John Waggoner is taking a Victory lap. The CEO of Victory Cruise Lines says its inaugural season on the Great Lakes was a race run from a literal standing start, but Victory lived up to its name. He’s confident lessons learned this year will make the 2026 season even stronger.
It was a great year, considering the rush to get on the market, Waggoner told a shipboard event in Toronto before Victory 1 set off for a fully booked fall color cruise to Chicago. He bought the two 216-guest ships in 2024 and had just a year to upgrade them and set up a sales team and website before the first cruise in April, 2025.
Victory missed getting group business, which is often booked more than a year in advance, but there’s a lot of interest from groups for 2026, Waggoner says. There was also no promotion in Canada and internationally, so guests in 2025 have been predominantly from the United States. They basically aimed at a data base of U.S. clients from Waggoner’s previous venture, American Queen Voyages.
That’s changing in 2026. With 29 stops in Toronto and great access by air, Victory will be focusing more advertising on the Canadian market. They’re also looking into potential tie-ins with sports and particularly the FIFA World Cup matches coming to Toronto next summer.
Waggoner thinks the current political situation isn’t going to deter travel, and should make the Great Lakes a stronger option to travelling overseas. He’s heard from a number of guests who had originally planned to travel in the Middle East or Eastern Europe this year, but changed their minds.
The 2026 itineraries will be similar, with a focus on nine-day Toronto to Chicago itineraries including all five Great Lakes. Toronto is always a crowd pleaser, along with Chicago, where the ship docks at central Navy Pier. Port Colborne with tours to Niagara Falls, Cleveland for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Detroit for its architecture the Henry Ford Museum get high marks from guests.
Mackinac Island–where the ships are able to dock while larger Great Lakes cruise ships like Viking Cruises have to anchor and tender ashore– was a highlight, as was Sault St. Marie for the Soo Locks and its industrial history, Waggoner noted.
However, Escanaba, Michigan “was not a headline city,” Waggoner admits. Milwaukee will be a more regular stop in 2026, with optional tours to the Harley-Davidson “motorcycle vault.”And longer 14-day round-trips from Chicago will become seven-day trips from Chicago to Thunder Bay and return.
The last five trips of the season are sold out this year and in fact, the two ships are already heavily booked for the fall of 2026, because “everyone wants to see fall color,” he added.
The season will also be longer in 2026. The schedule this year had Victory 1 and Victory 2 only operating for seven months. A change in the winter is the ships are going to sail to Jacksonville Florida for layups to do painting, engine maintenance and upgrades to cabins when the season is finished. In the fall of 2026 there will be a chance to sail three segments: Chicago to Toronto, then along the St. Lawrence Seaway to Maine and then an 11-day itinerary down the U.S. coast to Jacksonville. There are also plans for round-trips from Jacksonville before the return to the Great Lakes in April.
Itineraries aside, guests (including me) consistently give rave reviews to the attentive crew and the gourmet dining on board. With a crew of 90, the ship can give personal attention and prepare gourmet menus in two dining venues that match the offerings on premium ocean- going ships.
So expect to hear more from Victory. It’s just boosted its marketing team with Paula Michaelides as director of marketing, joining marketing director Carolina Loreto to share responsibility for strategy and execution.
She brings more than 20 years of marketing experience, including consulting for Virgin Voyages launch and as assistant VP global marketing at Royal Caribbean International. Michaelides and Loreto will jointly focus on brand positioning, digital and direct-mail initiatives, advertising, communications and social media. In partnership, they’ll also develop and implement travel advisor and consumer marketing campaigns.
Story by Wallace Immen, The Cruisington Times
