{"id":1805,"date":"2012-07-10T11:41:47","date_gmt":"2012-07-10T17:41:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/?p=1805"},"modified":"2012-07-10T11:41:47","modified_gmt":"2012-07-10T17:41:47","slug":"american-queen-food-drink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/?p=1805","title":{"rendered":"American Queen &#8211; Food &#038; Drink"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It seemed to us that The American Queen placed a lot of emphasis on dining.\u00a0 In fact, several people commented that they may have gone overboard in that way.\u00a0\u00a0 I have to say I had no complaints with the food served in any of the dining rooms.\u00a0 The only problems were service-related and were generally minor.<\/p>\n<p>Food on the AQ is served in several other places.\u00a0 Besides the Main Dining Room, food is also served on The Front Porch and at The River Grill also serve food.<\/p>\n<p>The Main Dining Room serves the major meals.\u00a0 Breakfast and lunch is buffet style with an optional limited menu.\u00a0 Dinner is served at two sittings, early at 5:30 and late at 8:30 (times varied depending upon other events).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Lunch-Main-DR.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-1812\" style=\"margin: 4px;\" title=\"Lunch-Main-DR\" src=\"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Lunch-Main-DR-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"210\" height=\"140\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s\u00a0 a typical view of the lunch buffet in the main dining room.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Roast-Pig.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-1814\" style=\"margin: 4px;\" title=\"Roast-Pig\" src=\"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Roast-Pig-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"210\" height=\"140\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Was surprised one day to find whole roast pig on the lunch buffet.\u00a0 I was told they spend over 12 hours preparing each one (and they had several.)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Dinner-Group.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1815 alignleft\" style=\"margin: 4px;\" title=\"Dinner-Group\" src=\"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Dinner-Group-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"210\" height=\"140\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Seating for dinner is at an assigned table and with the same dinner companions each evening.\u00a0 Jan and I were exceptionally fortunate that we fell in with an interesting and fun group.\u00a0 Every evening was fill with good conversation and humor.\u00a0 Left to right are Diane &amp; Joe (Florida), Me &amp; Jan (Iowa), Pam (New Zealand), and Tom &amp; Wendy (Maryland).<\/p>\n<p>The Front Porch is open 24 hrs per day featuring free soft drinks, soft-serve ice cream, popcorn, snacks, fruit and limited food selections for breakfast and lunch.\u00a0 Occasionally they served dinner such as barbecue ribs or chicken.\u00a0 It seemed to be the favorite place for <a href=\"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Front-Porch-In.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-1822\" style=\"margin: 4px;\" title=\"Front-Porch-In\" src=\"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Front-Porch-In-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"210\" height=\"140\" \/><\/a>non-drinkers though often there was someone there to fetch drinks from one of the bars if desired.\u00a0 Her&#8217;s the inside (air conditioned) part.\u00a0 This was early in the morning so not many people were there.\u00a0 The outside (open air) part was <a href=\"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Front-Porch-Out.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-1829\" style=\"margin: 4px;\" title=\"Front-Porch-Out\" src=\"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Front-Porch-Out-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"210\" height=\"140\" \/><\/a>popular in the morning before it got too hot.\u00a0 It was a good vantage point for watching where the boat was going or what was happening when docked.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The River Grill is an open deck Bar (partly shaded) <a href=\"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/River-Grill-1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1850 alignright\" style=\"margin: 4px;\" title=\"River-Grill-1\" src=\"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/River-Grill-1-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"210\" height=\"140\" \/><\/a>overlooking the paddle wheel.\u00a0 Usually they have food there like burgers, ribs etc. but on this cruise the temperatures were so hot that the only time they did this was for the 4th of July &#8216;picnic&#8217;.\u00a0 Still, with a breeze and\u00a0 when some tables were shaded, we spent a lot of time there.\u00a0 It is also the <a href=\"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/River-Grill-2.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-1856\" style=\"margin: 4px;\" title=\"River-Grill-2\" src=\"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/River-Grill-2-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"210\" height=\"140\" \/><\/a>place where we went to watch the fireworks and the air show.<\/p>\n<p>Here is a picture of the setting up for the 4th of July picnic at the River Grill<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Alcohol is available in several places.\u00a0 I should warn that, except at the evening meal and for special occasions, you must charge your drinks to your stateroom.\u00a0 Their prices for drinks are rather high &#8211; for example a glass of Single Malt Scotch starts at $18 for Oban and ranges up to $30\u00a0 for Laphroaig .\u00a0 A good Chardonnay was $9 a glass.<\/p>\n<p>In the Main Dining Room complementary wine and beer is available with the evening meal.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Captains-Lounge-Bar.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1838 alignright\" style=\"margin: 4px;\" title=\"Captains-Lounge-&amp;-Bar\" src=\"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Captains-Lounge-Bar-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"210\" height=\"140\" \/><\/a>The Captains Lounge and Bar is just outside the Main dining room and provides comfortable seating with a good selection of wine, beer and spirits which you can charge to your cabin.<a href=\"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Engine-Room-Bar.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-1835\" style=\"margin: 4px;\" title=\"Engine-Room-Bar\" src=\"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Engine-Room-Bar-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"210\" height=\"140\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Engine Room\u00a0 Bar is the nicest, most &#8216;cozy&#8217; place to get a drink.\u00a0 They have a large selection and often have entertainment.\u00a0 Just outside this bar on the port side is the only smoking area that I noticed but it is well isolated from the bar proper.\u00a0 The Engine Room Bar is rather and in the later evenings of for certain entertainers it can get crowded.<\/p>\n<p>Alcohol is also served during many evening performances in the theater at the same charge as from the Captain Bar.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; It seemed to us that The American Queen placed a lot of emphasis on dining.\u00a0 In fact, several people commented that they may have gone overboard in that way.\u00a0\u00a0 I have to say I had no complaints with the food served in any of the dining rooms.\u00a0 The only problems were service-related and were [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1805\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}