QUEENS OF THE MISSISSIPPI: CAPE GIRARDEAU RIVERBOAT DOCKINGS SLASHED FOR NEXT YEARS

Calliopes played, a sweaty band belted out a jazz tunes and tourists crowded the streets of downtown Cape Girardeau on Tuesday.

More than 400 passengers left the Mississippi Queen riverboat after its morning docking here, and brought their purses and wallets with them. That boat pulled away at 1 p.m., just as the American Queen and her 300 passengers approached for more of the same.

But such scenes will be rare next year, when the Queens reduce their stops from eight to one. A local tourism official estimates it will cost downtown businesses at least $165,000 in revenue.

The Delta Queen and the Mississippi Queen, which compete in the annual New Orleans-to-St. Louis Mississippi River Race, will stop here July 3, according to Lucette Brehm, of the Delta company's New Orleans office.

"We don't see any other dockings at Cape Girardeau, but that could change," said Brehm.

The Delta Queen Steamboat Company, which owns three paddlewheelers -- Delta Queen, Mississippi Queen and American Queen -- is changing to seven-day cruises for its three steamboats. The boats will bypass some of their regular stops under the new format.

The loss of the seven additional dockings will be an economic jolt to the community, said Terri Clark-Bauer, director of the Cape Girardeau Convention Visitors Bureau. Passengers purchase a number of items while dockside, including jewelry, nautical merchandise, books, tobacco and antiques.

"Three passengers had to see a dentist while they were here Tuesday," Clark-Bauer said.

The boats also attract townspeople down to the riverfront area.

The new seven-day schedule will also result in cutbacks at Paducah, Ky., on the Ohio River, where the 2002 schedule for the Queens has been cut in half, from 16 to 8 dockings.

The American Queen, largest of the paddle wheelers in the Delta Queen Steamboat Company fleet, at 418-feet long with a 400-plus passenger capacity, will return to Cape Girardeau Friday.

Queen and R/B River Explorer dockings are expected to bring as many as 4,000 visitors to Cape Girardeau this summer.

The R/B River Explorer, a floating hotel and touring vessel headquartered in New Orleans, already has set its 2002 schedule and will return to the area about eight or nine times next year, said company spokesman Jeff Kindel. The vessel will make about nine stops here this year.

Meanwhile, the Delta Queen Steamboat Company officially moved its corporate headquarters to Miami on Tuesday, leaving an operation office in New Orleans, La., former corporate headquarters.

DOCKING SCHEDULE

2001 boat dockings in Cape Girardeau

* July 13: American Queen, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

* July 18: Delta Queen, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

* July 27: River Barge, 4 a.m. to 2 p.m.

* July 30-July 31: River Barge (overnight), 6 p.m., 6 a.m.

* Aug. 9: River Barge, 4 a.m. to 2 p.m.

* Sept. 10: River Barge, 3 a.m. to 1 p.m.

* Sept. 19: Delta Queen, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

* Sept. 27: River Barge, 1 a.m. to 2 p.m.

* Sept. 30-Oct. 1: River Barge, 6 p.m., 6 a.m.

* Oct. 9: Delta Queen, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m..

* Nov. 16: American Queen, 1 to 5 p.m.