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Delta Queen Steamboat Company

Delta Queen

Your Rating:
Reviewed by:Vikki Williamson
# previous cruises: 5
Date of Trip: August 23, 2000
Itinerary: River Cruise

The itinerary included passing through many different locks over a 6 day period which was very interesting to learn about and experience. The scenery is beautiful in and around Chattanooga. (Go a day early and visit Rock City!) You are traveling on a real historical steamboat and the experience is like stepping back in time.

The forward cabin lounge is lovely and where a lot of action takes place. Also, there's always something going on in the forward bar like bingo and sing-alongs. Our favorite area was the Betty Blake lounge. Since our cabin opened up from the lounge, we could treat it like our "living room". Great place for playing cards,reading a book or just loafing. And the antiques are a history lesson in themselves.

There's only one dining room and, while small, it serves the purpose wonderfully. The food was good although not as good as the Mississippi Queen. Service is always great. Late night buffet is served in the forward cabin lounge. It was usually lots of chocolate treats.

The Delta Queen is the oldest and smallest of the boats. Our cabin was off of the Betty Blake lounge and therefore, quite small. It was #108 and my sis was next door. It had two twin beds whose headboards were pushed up under the big windows topped with stained glass. It had one chest of drawers and no closet - just a rack to hang things on. The bathroom was just the commode and a shower (the sink being in the cabin near the door). It was attended to beautifully.

Incidentally, there are always bouquets of fresh flowers in these cabins when you embark. We were comfortable in this cabin but since we had been on the two larger boats first, we did have to adjust a bit. Of the three, this is my husbands favorite and my least favorite boat.

The dining room is converted to the show room after dinner each night. We attended some of the shows which were fine but lacked the dancing and costumes of shows on the other riverboats. (due to limitations of space) There was a contest one night between myself and another passenger to conduct the orchestra. I won a bottle of champagne!

Every day there is some activity to keep you occupied. Building and flying kites from the Sundeck is fun. And bingo always draws a good crowd. Our main daytime activity was learning about the many locks we traversed but there were nice ports as well. We stopped in Ky. and I was able to spend the afternoon at the Quilt Museum which was fantastic. Good antique shopping all along the river.

My sister is from Cincinnati which is where this cruise ended. We found that there were lots of Cincinnati, Ohio and Kentucky residents aboard and made friends with many whom we hope to see again in the near future. We sailed the three "original" riverboats within 9 months. It seemed once we started we wanted to do them all and make comparisons.

This Sept. we are taking a Hawaii cruise with American Hawaii Classic's (owned by this same company). Then in March of 2002 we're cruising the new Columbia Queen out of Portland, Oregon which will complete our Delta Queen riverboats quest. However, I'm sure that we will return time and again. Riverboating is so much fun and so American.