American Queen Interior Cabin -- "Worth" the Savings?

[Oak Hill Cruisers]

Looking to book our first river cruise on the American Queen (New Orleans to Memphis).  Considering the interior cabin.  Looks a little small at 130sf.  Brochure photo does not show much of the cabin or show a floor plan.

 

Is there room in the cabin for a sofa or chairs with a coffee table?  Just wondering if the interior cabins are so small that it won't be worth the savings in fares and detract from the river cruise experience.

 

Thanks in advance for your comments & suggestions.

[cowmilker]

From what I could see on Youtube videos, the inside cabins are very small.  No, no room for any sort of table or chairs.  It looked smaller than any inside cabin we've had on a large cruise ship.

That said, we're booked in one for December 19.  It was a BOGO free deal, and it's only for a week (seven nights in that cabin). We'll be fine.  I didn't even price an upgrade, so I have no idea what the "savings" was.  There are lots and lots of tables and chairs elsewhere on the boat, and it's a shore day every day.  I doubt we do anything in the cabin but sleep and shower.

[adstz]

Recently off the American Queen (Memphis to New Orleans). We had a cabin on deck 3 with open veranda. This just means you sit outside your cabin on a public deck. I measured the width of the cabin (using my arms) and found it was about 8 feet wide. The bed is a queen and we had about 5 feet from the end of the bed to the outside doors.

I saw inside one of the interior cabins when they had the door open and they appeared a little smaller than what I had.

You have to be efficient with the storage of your items. There is a free standing closet and a reproduction secretary to use for storage. Not much room at all.

These have to be the smallest cabins for the price anywhere.  

 

[Calliope]

There's definitely no room in an inside stateroom on the AQ for a small table. There use to be a small chair or seat in the inside rooms when the boat came out in 1995, but I'm not sure that there is one now in each room.  With that being said my next two trips booked on the AQ are in an inside room due to the heavily discounted fare offered.

[blubberwon]

10 hours ago, Oak Hill Cruisers said:

Looking to book our first river cruise on the American Queen (New Orleans to Memphis).  Considering the interior cabin.  Looks a little small at 130sf.  Brochure photo does not show much of the cabin or show a floor plan.

 

Is there room in the cabin for a sofa or chairs with a coffee table?  Just wondering if the interior cabins are so small that it won't be worth the savings in fares and detract from the river cruise experience.

 

Thanks in advance for your comments & suggestions.

If space in your cabin is important to you, the inside room will not be for you. If you spend more time around the ship including the show, listen and dance to the music, enjoy the peaceful cruise up or down the river, and only use the cabin for sleeping and showering then this will be ok. Unless, you get a Jr. Suite and above, you will not that much more room. One good thing about the inside cabin is that they accessed from the interior of the boat, which I like.

[LDVinNC]

The website and the brochures give the square footage of the different categories of cabins.  The inside cabins I have seen from just walking around are VERY small.  The bed takes up most of the floor space.  I personally would not be happy with an inside cabin.  As others have said, even the outside cabins are not spacious, but at least there is some room to move.

[Haysiedaze]

On the Queen now. I saw a category B "balcony" with the queen bed a bureau and a closet. There is no storage, our friends are living out of their suitcases. An inside cabin is even smaller. I wouldn't consider anything below an A category unless you plan on spending no time in the cabin.

[Oak Hill Cruisers]

Thank you all for your comments & suggestions.

 

We're now looking into considering the American Countess (153sf interior cabins) and the American Duchess (150sf interior cabins) which may be a little better than the 130sf interior cabins on the American Queen.

 

Having a writing desk and even only one chair would be nice.

[Calliope]

1 minute ago, Oak Hill Cruisers said:

Thank you all for your comments & suggestions.

 

We're now looking into considering the American Countess (153sf interior cabins) and the American Duchess (150sf interior cabins) which may be a little better than the 130sf interior cabins on the American Queen.

 

Having a writing desk and even only one chair would be nice.

Honestly, I would make my first trip on the Mississippi River on a genuine paddlewheel steamboat. Although paddlewheelers the AMERICAN DUCHESS and COUNTESS are not real steamboats, and the U.S. Coast Guard requires stricter manning arrangements on steam powered vessels. There seems to be more entertainment onboard the larger AMERICAN QUEEN than what was offered on the AMERICAN DUCHESS in July.  Also the decor on the AMERICAN QUEEN is more charming and evokes the days of riverboat gamblers and hooped skirted belles. I found the AMERICAN DUCHESS to be rather sterile and even cold. The AMERICAN QUEEN offers charming public rooms to sit inside and watch America go by, and the DUCHESS does not. The other suggestion that I would make is to think about the outside staterooms on the Cabin Deck. They are one category up from the inside rooms. Each has a bay window which depending on the room has either a shelf at the base of the bay or a nice little alcove to place your chair and watch the river. Actually, those are my favorite rooms.

[ericosmith]

13 hours ago, Haysiedaze said:

On the Queen now. I saw a category B "balcony" with the queen bed a bureau and a closet. There is no storage, our friends are living out of their suitcases. An inside cabin is even smaller. I wouldn't consider anything below an A category unless you plan on spending no time in the cabin.

I guess it's a matter of expectations and how heavy you pack.  We don't travel light and were just fine with a catagory B cabin.  Of course at the time there was a larger price difference between the two catagories.

[LDVinNC]

We were in a B category room last time - I think it was 415.  It had a built in chest of drawers just outside the bathroom door.  A closet was on the other side of that door.  We were in that cabin for 21 days and felt we had enough storage.  The cabin layouts are NOT identical within categories.  

 

We have been in B, C, A, AA and AAA (I know they have changed the names of the categories) and only the C was a bit too tight for our comfort.  B's are our favorite due to  price, size and location.