Record-low water levels on the Mississippi River probably weren’t what the owners of the American Queen and the Queen of the Mississippi paddlewheelers had in mind for their inaugural season.
The U.S. Coast Guard and Army Corps of Engineers have been working overtime to try to dredge the Mississippi and to control traffic along the river, which is being affected by one of the worst droughts in the region’s history; at points, water levels have been too low for shipping vessels and barges to pass.
The Army Corps of Engineers forecasts that the extremely low water conditions will continue into September, according to Bob Anderson, a spokesman for the Army Corps.
“Unless we get additional rainfall,” he added.
Fortunately, the 436-passenger American Queen and the 150-passenger Queen of the Mississippi are both scheduled to sail on the northern part of the river until November and aren’t expected to experience the same problems with water levels.
In moving upriver, the ships will avoid a backlog of traffic on portions of the lower Mississippi, caused by vessels that ran aground or others waiting to pass through or be towed through shallow waters.
Rather than risk getting caught up in the backlog, the American Queen had not sailed south of Memphis to Vicksburg, Miss., in August as originally planned.
Instead the ship stopped in Memphis and had been sending passengers down to Vicksburg, or on to their pre- and post-cruise stays in New Orleans or Jackson, Miss., by bus or train.
“This is such a great year for USA river cruising, you’ve got two boats on the river, then all of a sudden you have this great drought,” said Tim Rubacky, senior vice president of sales, marketing and product development for the American Queen Steamboat Co., which owns the American Queen.
Last month in Nashville, American Cruise Lines officially christened the Queen of the Mississippi, which had been sailing several pre-christening cruises.
“At this point, we’ve basically been unaffected,” Britt Rabinovici, a spokeswoman for American Cruise Lines, wrote in an email. “We’ve been operating on the lower Mississippi for the last couple of weeks with virtually no issues.”
At the end of August, both ships were scheduled to reroute to the upper Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee rivers.
“Once you get above St. Louis, there are about 29 locks and dams that [create] a controlled pool,” said the Army Corps’ Anderson. “When you get below St. Louis, it’s open river, it’s not controlled.”
Anderson said that by the time the two ships are scheduled to head back down to the lower Mississippi, the water levels shouldn’t be a problem.
“If we can get a pretty good steady rain, it will be a big help,” he said.
As for how the low water and media coverage of the drought are affecting bookings, Rubacky said that American Queen Steamboat Co.’s reservation center is still experiencing strong volumes of between 250 and 300 calls a day.
And, he added in an interview Aug. 22, “55% of what we booked yesterday for 2012 was all lower Mississippi,” indicating that customers are not worried about future bookings on the affected portion of the river.
“We’ve had some agents call us and asking us what’s the latest,” Rubacky said. “But the general consumers, they’re not really concerned, or they’re betting that this all works itself out.”
Follow Michelle Baran on Twitter @mbtravelweekly.