lake_wannabees

On 8/10/2018 at 2:46 PM, Geosez said:

I thought about starting a Roll Call for this trip but getting to the river cruise roll calls - especially the US ones - is just more complicated than it ought to be!
We’ll be on the American Queen these two weeks, “finishing” the Mississippi. (We traveled down river between the Saints about ten years ago.) Anybody else on one or both of these legs this year?

Did you enjoy the cruise?  our way back upriver was a little chillier than the trip downstream.

We're on the leg from Memphis to NOLA and then back to Memphis. We live in St Louis but wanted a little closer to our anniversary on Oct 15 so doing a little driving. We were supposed to go from St Louis to St Paul in 2015 but the river was too high so we went to Cincy instead.

Joyce and Ron

This is our first Princess cruise so just confirming that you need to bring your lifejacket to muster drill.

Joyce

There was flooding again on the Missouri which was going to raise the water level to 33 ft. The Captain said they it to be 25 ft or less to make it under the bridge. I think we had some whiners. We just Paducah and passing the Tennessee so steaming on.

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In Paducah this morning with a lot of angry people. Only 238 passengers since a lot canceled.

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Update - We're now sailing from Cape to Cincy. Got to change my flights.

Just got off the phone with AQ and they said that we will be on a bus southbound to the boat in Cape Girardeau instead of boarding north of STL in Alton. My head is spinning with all the changes we're making because we tried to do the cheap thing and stay with a friend the night before instead of at the hotel.

Just need to keep reminding myself that this is a relaxing vacation. They aren't sure if the ports will be the same or if they'll have to change due to the additional travel time from Cape.

Joyce

Do you leave your bags outside the doors the night before debarkation like they do on the ocean cruises? Or, is does everyone carry their own bags off. We're doing a transfer to the airport.

Joyce

Thanks for confirming. I just checked that site again and it showed her still between Paducah and Cairo. We're packing today and heading to STL tomorrow so she better make it. :) I'll post pics on facebook.

YEAH!!!!!

She's past Cairo. I'm watching her path on *********** and was worried about her spending her so much time in Paducah.

I wish AQ had a better method of keeping cruisers informed.

If the boat can't get to St. Louis (Alton, Il.) your trip will more than likely go from Paducah to Cincinnati. The company will bus you to Paducah from St. Louis if that's the case, but let's hope it's not! Mother Nature can be quite fickle though.

I hope that's not the case also. We're on a fam cruise so not covered by the normal things that cruisers have. And our airline tickets are from St Paul. Guess I'll keep phone numbers handy in case I have to make changes in plans. And a bus ride from St Louis to Paducah won't be short (about 3 hours).

I just saw a video of the Eads Bridge - no way the AQ can pass underneath it and go to Alton right now.

 

I also checked the Earth Cam overlooking the St. Louis riverfront... No way for the AQ to land there. There used to be a large cobblestone levee and a street in front of the Arch... nothing right now :eek::eek:!

 

steamboats

The reconstruction going on at the Landing is why they're berthing in Alton, IL instead of St Louis. I just looked at a river forecast and it's supposed to crest in Alton at 7 AM tomorrow at 27.4 ft which is minor flood stage. It's cresting tomorrow overnight in St Louis at 34 ft which is also minor flood stage.

The last trip the AQ made began in Paducah, Kentucky and ended across the river from Cincinnati at Newport, Kentucky. The boat had to go there because of the Cincinnati Public Landing being occupied with All Star Game events. Newport is a better landing anyway, and both places can be seen from one and other.

 

We had more rain yesterday in the Middle Ohio River Valley, but that won't effect your trip. More rain is predicted here, but now it's sunny!

Thanks. We're staying with friends in STL before we sail and they're keeping our car so we don't have to pay for airport parking. They even volunteered to pick us up at the airport. Everything is no charge except the flight. They had called us a couple of days ago to see if the cruise was impacted by the flooding and we said no. Can't wait to get onboard and relax.

Hmm, just called AQ and they said that the sailing for next week is still good. They had to make some modifications to the route a week or so ago but everything is looking good now "as long as they don't get anymore rain". My only travel plan to change would be the return flight if things get changed but I'd like to have a little more confidence. Did the ship sail yet from Madison?

Joyce

Thanks Lynda and Lyn. Now another question about the hop on hop off bus. Does it only stop at the designated spots or can you ask to be let off in between? We want to do the Segway tour in LaCrosse, WI which the bus goes right in front of. I know we have to go to one of the spots to be picked up but was hoping we could get off in between.

Joyce

They add the auto gratuities to your onboard account

Thanks. We've prepaid our gratuities and never found an instance when they would be removed because the crew usually does everything we expect them to do. Just wasn't sure with a mostly American crew if they look for "extra tips" to maybe help them work a little harder. :)

Definitely planning to relax on this cruise. In fact I just now pulled out my cruising "stuff" to see what I want to take. That's usually done at least a month before an ocean cruise. Maybe since we haven't been able to get to our pontoon boat this year due to high water, I'm looking forward to just floating along and doing nothing. Not even freaking out about shore excursions. This river cruising could be habit forming.

I haven't found this on the boards but was wondering about tipping. We've only cruised Carnival before and always leave our daily tip on the room but we also tip our waitstaff and steward extra in person. Is this a common practice on river cruising also? We leave in a couple of weeks and wanted to get the budget straight. Thanks in advance, Joyce

So glad to find this thread. We just booked Jul 19 from St Louis to St Paul but doing it as a TA familiarization cruise so the hotel the night before isn't included. Didn't know where we would stay but will now be looking on the Alton side.

Love, love, love the Chef's Table. We did the old menu once and the new menu three times before this past May. We were cruising with my sister and brother-in-law so treated them to the CT (newest menu for our fourth time). Although the food was as good as it's ever been (I don't like seafood so they switch me to chicken) but the service was extremely lacking. The Chef spent half his time on the phone or out of the room. And when I'm talking about out of the room it wasn't during the time that he typically leaves before the beef and seafood courses. It took us over four hours this time and there was too much time between courses. We will wait until a new menu comes out before booking it again.

Next cruise we're trying the steakhouse for the first time.

We'll let you know after we return in June. First time on this ship and John Heald will be our cruise director in Alaska.

The first time we tried it was in 2012 and we got the charm and booklet. But they changed Vodka's so the drinks changed up a little. Still love to try them out before deciding on a full size Martini.

Luggage Express.

 

We had booked transportation to the airport with Seattle Express for $12 pp.

So glad to see this part of your review. We used Luggage Express on our first cruise, Valor out of Miami, and it worked really well. We're also using Seattle Express for our trip to the airport. We have 1 PM flights and my sister and brother-in-law will be with us so with four people we shouldn't get mixed up with anyone else.

Joyce

After dinner we walked around a little and then reluctantly went back to our cabin to pack. Our suitcases had to be set outside the room by midnight. For our land portion of the trip, we were only allowed to bring one suitcase each (of any size) and a small carry on (like a tote bag or backpack – not like the rolling carry ons that you can take on the plane). Everything else was sent on ahead to meet you at your final tour destination (Fairbanks, in our case). We were given luggage tags to designate which bags were which. We had each brought one big suitcase and one smaller, carry on suitcase. We took the large suitcases with us on the road, and sent the smaller bags ahead (we put items we wouldn’t need anymore, like our formal wear and souvenirs in them). We used a backpack and a tote bag as our carry ons for the week. (Note: you won’t have access to your big bag during the day, so you need to carry any essentials that you may need in your carry on).

Very interesting. I'm guessing since we're land then sea that we'll get to send a bag to Skagway where we pick up our ship. Helps to decide how to pack doesn't it.