7 days on the Mighty Mississippi! Our experience on the iconic American Queen

ever wondered what it's like to do a river cruise on the mighty Mississippi believe ours it's no ordinary Cruise because it's no ordinary River and we certainly weren't on any ordinary boat you're going to love what we're going to show you we travel to the Deep South to see what all the hype was about and we joined the river at the birthplace of rock and roll and finished where he meets the sea at the birthplace of jazz and we're going to show you this incredible Voyage right now as we sail on board the world's largest and arguably the prettiest Riverboat American Queen so prepare yourself for gorgeous plantations quirky Wildlife haunted mansions dark history cooking with royalty and some pretty dodgy singing let's go [Music] hello and welcome to our review of our Voyage on the Mississippi with American Queen voyages yes we have already done some American Queen content as you can see we've got a ship tour of the American Queen which is actually uh did you know this the largest bike passenger capacity rivership in the world it's a boat oh it is a paddle steamer no doubt um so that was a really hard thing to get used to saying was calling it a boat I'm not a ship but it is technically a boat it's a steamboat yeah we went from Memphis to New Orleans and stayed in some really really fabulous places on the way down but I've got to tell you now it's the most American thing I think we've ever done the Mississippi am I allowed to call it the Deep South because to us Brits that that to us is the Deep South isn't it yeah it's iconically it's iconically Deep South and the voyage we're really looking forward to do because it's just such a for us outside of the US it's it's such a sort of an iconic American thing isn't it the area and the the visuals and the and the houses and the cotton plantations and the history everything is is so American so it really kind of lit a fire in our curiosity didn't it so we were on board for a week like we just said we boarded it in Memphis but part of the package when you book with American Queen is that you have a Free Cruise Night in whichever City you're starting in so if you started in New Orleans you'd have a night in New Orleans we started in Memphis so we had our pre-cruise night in Memphis in the rather wonderful Peabody Hotel when you talk about Memphis hotels the Peabody is is the most iconic and the most famous hotel in Memphis and probably the surrounding area to be fair it's got the biggest history anyway yeah and we decided to tag on another night at the Peabody so that we had a bit of time in Memphis so we had like a full day there and the Ducks yeah the duck parade so the duck parade happens twice a day so they don't live up on the roof in a little dark Palace and the um duck Master brings the brings the Ducks down it's always cool I think so it's called the dugmaster yeah he brings the Ducks down in the elevator from the roof through and praise them through the hall and then leaves them in the fountain and then they stay there all day swimming around and then in the evening about I think it's about five o'clock he takes them back up to the little duck Palace again you've got to see it to believe it yes I can believe it actually I think there's quite a lot of history behind how why it's done and things why are there ducks at the Peabody Hotel why do they live on the roof why do they come down the elevator why do they swim in the little pool in the I mean what's it called them with the lobby the lobby the lobby so they're there and they stay there all day just sort of like kicking around and saying a lot of people it obviously attracts lots of children and lots of non-hotel residents so it gets really busy so if you really want to see it make sure that you get there nice and early and yeah it's just it's just such fun yeah also while we're in Memphis we managed to walk up to Sun Studio no there's a there's some really iconic places in Memphis isn't there without mentioning the e word yeah and the gland word at the moment well we'll go on to that yeah but while we were there we we managed well the first thing we did when we were there was we walked down to the river to see the ships where the ships dock so that was really nice and there was um the American Queen's sister was in when we arrived it was at The Duchess The Duchess was there so we walked down to that and we had a little walk along the river we walked the other way about a mile road to Sun Studio if you go to Memphis and you're a music fan Sun Studio is literally the birthplace of rock and roll yeah and you know as it was in the 50s and the 60s and and it's it's almost like a pilgrimage to go there I'm not a massive rock music fan and it was just sent chills down the back of your spine to be somewhere where Elvis recorded his first tracks and first and and he first gained attention of the the media in the world from there and it's just to be in the Very Room that oh my goodness yeah and the tours are relatively cheap I can't remember how much it was 10 20 it wasn't even that much was it um and we just rocked up and booked on the next tour and went round and it was really interesting it was weird it felt really low-key yeah for something so iconic yeah yeah and then we also spent some time on Beale Street and went to BB Kings and listened to some music BB Kings again there was sort of a cover charge to get into BB Kings I think it was ten dollars each but yeah well worth doing it was really fun is that the original place for BB Kings we're gonna have to find that out I don't know the BB King's Blues Club because obviously BB King and Memphis has sort of go hand in hand and yeah if you want to do like tourists the iconic things you know Sun Studio in the morning Beale Street in the afternoon evening I would say because in the evening on Beale Street you see all the neon signs and it just it light the whole place lights up hordes of people all out eating and drinking and it's a really nice sort of atmosphere really yeah and BB King's to us was the place to go there's lots of other famous eateries down there I suppose and shops but to us BB Kings was the one so it was a fabulous evening and then while we were at the hotel it gave us the opportunity to check in for our Voyage so everybody who is on the cruise was staying obviously staying there and we all checked in so that when we boarded the ship we literally had everything we needed so it was all done and we were giving our room keys and everything before we even boarded the ship so that was great so yeah just saved a lot of hassle the next day didn't you the morning that we were boarding there was a number of options but we chose to pay for an Excursion to Graceland so we got up that morning quite early and boarded a coach and off we trusted to Graceland if you go to Memphis and and don't bother with Graceland it's like going to New York and not bother getting off the plane basically I mean you you have to do Grace land if you're doing Memphis Yeah a whole separate video on Graceland so we'll put a link to that it is and there's one fact I remember actually Graceland is the second most visited house in the U.S after the White House it's a big thing and it's a it's obviously a big thing and a big deal for Memphis as well and that's going there having been to Sun Studio the day before and and you know Beale Street where and obviously staying in the Peabody where um Elvis signed his first contract I think so it was really nice to just do that yeah it sort of bought a lot of it together if you watch baz luhrmann's film Elvis which we really enjoyed actually and and it and it gave us a special sort of enjoyment knowing we were there there's lots of scenes in Beale Street there's lots of scenes in Graceland obviously and there's even the Peabody in there as well wasn't there so it all centers around that and it was such a boss just give me the chills thinking about it it was a it was a brilliant time and that's before we've got on the boat being in the presence of the king as they say was just it was just amazing and actually American Queen organized the tour and we all got on the coach from uh the Peabody and we all went to Graceland and then we we went straight to the ship so mid-afternoon we were boarding the the American Queen well what a delay that was I have to say at this point okay and this is this is unusual the area was going through a particularly bad Heat Wave yes the week we were there which is literally the week we were there and it's not seasonally normally that hot it was like 90 90 degrees plus every single day and the humidity was like 95 as well it was so difficult to breathe it was it was very very difficult to sort of normally enjoy the outside areas because it was so stifling that's not something that obviously American Queen have any control over and thankfully the air conditioning in the inside of the ship was amazing just don't go outside much well it should have been okay but it was just circumstance yeah there's nothing you can do about that is there so we'll start off with talking about the itinerary and generally the boat tended to leave whichever City it had been in for the day about five o'clock in the evening we'd sort of set sail and then depending on how far along the river we were going sometimes not very far at all sometimes a little bit longer we would usually dock later that evening at some point so it might be before we went to bed or it might be during the night so wherever you woke up the next morning was where you were okay so we boarded the ship and it completely different style of ships we've ever been on it's it's a it's a traditional paddle boat steamer and it's the largest paddle boat steamer ever constructed I think in the world certainly in existence today and it's a proper paddle boat steamer as well it's a proper Steamboat they have steam engines and they smoke sacks steam smoke snacks and they have a giant Paddle Wheel at the back and that's that's how it gets his motion there's no diesel engine back up it's what it is and that makes it so authentic and so lovely to do that traditional kind of root on a traditional boat going through you know a sort of an iconic route really and the the boarding on a steamboat is quite different isn't it because you board from these kind of like gangways from the front of the ship off the bow and they sort of Swing them across to land because they land near levees which is on these sort of large sort of Rises on the side of the Mississippi banks and you come out of this you come out of the front of the ship you can own this big grand staircase outside with a big red big red carpet yeah it's totally unique yeah you know and then they just plonk the Gangplank onto the onto the ground don't they and yeah I mean we've been on we've been on 50 cruises it's the most unique Cruise we've ever been on I think the most um fascinating from a historical perspective and I also just kind of like wide-eyed wonderment it's like whoa this is something else a little bit about the itinerary and then we can talk a bit about the experience of actually being on the ship just to recap we started in Memphis and went all the way down to New Orleans where did we stop just briefly we stopped in a green Landing which was sort of the gateway to Cleveland and we went to a lovely little town called Fix Vicksburg we also went to Natchez which was one of my favorites then we went to Saint Francisville Baton Rouge not away and finished in New Orleans so one stop a day one thing that really stood out about the way we stopped and the excursions and the and the destinations and everything was the way that American Queen organized the buses it's one of those little design features of a cruise that I found really unique about American Queen and actually one of the most enjoyable one of the most well organized and I I honestly don't understand why um certainly River Cruise companies don't adopt exactly the same principle and I'll explain this yeah basically the American Queen uses a hop-on hop-off bus system and it's all their own so they don't they don't get any outside in do it no the bus follows you the boss actually follows you all the way down the river yeah so they'll leave you in the night and then they'll they'll end up and I think lots of River Cruisers do that as well they use their own buses yeah so this is little which they offer this is Hop On Hop off yeah so what they do is they they give you a map at the beginning of the day which shows you all the destinations on the hop-on hop-off circuit if you like those coaches just go around that circuit all day so you're literally free just to get off with your map and American Queen will put down these stops of points of interest in the place that you're in and you will just get off at your leisure get on at your leisure you know the timetable you know when the buses are going to come it's fabulous because each day is a is a kind of like what do you want to do let's let's personalize this to our own taste so I want to do this Museum or I want to go on that and go and see that and this and the other or we can do as much or as little as you like and it's all included yeah even when you get off if it's a stop at a museum or a one of the plantation houses or that's all included so you literally just get off of the bus you walk into the museum and whoever's on the desk they will say oh are you with American Queen and they let you in they let you in it's fabulous and obviously you can walk between some of the points so if you wanted to just you know explore a bit you don't have to get on at the stop that you get off at you can walk to the next stop or you know whatever you want but they do that every single day yeah and it's fabulous and so you haven't got to wake up worrying about whether you've booked an Excursion or whether you're going to miss out on something because it's available to all and there are excursions there are paid excursions because we when we're in Natchez we did one and we'll come on to that in a little while but it's just such a fabulous way of doing it I think and you know hats off to American Queen they've really got it on Pat as well really well designed really well organized and Richard said it's really nice you can shape your day to whatever your interests are so if you're particularly interested in museums you can go to the museums if you like like music and see the whatever it is and pick out watch stops you get off at and which ones you want to miss out on and depending on where you were sometimes there would be you know a dozen stops wouldn't that the choices of things that you could do it's just really really good I know that was one of the highlights of the whole thing for me the ease of it yeah and like Richard says they were paid for excursions you know we didn't really feel the need to do that did we really there was we found that the The Hop On Hop Off gave us enough to see and do and so yeah brilliant so our first stop was a little place called Turin Landing which was just the most sort of remote there wasn't really literally nothing there it was apparently they used to use it for bringing in the fish and okay sort of an Old Fisherman's Port so not really anything there to get off and do on your own there's really only two stops one was the new Grammy Museum in Cleveland and then there was also the chance to go into Cleveland City Center and we're here at the Grammy Museum the only Grammy Museum outside of Los Angeles is put here because of all the musicians that coming from this area yeah there's more Grammy winners from Mississippi the state than any other state in America yeah who would have thought so yeah so they've built a whole new Museum which is amazing and it's included in our upon hop-off Excursion so we've got a ticket entrance so we're now going to go in and we're going to have a look around the background Museum I mean it's really hot here it's like 95 degrees today and um I don't think we're going to last particularly long are we no it's cool in there yeah let's go inside and uh see what we can show you go [Music] [Applause] [Music] that was an interesting Museum and of course it was uh Gratis as they say we just sort of rock up and say you're with the with the queen and they let you in don't they I'm with the queen incredibly quiet when we were there it was very good very good so that was that was really nice that was actually quite a lazy day but it was so hot it really came out of the museum it was like yeah we can't go into town so flipping hot there was a really good Museum there's lots of interaction things I mean I recorded a song Didn't I if you remember if I got footage of that and don't tell Helen I'll slip it in there yes I will this is the first time I've ever seen Helen do anything musical I can be deadly when I find somebody lovely and now I'm ready [Music] [Applause] anyway so that was our first day the next day we were in a lovely little town called Vicksburg good morning good morning as you can tell Helen's very excited um she's hitting all the hearing all the right notes today in Vicksburg and um yeah about to uh the mansion look back at it it's now um well it's open for tours but it's also a bed and breakfast so you can come and stay here it's really hot today though it's like 100 degrees 33 degrees 33 degrees not quite 100 yet that's about 96. I mean it's only it's 10 o'clock 10 o'clock in the morning so it's gonna get hotter so we're doing all the stuff this morning and then we're gonna race back and chill hopefully chill probably have to sit in yeah can't sit outside again all these little towns along the Mississippi it's a it's a again it's a strange area because it's very historic and it's it's quite very low-key you know there's not very big industry there or anything like that it's very very low key and all the towns are really sort of small and quaint and obviously if you're used to watching sort of American historical dramas and things like that you know it really hit home these These are so pretty but they're really important like really it was really a significant town I think in the Civil War wasn't it so it would they they said that if the north managed to capture Vicksburg that would be the end of the war because it was one of the hardest places to capture so it's really interesting so there was some we went to a couple of Antebellum mansions in the town we did and then we went to a small Civil War Museum yeah that was a private Museum wasn't it it was a private Museum and we also visited there the Coca-Cola factory do yeah that was a strange thing that was the first bottling Factory of Coca-Cola ever they used to sell Coca-Cola from fountains or soda fountains didn't they no one actually could buy it in bottles or cans or anything like that there was a guy invented a method of bottling the Coca-Cola made an absolute blooming for June didn't it because he was like the first person he and of course the rest is history that was our day in Vicksburg in Vicksburg now the next day you reckon is the highlight of the week for you probably my second highlight but we'll come on tonight your highlight highlight your highest highlight yeah and this was a place called Natchez yeah which was a beautiful little little town absolutely beautiful yep now we met somebody called Chef Regina and she is the culinary Ambassador for American Queen voyages and we were lucky enough to be invited to her kitchen which is based in Natchez it's a High Street Kitchen I mean it was a gorgeous little place actually and we learned how to make American biscuits it's a queen she's called the biscuit queen of Natchez isn't she yeah and she's been on TV and she's written loads of books and uh she's like a celebrity Shepherd isn't she and by biscuit where was he talking American biscuits or custard cream we're not talking like cookie biscuits we're talking like that we would call them scones they're very similar to Scott I mean I would say they've got the DNA of a skull yeah they're not the same as a scum but they're what you have with what they call gravy which is like a white sauce yeah and yeah Americans watching won't be sound like we're weirding out by by it's perfectly normal for you I apologize because gravy here is kind of brown and savory and yours is like white and creamy yeah but every morning on on the boat we I would have um biscuits and gravy sometimes the gravy has like chopped up bits and sausages in it we're teaching Americans to suck eggs but to the Brits it's you know all the chopped sausage and then we learned how to she she talked us through her secrets and making the perfect biscuit and there was about eight of us and we all holding the biscuits in the way that she's now that was a chargeable Excursion wasn't it yes that was a chargeable one so it's one of the very few that we would recommend actually because it was such an enjoyable time and it was really sweet because the bin men came past and she went out there with a plate of biscuits and uh they all stopped and they all came over and at their biscuits and apparently she does that every week yeah and she she's like I mean it's not usually the biscuit queen of matches I think she's the queen of Natchez such a lovely lady she's so generous and kind and actually came on the boat later in the afternoon to do that sort of demonstrations on on the boat um in the theater so that and I went along I loved her so much I just went along to that as well in the afternoon but yeah yeah that was interesting and then because of where her kitchen was right in the heart of the Town by the time we'd finished with her sort of late morning we still then had a chance to go and wander around the town and it was lovely perfect weather really for it yeah beautiful houses so we visited a couple more of them some little the gardens that was a lovely day beautiful beautiful place and how do you follow that well we went to a place called Saint Francisville and we started off in a uh like a was it a plantation it was an iodine Plantation so yeah it was an old iodine Plantation it was a little bit out of the town again this is one of those places where we actually had to drive quite away and that just we'd sort of been right in the heart of the town he we had to sort of drive a bit of the way and the plantation was on the outskirts yes yes and little did we know when we did the tour that it is one of the most haunted houses in the whole of the US it's got quite a gruesome really gruesome not nice at all you need to go there and actually learn the history of the place and and the way they tell it because they they don't perform it they make most of the atmosphere and actually it's very chilling indeed yeah they were brilliant they really make a drama it was really cool it was a drama yeah it was one of the more as we went to so lots of people off of the ship as well on that tour so and I was kind of like half expecting when we came back and saw our footage there was going to be something in the background thing there that we hadn't noticed before that chills the marrow in our bones but while we were waiting for that tour do you remember while we were waiting for that tour we were invited into the kitchen I mean they you can stay in this Plantation if you wanted to if you were some sort of person that likes haunted house you could stay there I wouldn't so they have this beautiful like Cafe Restaurant thing with it which they let us go into and have a cup of coffee in that before our tour started and there's that most delicious bread and butter pudding with little pots are pudding bites it's delicious so I'm sure if he stayed there you'd get fed very well although you'd be scared witness and you won't eat anything I have no appetite what was that you can have no appetite and from there we then went into the the town itself in Francisville which was just the quaintest little I know what is it with these towns they are so beautiful and the gardens and everything is so well kept there's not many people live around there at all you know only a few thousand quite incredible isn't it really I mean for me it was just like being on the set of a of a movie The Way We Do Verandas and rocking chairs and just how you imagine it to be and it was just so beautiful it was it was either Bridgeton American version or or something out of a horror film by Stephen King so all I could think of when we were walking through these towns there's like Forrest Gump Forest it was just so Forest Gumpy gumpy uh are you getting a pattern here this is just a it's just such a interesting itinerary even though you're not doing many um escorted tours or Planet excursions Because the actual destinations themselves are so interesting to us I mean we've had comments on our YouTube channel and that that from people from the areas and from the sort of south of uh of the US saying it's not really interesting at all you know the Mississippi is the most boring place ever as well if you're not from there you know all you know is from films and movies and history and because the history is gruesome and grisly and horrible but to us it's absolutely fascinating but to the locals it's like I don't even know what are you here you know it's such pretty pretty towns to us so I suppose they're quite unusual so yeah they are yeah so that was um day five I think and then before then we went on to Baton Rouge Baton Rouge one of the larger places yeah which is the capital of the the area and we went through so many states didn't we we did we did actually I can't remember what state we're at now with Baton Rouge no it could be anything couldn't it I don't think it was Mississippi no I don't think it was the Mississippi we'll put it up in the captions yeah but it was the capital of whatever or whatever Capital whatever the coach took us around the city lots of huge kind of impressive buildings actually do we go in the library there or a museum there yeah and it was opposite like capital building and right really big and Grand actually so yeah that was a very interesting quite a lot of um significant sort of governmental yes history and Baton Rouge so lots of statues and like Richard says the Capitol building which was really impressive okay our last full day actually was a place uh well I I did they see save the best plantation house to last yes do you think so in your opinion and we were docked at the notaway plantation which is just over the Levee so it's actually walking distance from the ship no coaches that days good morning from Nottoway mansion and it's the last full day of our cruise and uh we've got a treat today look we're not having to walk yes and we have been offered a buggy ride up to the mansion how cool is that they've got these uh golf carts that they bring out um every stop and um basically uh people that are not quite able to do the walkie bit uh they get uh this rather lovely luxurious ride to uh to where they need to go so I feel so lazy so we're in the Mansion now and we're being dropped off by our personal chauffeur and we're going to take a look around so um thank you for that thank you so much thank you you went on the well we both went on the tour didn't we but you you did slightly more than I did in terms of the tour because you wanted you wanted to act out your little Southern fantasy of standing on a balcony yeah so again the tour was created by this guy that was a beautiful Storyteller yeah lots of stories about the house and I've got to say these houses are full of people in Period costume and they're all volunteers and people are just so in love with the history and they want to communicate it to visitors they're great people they're so friendly and they've all got this really rich Deep South accent haven't they and because they've got their kind of period costumes on as well and there's so few that the houses it obviously you know getting old now and they're made of wood and this so they cost so much to maintain and there's actually not many of them left in really good condition so this was a beautiful massive house massive Gardens beautiful Verandas I mean like Richard said I said to the guy when he'd finished our tour can I there was a window you had to lift to go out onto The Veranda I said can I just go and stand on that veranda and pretend like I'm scarlet and we have to take this point Helen loves Gone With the Wind right but we're very respectful of the past that that was the thing about the tour they were very sympathetic they were to the slavery and the and the cruelty and everything so the thing that they acknowledge and let it be forgotten they need to preserve the slave houses and the accommodations and the plantations themselves because people need to they need to realize how bad it was for millions of people one of the places we went to we went to that Rural Life Museum you could actually look at the slave accommodation yeah yeah you could see how awful it really was which you can see on the pictures we are overlaying now yeah you have to learn about the dark history I think that was one of the things that most surprised me about this Voyage actually was how much history we sort of learn and just pick up along the way just from visiting all these places and yeah and you know the significance of them in the Civil War and in freeing slaves and Plantation history everything it was just such an interesting place so that was a highlight for me it was just a beautiful Plantation and apart from seeing two snakes in the garden which we won't go into um because I'm terrified of snakes never seen Helen run so fast it was um especially in that heat just a beautiful house and the guide was just the most entertaining man and again you can stay there so yeah yeah that's true he showed us some of the sort of bed and breakfast rooms oh yeah the bedrooms actually because they're all they're actually very in keeping with the American Queen steamship they were very of the of the period yeah when I sort of restored them yeah they had the for the mass Old Masters of the house so this was the master's bedroom and this was them you know so they were all sort of themed which was lovely I had a poke in quite a few of them when noodle gone off so when you were bored with the tour well no it's just just indeed oh well I was sweet talking the man to let me out onto the balcony oh my good yeah I thought I'm done with this she can make a fool of herself I'm just gonna walk away I didn't go as far as asking them to borrow a costume that would have been fun I thought about it but see what I have to live with oh and then yeah and then the next day we arrived in New Orleans so we docked very early in New Orleans it was an interesting sailing it had been interesting watching the river change as we approached New Orleans it had come from being very very rural to more industrial and as we approach New Orleans between Nottoway and New Orleans it just completely changed it's incredible it just became more and more back into the 21st century as you went down the river down to the atmosphere like a time machine magnificent storm didn't we though we did it was beautiful yeah lightning over the river yeah it was um it was it was there was a dark Beauty about it as we obviously then stayed in New Orleans well we couldn't go all that way without staying somewhere so famous and so iconic having a look around yeah to be honest as New Orleans was our disembarkation port and as such wasn't part of the included American Queen voyages experience we're releasing 24 hours in New Orleans as a separate video and we'll leave a link at the end when it's released anyway if you want to know more about the American Queen obviously look up the American Queen online but watch these videos next because these are the ones we've done before and we think they're great and thank you to American Queen for inviting us on we had a fabulous time we had a wonderful time thank you American Queen voyages and yeah watch these next to continue your journey on the American Queen goodbye for now bye

Channel: Visit With Us (Rich and Helen)

Views: 187,908

Keywords: visit with us, american queen steamboat company, mississippi river cruises, mississippi river cruising, american queen (ship), american queen, mississippi river cruise, american queen steamboat, american queen voyages, american queen voyages reviews, american queen steamboat tour, mississippi river cruise on the american queen, mississippi river cruise review, lower mississippi river cruise, american queen ship tour, american queen cruise ship, aq voyages reviews

Id: snbQkzAtekE

Length: 32min 38sec (1958 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 13 2023