Live on Queen of the Mississippi

[Cali Viajera]

We are on our 30th anniversary cruise on the Queen of the Mississippi. If you have any questions, let me know! We are having an awesome time ☺️

[nybumpkin]

Which itinerary? We're booked on her for our 40th anniversary in 2023, NOLA to StL. Any thoughts about the ship and ports will be most welcome!

[Cali Viajera]

We are on the New Orleans to Memphis itinerary.🛳

[DaveinCharlotte]

11 hours ago, nybumpkin said:

Any thoughts about the ship...

We've been on the Queen of the Mississippi and America, and these paddle-wheelers have a nice feature we really appreciate (and no, its not the paddlewheels themselves, which we don't really care much about):  There are two lounges in addition to the main one.  The PaddleWheel Lounge is very sumptious - it was nice going down there at daybreak for our morning coffee, etc.  And the Sky Lounge is very airy and a great place to eat when visiting the outdoor cafe.

[Ray in NH]

1 hour ago, DaveinCharlotte said:

We've been on the Queen of the Mississippi and America, and these paddle-wheelers have a nice feature we really appreciate (and no, its not the paddlewheels themselves, which we don't really care much about):  There are two lounges in addition to the main one.  The PaddleWheel Lounge is very sumptious - it was nice going down there at daybreak for our morning coffee, etc.  And the Sky Lounge is very airy and a great place to eat when visiting the outdoor cafe.

Hi Dave,

 

Thank you for your assessment of the Queen of the Mississippi -- we will be aboard for the Ohio River Cruise (St. Louis to Pittsburgh on September 19, 2021).  This will be our seventh ACL cruise, and have enjoyed all of them.  We find the itineraries the main draw for the ACL cruises.

 

NRayH

[Loveh2ofl]

15 hours ago, Cali Viajera said:

We are on our 30th anniversary cruise on the Queen of the Mississippi. If you have any questions, let me know! We are having an awesome time ☺️

How is staffing?  When we were on Queen at the end of May - staff down 9 (out of 45) and it showed.

[Cali Viajera]

Staffing in the dining room has been short. They have added and taken away stuff during the trip. Wait time for your food is long, one table this am wasn’t even served at all and left for the excursion without breakfast.

[Loveh2ofl]

7 minutes ago, Cali Viajera said:

Staffing in the dining room has been short. They have added and taken away stuff during the trip. Wait time for your food is long, one table this am wasn’t even served at all and left for the excursion without breakfast.

Can relate - once we got there right at opening at and breakfast (not a complicated one) took an hour to serve us and we also had an excursion we had to rush to.  But we had staffing issues for housekeeping as well.  Rooms were serviced (after the first day) but hallways, stairs, general upkeep was lacking and the refreshments (and water) in the lounges was not tended to.  Ice machine was out of service entire time in paddlewheel lounge. I've wanted to give the benefit of the doubt since we were the first full ship for Queen of the Mississippi and thus have not written a formal review- but I was hoping to hear that things had improved.  Seems to be a similar situation on several of the other ships as well.

 

Edited July 9, 2021 by Loveh2ofl
meant to write more

[Cali Viajera]

What I loved on this cruise was the smaller capacity. We would eat at different tables each meal and got to meet some wonderful people. So many couples were long married and still enjoyed being together. In this day and age, it was sweet to observe.

[pgannon1335]

We are taking the November 5 Day New Orleans cruise.  I am about to sign up for the excursions looking for some advise I see shopping and city tours are available.  Should we book private tours.  Also, we just got off an Iceland Cruise and they were extremely cautious about COVID requiring all passengers to be vaccinated and daily Covid spit tests can you share what (if) American Cruise lines is doing and are there concerns onboard.

 

Thank you!

[Ray in NH]

Whilst the title of this thread is "Live on the Queen of the Mississippi", we are very interested since we are booked to cruise the Ohio River (St. Louis to Pittsburgh) on her next month (19 September to 29 September).

Any information, about the ship/staff, would be greatly appreciated  This will be our seventh ACL cruise, but our first on this particular ship.

Looking forward to you future, first hand, comments.

 

NRayH

[Cali Viajera]

No need to book outside excursions. The cruise offerings were just right and the towns are small enough that you can walk and browse on your own. Loved the ship, staff were so helpful and friendly.

[twototravel]

We were just on the Constitution and vaccines were recommended but not mandatory. They recorded your status when we took the pre boarding rapid test. No other testing during the cruise for those of us vaccinated. Not sure for those without the shot. Both crew and passengers did wear masks in public areas except when eating and drinking. I didn’t see any special cleaning being done.

[shipgeeks]

We live near Pittsburgh, and are looking forward to seeing the Queen on August 20, September 9, and September 29.  We are not usually up early enough to see her arrive at the end of a voyage, but we enjoy seeing her go through the first Lock of the trip, about an hour after departing Pittsburgh.  A miniature Panama Canal!

Any questions about Pittsburgh?

[shipgeeks]

What time of day do the voyages typically start?

We are expecting to see QofM sail out of Pittsburgh this evening; however, no activity and not even a definite identification of her being here.  Any thoughts?

 

[Globalfish]

According to marinetraffic.com, Queen of Mississippi (they have eliminated the word "the") is currently in port in Hannibal, WV (not Hannibal, MO) and is headed for St. Louis.  If I am reading the website correctly, according to its past track it left from Wheeling, WV, not Pittsburgh.  Hope my September 9 departure leaves from Pittsburgh but I suppose it depends on the river level at the time.

[shipgeeks]

Thank you, Globalfish.  We've been wondering where she was.  

I hope your September 9 trip goes as planned, too!  Please keep us informed, if you get any updates.

[shipgeeks]

Have there been any reports of why she never made it to Pittsburgh?

[Globalfish]

No, marinetraffic.com doesn’t  provide that information.  I can only assume it was due to high water level.  Lots of rain in the Northeast this summer (not the least of which is Hurricane Henri today).  If my cruise departs from somewhere other than Pittsburgh on Sept. 9 and presuming that ACL is honest with us, I will be better able to give you a reason.  I will try to let you know on this forum the day before as to whether or not the Sept. 9 sailing of Queen of the Mississippi is departing from Pittsburgh.

[shipgeeks]

Thank you; I appreciate that.  A number of us like to go to the first river lock when a boat leaves from Pittsburgh, to watch her lock through.  In years past, we never knew the schedule, but would sometimes hear music, stop to figure out what it was, realize it was the calliope being played as the boat entered the lock.  There would be a rush of locals to see her, like a scene from "Showboat".  Then someone complained about "that racket", and they were not allowed to play the calliope any more.  Too bad.  A lot of us enjoyed it.

We have not had any reports of unusual river levels, but who knows?

Many years ago, we sailed on the President, from Pittsburgh to Steubenville.  The boat part took about 9 hours, the buses returning us to Pittsburgh took about 45 minutes.  So I imagine that when they have to change an itinerary, it's easy enough to bus passengers to the new departure point.

[Ray in NH]

On 8/22/2021 at 7:54 PM, Globalfish said:

No, marinetraffic.com doesn’t  provide that information.  I can only assume it was due to high water level.  Lots of rain in the Northeast this summer (not the least of which is Hurricane Henri today).  If my cruise departs from somewhere other than Pittsburgh on Sept. 9 and presuming that ACL is honest with us, I will be better able to give you a reason.  I will try to let you know on this forum the day before as to whether or not the Sept. 9 sailing of Queen of the Mississippi is departing from Pittsburgh.

 

We would also be interested in whatever information you might be able to provide.  We are scheduled to board on 19 September (in St. Louis, and dis-embark on 29 September (in Pittsburgh). 

 

NRayH

[Globalfish]

Your cruise is the one immediately after mine.  Will keep you and shipgeeks apprised.  Right now the Queen of the Mississippi is moored in Alton, MO, presumably getting ready for the next Ohio River cruise beginning tomorrow.  Don’t know whether the passengers on the cruise just ending disembarked in Alton or St. Louis but I sure hope it’s the latter.   Strange that the last review posted about this ship was in early-to-mid July.

[Globalfish]

As per marinetraffic.com, after being moored in Alton, MO for the past 2 nights, Queen of the Mississippi finally left for St. Louis today at 13:48 Central Daylight Time.  After it reaches its final destination of Pittsburgh (or whatever), I’m on it.

 

Edited August 30, 2021 by Globalfish

[Globalfish]

Frankly, I don't know what this ship is doing, but it "ain't" following its normal itinerary and I'm glad I "ain't" on its current voyage.  According to marinetraffic.com, it departed Alton, MO at 13:48 yesterday, arrived in Wood River at 14:42, departed Wood River at 15:10, arrived in St. Louis at 16:36 and departed St. Louis at 17:58.  Today (31 Aug) it arrived in Cairo, IL at 5:54, departed Cairo at 6:42, arrived  Mound City at 6:46, departed Mound City at 6:56, arrived Olmsted, IL at 8:03, departed Olmsted at 8:43, arrived Metropolis at 10:21, departed Metropolis at 10:35, and arrived in Paducah at 11:09 where it is currently docked.  It was supposed to have spent yesterday and today in St. Louis, and not merely for 1 hour 22 minutes.  It was supposed to have spent tomorrow (1 Sept) in Cape Girardeau, which seems to have been skipped altogether.  As per ACL's itinerary, the vessel was not due to be in Paducah until Thursday, 2 Sept.  Don't know if the recent Hurricane Ida has stirred things up in the mid-to-lower Mississippi River where passenger vessels can't operate there (but there sure are a heck of a lot of tugs).  I know the hurricane caused the river to flow in the reverse in New Orleans, but would that have affected the flow as far north as Cape Girardeau and St. Louis?  We can only hope that those of us on the Sept. 9 and 19 departures will follow the itinerary that we bought into.

 

[nybumpkin]

I hope that chengkp75 chimes in on this thread, but I have doubts about the accuracy of the marinetraffic AIS recordings as cited. I've had a number of experiences when the ship I was actually on board at the time recorded something different from what we were actually sailing, but I don't know the details of how AIS works.