no steam on the upper Ohio

Mike Woodyard;35216 wrote: I noticed the absence on th AQ last year and after checking out the website it appears there will be no trips to Pittsburgh again this year. Anyone heard a reason for this. We miss it passing East Liverpool.

She just doesn't sell out while on the upper Ohio!

Sell outs

I think that's true on the Upper and Lower Mississippi too! I know her passenger counts at the locks last year were no where near 400....

My two cents' worth...

and of course it is worth nothing. I think the marketing is way off base. Special care should be given to promoting the scenery, the beauty of the small towns. On the Upper Ohio the industry could be promoted as well. This would work on the Tennessee, too. But, you have to schedule your boat to be in the scenic areas when folks can see them, not depart Chattanooga downbound at 9:00 pm with a scheduled stop the next day in (yawn) Decatur, Alabama or some such and to add insult to injury, the boat being already tied up when folks wake up at 8:00 am.

It's all been said here before. My question is, if what they're doing is not working, why not try our suggestions? Can't do any worse than what's happening now. But as Dale would say, "what do I know"?

My plug nickel

Bob, that is the eternal question: why not listen to river people? Why import blue water administrators who have been fired from their blue water jobs to run a brown water company? I think it is true that today's passengers aren't as interested in the river as we were, that the food and entertainment come before the river - but if that is true it is true for maybe 200 a trip (and don't forget all the 2 for 1s). So why not try to feature the river and cruising? Maybe it wouldn't appeal to the current 200, but maybe it would appeal to more? Who knows? But the fact is, this is coming from us peons. If it were the idea of the head honchos, they'd do it, but to listen to us? Forget it!!! If the DQ ever does run again, it will be interesting to see what focus they'll choose for her...
As I've told Kevin and Carrie Stier of the TWILIGHT: I love steamboats and paddlewheels. The TWILIGHT has neither, BUT she provides a real river experience, which I'll take any day over the floating Vegases we have now in the overnight industry.

I'm probably, no definitely, not their "target market" but I remember being very disappointed when we would already be at our day's stop before I woke up. The days we did spend steamboatin' were most pleasurable, wonderful scenery, interesting river traffic, and most relaxing. Of course the boat company wasn't making money selling tours, etc. during that time. I was very happy one night when we had to choke a stump (I forget the reason), as I could sleep knowing I wasn't missing anything! Those blue-water folks have no idea that something interesting is going by the boat, they're used to nothing but water to see.
They should hire some FRN's for a half-season and see what we might be able to do to increase passenger traffic. The scary thing right now is the economy--if it doesn't get much better soon, no one will be able to afford cruising! I know, the gov't insists that the economy is improving, but it ain't around these parts!

Here's a sample of the ad copy I'd use:

You’ve cruised the Oceans Blue, done the Caribbean too; now for something completely different, come home to America’s Heartland.
It’s not just another cruise; it’s a trip in your home at home on the scenic American Inland Waterways. Experience something only a few have done; traveling on the Rivers in an authentic Paddlewheel Steamboat with America’s beautiful, scenic, historic riverfronts passing right before you. There is nothing as refreshing and uplifting as a day spent traveling onboard a river steamboat. The busy, everyday world we live in fades away as you round the bend. This is truly an experience of a lifetime, not to be missed and forever to be remembered.

I agree with everything that has been said. The powers that be just don't seem to get it! Their marketing efforts are an example of this. A week long round trip between Cincy and Pittsburgh is a delightful trip through spectacular scenery. Marietta, Gallipolis, and Maysville are all beautiful little rivertowns, but how many people on the receiving end of an American Queen Steamboat Co. brochure know that?

I think that when the DQ comes out again the powers that be will be a bit more aware that there is a barge load of untapped knowledge out there, and more importantly willing to learn from it!

I'll make sure and pass that on up the line.
I heard that this will be the last year the AQ goes to Cincinnati. Louisville will be as far up the Ohio she'll go in 2017.

*No Ohio River steam/'7 Top River Cruises*
Steamboating colleagues:
Great discussion here and I'm just 'getting aboard' on this thread. I can't help wondering what other sales/marketing thinking, logististics have resulted in no steam on the upper Ohio. Frank Prudent right about the once popular Cintinnati-Pittsburgh 'trips' on the DELTA QUEEN. Back then the trip was 10 days R/T from Cincinnati and not the one-way runs in later years. The Pittsburgh trip regarded as 'the riverman's trip' then with anybody and everybody then booking the trip. It was a who's who of old timers and others not so old still on the river. Imagine being on the boat with Capt. Jesse P. Hughes, Capt. Fred Way aboard piloting! Another was the famed 10 R/T to Kentucky Lake and return.

Just late this afternoon on my Internet web page up popped one of those slick travel ads reading, "7 Most popular river cruises in the world." But brace yourselves as NOT ONE was on an American steamboat on the Mississippi system or the Pacific Northwest: no AMERICAN QUEEN, no ACL, no mention of BLOUNT Co. [American, Canadian, Cribbean Line]. All heavy on the European and Russian rivers with others around the world or in S.E. Asia. What is going on here I ask? The internet piece obviously a 'planted' promo. All I had to do was look at the originating source and name clearly seeing it all.

R. Dale Flick
Old Coal Haven Landing, Ohio River, Cincinnati

Mike Washenko;35310 wrote: I heard that this will be the last year the AQ goes to Cincinnati. Louisville will be as far up the Ohio she'll go in 2017.

Mark Twain said that the difference between a man and a cat is that the cat will only jump up onto a hot stove once. While operating The Delta Queen Steamboat Co. Delaware North kept the boats away from the Queen City for a year hoping that Louisville would attract more passenger interest. As a matter of fact it seems as if the opposite was the result, and Cincinnati was returned to being the middle Ohio port for turn over days the next year. I doubt that the results will be any different this time for the AMERICAN QUEEN.