Port arrival and departure times

[russgrae]

Hello,

Thinking of travelling  American Steamboat Company (Queen or Countess) New Orleans to Memphis in April, 2020 and would like some advice please.

What time does the American Queen or the Countess arrive and depart at ports?

Are they generally docked all day ?

Would we have time to go on both a  paid excursion beginning 12.30 and the included tours?

Just looking for a better understanding of how the system works.

Looking forward to replies.

Russell

[TinCan782]

I've only seen that when I received my booking confirmation (twice). One of the pages (itinerary) lists the ports with arrival and departure times.

[Toofarfromthesea]

22 hours ago, russgrae said:

Hello,

Thinking of travelling  American Steamboat Company (Queen or Countess) New Orleans to Memphis in April, 2020 and would like some advice please.

What time does the American Queen or the Countess arrive and depart at ports?

Are they generally docked all day ?

Would we have time to go on both a  paid excursion beginning 12.30 and the included tours?

Just looking for a better understanding of how the system works.

Looking forward to replies.

Russell

If you haven't already I strongly recommend getting the 2020 brochure.  I found the 2019 version very helpful for our upcoming 16 day Mississippi cruise this coming August.  It gave me a very good idea of how the tours work, both the included things you access via their own hoho buses as well as descriptions of the extra cost tours.  For each port they list the attractions you can access via the hoho bus, and give a description of the extra cost tours.  You can look at the 2019 version online at their website, but they don't have the 2020 version up yet - even though I received the printed one in the mail a week or so ago.

The hoho bus is exactly what you'd expect.  They circulate around a route containing all of the included attractions.  You decide which you'd like to visit and hop off.  If there is an entry fee you show a card they give you and you get in free.  You pretty much have complete freedom.  You can use the hoho bus to just get to a certain area and just walk around, have lunch, shop, etc.  While we cruise the next port, they are driving the buses there to meet us for the next day.

You can access this page, which takes you to a page that allows you to see the premium excursions for that cruise.  You can even get a PDF of ALL of the available premium excursions.  Unfortunately I haven't found anything that shows how long the premium excursions last.  If they aren't too long you might have time to do some of the included stuff via the hoho bus.

https://www.reservemyexcursions.com/tour/groups/aq

Don't be fooled by the Book Now in the rightmost column.  People who've already booked a cruise can book their excursions here, but even people who haven't booked a cruise yet can click on Book Now and see all the premium excursions for that particular cruise without booking anything.  Unfortunately the list of cruises cuts off at the end of 2019, but I'd bet you can find a 2019 cruise with the same itinerary and port stops.

I don't know how deeply you've into it yet so I may be telling you things you already know.  This is stuff I wish I knew back in March of last year when I was planning our upcoming August cruise.  I DO have all the departure and arrival times for my cruise and since we go through Memphis and on to NO I imagine the ports are the same.  However your proposed cruise is upriver and mine will be downriver and I 'currently' don't know if that makes a difference.  Let me know if you want me to post those times anyway.

[TinCan782]

On 2/15/2019 at 6:54 PM, TinCan782 said:

I've only seen that when I received my booking confirmation (twice). One of the pages (itinerary) lists the ports with arrival and departure times.

Adding on to my earlier post...yes, the boat is generally docked "all" day. As with my previous Empress cruise and my upcoming Duchess cruise the day in port can vary from a full day (8-12 hours) or partial day (5 or 6 hours).

 

As far as doing both a paid excursion and the included hoho bus, its all dependent on the time in port, the time and duration of the paid excursion and how much time is available before and after the paid excursion. 

 

The only port times I've seen is what is included with my booking confirmation. I think that Toofarfromthesea has probably had the same experience.