wandb

Does anyone know if there are laundry services on The Duchess?  And if so, what are the fees?

We  have never used laundry services on a cruise, but we are about to embark on a 3 week journey (the middle week is  aboard the Duchess) and will need to launder clothes this time. 
Thanks!!

Interesting article, and a pretty good overview for a first time riverboat cruiser on just a two day cruise. However, I don't know where she got the idea that eating in the dining room means you have to dress formally. The dining room on the Queen is beautiful, but on our cruise there was just one woman who dressed formally every night. She seemed to be having a wonderful time!  Every one else on board dressed informally every night and also seemed to be having a wonderful time!!  Some folks changed for dinner into fresh (but still very casual!) clothes. Others wore to dinner what they had worn during the day. 
 

Bob, did y'all have much smoke from wildfires (California and others) in July? I am so allergic to smoke, that I'm almost afraid to take this cruise. I had hoped that by September, the smoke would be gone, but for the last several years, it has evidently been a real problem through October. 
The friends who want to do this cruise with us want to go in late July or August. I think I would be confined to the cabin for the whole cruise!!

I'd  really like to go in early June, but wonder if it will be too cold then. 
We will also be doing the westbound cruise. 

Tell me more about the jet boat excursion. Just how scary is it?!?  😳

Thanks for the great review, Bob. You had a similar experience to ours. We loved the Queen---it's beautiful Victorian decor, cheerful and helpful staff, the fun calliope, a great cabin. I agree that the dining room servers could have used a bit more training (but maybe I was just spoiled by the service on ocean cruises.) At any rate, the food was great and the dining room was beautiful!

I think I would have given the entertainment a 5*---it was SO much better than we expected!!  And we loved getting to chat with some of the band and performers while getting snacks after the show!  So fun!  
 

We decided to try all 4 of the riverboats before cruising on the Queen again. So far we've done the Countess, the Duchess is in about 2 weeks, and the Empress next year. Can't wait to be back on the Queen!

Thanks!

Bob, how much of an incentive did AQV offer if you book onboard?  There was no future cruise consultant on board our last cruise, so we couldn't get any first hand info on that. 

What a great review!!  I’ve read every word, and you have answered many questions we had. One of my main concerns was the smoke impact from wildfires in much of the northwest. I’m terribly allergic to smoke, and yours is the first review I’ve seen that seems to address that. Do you think late September or sometime in October would be less smoky?  Will it be too cold then?

Surely hope someone can share thoughts on this. 

Barb

On 8/10/2021 at 8:00 PM, edste said:

Hi  Sorry i made a mistake on my first try.  We're Steve and Edna from Long Island NY and this is our first river cruise.  Hope we get there😄

Hi, Edna and Steve,

We never did hear hear how your cruise turned out, and I have a couple of questions. Hope you are still following, or someone else please jump in here and help. 

I’m trying to plan this cruise for next year (2023) and having a hard time deciding just when to cruise. 

—Was it too cool for this cruise by October?

—Was there a problem with smoke from wildfires?

—Did you take any premium excursions? If so, were they worth the money?

—I’ve heard that there is “spectacular color” there in the Fall. True?

Thanks,

Barb

12 hours ago, bob brown said:

We thought we could avoid being tested at the hotel check in by getting tested within 48 hours of checking in at the hotel, which we did, but at the hotel check in, they said we needed to be tested again, as it was needed within 48 hours of boarding the boat, the next day.   So we tested at home for nothing, but it at least assured us it was safe for us to fly out.  We did complete a one page health questionnaire at the hotel.   Check in went very smoothly, as we only had 138 passengers from St. Louis (Alton), to Louisville.  From Louisville to Pittsburgh, we had 258.

Thanks Bob. I forgot you were already on the first leg of your cruise when the new Covid regulations took effect on August first, so you had to test under the old rules.  Hopefully, these new rules will be successful and we can continue to cruise without the ineffective Covid testing. 
 

A lot of folks on our last cruise (in June) got Covid by the end of the cruise, and a few got it a few days later. All tested negative the day before the cruise began. 
 

I'm looking forward to this Upper Mississippi/Mark Twain cruise in 3 weeks. Just wish someone else would sign in. It's always fun to meet up with the folks we have "met" on CC. 

5 hours ago, mreasier said:

We just got off the Queen.  Loved the calliope.

We love the Queen and can't wait to be on her again.  But first the Duchess---in just 3 weeks. 
Can you tell us a bit about the procedure for checking in. Is there a health questionnaire in place of the Covid test? Or is health not addressed at all?

Check-in should be pretty quick, I think. 

Does anyone know the new protocol?  Maybe “IamAlyce” or someone else cruising this week can tell us. A questionnaire?  Sign a form that you don’t have Covid?  Something that asks if you’d ever had COVID, or how long it’s been since you had COVID?

14 hours ago, Rivertripper said:

Hi everybody,  

 

If you go to the AQVoyages website and click on "Health and Safety", you will see the following statement:  "Pre-cruise Covid 19 testing is no longer required or provided on all River Experiences (AQ, AE, AD, and AC) beginning August 1, 2022.  This applies to Rivers trips only. Check it out.

Wow!!  You are right!!  I'm not sure it ever helped "keep everyone safe"  At least 3 of the people at our dinner table came down with Covid by the end of our last cruise in June (Ohio River). All tested negative on the day before the cruise. 

8 hours ago, ericosmith said:

It's been a couple of years but when we were on the tables were assigned.  You got your table assignment during the check in process.  Hopefully someone with more recent experience will chime in.

That was our experience also on the Queen several years ago. More recently, on the Countess in June, the experience was the same. We were assigned to a table for eight, and had lovely tablemates. 

On 7/21/2022 at 7:51 PM, Sunmail said:

I talked with AQV yesterday since our river cruise starts on the 1st and no docs.  Their document vendor has gone out of business and quit fulfilling document distributions almost completely. We might still get the docs but AQV is scrambling to get some info out to passengers in email with the remainder of the docs/tags available at cruise check-in at the hotel in Minneapolis. We can use our confirmation from the travel agent to travel with.  Sounds like it will work out. 

 

This is our first river cruise so I really hope it goes well.  We are travelling with my elderly parents and this could be a great way to get them out more.

When our documents finally arrived before our cruise, I was surprised how little necessary information was included:

----a brochure on port stops

----one page of Covid protocols

----luggage tags

----one page boarding document

None of these are necessary before the cruise check-in at the hotel. I can't understand why AQV still mails them out. It would be so much cheaper and easier to just hand them out at check-in!

I hope you and your parents enjoy the cruise. We love river cruising!  You can be as active as you'd like. Some days we hop on and hop off at every stop the bus makes, some days we just ride the bus and listen to the tour guide, some days we sit in those big ole white rocking chairs and watch the river roll by!

Enjoy!

Just now, wandb said:

We are booked on this cruise and hope to hear from others who will be joining us. 
 

It will be our 3rd AQV cruise, but the first on the Duchess. 

Forgot to mention that this is from

St. Louis (Alton) to Minneapolis (Red Wing)

We are booked on this cruise and hope to hear from others who will be joining us. 
 

It will be our 3rd AQV cruise, but the first on the Duchess. 

Thanks everyone!  I think I’ll skip summer, as the heat is no friend of mine!

Here in south GA we are to have over 100 degrees for most of next week! 😳🥵

Need some help from those of you who have done this cruise. We are hoping to do this in 2023, but can't decide when!  I'd like to miss spring storms, or the bad wildfire season if possible. What has been your experience?  Is summer just way too hot?  Is there good color in the Fsll?  Just when is the worst of "fire season"?
Thanks in advance for any help or advice!

8 hours ago, ericosmith said:

In the app it shows the Shrewsbury-Windle House, the Schofield House and the Lanier Mansion in addition to the stops you mention.

The app is incorrect on several port stops. When I called AQV earlier, (about Cincinnati), she listed the HOHO stops. Very different from the app and the book received with the documents.

I think all three of those homes are closed on Monday---the day we will be there. I may try to get up a group to do a tour of 2-3 homes of whatever is available that day, but can't do that till we are aboard and meet some folks. Have not had even one response to our roll call. 

On 6/2/2022 at 3:37 PM, CruiserFromMaine said:

We’re on board now and having a fun time! Very good shows and food at dinner is also very good. Wi-Fi is not that good, some sites I can’t connect to. 
 

Any questions, let me know! 

Im excited to hear such good news!!  We are in Pittsburgh and looking forward to boarding in a day and a half!!

Did you have a port stop in Madison, IN?

when we signed up for this cruise I was so glad to see the HOHO stops--in Madison and also in Wheeling WV. Many wonderful old historic homes to tour!

Now we are skipping Wheeling (wonderful Victorian Old Town) completely and having a river cruising day, which is fine. 
But in Madison, which has the largest historic district in the US (133 blocks!!) we now touring a railroad museum, a fountain, and a saddletree factory!!

If you stopped in Madison, did they add anything to the HOHO tour?

On 5/29/2022 at 11:15 PM, ericosmith said:

If you download the American Queen Voyages app to your phone, you can view the HOHO routes for the stops for each boat.  There's a little audio file that describes what's available at each one.

What a neat site!  I’ve enjoyed listening to the tour of each of our port stops. 

However—— do not rely solely on the app. In Cincinnati, for example, there were 3 discrepancies.  Two of the stops are no longer included. Another stop has been added back on (but is not included on the app). 

When we received our documents, we received one form that said no masks were required. Included was another form that said masks were required in all public places on board as well as at embarkation. 
 

Our trusty TA called AQV immediately ( while I was still on the phone) and got that cleared up. At this time NO MASKS are required anywhere on board—- and none required off the boat (unless some port stop decides to put mask regulations in place for their town). 
 

Will pack one or two just in case!

We leave one week from today!!!  😄

Barb

Thank you for posting the maps of the HOHO stops in each port!  
 

If anyone has the Ohio River cruises maps, I would LOVE to see them!

Wonderful review!  I’m really enjoying your pictures and comments which are bringing back lots of great memories. I wish someone would do a similar posting on the Ohio River!

The sunset picture is amazing!

Thanks!  We are on our way home from a scheduled meeting in an old historic hotel (great!) and old friends will be waiting for us when we get home.  After their visit I'll have about one week to pack and get ready for the cruise!!  Can't wait!