise to Marietta on the AQ this summer.

Professor Quinby's Golden Eagle

Thanks Richard for the insight. What I remember is Cap'n W., who loved his eagles, replacing it back on the front of the pilothouse, in 1971, after that area had been coated with fiberglass. Before that, the PH had been covered in canvas, probably original to the construction of the boat, but had become worn and tattered by the time ONA sent the QUEEN to the shipyard.

After the DELTA QUEEN was saved from the Safety-at-Sea Law, we went into Avondale Shipyard for a big make-over. The Professor’s golden eagle had been removed for safekeeping (probably kept in Cap's room), and I distinctly recall him supervising the reinstatement of what I now realize was actually the Quinby Golden Eagle back onto its proper place on the front of the pilothouse.

Wonder what ever became of that eagle?

1986 seems far too late. The funnels are still on and the old hull sports the those ugly, but necessary, lock bumpers.

Jim Blum, Judy, Keith, Gabe.... help us out. Please.

All are great pics. I once ran across an old camera that contained exposed, but undeveloped film, and when I had it processed, it was shots of Homer Denny playing the DQ calliope a decade before.

Wow, Homer playing the DQ calliope! I would lover to see (and to have heard) that!!!

~Travis~

I would like to see the Delta Queen looking like this again.

That picture is how she looked less than 1 year ago, but now that ugly "Majestic" nameboard as somehow completely changed the way I imagine the boat in my mind. 🙁

I wish there was someway to get the point across to MAL. After reading about what they are going to do to the Mississippi Queen also makes me sick to my stomach. They clearly want the boat to look something like an ocean going cruise ship. Similar to this:

About them changing the observation deck to a viewing area sounds horrible. Up until now the boat does look like a box, but thats the way it is. The Mississippi Queen had her own look, and even if it doesn't include all of the glass, and curves of boats built in the past 5 years, they shouldn't spend 27 million just to change it and make it look like crap, as they have already done with the American Queen. I personally liked the way the MQ looked as of Oct. 2006, but now in the hands of MAL, its hard to even imagine how out of the ordinary the boat will look when complete. I am 18, and have grown up on riverboats, and around the river. I have always seen these 3 steamboats on the upper Ohio River, and for the past 10 years they have looked how they did last season. It is something that I could count on staying the same, and not changing much. Now its completely different, I hope they don't mess up the MQ too bad, and maybe they will make some changes to the AQ's appearance for the better. 🙁

I just thank god that the Delta Queen is a National Historic Landmark and they can't edit the look of that vessel.

Frank & Judy summed up what I could said in this topic...

Reason being why my whole family cruised mnay-many times on the Dleta Queen....only 3 of us went once on the MQ & AQ...

Shipyard Sam;4608 wrote: 1986 seems far too late. The funnels are still on and the old hull sports the those ugly, but necessary, lock bumpers.

I only lived in Marietta from Aug 1980 until June 1984, and returned for the last week in May 1985 and 1986. My next trip back wasn't until the 1990's. Ok, I did visit as a child, but I only saw the Synder and my parents were taking black and white pictures.

In the shots of the bridge there is no traffic. The bridge had heavy traffic until it was closed in the 1980's. Since I took the pictures, and I had never seen the DQ in person before the 1980's...

I don't know when else it could be.

The 3 thin stripes on the smokestack are the answer. Jim Blum had those painted to honor a railroad - Jim, what year was that, 1980 or 81??? Other than that, the big clue that it isn't '86 is the splashboard - it still has the 2 portholes rather than the row of windows. These portholes were replaced in the layup of '83-84 when they tore out Skid Row and made those bathtub suites on the stern, and the windows to improve their riverview.

Travis, you could be in luck. I have the photos and Gabe has the audio tape. Now if we both can find them in our Great Big Collections of Steamboat Stuff.

[QUOTE=Nick-Taylor;4610]
I wish there was someway to get the point across to MAL. After reading about what they are going to do to the Mississippi Queen also makes me sick to my stomach.

Hi Nick,

Your enthusiam for the boats is laudable and welcome. But it sounds like you've not been on them. The fact is that those cabins on the O deck were not there when the boat was built. They were pre-fab steel boxes that were added later to make more money. It's my recollection that even many of the folks who resist the changes to the boat have displayed a dislike for those cabins and, I would think, welcome their removal.

The MQ was my home last season. I lived in my cabin the WHOLE season (except for the first few weeks). I can tell you that there were some aspects of life on board which were challenging due to her age. These same challenges made some of our guests' vacations less than stellar.

MAL wants to provide a cruise on a par with other "niche" cruise lines that actually charge more than we do. To launch the MQ in the condition she was at the end of the year would have been a betrayal of that committment and a gross disservice to our guests. If it takes $37 million dollars and 10 months to do it, then so be it. When she comes back the Magnificent Mississippi Queen will be even more Magnificent.

Remember, in terms of cash, $37 million is more than they paid for all three boats!

I've been required to put my professional life on hold. No matter how long it takes, when I actually do take over as Cruise Director, I can be a part of that wondrous day when we bring her out in the fashion and condition to which she, and we, and you are entitled.

My committment to steamboating puts all this on the line for me. If I'm willing to pay that price and trust that the pros know what they are doing, I should think that you, who is not losing a cent in this whole deal, might also cut them a lot more slack than you are presently doing.

As you progess past your 18 years for which I hope will be a long and rewarding life, you should come to realize that things change. Sometimes for the better, sometimes not. It's an evolution.

It's also a fact of life that he who signs the checks and takes the gamble gets to make the rules. If you want to make the rules, pony up a few milliion and buy your own boat. Otherwise, try to enjoy what is being offered.

It's beyond your control, and it's certainly beyond mine. I'm just a guitar player.

Hang in with us.

Paul Penta
Cruise Director-in-waiting
The Magnificent Mississippi Queen

"It's also a fact of life that he who signs the checks and takes the gamble gets to make the rules. If you want to make the rules, pony up a few milliion and buy your own boat. Otherwise, try to enjoy what is being offered."

Paul, like your counterpart posted a couple of weeks ago, you have taken a shot at those who dare care about the boats and see the wrong paths being taken. You both want us to shut up and pretend these trends are positive - pretend they are and they will be, or something like that, I believe was posted. As I said in an earlier post, whatever happened to "The customer is always right?" Nobody here is trying to 'make the rules', but as veteran passengers, historians, aficionados, and yes, those who pay your salary, we have the right to post and share our concerns. True, Nick is young and hasn't ridden the boats, but with your condescending attitude toward him, he may not ever ride. "Try to enjoy what is being offered"... for $500 a night, no one should have to TRY to enjoy something! Maybe for their megamillions invested, MAL should 'try to find out what their customers want'.