Entering a riverboat cabin that shall be my cruise residence for per week is at all times thrilling. When I opened the door for stateroom 505, I knew I might be fairly snug right here.
American Queen cabins have names and mine is the Julia Belle Swain Suite. Built in 1971, the precise Julia Belle Swain was a beautiful 149-passenger steam-powered sternwheeler. The riverboat was used within the 1973 movie “Tom Sawyer” and the 1974 movie “Huckleberry Finn.”
The Julia Belle Swain has since moved across the nation and final I heard she was up on the market in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. The worth is slightly below $1 million for those who’re .
Back to my American Queen cabin, it’s a lot bigger than I anticipated. The décor contains old school flowered wallpaper, Victorian-style furnishings and historic images on the partitions.
The principal room has two twin beds with a nightstand in between, a dresser with a flat-screen TV overhead. Under three stunning stained glass home windows are a chair, a loveseat and a beautiful dresser.
The Julia Belle Swain Suite aboard the American Queen.
Off the bed room is a small cubby with cupboard space and an additional sink with a big mirror over it. Next room is the closet, extra cupboard space and loads of hangers.
The lavatory has each a bathtub and a bathe with robust water stress and loads of sizzling water. The cabin options air-con and warmth controls, in addition to a transom over the entrance door. It is good to sleep with the transom open for contemporary air and the sound of the paddlewheel.
A pleasant contact was a complimentary steel water bottle with the AQ Steamboat Company emblem. The bottle was a superb memento however its principal objective was for passengers to make use of the steel container as an alternative of plastic bottles. Sensor-activated water machines across the boat provide filtered water for refills.
Complimentary water bottle for passengers. Filtered water for filling steel water bottles.
Outside the cabin are two chairs and a desk to take a seat and watch the river circulation. This is just not a personal balcony however appears to be as a result of different passengers are normally elsewhere on the boat or off the boat in the course of the time we use our out of doors seating.
Seating space outdoors our cabin.
The American Queen has 222 cabins unfold out over six decks and might accommodate 380 passengers and 172 crew members. Our cruise had 150 passengers and 147 crew, in accordance with the purser’s workplace.
8 Night – Memphis to St. Louis – American Queen
Our cabin is cleaned each day with a turndown every night time together with a chocolate mint and a replica of every day’s “Daily Voyage” e-newsletter. The double-sided e-newsletter comprises a wealth of data – when the eating room and Front Porch café serve meals, hours when all of the providers are open, when the boat will dock in every river city and what time the boat will depart.
The entrance web page of the e-newsletter options details about the day’s shore cease and about crew officers. Information concerning the numerous cities alongside our cruise route is fascinating. For instance, do you know that the identify “Memphis” means “place of good abode” and that by 1850 Memphis was the biggest inland cotton market on this planet?
The reverse aspect of the “Daily Voyage” e-newsletter is a precious itemizing of the day’s actions aboard the boat. For instance, Riverlorian Chris Wistey offers day by day river chats within the Grand Saloon and is offered in the course of the day to speak with passengers within the Chart Room.
A little bit of folklore I realized from the Riverlorian involved the outdated saying about getting “off on the right foot.”
“The superstition was that one should always get on or off the boat with the right foot first for good luck,” she stated.
Good to recollect. Now I’m off to be taught extra to share with you.
Riverlorian Chris Wistey.
Photos by Jackie Sheckler Finch
Ed. Notes: See cruises right here:
American Queen Voyages Cruises
8 Night – Memphis to St. Louis – American Queen (cruisecompete.com)
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