Topic starter
31/05/2007 3:34 pm
The steamboat season for the Upper Mississippi has arrived early this year. Instead of waiting until July to make it's first trip to St. Louis, the Delta Queen is in town today. It turns out, due to weird scheduling, that the DQ's last visit to the UMR is in late July this year, according to the MAL website. I've included a photo that I got from a webcam, and circled the boat. Because KMOV-TV has still not fixed their webcam, this is the best image that can be found right now. It is from a traffic camera. To the left of the image is a yellow circle. This is where the Robert E Lee (not visible) is currently residing. Supposedly, there are interested buyers in the currently closed boat.
Click here for the live webcam image. Normally, it is pointed at the Missouri side of the river.
31/05/2007 4:18 pm
Great work finding the DQ on a camera. Seems she's been docking upstream of the arch, today she's below it. Of course, there's plenty of room to choose from on the levee, unfortunately. As to the DQ schedule, yes, we only get her once this year July 8th up here, and the downbound is a charter. So there is effectively only one UMR trip available on the DQ this year. And she is not scheduled up here in '08 at all. Of course, I'd not hold my breath on that '08 schedule holding up, for many reasons, including the availability of the MQ and the saleability of isolating each boat to a region. That was tried several years ago by some previous owner and I believe readjusted early into the season due to lack of interest(bookings).
Topic starter
31/05/2007 4:33 pm
I have a series of webcams as my background on my computer. That way, I can tell if it is raining or sunny out, since I have a windowless office. Of course, my webcams tend to be river related, when I can. And, right now, the traffic one is it. I just happened to notice something new to the landscape, and it was the DQ. I expected them to be upriver, too.
Don't you just love the scheduling? They still don't really get it that many people tend to choose their boat first, and the itinerary second. So, if the DQ is not on the UMR, for example, then a group of people won't cruise the UMR. "Assigning" boats to different regions doesn't really cut it with this company. It's a rather unique situation, I'm sure. Other cruise companies can probably pull off the boat assignments better. People want all of the boats to go to as many of the regions as the boats can. Of course, the DQ is the only one that is suitable for some itineraries, where the big boats are not able to navigate. Enjoy the one time you get to see the DQ this year. I'm happy to see the AQ finally operating and headed to the UMR, though. It will be in town next Wednesday. I can finally see that horrible paint scheme.
31/05/2007 6:31 pm
Boat Scheduling
Yep, I was counting on doing an in to or out of Chattanooga in 2008 on the DELTA QUEEN, since I have now done many of her other itineraries - one of which was waiting until 2007 to do the Upper Miss on her. Tried booking it in 2006, but it was cancelled. Guess I won't get to Chattanooga since she is mainly on a track to and from Pittsburgh and Nashville. I sure would like to know the reasoning by the person that figures out their schedule. Sure didn't make much sense to me, but what do I know....I only have 11 trips so far on our beloved DELTA QUEEN and two more scheduled for this year! And trying to figure out a way to work another one in since I don't want to end the season with 13 trips!!!!! I'm not superstitutious! 34 DAYS AND COUNTING!!!
More pictures David, please, I'm having withdrawals!
01/06/2007 2:20 am
Jo Ann,
I'll try to post some more tonite--still have to downsize them--and the 'net connection is very slow tonite--just missed out on a DQ tie because download was tooo sloooooow.
S'
David
PS Glad you like the pics!
01/06/2007 3:17 am
I saw today a Metro Bus with a Full Wrap advertizing a St. Louis taxi cab company. Part of the Wrap was a partial photo of the St. Louis Riverfront from an angle close to what Darin posted today. At the rear portion of the bus was a partial starboart side of two decks of the DQ.
While this is difficult to verbally describe, and I didn't see the Left (Driver) side of the bus I can't say what is visible on that side. Don't know how many busses sport this full wrap job, I will keep camera on the ready.