American Queen Steamboat Company Blog

Guest Loyalty

What is loyalty? Though it can be hard to define, we know it when we see it. More importantly, we know it when we feel it. Loyalty comes in many forms. It can be our dedication to a specific restaurant, our penchant for buying a certain cologne or perfume, our continued purchase of cars by a particular manufacturer or, in our example in this blog, companies that we rely on to provide outstanding vacations. Read More >>

We Have Come a Long Way!

Nostalgia is an interesting concept. It is a remembrance of a time past, but it undeniably glosses over the less appealing portions of those memories. There is a distinct difference between recreation and nostalgia. When it comes to travel on rivers such as the Mississippi, nostalgia and not recreation is the order of the day. Read More >>

The First Voyage

The American Queen travels throughout the Deep South and the Heartland. She wanders as far north as Minneapolis/St. Paul, as far south as New Orleans, as far west as Pittsburgh and even journeys along the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. The American Empress calls the Columbia and Snake rivers of the Pacific Northwest her home. Roughly 150 years ago, before train travel became more commonplace, the rivers were the nation’s lifeblood and their meandering paths the country’s veins of commerce. Prior to the invention of the steamboat, they were useful in only one direction: downstream. Read More >>

Holiday Cruises on the American Queen

There is something special about the holidays. We spend most of our year focused outward on the world around us whether it is through careers, volunteer efforts or simply attending to the minutia of our daily lives. There rarely seems to be a chance to take a deep breath and truly focus on our family and friends. More importantly, we don’t often take the time to truly appreciate those we love or to look inward and count our blessings. Life always seems to be getting in the way yet, ironically, it is life itself that is such a blessing.

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Journals of Exploration

There are several ways to take a vacation. You can book it and go. Or you can do what many American Queen Steamboat Company guests do: book it and then dive into the history of the places you’ll be visiting. For those who travel with us on the grand American Queen for the first time, we always suggest that they pick up a copy of the immortal Mark Twain’s fascinating Life on the Mississippi. While many of his other books such as the Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn give a brief peek into small town life and what it was like grow up along the banks of the Mississippi River, his Life on the Mississippi takes a broader view. Though the book is about his experiences as a riverboat cub pilot, it encapsulates the details of sailing the river in the 1800s - both is beauty and its perils. Because of its detail, the book has become much more than just the amusing tales of a humorist on the river and is now a historical reference to how certain riverboat procedures were performed.

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