River cruise ship returns to Astoria

Published 4:00 pm Sunday, January 31, 2010

Astorians will see a familiar sight on the riverfront later this year: the paddlewheel cruise ship Queen of the West is back in service, and will once again carry passengers on river cruises that include stops in Astoria.

American Cruise Lines (ACL), based in Connecticut, purchased the vessel last year. The Queen of the West is one of several paddlewheel ships that once belonged to now-defunct cruise line Majestic America. The company stopped operating on the Columbia River in 2009.

In past years, the Queen was often docked at the 17th Street Pier next to the Columbia River Maritime Museum (CRMM).

Travelers on such cruises have typically taken shore-based excursions to local attractions like the Astoria Column. CRMM, Fort Clatsop and Cape Disappointment.

Bruce Connor owns Astoria’s Sundial Travel & Cruise Center, and is cruise marketing director for the Port of Astoria. He said river cruise boats that call on Astoria have a strong impact.

“Surveys suggest that passengers spend about $75-$80 per couple per day when they are on shore,” he said. “Because of their frequency they do almost as much business as the blue water ships.”

Connor said the renewed presence of the Queen of the West on Astoria’s calendar is a bonus for regional tourism.

“It’s very helpful for me in marketing Clatsop County as a destination – now you have river tours and blue water ships,” he said. “It’s nice to be able to say we are that popular.”

The Queen of the West is a U.S. flagged cruise ship that, according to ACL, is currently the only “authentic” paddlewheel overnight passenger vessel operating in North America.

According to the ACL Web sire, in 2010 the company will offer seven-day Columbia River cruises beginning in August through the end of October. In 2011, cruises begin in April and run through mid-November. Cruise fares range from $3,395 to $5,985, according to ACL’s Web site.

Meanwhile, the fate of the rest of Majestic America’s paddlewheel fleet is less certain. Perhaps the most famous is the historic Delta Queen, which formerly operated on the Mississippi River. The 80-year-old ship was taken out of service in 2008 after its Congressional exemption from fire safety rules expired. The Delta Queen is on the National Register of Historic Places, is also a National Historic Landmark.

Delta Queen fans have been lobbying Congress to extend the exemption and allow the Delta to continue operating, and the ship’s current owner, Ambassadors International (the parent company to Majestic America) is seeking a buyer who will return the ship to the water.

In the meantime, the ship has been leased to a Chattanooga, Tenn., entrepreneur who plans to run it as a floating hotel. The terms of the lease require that the ships wood and brass interior and machinery be left intact.

The 174-passenger Delta Queen was built in 1926, and was the last traditional steamboat carrying overnight passengers on U.S. inland waterways.

Two other former Majestic America paddlewheelers, the Empress of the North and the American Queen, were put up for sale in 2008 by the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD).

MARAD acquired the two vessels, which carry a combined debt of over $65 million, after Majestic America defaulted on a federally guaranteed loan made under Title XI of the Merchant Marine Act.

The program has guaranteed more than $5.6 billion in ship construction and shipyard modernization costs since 1993, but has experienced several large-scale defaults over the past few years.