{"id":1899,"date":"2012-07-12T06:05:29","date_gmt":"2012-07-12T12:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/?p=1899"},"modified":"2012-07-12T06:05:29","modified_gmt":"2012-07-12T12:05:29","slug":"riverboat-cruise-junejuly-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/?p=1899","title":{"rendered":"American Queen Riverboat Cruise – June\/July 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan and I decided it was time for us to have a more extended vacation than the weekend trips we’ve been doing so far this year.\u00a0 After some searching we came across the American Queen<\/a> river boat from the Great American Steamboat Company<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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This looked like it had everything we wanted.\u00a0 Departure and arrivals not too far from home, a relatively small ship, quality accommodations and a relaxing itinerary.\u00a0 We booked it almost on the spur-of-the-moment.\u00a0 It turned out to be a wonderful choice for a number of reasons.<\/p>\n

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Click (double click?) the video above to play \n(about 53 seconds long).<\/pre>\n
This trip report is organized a little differently than the usual reverse-chronological blog order.\u00a0 I hope it works.\u00a0 You should click on the links below to step through the sections on that particular subject.\u00a0 This will open\u00a0 a new window or tab and when you close that you should return here.<\/p>\n
1. Entertainment & Activities<\/a><\/address>\n
2. Food & Drink<\/a><\/address>\n
3. Stops & River Sights<\/a><\/address>\n
4. Air Shows<\/a><\/address>\n
5. Fireworks<\/a><\/address>\n
\u00a0<\/address>\n
Please let me know about any errors, important omissions, or other problems.\u00a0 Either post a comment after this section or email me at:<\/address>\n
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Opinions & Conclusions<\/h3>\n
Most of all, this trip was the best we’ve taken for several years and it had a great therapeutic effect on me.\u00a0 I came back feeling the best I have since Spring of 2011.\u00a0 My oncologist was quite amazed!<\/p>\n
Pros<\/h4>\n
The food was great, even though we felt the selection was limited at breakfast and lunch if you ordered off the menu.\u00a0\u00a0 The evening meal (not a buffet) had a variety of choices and staff were quite willing to accommodate changes and substitutions.<\/p>\n
The overall atmosphere was one of relaxation with the crew members very “laid back”.\u00a0 They enjoyed talking and laughing with the passengers who were open to that and properly reserved for those who were not.<\/p>\n
The music and entertainment was fitting for a Riverboat cruise. We really enjoyed all we saw.\u00a0 Not lavish “Las Vegas” sorts of productions but good performances by talented musicians.<\/p>\n
The “Hop-On Hop-Off” tours worked well with no congestion or confusion.<\/p>\n
Cons<\/h4>\n
You could tell this was an inaugural season with some disorganization in specific areas.\u00a0 For example, some staff clearly needed additional training.\u00a0 For four days we had to contact housekeeping to get the necessary number of towels and washcloths.\u00a0 Also, we never learned the name of the person who dealt with cleaning and stocking our cabin.<\/p>\n
There were schedule changes which were not communicated very well to passengers.\u00a0 Mostly these were due to river conditions but it made planning the next day a problem sometimes.\u00a0 Jan and I were a little disjointed by the amount of steamboating we did, we had expected more time on the river than we got.<\/p>\n
Though not the fault of the American Queen, the hot weather was a deterrent to many outside activities.\u00a0 Temperatures of 104 degrees with humidity kept us inside a lot.\u00a0 We did suggest that strategic placement of fans and ‘misters’ around the open decks would have helped a lot.<\/p>\n
Passenger Demographics<\/h4>\n
As you might expect, the passengers tended to be more affluent, retired people but there was a smattering of younger people too.\u00a0 We only encountered a few who were not Americans, and the rest\u00a0 were mostly from the South or East coast.\u00a0\u00a0 Overall passengers were friendly but there were some groups who tended to stay with themselves.<\/p>\n
Dress was casual.\u00a0 I only saw a few men in sports coats though the women tended to dress up a little more.\u00a0\u00a0 I got mixed reactions to my usual daytime “weird T-shirt” wardrobe and some people seemed confused or offended by the one that read “Not Dead Yet.”<\/p>\n
Final Note<\/h4>\n
We liked this cruise enough that we have booked another in October from St. Louis to St. Paul.\u00a0 With luck this will be in the Fall Color season and should be a lot cooler.<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
\u00a0Many thanks to my long-time friend Mike Apsey<\/strong> for editing the video and for help with creating these blog posts.<\/address>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jan and I decided it was time for us to have a more extended vacation than the weekend trips we’ve been doing so far this year.\u00a0 After some searching we came across the American Queen river boat from the Great American Steamboat Company. This looked like it had everything we wanted.\u00a0 Departure and arrivals not […]<\/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-1899","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\/1899","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=1899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1899\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tom.hise.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}