MAL working on DQ exemption / MQ won´t run in 2007

I say "good" on both instances...I realize this opinion is unpopular here...they (MAL) should just save the cash altogether and mothball the MQ...focus on the classic (DQ) and the new jewel (AQ)...

Pete, I agree, though as you say, this will be an unpopular opinion for many, especially Nick Taylor.

When Greene Line/DQSBCo. President Bill Muster was aboard the DQ in 1974, I think, to unveil the MQ design and proposed look and layout, he was booed by pax onboard. I have never understood why the company did not forsee that the MQ was not what people expected a steamboat to be. Almost no one liked the way the boat looked from the beginning, and it was billed as "the biggest steamboat that ever was afloat", the company deciding to go with "big" and touting the modern amenities, which, granted, were/are good things. But they never realized that they were making a big, long-term mistake by having it look the way it does. Of course, in the years hence, different owners and management have tried various things to "steamboat it up", with limited success, but the boat still is a big box. Thank goodness the AQ is a beautiful vessel to look at -- someone did learn from past mistakes.

As I recall, ever so dimly, there was a "draft conceptual drawing" of a proposed design with a hinge for ease of navigating places on the the Upper Miss.

I have to agree to an extent that the MQ looks like a big box...but more so now than she did when she was born. Hopefully the renovations will at least make her look less enclosed on the upper deck and replacing the current "flimsy looking" stacks will be a much needed aesthetic improvement. After all, she truly is a steamboat and since there aren't too many left, still has a place in my heart...but not as big a place as the Delta Queen, of course!

Very well said, Kevin. I was five years old when the Delta Queen literally became my first love and a mere two years later I was equally taken by her young sister. I can recall my parents taking me down to the Serpentine Wall to see the Mississippi Queen’s arrival in Cincinnati for her commissioning. That day I again fell in love with an honest to goodness steamboat. Perhaps I was too young to understand what a steamboat was “supposed” to look like and in hindsight maybe that is why the DQ’s single stack never bothered me. I am hopeful that MAL can recapture some of the MQ’s youthful appearance: a look that was once breathtaking to a seven-year-old boy.

My own praise of the MQ is the Calliope and the Calliope Bar area. As silly as mermaids are- on a steamboat, those two gals guarding the steam whistles with their hair done wrong are great. Having the ice cream by the bar is also a plus.

Everyone who knows me knows I have a fairly low opinion of the MQ overall but I have always maintained that all 3 boats I know- the AQ, the MQ, and the DQ have great features. There is an advantage to each being slightly different.

Also, MAL may still have to stagger having all 3 operating at once unless they can fill all 3. I am sure that is what they want in the long run. I hope they can manage to do that.

And if they can make the MQ look a bit less garish- well I think that would be great too. The ability to walk all around the decks would also be a huge bonus if you ask me.-----but no one is asking me anyway.

Cheers
Elaine

Deb and I will not knock the design of the MQ, the initial design nor the new improved sardine can design, in public. She was the initial steamboatin' taste that bit both of us. The first time I saw her from across the Ohio from the Covington shore, I was in love. The MQ crew sealed the deal that cruise.

I will be the first to admit here very quietly that after being on all three boats and after 7 years of comparison there is a little relief on my part that MAL is prying off the those ugly trailers on the top deck. But, and a big but, there is a special space in my heart for one of those trailers, stateroom 402, up front starboard side, soon to be no longer. So, there is a little sadness, too.

Which brings up a point...if the 400 series rooms on the MQ are being removed, is there any possiblity to request a momento? I think Deb and I would kill for the stateroom door signage, " 402-The Mark Twain Suite", of room 402. Who would we ask?

Elaine, don't the mermaids have names? Risque names? You can use rhyming words if you know the names.

I always loved the mermaids and the fact that I can stand basically over the calliope whistles and have them do their best to blow out my hearing aid. "Louie, Louie" on the MQ's calliope, suckin' down a beer and a dog...heaven.

I like the MQ...

Bruno Krause;5534 wrote: Elaine, don't the mermaids have names? Risque names? You can use rhyming words if you know the names.

I always loved the mermaids and the fact that I can stand basically over the calliope whistles and have them do their best to blow out my hearing aid. "Louie, Louie" on the MQ's calliope, suckin' down a beer and a dog...heaven.

I like the MQ...

Bruno,

Whatever their names are, they usually get their bare bosoms covered up during the Great Steamboat Race by Delta Queen crew. Those beautiful gals look great in their quadruple D sized brassieres - what color? Why, DQ blue, of course.

Jazzou

As I remember the design process in the cae of the Mississippi Queen, there were many, many unnecessary flaws. The basic bad decision was to engage the wrong people to do the design, people who did not know or understand American steamboats or American rivers. This applies to far more than esthetics. In many respects the power plant and the hull were badly done. In the Crimson Glory collision the MQ sank owing to leakage through watertight compartments in a badly designed plumbing system. The paddlewheel was a disaster. Everything aboard was too tight - too restricted. It cost an awful lot of money to make even make-shift corrections. Now those mistakes in design have come home to roost.

Rumors have reached this shipyard that the Big Ugly recently took on some Missip' River water. Stern dipped so low that the pw shaft was a'wash. What's that all about?

Yea, Sam, I heard the same thing too. Doesn't sound good, especially since this was after she came back from Mobile and her inspection.

Another thing that I heard is that the unions are going to oppose the DQ's exemption from SOLAS laws. Seems that there might be some bad blood between MAL and the unions which they busted. Giersdorf mentiond this in his quarterly broadcast to investors.

Shipyard Sam;5541 wrote: Rumors have reached this shipyard that the Big Ugly recently took on some Missip' River water. Stern dipped so low that the pw shaft was a'wash. What's that all about?

Preliminary testing for a reef???

That's a good one Pete. Many people know of my distaste for the big box mistake that is the MQ. For many of the same reasons that Alan mentioned is the reasons I have never had an interest in taking a cruise on it. And, I fear that no matter how much time and money they spend this year, it won't make a big difference. It's still poorly laid out. About the only thing I like about the boat is that it is one of the steamboats and it has a nice sounding calliope. The AQ and DQ have always been my favorites. Both have their own unique charm and I love the wide decks.

Fun to Work On

About the only thing I like about the boat is that it is one of the steamboats and it has a nice sounding calliope.

See: http://www.steamboats.org/talkshop/messages/15434.html [

The MQ is an ugly boat as seen from ashore, but nice once aboard. My room, in the Officers' Quarters, was spacious and comfortable. I could leave my room and go directly to the Pilothouse or else catch an elevator ride down to the Crew's Mess. The best thing about the MQ was it was where I met The Fish. The crew was always "together", away-back-when; highly motivated, fun-loving, hard-working, and seemed to enjoy being aboard.

Shipyard Sam;5547 wrote: About the only thing I like about the boat is that it is one of the steamboats and it has a nice sounding calliope.

See: http://www.steamboats.org/talkshop/messages/15434.html [

The MQ is an ugly boat as seen from ashore, but nice once aboard. My room, in the Officers' Quarters, was spacious and comfortable. I could leave my room and go directly to the Pilothouse or else catch an elevator ride down to the Crew's Mess. The best thing about the MQ was it was where I met The Fish. The crew was always together, away-back-when; highly motivated, fun-loving, hard-working, and seemed to enjoy being aboard.

I agree with you, Sam. No matter what she looks like, or how many mistakes were made in her design and construction, or whatever other bad things have befallen her over the years, she was my first steamboat and I cherish the lifelong friendships she brought me. As an entertainer I got to live in Sunrise Estates or in a nice room on the Main Deck, totally loved the performing venue of the Paddlewheel Lounge, and well remember how the crew really was "together" back then in an adventuresome kind of way onboard that "biggest steamboat that ever was afloat on the Mississippi River back home."

Jazzou