American Queen to be SCRAPPED? Take a beautiful tour around the world’s LARGEST river boat!

She's the largest paddle wheel steamboat in the world and she's the largest that's ever been built. She is huge, elegant, authentic and completely unique. She's the American Queen and we've flown all the way from the UK to the Deep South to meet her and we're going to show you why you should put American Queen on your bucket list. Let's start with some stats. She's 418 feet long, 89 feet wide and 109 feet high. She weighs 3,707 tons and can entertain up to 417 guests. That's pretty big for a riverboat. In fact in terms of guest capacity she's the largest currently operating river vessel in the world. She was christened in 1995 with a two foot high bottle of Tabasco sauce at a cost of 65 million US dollars plus the sauce and you'll see straight away she's been designed to echo the classic Mississippi steamboats of a bygone age. Looking at her from the outside you could easily be admiring a steamboat from 200 years ago. In fact her very purpose is to recreate the vintage atmosphere of the classic paddle steamer voyages down the Mississippi while ensuring guests have all the modern comforts of the 21st century. So let's go inside and take a look around shall we? Rather unusually for a river vessel but perfectly normal for a steamboat you enter the boat from the front via these landing stages and up some carpeted external stairs to the front lobby. To the left of us as you enter the double doors is the gentleman's card room and to the right the ladies parlor. The gentleman's card room is full of dark musculine woods and stuffed animals which is obviously something a 19th century manly man would not be seen without. In any of his man-only rooms these aggressive macho beasts are obviously far too frightful for the gentle and delicate constitutions of a lady swoon. Of course I'm being a little bit sardonic at the way things were back then and thankfully these gender-only rooms are just for historical context. All genders are allowed in both and I absolutely love the fact American Queen have kept these rather amusing assignments intact. It adds a huge charred oak barrel of fun to the interiors. We've spent far too long here and there's lots to see so let's go through further into the boat, I still can't get used to calling it a boat, and you'll next encounter the absolutely beautiful Mark Twain gallery. A sitting room full of rich mahogany furniture, Tiffany table lamps and Mark Twain literature and artifacts. It's a fascinating meander through the era of undoubtedly one of America's most famous authors who was born and raised in the southern states. Before penning his classics, Twain was a skilled steamboat pilot himself on the Mississippi River and spent several years navigating between New Orleans and St. Louis before civil war broke out in 1861. Mark Twain was only his pen name taken from the Leedsman's cry for a measured river depth. On the Mississippi River in the 1850s, the Leedsman used old-fashioned words for some of the numbers. For example, instead of two, they would say Twain. Thus, when the depth was two fathoms, they would call by the Mark Twain. Fascinating, eh, trivia fans? Here's some more trivia. Question, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was one of the first novels to be what? Leave us your answer in the comments and we'll let you know if you're right. We must move on and I promise with less waffle. Through we go to what I call the middle lobby, a circular central area that features this grand staircase, the purser's desk and excursion's desk and the AQ Emporium, a little shop full of American Queen branded goodies. There's some nice stuff in here too. Moving towards the rear of the ship on deck two is the balcony level of the Grand Saloon, a grand theatre that echoes the ornate opera houses of the 19th century. The balcony and boxes here are generally reserved for sweet guests and we think the front most ones are open to all though on a first come first serve basis. While we're here, we're going to skip down to deck one and show you the main saloon seating area. Back up to deck two and through the back of the Grand Saloon is the engine room bar, a venue that has these large circular windows that face the huge paddle wheel which is lit up at night and gives us this fascinating and mesmerizing backdrop to the nightly musical entertainment. Let's go back through the middle lobby and down these wide central stairs to deck one and further forward from the Grand Saloon is the main deck lounge where you can listen to or have a sing along with the resident pianist and enjoy a pre-dinner drink from the captain's bar located in the corner. On the port side of the main deck lounge is a restaurant overspill area to the main dining room which is where we'll go now. The J.M. White dining room is named after steamboat captain James White who died in 1880 and as the legend goes is said to have been buried standing up facing the west bend of the Ohio River. Apparently so he'd be ready to take the helm. The menu offered showcases the varied cultural and culinary influences of the United States including Cajun and Creole cuisine overseen by American Queen's Culinary Ambassador and America's Biscuit Queen of Natchez and well-known restauranteur Regina Charbonneau. The double height ceiling here is overlooked by the Mark Twain Gallery and is the grandest we've ever seen on a river vessel. It really makes you feel you're on a much larger cruise ship. Before we leave deck one there's a rather interesting area at the very rear of the boat the engine room which is accessible via the engine room bar and is open to guests 24 hours a day. It's a really interesting area to get up close and personal to the steam generated pistons that drive that huge paddle wheel which you can also see from very close quarters out the back on the port side. Now let's whiz up the main staircase to deck three where it's mostly staterooms but in the middle is the theatre where American Queen puts on classic movies during the day. Also on deck three right at the front of the boat is the front porch cafe where you can get tea and coffee, cookies, soft serve ice cream and popcorn 24 hours a day. This is also the alternative dining venue to a sit-down meal by offering a buffet style breakfast lunch and dinner. It wouldn't be called the front porch cafe without a well front porch and this one is great if you want to dine alfresco while cruising in the warm Mississippi climate. Up to deck four and the only public space is the chart room where the resident river lorien hosts daily talks all about the history of the Mississippi and the world of paddle steamers. It's chock full of maps and charts too and is well worth spending time here. Deck five is where most of the suites are situated and will show you around the grandest of them all, the owner's suite, in a few minutes so stay tuned for that. It's worthwhile mentioning at this stage that most of the staterooms and suites on board have these open balconies onto the promenade decks. In fact most of the rooms are only accessible from these outside doors and is definitely unlike anything we've ever seen on any riverboat or ship anywhere in the world. What do you think of these open balconies? Do you prefer them to a Juliet balcony or an enclosed balcony? Please let us know in the comments. At the rear of deck five is the river grill and bar, another alfresco dining area for evening meals and sail away drinks. The sail away is always accompanied by the rather harsh melodies from the Calliope, a small keyboard attached to some steam whistles of varying sizes, effectively a steam powered whistle organ. The American Queen has 37 gold-plated whistles and they are a sound distinctive and recognizable on the mighty Mississippi for hundreds of years. Finally deck six is a sun deck which includes this lovely sunken pool area and fitness center. Also on this deck is the navigational bridge which is called the pilot house on a steamboat. So if you're lucky enough you'll be invited to tour this area and meet the captain as he explains the controls which are both traditional and modern. Now we're going back down to deck five to show you the owner's suite for which there are only two on board American Queen and they are both situated right at the front. Every single stateroom and suite on board has its own unique name and the owner's suites are no different. They are called the Captain W Lawrence Keaton suite and the Mark Twain suite which was the one we were fortunate enough to have the whole week in. Let's show you inside. Where these beautiful 348 square foot suites really shine is their vast private porches out front. These balconies are a huge 670 square feet give exclusive and private views of the front of the ship and these beautiful views of the Mississippi stretching out in front of you. We're going to be covering the Mark Twain suite in more detail in our upcoming Mississippi cruise vlog so please keep a lookout for that. In fact while you're here please take a look at some of these we prepared earlier. Thank you very much!