I have written before on the pleasures of a leisurely paddleboat cruise along the Mississippi River, chugging along at a stately 4 miles an hour as America’s heartland slips slowly past your stateroom window or balcony.
It saddens me to report that the single most authentic example of this timeless American travel experience – the 80-year-old Delta Queen – is about to embark on its final season.
For 80 years, the Delta Queen has been the elegant grand dame of a cruise boat, equipped with teak handrails, brass fittings, an ironwood deck, Tiffany-style stained glass and that giant spinning red paddlewheel at the back. Its landings are still sounded by the very bell that was on the steamboat Mark Twain rode downriver in 1883.
The Delta Queen is a true piece of American history, a registered National Historic Landmark, and the last original steamboat still offering overnight cruises in America. It was built in 1926 with a steel hull and wooden superstructure – and therein lies the problem.
The Coast Guard has long since prohibited ships with wood structures to sail the seas due to fire safety issues.
Six times within the past 40 years Congress has seen fit to grant this singular ship an exemption, but lawmakers declined to extend the exemption when it came up for consideration again last summer.
This means that once the current exemption expires in November 2008, the ship will no longer be allowed to carry overnight passengers. (What will happen then is anybody’s guess; its sister ship, the Delta King, has for years been moored as a floating hotel/restaurant in Sacramento.)
The Delta Queen staterooms are filled with handspun patchwork quilts, wood-shuttered windows and other antique appointments that have graced the rooms since they were new.
However, there are only 88 of those staterooms available – and only 33 sailings left between now and next November. These range from three- night round-trip cruises along the Ohio River from Cincinnati to Louisville, Ky., starting at $810 (for imminent sailings; come next May, the price is $1,499), up to a grand 14-night cruise all the way from Cincinnati to New Orleans starting at $3,999.
Some sailings will be reserved for previous Delta Queen guests, so if you want to travel on a piece of American history, it would be wise to make your booking soon with the Majestic America Line (800-434-1232, majestic ).
Other big paddlewheelers of the Majestic America Line – the American Queen, the Columbia Queen and the Empress of the North – also sail the rivers of America in every month other than January and February. And the giant, 436-passenger American Queen is a stunning vessel. But the Delta Queen is special.
