In another positive step for the cruise industry’s 2021 restart, American Countess, the newest addition to American Queen Steamboat Company’s (AQSC) fleet, set sail from New Orleans on Sunday, after a celebratory christening event dockside. Godmother Angie Hack, daughter of John Waggoner, the river line’s founder and CEO, did the honors in christening the ship, a maritime tradition designed to bring the ship and all who sail on her good luck and smooth sailing.
American Countess was officially christened as a bottle of Maker’s Mark Bourbon broke on the ship’s hull. That brand of spirit is a signature American Queen Steamboat Company tradition with the bottle presented by Dickie Brennan, renowned restaurateur and New Orleans native. The christening event ashore was followed by the champagne reception in American Countess’ spacious, opulent Grand Lobby Bar.
A former gaming boat, American Countess was renovated from the hull upward at Gulf Island Shipyard in Houma, LA, and also was “stretched” with a new 60-foot-section added. Then, the ship was totally redesigned, updated and outfitted. It sports a red paddlewheel, too.
Happening now: Travel Agent is sailing on the ship this week. Our "first blush" perspective is that the ship looks totally new. Spacious, elegant and opulent at points, American Countess is akin to a boutique-style contemporary hotel rather than AQSC's more traditional, Mark Twain-era-style ambience on American Queen.
The ship can carry up to 245 passengers and 110 crew, but the line is operating the ship with less capacity right now. (Look for our slide show of ship spaces coming later this week.)
Speaking at the christening ceremony, Waggoner said, “I can’t believe we’re actually here,” noting that it had been “a long and winding road” to get to the point of sailing. Last week a clerical snafu related to the capacity numbers caused the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to deny permission for the ship to sail, but that decision was quickly appealed and remedied.
So, invited guests began arriving on Saturday, did pre-sailing COVID-19 PCR tests, stayed overnight at a local hotel and then (with a negative test result) boarded the followed day.
A visible sign of the joy of guests and crew about the cruise line's restart of service was clapping as the ship pulled away from the dock at the Port of New Orleans. Its inaugural cruise is from New Orleans to Memphis with stops at Nottoway Plantation Monday and Natchez, MS on Tuesday.
The first revenue cruise will begin on March 26 from Memphis to New Orleans.
Economic Benefits
During the official VIP ceremony at Mardi Gras World in New Orleans, Brandy Christian, president and CEO, Port of New Orleans and New Orleans Public Belt Railroad, emphasized the “phenomenal” positive economic impact—jobs and revenue—that the restart will have. She told the crowd of invited guests that 90 percent of cruise guests coming to New Orleans on ocean and river cruises are from out of state. She said 73 percent of those guests then spend one or two days on land in the city as well.
Louisiana’s lieutenant governor, Billy Nungesser, added: “This is an incredible time for New Orleans and Louisiana and I’m so glad we’re back cruising on the river. I’m sure that this cruise will help us bounce back” as just prior to COVID-19, the city and state had several years of record breaking numbers of tourists including 53.2 million people visiting statewide in 2019.
Nungesser also said that the vessels returning to service don’t only benefit New Orleans but also make “many stops along the Mississippi River,” helping other communities economically too.
Also speaking at the christening event was Christian Vaccari, executive vice president, Gulf Island Fabrications, Inc., which handled the ship stretching and renovation project. He explained that the shipbuilding facility’s oil and gas business had dried up during the pandemic and that the American Countess project had come at the perfect time. The AQSC project kept 100 shipbuilding craftspeople employed, and that number later rose to 500 workers. Vaccari also said that for every job that’s created in Louisiana shipyard, research shows that there are seven more jobs created within the state.
“It feels so good to be able to welcome guests back onboard,” said Kevin Rabbitt, CEO, Hornblower Group, AQSC’s parent company, who also spoke at the ceremony. Rabbitt later told Travel Agent and other media that what the sailing of American Countess truly represents is “freedom”—"the freedom to be back on open water."
In a humorous touch, Waggoner also told the invited guests about a conversation he'd previously had with his wife, Claudette, in which she said how wonderful the christenings had been in the past; Waggoner chuckled that he remembered them in a slightly different way. For example, he recalled an inaugural cruise for which management had to ask the motorcoach driver delivering guests to the ship to make another loop around the block as vacuuming was still under way on the ship. In another tale, he personally recalled that he was “hanging televisions” and his wife programming those TVs as guests were readying to board.
Still, Waggoner told American Countess’ guests that he could think of 15 positive threads for this christening and ship launch. Among those were plenty of time to design the vessel, having the ship completed on time and on budget, having David William Kelly's (executive vice president, AQSC) stunning interior design, creating new menu offerings and believing that no detail was overlooked on the outfitting.
“Of course, there was that little thing with the CDC," he said, a reference to the technical issue with the ship’s certification before the hiccups were worked out last week. He also mentioned the pandemic.
Overall, though, Waggoner was upbeat and excited about the restart. “As we celebrate the grand debut of the American Countess, I could not be more appreciative of the incredible team that made it possible,” he said “We listened to our returning guests’ feedback on what they would like to see in a new riverboat and created a contemporary American masterpiece that guests are eager to experience."
Restart Timing
American Queen Steamboat Company is following strict SafeCruise health and safety protocols for sailings on American Countess and American Duchess, which also recently returned to sailing on the Mississippi River. American Empress and flagship American Queen will set sail later this year.
The river cruise line requires pre-cruise COVID-19 testing, mask wearing in all public areas onboard the ship where social distancing isn’t possible, and, starting for all sailings departing July 1, 2021 and beyond, mandatory proof of vaccination for all guests and crew.
Mississippi River cruising has become one positive development as cruising slowly restarts worldwide. Another U.S. river operator, American Cruise Lines, began sailing the Southeast Coast earlier in March with Independence and also this week on the Mississippi with American Jazz.
For more information, visit www.aqsc.com.
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