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Name: Libby Child
Email: lchild@steelcase.com
Age: 50
Occupation: Human Resources Manager
NumberOfCruises: 10
TravelAgent: No
Ship: DeltaQueen-American
SailingDate: May 1, 1998
Itinerary: Lower Mississippi
FoodDiningRoom: 80
CruiseDirector: 90
CabinComfort: 90
FoodRoomService:
CruiseStaff: 90
CabinAmenities: 80
FoodLidoDeck:
DiningRoomService: 80
CabinQuietness: 90
FoodMidnightBuffets: 80
CabinSteward: 90
ShoreExcVariety: 90
FoodVariety: 80
DeckService:
ShoreExcValue: 90
GoodForHoneymoon: 70
CasinoStaff:
PrivateIsland:
GoodForFamilies: 20
LoungeService:
TenderService:
GoodForSeniors: 100
BeautySalonStaff: 80
EntertainmentLounges:
WheelchairAccess:
ExerciseFacilities: 70
EntertShowLounge: 90
OverallPortsofCall: 90
BeautySalon: 80
EntertainmentPoolside:
CruiseActivities: 80
Casino:
AirSeaProgram: 90
MedicalFacilities:
ShipCleanliness: 90
EmbarkDisembark: 100
DiscoNightclubs: 90
DeckSpace: 100
Stabilization: 100
ShopsOnBoard: 70
SpaceRatio: 90
OverallCruiseValue: 90
Submit: Submit Review
Date: 19 May 1998
Time: 13:04:09
Remote Name: 206.242.50.66
Remote User:
Comments
My two sisters and I took my mother on this cruise for her 75th birthday. What a pleasant
surprise. We knew she would enjoy it, but we (seasoned 'at sea' large
cruise ship travelers) thought it would be barely tolerable. Though most of the passengers
would qualify as senior citizens, there were a fair amount of
middle-agers - making a nice mix for dinner companions and shore excursion friends. Though
the general dining experience was less elegant than on a large
cruise ship, the hominess of the dining room and staff, and the old sourth laid back
atmosphere was quite refreshing. We departed from New Orleans, traveled
for a day up the Mississippi to St Francisville, and then going back donw the Mississippi,
had stops in Natchez and Baton Rouge. All interesting, non-tradional
ports of call. We visited a number of pre-civil war homes - lots of hirstory and antiques.
For those that enjoy more excitement, there were Casino boats at two of
our stops: Natchez and Baton Rouge. We thoroughly enjoyed the staff - they were friendly,
outgoing, and very centered on making our cruise an enjoyable one.
We especially enjoyed getting to know the Captain - John Patrick Davitt, Master of the
American Queen. He made his presence known throughout the trip, was
very knowledgeable of the river and boat, and was sincerely interested in the passengers
an their enjoyment of the trip.
Name: Jim Thornton
Email: jthorn@gte.net
Age: 65
Occupation: Retired Electronic Engineering Manager
NumberOfCruises: 5
TravelAgent: No
Ship: DeltaQueen-American
SailingDate: June 2, 1999
Itinerary: New Orleans to Memphis
FoodDiningRoom: 80
CruiseDirector: 70
CabinComfort: 80
FoodRoomService:
CruiseStaff: 75
CabinAmenities: 80
FoodLidoDeck: 75
DiningRoomService: 85
CabinQuietness: 85
FoodMidnightBuffets:
CabinSteward: 90
ShoreExcVariety: 70
FoodVariety: 75
DeckService:
ShoreExcValue: 60
GoodForHoneymoon:
CasinoStaff:
PrivateIsland:
GoodForFamilies:
LoungeService: 50
TenderService: 70
GoodForSeniors: 80
BeautySalonStaff:
EntertainmentLounges: 90
WheelchairAccess:
ExerciseFacilities:
EntertShowLounge: 90
OverallPortsofCall: 80
BeautySalon:
EntertainmentPoolside:
CruiseActivities: 80
Casino:
AirSeaProgram: 70
MedicalFacilities:
ShipCleanliness: 80
EmbarkDisembark: 80
DiscoNightclubs:
DeckSpace: 80
Stabilization: 90
ShopsOnBoard: 70
SpaceRatio: 80
OverallCruiseValue: 80
Submit: Submit Review
Date: 22 Jun 1999
Time: 12:17:02
Remote Name: 1cust84.tnt2.thousand-oaks.ca.da.uu.net
Remote User:
Comments
LOCATION: New Orleans to Memphis (seven nights) with four intermediate daytime stops.
MEALS: Breakfast - Ate all breakfasts in the main dining room from the la carta menu
and/or buffet - good.
Often our omelets were made to order by the head chef. Lunch - Ate most lunches in the
bistro - limited to
soups, salads, sandwiches, beverage, and desserts - acceptable. Generally took lunches
back to cabin
due to lack of table space and our starboard cabin had a veranda with two chairs and a
small table.
Dinner - Ate all dinners in the main dining room at the first seating - excellent meal the
first night then just
average thereafter. Moonlight buffet was available. Service - Good at breakfast and
dinners. Lunch in the
bistro was serve yourself.
LAND TOURS: Generally good ranging from plantation homes to the Vicksburg battlefield. The
major
problem is the shipboard tour office tends to oversell and the passengers were frequently
too many for the
tour sites to handle. One tour guide for 50 people is way too many people. Minor shipboard
activities for
passengers who remained on board while the ship was docked. The ship traveled at night and
was docked
each morning except for the last two days. Ship lowers its gangplank to the shore when
docked, as there
are no docks or piers along the Mississippi River. No gambling aboard the ship but at two
of the stops
there was a nearby gambling ship docked near by. Most town shopping and historical sites
were too far
from where the ship was docked. The ship sold bus passes for all the stops ($28) or for
individual towns
($10). Often the towns would offered tourist bus service for 50 cents per ride.
SPEAKERS: All shipboard speakers were interesting to excellent and their subjects ranged
from the Civil
War on the Mississippi River (the cruise theme) to steamboat history and the Mississippi
River itself. The
speakers were four published civil war writers and one shipboard employee. One or two
talks per day on
the Civil War army and naval forces on the Mississippi River and their important military
leaders by the
Civil War writers and one or two talks per day on the river and its steamboats by the ship
personnel.
SHOWS: Very good. Ranged from an evening with Abraham Lincoln to songs of the Civil War
era to songs
from the musical "Showboat", etc. Showed movies in a small theater on a
projection TV screen from a
VCR. No TV in rooms, but one TV tuned to CNN in the forward lounge. Four audio channels in
rooms -
three were music and one audio from the CNN TV channel. Excellent cabin attendant who
seemed to work
at least 12 hours each day. We were on the Texas deck.
BAR SERVICE: 15 percent added to all drinks. All four bars tented to be slow. Outside bar
too hot in the
afternoon sunshine. Dining room bar opened only at dinnertime. Bar above the engine room
was very
small and noisy. And one main waiting room area.
WEATHER: Average high temperature was over 95 degrees with 95 percent humidity during the
first week
of June and low temperature got as low as 70 degrees in the early morning. But no rain nor
clouds.
MISCELLANEOUS: Seem to cater to the elderly - average age of the passengers seems to be at
least ten
years older than the typical Holland American cruise passenger.
Name: matt levy
Email: phantomsax@hotmail.com
Age: 11
Occupation: student
NumberOfCruises: 1
TravelAgent: No
Ship: DeltaQueen-American
SailingDate: 7-28-00
Itinerary: wellsburg, wv
Cabin: 361,D
FoodDiningRoom: 85
CruiseDirector: 100
CabinComfort: 40
FoodRoomService: 100
CruiseStaff: 100
CabinAmenities: 40
FoodLidoDeck:
DiningRoomService: 100
CabinQuietness: 40
FoodMidnightBuffets: 90
CabinSteward: 85
ShoreExcVariety: 50
FoodVariety: 75
DeckService: 90
ShoreExcValue: 20
GoodForHoneymoon: 95
CasinoStaff:
PrivateIsland:
GoodForFamilies: 100
LoungeService: 100
TenderService:
GoodForSeniors: 100
BeautySalonStaff: 30
EntertainmentLounges: 90
WheelchairAccess: 100
ExerciseFacilities: 65
EntertShowLounge: 90
OverallPortsofCall: 70
BeautySalon: 40
EntertainmentPoolside:
CruiseActivities: 99
Casino:
AirSeaProgram:
MedicalFacilities:
ShipCleanliness: 100
EmbarkDisembark: 89
DiscoNightclubs:
DeckSpace: 100
Stabilization: 100
ShopsOnBoard: 100
SpaceRatio:
OverallCruiseValue: 99
Submit: Submit Review
Date: 31 Jul 2000
Time: 18:00:21
Remote Name: dhcp-204-210-165-062.insight.rr.com
Remote User:
Comments
hi, I'm 11, and beleive it or not, I'm the one who draged my parents! our itinirary consisted of
pittsburg, to wellsburg, to pittsburgh.
Day 1-well, here we are! a year of waiting, and even from the outside, the price already seems well
worth every penny. We decide to go in now. as you enter the first staircase, you can either take it up
two decks, or one. We decide one. as you walk in, immediatly on your left is the gentlemans card
room, and on the right is the ladies parlor. as you continue, you enter the mark twain gallery. it is rich
with wooden finiture and genuine antiques. we continue, and as we look out the window, it is hard to
explain. looking down, you are directly over the dining room. I am a paino player, for the reference.
we continue aft, and we see the pursers lobby. neat-o! beautiful, with a centerpiece of a grand
staircase. o the top level is the pursers desk, shore tours arrangements, and the gift shop. down
below, is the captains bar with a bar paino, the port lounge, and the grand j.m. white dining room. we
are still above, waiting for the matron d'. finaly, a purser comes along, and says that there is the
dining arragenments in your ticket. we are at table 65,early seating. while waiting for the BOAT to
depart, we do things like wait in the engine room bar, and go back to the parking garage (in
pittsburgh) and use our camcorder to record the boat. as dinner is about to commenve, we meet our
table partners, ones a retired carnegie melon proffesor, the other, his wife. oh, and I'm on the cruise
with only my parents.
as our dinner starts, our server is named larry love, and he's col, and we have a czecklezivokian guy
to give us bread. well, after getting a shrimp or two, a soup, some salad, some delicios salmon, and
finnalt, cheesecake. I wanted to see the boat depart with the calliope, after all, the callipe is what
attracted me to the steamboat company in the first place! the weather is too rough to leave at 730 as
planned, so we waited until 8, and from 8pm to 8am, you can't play the calliope! so there goes that
chance. the smokestacks lower, the pilot house lowers, both steam and air whistles sound, and we're
off! I didn't lnow it until we looked down the side and said that we were moving! in the river, you
hardly know that you are moving..
later that nite, we arrive at emsworth lock and dam, there alreadyb is a barge in the lock, so we'le be
waiting for a long time.
it's lready the next day, it's still storming. I decide to go tothe riverlorian chat. we were supposed to
have 'calliope capers', the riverlorian said that we could not play the calliope in the rain, I was looking
foward for almost two years to play the calliope, so heavy hearted, I walk up to the calliope bar, at
least just to watch those amazing steam pipes. then I heard the most almazing
announcement:attention steamboaters, we will be holding calliope capers in the calliope bar shortly.
my heart lept. as the guy who played the steam and iron paino approacehed, he exlamed'who ever
let a little rain stop there fun?' so I was first to play, and after pratically begging, I get to play again!
wellsburg is just around the riverbend, so just as capers finishes, we play again to announce our
arrival.
leaving swellsburg, the steam escaping the pies rappidly, we head down toward wheeling. there, we
will tie up for the night.
the next day, is just a whole day of cruising from wheeling back up to pittsburgh. this is the only day
that the calliope bar, hot dog stand, pool, kite flying,library, game room, ect. were all open. I got
specail permission that when we go through the locks, I get to play the calliope! so instead of the
usual one chance, I have plyed the calliope three times! I have a brief swim, fly a kite, try a hotdog,
make a diaroma, play the steam piano,and wacth the deck. this is the last nite, so only has the fun
began when you know that in just one morning, you will be leaving. I left light hearted, for I knew that
we are planning to go back on one of these queens again. we went on the american, now we might
be on the mississippi. bye, and please email me for more info!
Back to Delta Queen - American
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