Qestions on cabins

[hondorner]

Have no idea what kind of smoking they allow, as I never went out on that porch. It's quite small, at the far aft corner of the boat, and the onoly way any odor would get to any of the cabins would be if the boat was backing up as fast as it goes forward! You have to go through the Engine Room B ar to even get to the "smoking" porch. I saw only one many go out on to the porch, and I couldn't tell whether he was smoking or not.

 

As Calliope said, all other exhaust goes through the stacks. when folded down for clearance, the boat is about 55' above the water, but when the stacks are upright it's something like 93' (from memory), so the stacks are more than 40' feet above the highest point on the boat. Even when the stacks are lowered fro clearance under bridges and high tension wires, I never detected any odor, and not even very much smoke. The boilers for the steam engine burn clean fuel oil (both for safety and enviornmental reasons) and the diesel engines that power the generators are exceptionally clean burning.

 

Diesel technology has come a long way. I drive a European diesel van which emits no smoke or odors, and is so quiet that when idling, folks don't even know it's running. Europe has made a major commitment to diesel, which is actually more environmentally "green" today than many gasoline engines! The diesel engines on American Queen are just like those on larger cruise ships; they run at a constant RPM to drive electric generators; the resulting electricity is what runs the Z-drive proplusion when they're in use.

[gillianrose]

I'm glad to hear about the smoking area being small and far away and also about the smokestacks not emitting odor close to the deck of the ship and the general lack of Diesel odor (except where it was mentioned, and I will avoid that area).