It’s been a long time coming, but Great Lakes cruising is back. And the experience is different than you might imagine.
On a nine-day cruise from Toronto on Ocean Voyager, guests visit Niagara Falls, Cleveland, Detroit, Little Current, Mackinac Island and Sault Ste. Marie before the cruise ends with a sail down Lake Michigan to Chicago.
You’d think an itinerary like that would mostly appeal to folks who have never visited the American heartland. But you’d be wrong.
Most of the guests boarding Ocean Voyager in Toronto are Americans and Canadians doing a cruise close to home , says Isis Ruiz, American Queen Voyages’ new chief commercial officer, who guided a preview of the ship for a small group of visitors at the start of its inaugural sailing. The embarking passengers had mostly arrived in Toronto a day early for a complimentary stay at a downtown hotel and a sightseeing tour. The must-sees on a tour of Toronto these days: Casa Loma, Queen’s Park, the CN Tower, the Distillery District and the whimsical dog fountain at Berczy Park.
The typical guest for a Great Lakes cruise is a veteran cruiser—often someone who has done river cruises in Europe, Ruiz says. And that’s a pretty close comparison to life on the 202-guest Ocean Voyager. The daily routine of shore excursions, enrichment lectures in the lounge and complimentary wine and beer with lunch and dinners, is remarkably similar to river cruising. And in fact American Queen is also famous for its journeys aboard paddle-wheelers in the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.
The four-deck ship has a retro feel with its paneled public rooms and design of a coastal steamer from the 1930s, when passenger ships were still a thing on the Great Lakes. The furnishings and curtained windows give the interiors a country inn feel. It’s an easy step out to a promenade deck to view the ever-changing passing scene.
The ship was actually built in 2001 as the Cape May Light and it later sailed as the Victory 1. Refurbished and renamed in 2021 it’s now owned by Hornblower Group, which operates American Queen Voyages. An identical sister ship Ocean Navigator is also in the Great Lakes, doing cruises that include Lake Superior.
After a daily cocktail hour, it’s time for dinner. And how’s the food? If the preview in the Coastal Dining Room is any indication, you’ll be as well fed as on any ship on river or ocean.
The menu features four signature dishes every evening along with a list of comfort choices always available. After a salad of fresh Ontario greens, I chose the herb crusted Black Angus tenderloin with scalloped potatoes and received one of the most tender and succulent slices of beef I’ve ever encountered. And for dessert there’s a menu that includes an irresistible chocolate lava cake.
As on European river ships, the house wines and beers are complimentary with meals, as are a selection of shore excursions at each port. Premium tipples and special interest small group tours are available at extra cost.
We’re docked with a multi-million dollar view of Toronto’s skyline, although the dock is at a place about as unlike Toronto as you can find within the city limits: the southwest corner of the Port Lands is currently a construction zone in the process of being totally redeveloped into a new community.
If this season is any indication, Toronto is going to need a more substantial cruise port in the future. After a two-year pause, Great Lakes cruising is back with more cruise ships and passengers than ever.
Nine ships are cruising on the Great Lakes in the summer and fall of 2022, including American Queen Voyages, Pearl Seas, Ponant, St. Lawrence Cruise Lines, Ponant, and, for the first time ever, Viking Cruises.
The number of passengers on Great Lakes cruises will be up by more than 25 per cent from pre-pandemic 2019, according to David Lorenz, Chair of Cruise the Great Lakes, the region’s cruise marketing program.
“Great Lakes cruising makes travel easy, with no need to pack and unpack here. Travelers will find great value and a quality experience where someone else can do the driving,” he says.
Later this fall, Ocean Voyager will do Montreal to Boston and Boston to Saint John, N.B. cruises before heading to a winter season in Florida, sailing from Jacksonville.
Story by Wallace Immen, The Cruisington Times
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