The Ryans’ Travel on the American Queen Steamboat
There are those of us who long for travel as was done in a bygone era. We were born too late. We ache to travel on a train being pulled by a steam locomotive in coaches that reverberate the clickety clack of the rails underneath. We desire to relax on a paddle wheel steamboat up and down the rivers of America’s heartland, visiting small villages and towns along the way.
Good News! We are not too late. Traveling on America’s rivers is a steamboat from the American Queen Steamboat Company. We recently returned from a 7-day cruise on the American Queen Steamboat, starting from Memphis and going up the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to Cincinnati. There is much that has me smiling as I type this missive.
SIGNING UP FOR CRUISES
Let’s be very honest here. When one goes to a travel agency to book a cruise on the water, one will find that there are significant differences between the costs on ocean cruises vs. riverboat cruises.
A riverboat is limited to just a few hundred passengers where ocean-going vessels have thousands. As a consequence, a riverboat cruise is going to cost you more money. The riverboat pays its American crewmembers more than what ocean going liners pay foreign employees. Also, being an American vessel, it has stricter standards than ships that fly under another nation’s flag. And being a smaller boat, expenses are greater and have to be shared by fewer passengers. But that is OK. YOU ACTUALLY GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!
Keep in mind that a riverboat is attractive to people of a certain age. It does not have ZIP lines, water slides, bumper cars or video game rooms. We older folks enjoy the peace and quite that a river affords. Kids on board the American Queen would be bored to tears. Those of us retired folks love the companionship of others our own age.
Just like an ocean-going vessel, there are many different sizes and views of staterooms. We prefer Category D with a stateroom that has two doors opening up onto a veranda where anyone can walk. The American Queen has several different categories of staterooms, as do ocean vessels. Our cabin. Room 304 (called the Tennessee – yes they give stateroom names) was on the third deck – The Texas Deck. We were two doors away from the front porch of the boat.
THE START OF THE CRUISE
Name me one ocean cruise line that pays for a hotel at the port where the trip begins. The American Queen Steamboat Company includes your first night stay at a major hotel in the city where one will embark. And at that hotel there are company representatives that will provide information about the cruise. The first thing they will tell is that you will not have to lug your bags to the boat. The crew will pick them up from the hotel room and deliver them to your stateroom!
It gets better. When you register at that hotel, meal tickets are provided for breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant on the morning of the departure. You get to sign up and receive a boarding pass and given the opportunity to sign up for premium shore cruises at various ports. Compare that to an ocean cruise where there is no pre-board hotel when you arrive at the port. Compare that to toting your luggage to a huge large terminal by the ship where you stand in line behind thousands to register and get on board.
When it is time to leave the hotel and get on the boat, there are three American Queen buses painted like a boat with people lined up waving at everyone. More on those buses later.
When you arrive at the boat, smiling crewmembers are waiting to greet everyone. You then you make your way to your cabin (two elevators are at midship for changing decks) where you will find your luggage already in the room and two room keys on the bed – which is immaculately made with a rubber “Welcome Aboard” mat on top for unloading your cases.
THE BOAT
The boat (not ship) is the 420 foot long American Queen, built in 1995.
Before I go into detail on the amenities and attention to detail, let me tell you that this last trip was my second time aboard the American Queen. The first cruise two years ago was my inaugural ride on the Mississippi River. Frankly that first trip from Memphis to New Orleans had my attention not on the boat, but on the cruise, the river, the ports of call, the barges on the river, and the significant amount of wood floating downstream. I was mesmerized by everything around me, outside of the boat.
This last trip, I focused a lot on the boat itself. Everywhere I looked the attention to detail was telling me that I was on a paddle wheel riverboat from long ago, over 100 years in the past. It was hard to believe that the boat was actually built in 1995.
The Mark Twain Gallery on Deck 2 (Cabin Deck) is softly lit and contains plush seating along with highly polished tables and side cabinets. There I was able to dive into a Clive Cussler novel I brought with me. That Gallery also housed a computer attached to the Internet where I could keep up with my numerous incoming e-mails. The computer also was there so that I could print out airplane boarding passes the day before our flight home. (Interesting note – most of the cruise I found that computer empty, waiting for me. In some ways that is a sad reflection that many of our generation are not computer literate. In latter stages of my career this physics and astronomy teacher taught teachers how to use a computer. It was curious to find that the older people were actually scared of a mouse.)
The side window in the Gallery did not show the outside shoreline of the river. Instead, they looked down on the truly majestic J.M. White Dining Room.
On Deck 1 before dinner, if we arrived early, the curtain were closed at the entrance to the dining hall. We were entertained either by piano music or small combos playing wonderful tunes in the main deck lobby. When the curtain opened, you found yourself at the desk of the Maitre'D. There you were escorted to your table. (I forgot to mention earlier that when you received your boarding pass at the hotel, you could select the table for each evening’s dinner. We opted for table 12 and enjoyed the company of four other people each evening.) Our waitress was the efficient Cory.
The table setting was nothing short of spectacular. Goblets of various sizes were waiting by each table setting. And then there were the chargers – oversized transparent, glass plates with a smooth top. The underneath side had intricate patterns etched in the glass with an overcoat of gold colored paint. Sadly we saw the chargers removed before the main coarse.
Each meal had a prepared menu of special appetizers, salad or soup and a choice of entrees. The main menu changed each day but there were common repeated choices available if that evening’s menu did not catch your eye. A choice of red or white wine was available at no charge along with sodas and teas. Every dinner was delicious and I probably came home 15 lbs. heavier than when I boarded. CAN I SAY LOBSTER THE LAST NIGHT OF THE CRUISE!
In addition to the main dining room, on the 3rd level, Texas Deck one could eat a buffet meal in the Front Porch Café. There breakfast, lunch and dinner are available. The café had four doors and numerous windows looking forward. I should mention here that I am an early riser, sometimes getting up at 3 a.m. to read my novel. It was a pleasure being able to pour myself hot coffee with cream and a splash of vanilla at all times of night.
The front porch had an expansive outdoor, covered area where guests could look out at where we were going.
Let me back track. After dinner, it was time for entertainment at 8 p.m.
The main deck has a wonderful theater (they call it the Grand Saloon). I learned that it was actually designed to look like the Ford Theater in Washington, DC. There were balcony boxes on three sides and the box that represented where Abraham Lincoln was shot had one upright, wooden chair, completely different from the soft seating everywhere else in the theater. Flanking either side of the stage were two magnificent murals of river life on the Mississippi.
Each night different performers entertained us. Some nights were the four singer/dancers in varying production numbers. In the background was the Steamboat Syncapators, a truly excellent band. Other evenings we had special guest performers – a juggernaut band and a banjo player.
During the day, the Grand Saloon offered lectures and games. The riverlorian on our boat was Jerry Hay. Jerry is a true master of river knowledge his presentations were in a manner that raptly kept the attention of his audience. He even conducted tours into the captain’s pilot house. There we saw the latest in navigational equipment.
Jerry told us that when on the river the boat has to cross under several bridges. When that happens the top of the smoke stacks, 90 feet above the water are too tall for the bridges, especially when the water levels of the river can get very high. To compensate, both smoke stacks can slowly be rotated down 90 degrees to get out of the way. In addition, Jerry said that the pilothouse itself can he lowered 9 feet. When that happens, the captain goes out to one of the side command centers usually used for coming into port.
I listened attentively as Jerry told us how two approaching vessels operated. He said that boats and barges heading downstream could not veer off from their direction as quickly as boats traveling upstream. There would be a discussion between the pilots on the radio and the downstream captain would dictate which side the upstream boat should turn to pass. He mentioned that very often the different pilots knew each other and even the names of their wives and children.
When in the pilothouse, I saw outside three brass steam whistles and I smiled. I am a train buff and still enjoy the haunting sound of steam whistles on locomotives from a long past era. No matter where I was on the boat, when that magnificent, triple toned steam whistle sounded, I stopped and grinned.
As I mentioned, there were grand murals on the sides of the saloon. In addition there were more paintings. The ship had numerous original paintings lining the walls on each deck. Each painting was depicting riverboats from a past life. I knew they were originals by lightly touching the surface of an image and feeling the depth of paint strokes. By each painting was a plaque that described the image. Had the bookstore made available a book showing color images of the paintings with descriptions to go with each one, I would have purchased that book!
The American Queen has a red, 18-section paddle wheel. (This retired physics teacher actually counted them from my view out the back window of the Engine Room Bar on the 2nd level as the boat was churning against the river water). I later learned that the paddle wheel was truly massive, weighing in at 23 tons with a side-to-side dimension of 28 feet wide.
I also learned from Jerry that the paddles are not made of steel but of oak. The reason behind this makes a lot of sense. The Mississippi has numerous logs that are making their way down on the surface. Should the paddles encounter one of these massive logs, a steel paddle wheel would be dented and unable to continue. Using wood allows the paddle to shatter. Replacing the paddle with new wood is far easier than working on bent steel.
In a related note, I asked Jerry what would happen to the many logs I saw floating down the Mississippi. I asked if they made it to the Gulf of Mexico. Jerry said the answer was yes, but eventually the logs would settle to the bottom. I did not know that.
From the engine room bar I was able to make my way down steps to the engine room itself. There I learned that the tandem steam chambers were originally buried in mud of the Mississippi River rescued from the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers dredge boat, Kennedy.
Because I have worked for a local company in Central Florida that operates a steam locomotive on weekends, I was fascinated by several differences between RR steam and river steam drives.
The Water: On a railroad steam locomotive, steam is generated by boiling hard tap water. Hard water gets its name because it is loaded with dissolved calcium carbonate (lime.) As the water turns into steam, the lime is left behind and eventually coats the bottom of the boiler between the water and the firebox. If the lime is not removed, it winds up being a heat barrier between the firebox and the water tank. Every now and then, the engine has to go through a blow down where live steam is shot across the lime buildup and shot out the side of the locomotive in loud bursts of steam that can travel 100 feet into the air. Compare that to water that is used by the American Queen. It is distilled water, without any lime sediments and, as a result, frequent blow downs are not necessary.
The Boiler: On a train locomotive the boiler is directly under the water/steam chamber towards the back of the engine. On the American Queen, the boiler is in the front of the boat and steam has to pumped over 400 feet to the rear where the paddle wheel engines are located. Once steam is spent it condenses back to water and is pumped back to the front of the boat for reheating.
Steam Engine Valves: A locomotive has one sliding valve right on top of the steam chamber where the piston is located. On the American Queen it is quite different. There are two valves at opposite ends of the steam chamber. Another interesting difference is that on a locomotive, each shaft has only one steam chamber. If one looks carefully at the steam engines on the American Queen, one notices that there are two steam chambers per shaft. The first gets over 290 psi of steam. That exhausted steam then goes to a back chamber where the piston gets 160 lbs. per square inch of steam.
Another use for the steam:
There is a Calliope on the rear portion of Deck 5. A player sat at the keyboard. The keyboard had separate pipes up to the next upper deck and several tuned whistles. Tunes were usually played as we were pulling out of each port. It was not only interesting to listen to the tunes from the steam whistle, but very unique to watch the puffs of steam emanating from tuned whistles as the music played.
An aside:
Two years ago our waitress in the main dining hall was Gillian (they call her Gigi). Back then she told us that she was transferring to the engine room and eventually wanted to learn every aspect of the boat’s operation. I was very impressed by her aspirations. This trip when I made my way down to the engine room, I saw her again. It was nice to see her progress to another operation on the boat. She even remembered me.
OUR STATEROOM
Our stateroom, 304, was on Deck three, category D. The double louvered doors opened onto the veranda. Our bathroom was at the rear of the cabin along with a closet and built in chest of drawers. Since our cabin was two doors from the inside Front Porch, had the weather been inclement, we could have walked along the interior hallway back to the middle of the boat.
Our stateroom attendant was Ann, a tall, beautiful black lady who was fascinating to talk to. Regardless of how we messed up the room during the day, it was returned to immaculate condition after Ann repaired our sloppiness.
SHORE TOURS
Have you ever been on an ocean cruise liner and paid hundreds and hundreds of dollars for shore excursions sponsored by the ship’s company? My wife, Patty clued me in about that rip off. She would hire a taxi once we got off the ship to tour the island we were on.
The American Queen does this one better. “Hop-On Hop-Off” bus cruises are FREE!
The same buses that brought us from our hotel to the boat will follow the boat from port to port. The American Queen staff provides us a sheet outlining what stops are available. The day before reaching a port, we used the touch screen outside of the purser’s office to print out bus boarding passes for the time we wanted start the tour. When it was time to board the bus (8:30 a.m. was our favorite time), we saw that there were three buses in a row scheduled to leave every 15 minutes. That way when we got off the bus in town to see a museum or go shopping, it was a pleasure to know that another bus would soon come around the corner to pick us up.
DAY ONE
When we arrived in Memphis, a storm front was moving through. After registering in the hotel we looked out the window of our room only to see rain blowing sideways. It was a bit disappointing since we have been in Memphis before and were looking forward to taking the trolley by the hotel to Beale Street and having dinner at BB Kings. That did not happen for two reasons – the weather and the trolleys were not working that week. Bummer! Had dinner in the hotel.
It was so convenient that there were American Queen representatives at a table in the lobby. (You people have really thought this out to make sure the experience was top notch!) We found out that we would be able to register for our badges and table selection for dinner in another room in the mezzanine.
Luggage was left in the room by 8 p.m. and we never saw the bags again until we were in the stateroom. How thoughtful!
DAY TWO
Wonderful breakfast in the hotel in the morning was provided by the boat company. We knew that the buses would be picking us up at 3 p.m. to take us to the boat. Weather was much better and for lunch we returned to the Blue Plate Café in Memphis, four blocks from the hotel.
When we arrived at Mud Island to board the American Queen, and whisked our way onto the boat, I smiled - remembering the pain of waiting forever to get on an ocean cruise liner. Life is so much simpler on a riverboat!
After settling in, it was time for dinner at 5:30. We made our way to the lounge outside of the main dining room, only to find the curtain drawn since we were early. While waiting, we were entertained by a gentleman singer and piano player. When the curtain was pulled back opening up the hall, we were escorted to out round, Table #12. The table was not immediately next to an outside window, but was rather close so that we could see the river shoreline. From our table we could look up and see the interior windows of the Mark Twain Gallery. We met our other table guests and settled in for a fine meal.
At our place setting were the wonderful, glass, gold charger plates that we remembered from our voyage on the American Queen two years ago.
(Personal notes to John - (1) the charger plates are beginning to show their age. Several of them have places where the gold paint has rubbed off. I might suggest if you can find the correct matching color, spray-painting the backsides to eliminate “holes.” The other option if the ‘Queen” can afford it is to purchase brand new charger plates and take the existing ones up to the gift shop to sell as souvenirs. They should sell like hot cakes.
(2) As nice as they are, the metal saltshaker and pepper grinder need some attention. The saltshaker was fine but NOTHING CAME OUT OF THE PEPPER GRINDER! It did not matter if I tightened the small knob on top or not. Changing pepper grinders with adjacent tables offered no help. Two things came to mind: (1) there were no peppercorns inside or (2) the mechanism was not functioning. Thank heavens for the waiter who came around the table with a much larger, wooden pepper grinder.
Dinner was wonderful and we got to know our table guests to a point where we were looking forward to seeing them again.
We got up from our dinner table each evening at 7 p.m. Patty and I walked across Deck 1 to the Grand Saloon. It was still and hour before the night’s show and the theater was rather empty. We had picked out selection of seats and opted for the first row.
At 8:00 p.m. we were treated to a true Blues concert. On stage was Joyce Cobb who, along with her band belted out Gospel and Blues tunes. Outstanding concert.
The American Queen departed Memphis that evening and started the journey north on the Mississippi.
DAY THREE – Steam boating.
I am a night owl. I was wide awake at 3 a.m., got dressed and made my way to the Front Porch with my novel and a Soduko puzzle book. With my first cup of coffee, I made my way outside to look up river in the dark. Those two spotlights the American Queen uses are brilliant and focused into a narrow beam. The day we toured the pilothouse I asked Jerry Hay if the spotlights were ever aimed at an approaching towboat. The answer was no. The brilliance could temporarily blind the captain if aimed straight at him. As such, I followed the spots as they searched for and aimed directly at highly reflective buoys in the river. As a physics teacher who loved optics, I was particularly interest in the tops of the buoys. I found that the reflection from the searchlights off of distant buoys was very bright at night. Up close during the day, I saw the top of the buoys had reflective surfaces was in the shape on an X. That way, no matter what angle the searchlight came in on, it would be directly reflected back after two bounces off of the 90 degree surfaces. (Only nuts like me would search an explanation.)
No towns to visit today. Showtime in the lounge had the on-board singers and band presenting songs from Memphis and New Orleans.
DAY FOUR – New Madrid
The evening before we went to the touch screen by the purser’s office and had the tour bus machine spit out two tickets for the 8:30 a.m. Hop-On Hop-Off bus. The next morning we left the boat at 815 and deeply appreciated the electric cart that took us up the concrete ramp to where the buses were parked. (Pat has two replacement knees, and the vehicle was a blessing.)
Each of the buses had a local volunteer who, using the microphone, would point out various spots of interest or history as we circled the town. Our dear lady was apparently not firing on all cylinders, or was not used to talking about places quickly as the bus moved through town.
“On your right is that gray building – I will tell you about it later. The structure on your left – Oh my and then there is a historic museum I should tell you about……”
Needless to say, when the bus made a complete loop and took us back to where we got on, we left and immediately took the next bus behind. The lady there was quite different and we were told bunches of stuff about the town.
After lunch we went to the Grand Saloon to hear Ray Hamilton talk to us about the plight of several American Indian tribes in a program call “Trail of Tears.” How sad.
Dinner again with our tablemates at 5:30.
The Queen’s ensemble took is down a musical ride of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s in the Grand Saloon at 8:00. To get a different perspective we sat in one of the left balconies for this performance.
DAY FIVE – Paducah
Again we got tickets for the 8:30 a.m. Hop On/Hop Off bus ride. A few years ago we were in this town and spent the entire time on shore the Paducah Train Museum. This time I insisted that we go somewhere else – to a famous quilt museum in the town.
I take with me my Nikon D500 digital SLR camera on every trip and, since I am not spending money on film, I usually take more photographs than usual with the understanding that I could trash the unwanted extras. I had my camera with when we reached the quilt museum, but left the lens cap on when the docent requested that no photographs be taken.
The quilts on display were not your run-of-the-mill, repetitive designs. They were truly one of a kind. This retired astronomy teacher sat mesmerized by a colorful quilt called solar eclipse. Since I could not photograph it, I bought a post card with it on the cover.
When we got on the Hop-On Hop-Off bus, our next stop was back at the railroad museum. Had a wonder chat with the various volunteers there. I learned sadly that the multi-room HO train display moved away and they had a bunch of space left open for displays. Understand that I am a member of the Central Florida Railroad Museum in Winter Garden. We have a facility overstuffed with memorabilia. In December we will be able to double our space and are interested in what other museums display their items. I talked at some length with the volunteers and took numerous pictures.
Back at the sloped walkway of the port, I walked along the inside of the seawall and took numerous photographs of the beautiful scenes that were painted showing the history of the city. Unlike major cities where walls are turned ugly by graffiti artists, Paducah shows pride in these outdoor scenes. I saw scaffolding where artists do touch up to repair the ravages of the weather on the paintings.
After another dinner in the dining room with our friends, we headed over to the Grand Saloon. We took our front row seats and waited for Matthew Aaron to sing Cole Porter classics at 8 p.m.
DAY SIX – Henderson
We were amazed on the bus tour to see how wide the streets in this town were. I was fascinated by the old riveted, steel bridges that spanned the river.
Evening entertainment was an enthralling show put on by banjoist Mike Gentry.
DAY SEVEN – Cruising the river.
Interesting how the waters of the Ohio River are not muddy like the Mississippi. Another beautiful day. It was so warm; we thought we brought Florida weather with us. Jerry Hay told us about the difference in the number of barges allowed on the Ohio compared to the Mississippi. Towboats on the Ohio are restricted to only 15 barges, three wide and five deep. The restriction was due to the length and width of the locks we had to go through.
Having owned a small 17 ft. runabout years ago, I was more than familiar going through a lock where the water would rush in and bounce the boat around. Since we were sailing up the Ohio, and had to go through locks that would raise the waters, I expect to be pushed around. Surprisingly, that did not happen. Perhaps it did not occur because of two things: 1) the size of the boat and 2) how secure the boat was tied in two places along the side of the lock.
DAY EIGHT - Louisville
Today is when we meet John Waggoner when he gets on board. Looking forward to meeting him again. We are on the open air, front porch when we saw his car pull in and park.
He got out along with another man who we later were introduced to as Bob, the gentleman who was recently hired to take some of the CEO responsibilities off of John’s shoulders. The two of them were just standing on the concrete looking at the Queen and talking.
Patty and I were furiously waving at them and Bob caught my eye to wave back when I pointed at John. He saw us and waved back. When we met onboard John asked me to put together my thoughts about the voyage (which is what this document is.)
Later, John took us down to the engine room where we met the man who rescued the piston drives from the mud.
We never got off the boat in Louisville. I had been to the Louisville Slugger Bat Company before. We did enjoy seeing the ladies who took the premium tour of the Kentucky Derby. THE HATS THAT THEY BOUGHT AND WORE FOR THE NEXT TWO DAYS!
Evening entertain was Doowap Allstars in the Grand Salon.
DAY NINE – Madison
This is our final dinner on board and we are SO looking forward to LOBSTER!
At 3:15 in the afternoon, I made my way down to the Mark Twain Gallery (it should have been called his library) and used the computer to access Delta Airlines to print out our boarding passes.
Interesting note: When we were booking the flight home, Delta had a non-stop flight at 10:00 a.m. Saturday morning. Two days before we flew to Memphis, we had to go back to the travel agency. Delta had cancelled that flight and substituted and earlier non-stop flight to Orlando that left at 8:20 a.m. Since the boat was scheduled to dock at 8 a.m., we knew that we could not make that flight.
We were left in a quandary. The next non-stop flight was at 3:15 in the afternoon. However, there was another flight leaving at 11 with a connection in Atlanta. HAVE I MENTIONED THAT WE HATE THE ATLANTA AIRPORT! We opted for the afternoon flight and made sure that we both had novels to read since we were going to be at the airport for SEVEN HOURS.
Once again we stayed on board during the day so that we could make the Captain’s Farewell Reception at 4:30. From there we made our way downstairs drooling for the LOBSTER.
On elevators, I noticed hooks on three walls above the mirrors. I wondered if they were there so that drapery could be hung for those people who did not want to look at themselves. WRONG, SATURN BREATH! Our luggage had to be put outside our stateroom before we went to bed that night and the hooks were for heavy insulation so that the bags did not scratch or break the mirrors. Once again- details well thought out in the building of the Queen.
It was dinner time – LOBSTER! We shared business cards with our table friends and after the meal went to the Grand Saloon one more time for a performance by the Juggernaut Band.
What a cruise and it was going to end tomorrow morning.
DAY TEN – Cincinnati
Before we left our stateroom, we gave Ann, our lady who took care of our room BIG hugs.
We had breakfast in the main dining room and went to the Grand Saloon to wait for our call to the bus. (We had paid the $25 dollars to have the bus take us to the airport.) When the call came we walked up to where the bus was parked, claimed our luggage and gave it to the bus driver to load in the luggage compartment. I mentioned to him that we were going to the Delta Terminal, but he told us that everyone gets off at only one point at the airport.
We did carry on luggage for the first time on the plane to avoid baggage fees.
Long wait at the airport. It was worth the delay to have a non-stop flight back home.
Once in Orlando, we rescued our car from the Parking Spot Company where we had left it. This is Florida in the summertime and the car was HOT! Open the doors and let the heat out.
On our way home, we stopped at one of our favorite restaurants, the Elephant Bar for dinner.
Then it was an hour drive home to our house on a lake in Tavares that has been designated as a seaplane landing and take off lake. We have free entertainment out our back sliding glass doors.
It was good to be back home.
HOWEVER THE AMERICAN QUEEN IS OUR SECOND HOME AND WE CANNOT WAIT FOR ANOTHER VOYAGE.
Sincerely, Mr. Ryan