American Queen The King of
the River

From the banks of the Mississippi, muddy brown water churning from her stern as she maneuvers up to the levee. She looks a lot like a Victorian wedding cake, her skinny black stacks puffing and her shiny brass steam calliope tooting Dixieland tunes into the hot summer air. The world's biggest-ever paddlewheel steamer, the American Queen, now running up and down America's biggest river, is about to sail.

Boarding this liner is a step into yesteryear, a gangplank stroll out of the 20th century and back into the 1800s, when the American Queen's corporate owner first began running steam packets along the Mississippi. She's the latest of the active sternwheelers, preceded by the Delta Queen and the Mississippi Queen, flying the same company flag.

Back to the Future

There are a variety of reasons why the American Queen and her counterparts are successful in this day of contemporary cruise ships. For one, her two predecessors on the rivers have built up a loyal clientele of river rats who are eager to sign on whenever the next ship in the fleet comes into service, or when another river, or a fresh stretch of an old river route, are being explored. But for many passengers, the American Queen offers a nostalgic journey back to an era when life was slower, simpler, and perhaps, less stressful. It's almost as if Mark Twain were aboard, telling his stories about Tom Sawyer, Becky Thatcher and Jim.

With ports in New Orleans, Memphis, St. Louis, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Nashville, and other areas in the heartland, the American Queen's three to 14-night cruises abound in Americana. In fact, when it came time to christening the sternwheeler, a traditional bottle of bubbly French champagne was not the tradition at all.

Captain Larry Keeton proudly reports, "The New Orleans home-ported American Queen may be the first passenger vessel in history ever to be christened by the pride of the south...a two-foot-high crimson bottle of Louisiana-made Tabasco sauce."

Victorian Elegance

Some $65 million has been poured into producing this marvelously nostalgic vessel which boasts every possible cruising convenience, yet is packaged in Victorian fretwork, paneled in oak, and packed with Victorian which harks back to Samuel Clemens. He was the famed author who once piloted boats along this twisting waterway, and took his pen name from the deck hand's cry up to the captain that twelve feet of water were under the keel – "Mark Twain."

Pushing this giant white wedding cake of a boat is a 60-ton, crimson sternwheel, thrashing through the river up to 12 revolutions per minute, capable of moving her along at a speed of about 10 knots-if she's running downstream with the river current. Each of its red paddles is 30-feet across, 30-inches wide, and hooked up to a vintage steam engine, originally built in the 1930s for a Corps of Engineers dredge.

Running 418 feet at the waterline, American Queen, is far longer than a football field, and 90-feet wide. Too high for some existing river bridges, her stacks and tall wheelhouse can be lowered by elevators so she'll squeeze underneath.

In virtually every public space, there are nostalgic pieces of furniture, light fixtures, artwork and antiques, dating as far back as 1860 when steamboating was America's major form of long distance transportation, and 11,000 paddlewheels ruled the rivers. Two hundred items predate the 1890s, and hundreds more are turn-of-the-century pieces. There's an antique Steinway upright to plunk tunes on, and an 1895 Edison phonograph that plays rolls instead of disks.

In a huge dining room, meals are as big as the windows. The accent is on healthful, mid-American cuisine including comfort food like grits, po-boys and bread pudding. Cabins aboard the American Queen are all charmingly designed to resemble Victorian sleeping quarters, complete with patterned wallpaper, Victorian art and either cherry wood reproduction furniture, or genuine antiques. Almost all cabins open onto a promenade deck, or onto private balconies, ideal for lazy, riverbank viewing or simply reflecting on America in the 1800s.

Call us to help plan your riverboat trip aboard the American Queen.

DETAILS

Operated by The Delta Queen Steamboat Co., American Queen cruises begin at $620 per person, double occupancy, for three nights. Included are four meals a day with emphasis on American regional cuisine, along with a full series of onboard activities.