Topic starter
13/03/2012 5:51 pm
Steamboating colleagues:
Again, hate jumping a thread, but additional business B=Mails here today. Guilford, Conn.-based American Cruise Lines [ACL] announced the passenger compliment for the QUEEN OF THE MISSISSIPPI is being increased from 140 to 150 passengers adding three double and four single cabins to the original design. ACL is responding to increased demand for single cabins for travelers alone, a need voiced with recent newbuilds. No indication what the cruise tariff is for these accommodations.
In a related bulletin, Mr. Jeff Krida reported opening reservations at their call center has chalked up some $250,000 a day in passenger sales, six days a week. GASB CO. has a $46 million revenue plan for 2012 with estimates as $54 million a year in sales. The AQ reportedly is 54% full for all of 2012 and 76% full the first three months of the new season. "The people running Majestic had a lack of passion for steamboating...saw it as an economic play, conglomeration of different vessel assets, rather than an opportunity to create and sustain an iconic American vacation experience and stay focused on that...didn't love it like the people running the company in the early 1990s." Other commentators said "...the market has been there all along.
AMERICAN QUEEN has added alternative dining remodeling the Calliope Bar to a full-srvice 'River Grill' for more casual luncheons and dinners. Sorry if I repeated what possibly may have been posted. I looked, and looked before collecting all of this. Hats off to both companies with best wishes. Well, what do I know?
R. Dale Flick
Coal Haven Landing, Ohio River, Cincinnati
13/03/2012 9:23 pm
Retired teachers
Dale, you and I are both retired teachers. You keep referring to the B-mails, business emails you get. I don't get these. How come you do?
Topic starter
14/03/2012 11:52 am
*Those business links*
Hi, Judy & steamboat colleagues:
Judy, like you and others on this web, we 'served our time' cracking rock with public education. Me for over 35 years plus teaching in the military. My 2nd M.A. degree here was in public relations, marketing, advertising, commercial press writing. I moved on to school administration and finance work. Betty Blake, before her death, and I joned PRSA [Public Relations Society of America]. Early on Betty offered me a job with DQSB CO. 'ashore' here which I prudently turned down following counsel with several of our older river veterans now long gone. CARNIVAL CRUISES also internewed me in their early years, but I got cold feet knowing I'd have to pull up here and move to hot Miami, Florida. CARNIVAL was a new player with but two older ships and I just wasn't sure. They may have not liked me or me them in time. Well, agan a day late and a dollar short. Shipping/cruise industry can be one slippery rock at times. Like many educators, we worked other jobs along with teaching.
At age 22 I began making small, conservative investiments on the market in the fast food industry and real estate. Again, you win and loose on the market but it paid off. 'Never invest more than you can afford to lose.' A number of these business B=Mails are 'to the trade' by subscription or organizational memberships. Layne Ann, my wife, was a travel executive for years before the events of 9/11; then recruitment by Homeland Security as a systems analysis and a French/German speaker; then on to the Federal Air Administration at present. Well, what do I know?
R. Dale Flick
Coal Haven Landing, Ohio River, Cincinnati.
26/03/2012 7:09 pm
Don't think that people riding Queen of the Mississippi just want nothing to do but spend time in their rooms for the entire cruise and nothing else and i would not be surprised if their was a bunch of people talking to each other and relaxing outside on deck.