4 OCT: Bookings opened at the weekend for the return of one of America’s best-known Mississippi paddlewheelers.
The American Queen.
The American Queen will be back in business from April, with new operator The Great American Steamboat Company promising a range of additional features.
"The American Queen is the largest, most opulent and grandest riverboat afloat," says Tim Rubacky, the new line’s senior vice president for sales, marketing and product development.
"We’re taking the best of the experience of the past and making it better."
The 436-passenger vessel, originally part of the Delta Steamboat Company, which shut down in 2001, was laid up after the closure of Majestic America Line three years ago.
Mr Rubacky says the vessel will offer all of the amenities that made it popular in the 1990s, from warm, antebellum decor to showboat-style entertainment that includes Dixieland jazz, swing and big band music.
"The (Delta Queen-operated) boats didn’t disappear because of the boats themselves", he says.
"The boats disappeared because of a succession of misguided management teams. They didn’t know what these boats were about."
