The News...

Judy Patsch;4550 wrote: John, the MQ's Sept. downbound was the trip that I took 2 passengers for kidney dialysis at Davenport. I live in Rock Island ,480UMR, and meet the boats, deliver chocolate chip cookies, and run errands for them at Davenport( or anywhere in the vicinity). John Dugger was Captain that trip and I was keeping him informed on the status of the dialysis process. We got them back with plenty of time to spare for your 1 PM departure. I was the one standing on the river side of the fencing, and also over on the lock wall at 15, directly across from the landing.

Judy -

Does this look familiar? Small world! This was one of the locks the couple I mentioned above was tossing goodies into the crowd - do you recall?

I remember the passengers - they were waiting to be the first ones off, and we were behind them waiting to get off for a tour. did the John Deere tour to see the houses - wow!

Funny how that trip turned out to be the MQ's last trip down the Upper Mississippi for the season!

John

Yep - I'm probably obscured by the tip of the boom. Also at the tip to the left, is the Visitors Center run by the Corps. This is a must-see stop if you're ever in the area by land. Not only does it provide a viewing area for the locks, but they have displays and movies about the lock system. The bridge ahead of you is the Government Bridge, a railroad/car bridge with a swingspan which rotates 360 degrees, the only one on the river to do that. This is just downriver from the site of the first rr bridge which was involved in the famous EFFIE AFTON incident in 1856. This bridge was built in 1896.Here at L&D 15, we have 2 locks, but the auxiliary lock has been broken down for about 5 years now, and there's no money for repairs. Its big enough, 360x110, for the DQ to use and it was always nice to know it was available in times of heavy tow traffic. Now she waits for the main chamber as do the MQ and AQ - when they make it up here. With bankruptcies, viruses, renovations, weird scheduling, etc. we haven't had many Queens visits the past few years. This year we are scheduled for 1 DQ, 4 AQ, and 2 MQ roundtrips. So we'll miss the MQ again this year, despite the current company line about returning Sept. 1. (The reason I ended up transporting those dialysis patients was that the taxi they ordered arrived while you were still in the landing process at 8AM, and just took off because there was no one on land waiting for it - guess they didn't want to swim ashore!)

This post truly sums up the "Steamboating" experience....at least for me and my family...

Nice picture attached!!!! Wonderful sight!

JohnHamilton;4546 wrote: So true!

One night after dinner my wife and I were outside when we noticed a campfire. A drunken voice from the campfire yelled out, "Heeeyyyyyy!". So we yelled back – "Heeeeyyyyy". A waiter popped out of the dining room, and joined us! Must have been some camp out! Another night we went by a house that flashed all of it's lights at us!

And the locks – each one had something different. One had a hug bird house, one had a nice garden – one even had a pond with a waterfall! It's also fun to talk to the people at the observation platforms – one couple brough with them huge bags of small stuffed toys to throw to the kids!

Attached is a picture from above Winnona, heading south. Minnesota is on the right, Wisconsin is on the left. This is what we saw for the first few days – nothing but bluffs and river!

John

Hello everyone,
I'm happy to see that the Delta Queen is back "home" here in Cincy for the day... Saw her come through the Cincy Marina Webcam at 6:30. Question - with the new policies, are visitors (past passengers) allowed to go onboard? Michael has always been great about letting us come aboard to visit. We're going down to see her regardless, and from Bruno's posts (thank you very much!), I see that we will know many of the crew.
Thanks !
Diane Weber

Diane,

It´s not as easy anymore. The best way to get aboard as a visitor is to know someone who is aboard (crew or passenger) who can put you on the visitors list. I don´t know if they are letting you on without knowing anyone aboard.

Carmen

Just got off this morning in Cincy. The visitor policy as posted on the boarding stage is "members of the steamboat socitey must make prior arrangements before coming aboard. Take that for what it is worth. David Copperfield tried to get on in Paducah, but he had not made advanced arrangements. He didnt get on. Maybe they thought he would make the boat disappear.
Posted by Sandy's partner in crime, Frank.

Frank and Sandy,

That´s the same sign for more than 10 years now and it really doesn´t say anything!! I´m not sure if the PSSOA is still in existance as there are no repeat passenger parties, no pins and no certificates anymore.

We experienced a lot of different situations while trying to visiting one of the Queens. Like for a steamboat race there´s no rule for visting the boats!

Carmen

Diane, the Majestic Line has little to do with restricting visitors on the DQ boats. The United States Coast Guard, as part of the Department of Homeland Security, is constantly creating regulations to restrict entry to every body of water. You, I, and the other 300 million Americans are all suspected of terrorism unless and until we prove ourselves innocent. It is well-known that Al Qaeda has intentions to reverse the flow of the Ohio River and the Department cannot be too careful!

A couple on board had their children, Grandchildren, and Great Grandchildren on board in Madison for Lunch...It was only their second cruise...They just needed 24 hour notice...They told me they were charged 10.00 per person for lunch.
Sandy

That is good news Sandy but they must have pre-arranged it. They might even be the boats investor team or top executives.

However, Alan is right to a great extent- it isn't always boat policy, it is Homeland Security Policy. But, the other idea which is also valid is think about visitors to an informal Bed & Breakfast. You would want to be assured that all guests really were invited and escorted when on board.

Last year when my sister and I visited a German outdoor museum of life throughout the ages, we commented about the lack of guards or people telling others not to touch things. We explained to our German hosts that we did not think a similar thing would work in the USA because even with signage, people are always touching and taking souvenirs.

So, I think it is great if people could arrange to meet someone and have lunch on the boat. I don't see it financially but more as public relations and marketing.

Cheers
Elaine

What Deb and I have been told regarding visitors to the DQ is that the visitor can request from the bow security station that a particular passenger (by name) come down to the bow and personally escort the visitors onto the boat. Security will check if that requested passenger is presently on the boat and if so will radio the purser to have the passenger paged to report to the purser. Once the passenger reports to the purser and the situation is explained and the names of the visitors given, the passenger now can make the decision to escort the visitior onto the boat or not. If the passenger does not come down to the bow and escort the vistor on board, the "visitor" is forced to leave the bow. Deb and I have had no indication that the above has to be prearranged in any way, but it could be...

We have seen visitors come on the DQ very recently. However, we personally have not seen all of the above procedures in action...but we have heard the purser paging passengers for visitor escort. We also know that this allowing visitors issue has been going on since the latest MARSEC level had been lowered. If MARSEC (is that the right spelling?) level is increased we have been told NOBODY but passengers and crew board the boat, and have personally seen the crew turn away visitors to see me and Deb at this "threat" level.