RIVERBOATS TO STOP HERE NEXT YEAR

The river steamboats Delta Queen, and Mississippi Queen will make one port call each at Cape Girardeau during their 1993 cruise season, a Delta Queen Steamboat Co. official said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the company says it is going to build a third steamboat that's scheduled to go into service on the inland waterways by mid-1994.

The Mississippi Queen will make one stop at Cape Girardeau next Aug. 27, and the Delta Queen will make a port call on Oct. 11, according to Lucette Brehm, a spokesperson for the steamboat company.

"Both boats are scheduled to dock at Cape Girardeau at 9 a.m. on the dates of their arrival," she said in a telephone interview from company headquarters in New Orleans. "They will depart at about noon."

It will be the first visits of the two boats to Cape Girardeau since 1991. Last year, the steamboats did not make any local port calls.

Brehm explained the company tries to vary its cruise itineraries because many of the passengers on the steamers are repeat passengers. "We try to vary the steamboat schedules each year so there will be different port calls along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers," she said.

Although the two steamers will only make one port call each, Cathy Crites of Cape Girardeau's Convention and Tourism Bureau isn't disappointed.

"Any stop either one of the steamboats makes at Cape Girardeau is a good stop. It's always good for the downtown area and for Cape Girardeau," Crites said. "If it were left up to the passengers on the boats, I think they would stop here all the time, because we really show everyone on the boat a good time while they're in Cape Girardeau."

The Delta Queen will make its port call on a Saturday. "That (Saturday arrival) opens some possibilities for us. We can plan some special events for the passengers and the people who come downtown to see the steamboat," Crites said. "Any time one of the steamboats comes to town, everything in the downtown area takes on a carnival atmosphere."

Currently, the Mississippi Queen and Delta Queen are the only overnight, passenger-carrying steamboats operating on the inland waterways. That's about to change.

Delta Queen Steamboat officials announced plans recently to build a third steamboat. The company says the new steamer "will be the biggest, most elaborate paddle wheel steamboat ever seen on America's rivers."

The new steamer will be 425-feet long, from bow to stern, six decks high, and accommodate 420 overnight passengers. The projected cost of the vessel is between $50 and $60 million.

Delta Queen Steamboat Co. President Patrick Fahey said the huge paddle wheeler will be the first new steam-powered riverboat built in America in nearly 20 years.

Fahey also noted the design of the new steamboat will also resemble more closely the golden age of the river steamboat.

"We made the decision to incorporate what is basically 19th century technology in the design of the new boat because it's true to our company's river heritage. We're the last living link to the golden age of steam," he said.

Al Luthmers, head of development for the steamboat company, says say the new steamer will include all of the modern comforts associated with a deluxe ocean cruise ship. However, the boat is modeled on the classic steamboat palace described by Mark Twain in his "Life on the Mississippi," and pictured by Currier and Ives in the famous New Orleans-to-St. Louis race of the Natchez and the Robert E. Lee.

Bids for construction of the new steamboat are scheduled to be opened shortly, and a contract will be awarded before the end of this month.

When completed, the new steamer, temporarily named the "Belle of America," will join its sister boats, the 416-passenger, Mississippi Queen, and the 176-passenger Delta Queen. Company officials say both steamers have operated at 96 percent occupancy rates for the past year.

The new steamer will increase the company's passenger capacity by 70 percent.