The American Queen (cont.)

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The American Queen (cont.)
Food—lots of it—and entertainment are a big part
of an AQ cruise.
Newsies—reporters from wire services and major dailies serving large cities along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers—made up another column on the passenger list. While the AQ was still tied to the Robin Street Wharf, I joined them and some other media friends aft of the main deck where they were setting up shop in the boat's large Engine Room Bar. Then I went out to have a talk with David Snow, a Delta Queen Company executive.

"She's the largest passenger steamboat ever built," Snow told me, and went on to swear to most of what the company's PR staff had been saying: the boat is 418 feet long, just under 89.5 feet wide, from the water line to the top of her stacks is almost 109.5 feet tall, and has a 8.5-foot draft. Her paddle wheel is 30 feet wide and is propelled by a 3,500-horsepower diesel engine and electric auxiliary motors. The whole shebang weighs in at 3,707 tons and can carry 436 passengers. The price tag: $65 million.

The vessel's interior has a plush turn-of-the-century fantasy look, mixing genuine antiques with quality reproductions. Modern features, such as the elevator that helps passengers reach all five decks and the top-side sun deck, are convenient but unobtrusive. The dining room staff and cabin attendants are polished and professional and, according to Snow, draw many members from the established crews of the Delta Queen and Mississippi Queen. But when pressed to answer if it would be the experience of vacationing on a floating luxury hotel that would draw travelers to the American Queen, Snow said that assumption missed the point; grand accommodations and services weren't what made the travel experience different.

"You'll see," he said, "when we get to a place like Houmas House [an attractive antebellum Louisiana plantation house close by the Mississippi] and just nose this huge thing into the levee and secure her to a big old oak tree, just as they did 150 years ago...you'll see it's the experience, it's history."

Twain's image and words are everywhere on the AQ.

River historian and staff member Lewis Hankins, a figure the AQ staff calls a "riverlorian," wouldn't disagree, but later on the trip he suggested it was the mystique or "legends of steamboat travel, the works of Mark Twain" and the hint of "river adventure" that travelers tell him brings them to the boats of the Delta Queen line. It's Hankins' job to talk to passengers about the mystery and the history each day and occasionally to dress the part, doing an enjoyable impression of river life's best-known promoter, Mark Twain.

Twain's image and words are everywhere on the AQ. Portraits and photos of this one-time riverboat pilot-turned-great-American-author hang in most of the boat's public areas; quotes from his works adorn everything from menus to a replica ships wheel in a forward observation area called the Chart Room. One deck below the actual modern, functioning pilot house, the Chart Room—fitted out with river charts and maps for passengers to pore over—offers a view of the river nearly identical to a 19th-century river pilot's. On its wheel is fixed a brass plate with this inscription: "Your True Pilot cares nothing about anything on earth but the river, and his pride in his occupation surpasses the pride of kings. — Mark Twain."

At the back of the Promenade Deck, high above the AQ's paddle wheel, sits something travelers find on each Delta Queen Company vessel—a calliope. After my talk with Snow I headed back to the Engine Room Bar and heard her first few foggy practice notes. We were underway; this Queen and all the others in the line serenade passengers and pier-side gawkers with calliope music at every docking and departure. The sound impressed the newsies no less than the civilians, and most moved out on deck to take in the scene.

Reuters correspondent Jua Nyla Hutcheson Brewster said she hoped to work the sound of the calliope into her lead when she filed her story. Several others said the same. But no newsie suggested leading off a story with the talk making the rounds, the rumor that you were almost guaranteed to gain 10 pounds by the end of the cruise.

It wasn't an idle rumor. I showed no restraint, didn't sample the reportedly delicious low-calorie, low-fat and low-cholesterol dishes available literally 20 hours a day. I went for the Deep South cuisine, Cajun cooking, Creole dishes, hearty American favorites and threatened to handcuff myself to a pastry chef.

Food is a staple of the cruise business. Naturally, it plays a big part in a ride on the American Queen. So does entertainment. The boat's musicians and performers are busy all day, and with the recent popular revival of the musical "Show Boat," the show's score and theme were worked into a lot of presentations. But on this first voyage, the Queen herself and history were the featured attractions, and from the reception she got everywhere she went, they should be the attractions for some time to come.

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