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»	Cruise Talk » Alternative Cruising » Mississippi Queen (Page 1)

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Author

Topic: Mississippi Queen

Barryboat
First Class Passenger
Member # 33

posted 10-04-2003 03:06 PM

I love spelling M..I..S..S..I..S...S...I...P..P..I..
Going onboard the MQ today in St. Paul, Minnesota...just to look around. Bringing my wife and 2.5 year old. Met up with the Hotel Manager...may even get dinner?? I've been on the American Queen and the Delta Queen but never the Mississippi Queen. Any tips on what I should look for?

Posts: 1851 | From: Bloomington, Minnesota (Home to the Mall of America) | Registered: Mar 99 | IP: Logged

Brian_O
First Class Passenger
Member # 3910

posted 10-06-2003 12:50 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Barryboat:
I love spelling M..I..S..S..I..S...S...I...P..P..I..

Yep! That's it!

M, I double S, I double S, I double P, I

How was your visit, Barry? You should now be the expert. So you should tell US what to expect.

Brian

Posts: 2698 | From: Pointe-Claire, QC Canada | Registered: Jun 2003 | IP: Logged

Barryboat
First Class Passenger
Member # 33

posted 10-06-2003 01:05 PM

Had a very nice visit aboard both the Mississippi Queen (Saturday) and the American Queen (Sunday). I heard scuttlebutt that AQ may be repositioned out of New Orleans to do three & four day GAMBLING cruises.

I much preferred the AQ over the MQ...The AQ was far more elegant and of course larger. When I visited the AQ back in 1995 the engineer at the time had also worked aboard the SS United States in the engine room in 1952.

Posts: 1851 | From: Bloomington, Minnesota (Home to the Mall of America) | Registered: Mar 99 | IP: Logged

Waynaro
First Class Passenger
Member # 3484

posted 10-07-2003 11:54 PM

Nice to know you had a great time Barry. Did you take any pictures?

Posts: 6108 | From: Vallejo,CA : California Maritime Academy!!! | Registered: Nov 2002 | IP: Logged

Barryboat
First Class Passenger
Member # 33

posted 10-13-2003 08:59 AM

I'll post a couple of photos soon. I do have a couple that turned out nice. Hard to take interiors...my camera is not working properly...needs to be fixed. There are a lot of photos, however, of my son (two and a half year old) running around the boat. Passengers were saying that he must be the yongest passenger....I didn't tell them we weren't crusing with them.

Posts: 1851 | From: Bloomington, Minnesota (Home to the Mall of America) | Registered: Mar 99 | IP: Logged

Barryboat
First Class Passenger
Member # 33

posted 10-16-2003 04:31 PM

As promised here are a couple of photos from my visit to the Mississippi Queen and the American Queen last weekend. This picture is the Grand staircase from the dinning room lounge up to the puser's area.

There's more in my photogallery in Potpoiri.

[ 10-16-2003: Message edited by: Barryboat ]

Posts: 1851 | From: Bloomington, Minnesota (Home to the Mall of America) | Registered: Mar 99 | IP: Logged

Barryboat
First Class Passenger
Member # 33

posted 10-17-2003 04:34 PM

Looks like my son is taking after his daddy...he loves boats!

The American Queen is going to once again return to St. Paul this next Sunday! I'm debating if I want to go see it again.

Posts: 1851 | From: Bloomington, Minnesota (Home to the Mall of America) | Registered: Mar 99 | IP: Logged

Waynaro
First Class Passenger
Member # 3484

posted 10-17-2003 10:49 PM

Very nice pictures. I also take from my dad! We both like ships

Posts: 6108 | From: Vallejo,CA : California Maritime Academy!!! | Registered: Nov 2002 | IP: Logged

Barryboat
First Class Passenger
Member # 33

posted 10-18-2003 11:25 AM

Keitaro,

There are more pictures in my photogallery in Potpoiri section, but I can't figure out how to create the link to that album???

Posts: 1851 | From: Bloomington, Minnesota (Home to the Mall of America) | Registered: Mar 99 | IP: Logged

Waynaro
First Class Passenger
Member # 3484

posted 10-18-2003 08:15 PM

Barryboat, look on the top where the URL is. Highlight/copy from "http" until you see "Ad_ID=(###)". Then when you post a reply, look for a gray "URL" button under "Instant UBB Code". Thats it!

Barryboat's pictures

[ 10-18-2003: Message edited by: Keitaro ]

Posts: 6108 | From: Vallejo,CA : California Maritime Academy!!! | Registered: Nov 2002 | IP: Logged

Ðraikar
First Class Passenger
Member # 1153

posted 10-18-2003 09:07 PM

I love that Grand Staircase !

Is the Mississippi Queen and the American Queen older ships ?

Posts: 1710 | From: USA, New York | Registered: Mar 2000 | IP: Logged

Frank X. Prudent
First Class Passenger
Member # 1723

posted 10-22-2003 10:51 PM

The DELTA QUEEN made her maiden trip on June 2, 1927 between San Francisco and Sacramento. She made her inaugural trip on the Mississippi River System on June 30, 1948. It was a round trip from Cincinnati to Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

The MISSISSIPPI QUEEN's July 1976 maiden cruise was to be from Cincinnati to New Orleans and return. She didn't make it back to Cincinnati that trip due to design and mechanical problems. The maiden trip ended in Hawesville, Kentucky, about two hundred miles shy of Cincinnati!

The AMERICAN QUEEN's first revenue producing cruise departed Pittsburgh for New Orleans with a detour to St. Louis on June 28, 1995. She arrived safely in the Crescent City right as scheduled!

[ 10-24-2003: Message edited by: Frank X. Prudent ]

Posts: 577 | From: Covington, Kentucky, U.S.A. | Registered: Dec 2000 | IP: Logged

Barryboat
First Class Passenger
Member # 33

posted 10-30-2003 09:57 PM

Did anyone know that the American Queen's steam engines were actually built way back in the 1930's for a river dredger? The engines were re-built for the AQ.

Posts: 1851 | From: Bloomington, Minnesota (Home to the Mall of America) | Registered: Mar 99 | IP: Logged

Frank X. Prudent
First Class Passenger
Member # 1723

posted 11-01-2003 02:46 AM

Sure I did! The dredge was built as the DUNDEE by the Dravo Co. at Neville Island, PA. near Pittsburgh. Later the DUNDEE's name was changed to KENNEDY.

The steam engines were built by the Nordberg Manufacturing Co. They are considered by old time steamboat engineers to be the ne plus ultra of reciprocating marine steam machinery. It was also the most expensive. Not many river transportation companies in the private sector could afford Nordberg machinery, that's why most Nordberg engines ended up on U.S. Government boats such as the DUNDEE and her sisters!

Posts: 577 | From: Covington, Kentucky, U.S.A. | Registered: Dec 2000 | IP: Logged

cruiseny
First Class Passenger
Member # 2928

posted 11-11-2003 10:48 PM

A couple of days I was watching a program on the Travel Channel and found to my surprise that QUEEN OF THE WEST is actually a motorship, er, motorboat (that word conjures up images of Boston Whalers for me

I know DELTA QUEEN and AMERICAN QUEEN are steamboats, I assume MISSISSIPPI QUEEN is too, especially considering all the fuss the company makes about "Steamboatin'"?

Were her engines new in 1976, or did they also salvage them from something else?

Posts: 4730 | From: New York, USA | Registered: Mar 2002 | IP: Logged

Waynaro
First Class Passenger
Member # 3484

posted 11-11-2003 11:25 PM

Doug, something I found at American West Steamboat Company's website on QUEEN OF THE WEST:

quote:
The U.S.-flagged, 230-foot Queen of the West is currently the only overnight sternwheeler cruise ship on the Columbia, Willamette, and Snake Rivers. Like sternwheelers of the past, the Queen of the West is propelled solely by her three-story-high churning paddlewheel. But unlike those earlier craft, the Queen doesn’t rely on a steam engine. Instead, she is powered by a revolutionary hydraulic propulsion system that uses environmentally safe biodegradable hydraulic oil. Her 45-foot-long bow ramp allows passengers to go ashore anywhere along the river, much as the 19th-century vessels did. Launched in 1995, the Queen of the West is the first overnight passenger sternwheeler to be built and operated in the West in 80 years.

Every Saturday, she is docked across the river from where I live and its an amazing site every time we drive past her...

[ 11-11-2003: Message edited by: Keitaro ]

Posts: 6108 | From: Vallejo,CA : California Maritime Academy!!! | Registered: Nov 2002 | IP: Logged

Frank X. Prudent
First Class Passenger
Member # 1723

posted 11-13-2003 02:27 AM

The MISSISSIPPI QUEEN tandem compound Marietta Manufacturing Piston-Poppet Valve engines were specially built for her, in 1975, by the Pine Tree Engineering Co. of Brunswick, Maine. The rumored price tag was $ 1 million. They were manufactured off of plans for like engines that were installed on the Str. JASON in 1940.

[ 11-13-2003: Message edited by: Frank X. Prudent ]

Posts: 577 | From: Covington, Kentucky, U.S.A. | Registered: Dec 2000 | IP: Logged

Barryboat
First Class Passenger
Member # 33

posted 02-23-2004 05:35 PM

As I mentioned in an earlier deleted comment,

The American Queen's steam engines come from a unique source, and one of the first engineers that worked in the engine room whent he AQ first came out once worked aboard the ss United States in the Engine Room. He spoke proudly of his service working in the engine room.

Posts: 1851 | From: Bloomington, Minnesota (Home to the Mall of America) | Registered: Mar 99 | IP: Logged

Barryboat
First Class Passenger
Member # 33

posted 04-13-2004 06:05 PM

American Queen's engines came from a restored U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredger called the Kennedy (1930). Vintage tandem compund horizontal reciprocating steam engines. The paddlewheel is 45 tons with a 36-foot long shaft.

American Queen's hull is also all steel welded construction, and at $65 million to build...she's a gem.

Posts: 1851 | From: Bloomington, Minnesota (Home to the Mall of America) | Registered: Mar 99 | IP: Logged

Barryboat
First Class Passenger
Member # 33

posted 07-15-2004 02:34 PM

Just went on the Delta Queen a couple weekends ago, and disovered that new exterior doors may be added to the suites on the main deck during the next refit.

Posts: 1851 | From: Bloomington, Minnesota (Home to the Mall of America) | Registered: Mar 99 | IP: Logged

Frank X. Prudent
First Class Passenger
Member # 1723

posted 07-16-2004 01:35 PM

But, how can that be? The DELTA QUEEN does not have any staterooms on her main deck. The Orleans Room, kitchen, crew's dining room and engine spaces are the only areas on her main deck besides the forecastle!

Posts: 577 | From: Covington, Kentucky, U.S.A. | Registered: Dec 2000 | IP: Logged

Barryboat
First Class Passenger
Member # 33

posted 07-16-2004 04:55 PM

I am mistaken...sorry...I don't know the name of the deck off hand...but it is the deck with the suites with interior entrances. There is a lounge between the suite rooms.

Posts: 1851 | From: Bloomington, Minnesota (Home to the Mall of America) | Registered: Mar 99 | IP: Logged

lasuvidaboy
First Class Passenger
Member # 4527

posted 07-16-2004 11:47 PM

Delta Queens' sister boat Delta King is a static hotel/restaurant/convention boat in Sacramento, California. She was restored after years of lay-up, sinkings and general abuse. She has been in her current role since restoration in the mid 1980s.

Posts: 7654 | From: Hollywood Hills/L.A. | Registered: Mar 2004 | IP: Logged

Malcolm @ cruisepage
Cruise Director
Member # 301

posted 01-07-2005 11:01 AM

I have dug up this old post, becuase I have several questions.

Q I'm interested to know which 'Queen' is best? Has anyone been on all three? The Delta is obviously the most authentic, but how do her newer sisiters compare?

Q - Are any of them steam?

Q - Does the paddle wheel provide all the propulsion?

[ 01-07-2005: Message edited by: Malcolm @ cruisepage ]

Posts: 19210 | From: Essex (Just Outside London) | Registered: A Long Time Ago! | IP: Logged

LeBarryboat
First Class Passenger
Member # 5308

posted 01-10-2005 11:43 AM

I've been on all three. The American Queen is an excellent boat with more room to roam. The dinning room is amazing with tall ceilings. American Queen is best for anyone new to river boating. The Mississippi Queen and the Delta Queen are really geared to the much older crowd. Delta Queen is really a treasure, and a very intimate little boat. She use to be a car ferry many many years ago, and still has her original wood decking in the dinning room. All of the river boat Queens are indeed steam and are propelled by the big paddle wheels. The American Queen I think has bow thrusters.

Posts: 1955 | From: Minnesota | Registered: Jan 2005 | IP: Logged

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