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If your idea of steamboats was formed by watching Jerome Kern's "Showboat", you are in for a very pleasant surprise. These recreated paddlewheel steamships, with their Victorian furnishings and ante-bellum spirit are the real thing. And a voyage on one of the three Delta Queen ships offers a delightful alternative to today's modern bling-bling, those giant glitzy floating hotels.
The American Queen we recently took up the Mississippi from New Orleans to Baton Rouge is the world's largest, and she looks like a beautiful white wedding cake, except for the red paddlewheel in the back, puffing the steam which powers her.
She's also bigger inside than she looks, and her six gleaming gingerbread decks stretch 418 feet, allowing plenty of room for the 436 passengers. That's good news for claustrophobics who hate the cramped quarters on some ships.
The American Queen is also an excellent choice for those who suffer from seasickness since there are no waves or rocking decks on America's rivers.
This is a perfect "starter" cruise, since the Mississippi is calm and as flat as the states that it goes through. "In 25 years, only one person has ever gotten seasick on one of these boats," said Captain John Davitt of the American Queen.
Another reason to choose this ship: the Delta Queen Line is offering a 3- or 4-night riverboat cruise with the rest of the week in New Orleans. The land part of the package includes a choice of some of New Orleans finest hotels, such as the Fairmont Hotel where we stayed, right in the heart of town near the French Quarter.
Those taking the package also receive free admissions to museums, and special tours and classes such as the voodoo, or graveyard tour, or Cajun Cooking classes. Daily breakfast is also included ashore, along with two dinners at your choice of top New Orleans restaurants like Dickie Brennan's Steakhouse, Emeril's, and or G.W. Finn's.
The three day cruises stop at Vacherie, Louisiana (where you can see the famous Oak Alley and Laura plantations) and Baton Rouge, where tours range from Cajun Heritage Tour to the Angola Prison.
The four-day cruises continue up the river to Natchez, Mississippi, so pretty that Lee once said of it that it was "too beautiful a city to burn."
Back on board, there are non-stop lectures, movies, documentaries, drawing lessons, sing-along in the Paddlewheel Lounge, bridge, kite flying, excellent shows (from Broadway to Banjo) in the two-deck Grand Saloon, culinary demonstrations, line-dancing, and for the athletic, a small swimming pool and fitness center.
The food is plentiful, varied - and excellent. For dinner you can have a lobster, or filet mignon, or Cajun specialties like seafood gumbo, crispy fried oysters, or Bayou Stuffed Catfish. The service is superb, perhaps because all crew members are English-speaking Americans.
It's a whole different and beautiful world on America's rivers, and Delta Queen Lines has been doing it better and longer than anyone else There's nothing quite like Steamboatin' on the rivers of America's Heartland.
Gliding along at a stately 8 mph, enjoying a Margarita on the Mississippi, and listening to a real calliope playing in the background, your mind has time to wander-back to a time when life was a bit slower and more genteel, when these mighty rivers served as America's natural "highways," and an elegant paddlewheel steamboat was the epitome of travel.
Unlike voyages at sea, there is always something passing by your stateroom patio, and there's a constantly changing landscape a few yards away.
So, imagine yourself on a rocking lounger outside your Victorian stateroom, as you watch the world pass by, you start thinking that nothing has changed on this river--except for all those tankers and tugboats that weren't there in Twain's time.
DELTA QUEEN
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