You can actually take a cruise from Duluth, Minnesota, all the way to Antarctica. And the ports along the route include Thunder Bay, Parry Sound, Windsor, Cleveland and Toronto.
There’s never been a cruise itinerary like it before, and the 71-day cruise that starts in Lake Superior in September is only one of a series of Longitudinal World Cruises being innovated by Viking Cruises as two of its new expedition ships explore the Great Lakes.
It’s part of a long-prophesized discovery of the Great Lakes as a cruise destination. With St. Lawrence Cruise Lines’ classic Canadian riverboat Canadian Empress as a backdrop, leaders from the cruise industry association Cruise the Great Lakes predicted at an event in early May that 2023 is set to break records, with 800 port visits generating $235-million in economic impact across the international Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River waterways.
There are now 11 ships offering Great Lakes itineraries, an increase from nine in 2022, and more are on the way in 2024, the cruise association said. The totals may still be small by Caribbean cruise standards, but the 25,000 cruise passengers expected this year represent an increase of more than 20 per cent from 2022.
“Great Lakes and St. Lawrence cruising has proven to be a growth industry that brings significant value to the region’s ports,” said Dave Lorenz, chairperson of the Cruise the Great Lakes board of directors and vice-president of Travel Michigan. “More passengers, more port visits, increased shoreside spending and a growing price premium for Great Lakes cruises are the leading contributing factors.”
Ships sailing the big lakes this cruising season are Pearl Seas Voyages’ Pearl Mist, American Queen Voyages’ Ocean Navigator and Ocean Voyager, the Canadian Empress, Viking Octantis and Viking Polaris, Ponant Cruises’ Le Bellot and Le Dumont-d’Urville, MS Hamburg, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises’ Hanseatic Inspiration and Vantage Travel’s Ocean Explorer.
Viking Cruises’ new 378-guest Viking Polaris doubles the line’s capacity on the lakes, with a number of eight-day itineraries before its grand voyages between the Great Lakes and “the end of the world.” The Viking Longitudinal World Cruise I, completed its inaugural 65-day journey from Antarctica to Milwaukee on May 5. In September, Viking Polaris will embark on the Longitudinal World Cruise II from Duluth to Ushuaia, while Viking Octantis will do a similar epic journey from Milwaukee to Ushuaia. (Fares for the 71-day cruise from Duluth including business class air and shore excursions in each port are listed as starting at $64,995 per person).
Following Viking’s third Great Lakes season, Viking Polaris is also sailing a Longitudinal World Cruise IV from Milwaukee to Ushuaia in October, 2024.
Meanwhile, American Queen Voyages has two 220-guest ships, Ocean Voyager and Ocean Navigator, doing 11-day Toronto to Chicago cruises which sail in all five of the Great Lakes. From Toronto, the cruises go through the Welland Canal with stops at Cleveland and Detroit. Then a day of scenic sailing on Lake Huron to Little Current, Manitoulin Island and a visit to the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation. Another day is docked at Mackinac Island, followed by a transit of the Soo Locks for scenic sailing of Lake Superior. They head south across Lake Michigan for a final day’s sail to Chicago.
Ponant’s two ships do intriguing Arctic crossings on the way to the lakes. Le Bellot has a 14-day cruise from Reykjavik via Greenland to Toronto in August followed by sailings between Toronto and Milwaukee. Le Dumont-d’Urville has an August itinerary from Bergen, Norway to Toronto before doing week-long cruises to Milwaukee.
Pearl Seas Voyages’ 104-suite Pearl Mist is inaugurating visits to Parry Sound and Midland, Ontario as well as Muskegon and Holland Michigan this year on its 12-day Great Lakes and Georgian Bay cruises between Toronto and Milwaukee.
And family-owned St. Lawrence River Cruises, as name implies, cruises to ports in the St. Lawrence on Canadian Empress, that accommodates 70 guests on four- to seven-day cruises. Sailing between Kingston and Ottawa, its ports include, the Thousand Islands, Upper Canada Village, Coteau Landing, Lachine and Montebello, Quebec.
The Great Lakes cruise specialists highlighted that 2022 was a record-breaking year for Great Lakes cruising with nearly 150,000 passenger visits to Great Lakes ports, which is a reason Condé Nast Traveler magazine named Great Lakes cruising as one of its top 22 travel destinations of 2022.
“The total number of ships and the total number of passengers cruising on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence continues to increase year-on-year. As we travel around the Great Lakes region, we regularly encounter communities that seek more information on what it takes to be a port city for Great Lakes cruise ships and 2024 is going to be even more exciting,” predicted David Naftzger, executive director of the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Governors & Premiers at the Kingston event.
Story by Wallace Immen, The Cruisington Times
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