Cruising returns to the Great Lakes with the Viking Octantis
Great Lakes cruising is back in Milwaukee.
The Viking Octantis docked at the Port of Milwaukee May 6, marking not only the first cruise ship to visit since 2019, but also the first Viking ship and the largest cruise ship to ever dock in the city.
Polka music from an accordion player greeted 307 passengers as they disembarked for various excursions around the city, from tours of local breweries to birdwatching at Schlitz Audubon Nature Center.
“These international cruises are offering more freshwater tourists a glimpse into what makes the city of Milwaukee so special,” Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said at a press conference after welcoming the ship with other local politicians and tourism representatives.
“It’s our scenic beauty, it’s our amenities, it’s our businesses, it’s our popular destinations, it’s our art, our music, our culture, it’s our history,” he said. “It’s our commitment to stewardship, and it’s our commitment to environmental sustainability of the Great Lakes.”
Viking has made efforts to make its ships more sustainable, too. The Octantis exceeds the International Maritime Organization Energy Efficiency Design Index requirements by almost 38%, according to Viking.
This is the first year the cruise line most known for its European river cruises is offering Great Lakes itineraries, including three eight-day trips that start or end in Milwaukee. One of those, Undiscovered Great Lakes, will make an additional Wisconsin stop at the Apostle Islands in Bayfield. Another tour, the 15-day Great Lakes Collection tour from Duluth, Minn., to Toronto, skips Milwaukee but makes a stop in Algoma.
The 665-foot Octantis is the largest cruise ship to sail the Great Lakes and dock in Milwaukee, which is becoming a more popular cruise destination. Fourteen ships were scheduled to dock in the city before the pandemic struck in 2020, up from 10 the previous year and two to four ships in the years prior. This year, 33 ships are scheduled to bring 10,000 passengers to the city, up from 1,000 in 2018.
In December Conde Nast Traveler magazine named the Great Lakes one of the 22 best places to go in 2022, with a specific mention of cruises and Milwaukee as a port city.
Other cruise lines that sail on the Great Lakes with stops in Milwaukee include Ponant, Plantours and Pearl Seas. Hapag-Lloyd, which previously docked in the city, will not be cruising the Great Lakes this year but is scheduled to return in 2023.
In 2020 Pearl inked a deal with the Port of Milwaukee to make it a turnaround location for ships through at least 2030. The lease provides priority docking rights at Pier Wisconsin, the dock immediately east of Discovery World downtown, with a guarantee the Pearl Mist will use the turnaround point — i.e. beginning or ending cruises in Milwaukee — at least five times per year. This year Pearl is offering sevenday and 11-day cruises between Milwaukee and Toronto.
The additional benefit of being a turnaround point is the potential for passengers to extend their trips with extra nights in the city, which could mean additional business for local hotels, restaurants and other tourist destinations.
“We’re anticipating that cruise passengers will have a growing impact on Milwaukee’s economy for many, many years to come,” Johnson said.
That impact is estimated to be between $2.8 million and $4 million annually, according to Peggy WilliamsSmith, president and CEO of Visit Milwaukee.
“As we all know, travel plans have changed drastically these past two years, but we are back with a strong demand, and cruises are leading the way for us today, proving passengers and tourists are eager to set sail once again,” she said at the press conference. “With multiple experiences just minutes from our vibrant, walkable downtown, Milwaukee is an ideal destination for a stop for Great Lakes cruises.”
Inside the Octantis
The Octantis, which gets its name from the South Star, Sigma Octantis, took its maiden voyage with passengers in Antarctica in January. The ship then made its way up to New York City, where it was officially christened by its ceremonial godmother, Norwegian explorer Liv Arnesen, who in 1994 became the first woman to ski solo and unsupported to the South Pole. Finally the ship cruised through the St. Lawrence Seaway for this cruise, its maiden voyage on the Great Lakes.
While bigger than other Great Lakes vessels, the 378-passenger Octantis is still smaller than other cruise ships that can carry thousands of passengers. Most passengers are from North America, either the U.S. or Canada, with some Brits and Australians, according to the cruise line. And its target clientele is clearly older and less rowdy than some other cruise lines.
Quiet comfort is the theme on all Viking ships, including the Octantis. You won’t find any water slides or rock climbing walls here.
But you will find other familiar cruise ship amenities, on a smaller, quieter scale, designed for colder destinations like the Great Lakes and Antarctica. That includes three small pools of different temperatures (hot, warm and cold), accessible via a swim-through from an indoor sunning deck with a retractable glass roof. There’s also an outdoor terrace with heated, sunken couches around gas-powered lava rock fire pits.
Inside, the seven-deck ship features multiple restaurants and bars, one in a two-deck lounge at the bow of the ship with double-height windows dubbed the Explorers’ Lounge. There’s also an auditorium with walls of windows overlooking the stern of the ship, and a Nordic spa with a small pool lined by windows and chairs for relaxing and taking in the scenery.
Stateroom décor — along with the rest of the ship’s décor — reflects Viking’s Nordic heritage, with simple, elegant lines, and lots of wood and neutral tones. Bathrooms feature glass-wall showers and heated floors. All staterooms are on the exterior of the ship, and each has a Nordic balcony, essentially a window that opens halfway with a small ledge for wildlife viewing; binoculars are provided in-suite.
Wildlife is a theme throughout the ship, with digital displays changing based on where the ship is sailing. In Milwaukee, that meant a hallway lined with images of white-tailed deer. A display of fake stuffed birds also changes with the ship’s location to match the native wildlife; for the Great Lakes, that means a bald eagle, loon, sandhill crane and other native birds.
The cruise line’s Norwegian roots shine throughout, too, including the theme of hot and cold, a staple of Nordic saunas where you follow a hot sauna session with an icy cold dunk, either in a lake or snow. The Octantis’ Snow Grotto, a small room in the spa where manmade snow literally falls from the ceiling, provides a spot for that dunk. The ship’s three pools of varying temperatures continue the hot-cold theme.
More touches of Norway throughout include a rock art display that resembles a Norwegian knitting pattern, and traditional Norwegian Marius-weave blankets in staterooms. The ceiling in the two-deck Explorers’ Lounge features constellations, a nod to the Viking explorers who used the stars to navigate. There’s also Norwegian cuisine, of course, in Mamsen’s restaurant, named for the cruise line founder’s mother, Ragnhild “Mamsen” Hagen, and serving things like waffles, open-faced sandwiches and split pea soup.
Guests will also find Italian, sushi, and other global cuisine options, but there are no black-tie dinners or whitegloved waiters. Viking cruises are as well known for what they aren’t as what they are, laid out in a section of “no’s” in the 2022 brochure: no children under age 18, no casinos, no umbrella drinks, no “nickel and diming,” i.e. additional charges for certain amenities.
Great Lakes excursions
That includes at least one complimentary excursion at each port of call. In Milwaukee, three excursions are available for no extra charge: a fourhour tour of the city, a tour of the Grohmann Museum, and a tour of three historic churches finished off with a stop for a chocolate treat. Other excursions with an additional charge include Bikes & Beer, with visits to the Harley-Davidson Museum, a brewery and a brat house; a kayak tour on the city’s rivers; two excursions to Schlitz Audubon; a guided art walk through the city; and an excursion to two breweries and a distillery.
A local business helped organize the excursions, along with those at other ports of call. For the past three years, Theresa Nemetz, owner of Milwaukee Food & City Tours, has worked with Viking to plan excursions for its Great Lakes cruises as part of a new business venture called Great Lakes Shore Excursions.
“I’m just so honored and thrilled that Viking has put not only Milwaukee but the Great Lakes, and the beauty of the Great Lakes and its wonderful nature opportunities as well as the many attractions and restaurants, on the map,” Nemetz said at the Octantis press conference.
In Bayfield, a stop on Viking’s Undiscovered Great Lakes cruise from Thunder Bay to Milwaukee, that beauty is on full display on various excursions through the Apostle Islands, from a complimentary kayak tour of the world famous sea caves to a sailing adventure through the archipelago.
Bayfield was not part of this cruise, Niagara & the Great Lakes. Milwaukee was the final port of call for this trip, which began in Toronto and stopped in Port Colborne, near Niagara Falls; Point Pelee, Ontario, the southernmost point in mainland Canada; Detroit, with a complimentary excursion to the Henry Ford Museum of Innovation; Alpena, Mich., near the Thunder Bay National Maritime Sanctuary that protects 200 shipwrecks; and Mackinac Island, the no-motor-vehicles island between Michigan’s Upper and Lower peninsulas.
From Milwaukee, the Octantis turned around and headed back to Mackinac Island for the first leg of the Great Lakes Explorer cruise, which travels to Georgian Bay, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in Ontario; the Soo Locks between Lake Huron and Lake Superior; Silver Islet near Sleeping Giant Provincial Park in Ontario; and ends in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
Next year, another new Viking ship, the Polaris (named for the North Star), will join the Octantis on the Great Lakes.
More information: Viking requires all guests be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, receive a negative test prior to leaving their home country, and take another PCR test aboard the ship on the day of embarkation.
Prices for Niagara & the Great Lakes cruise offered by Viking start at $5,995 per person. The cruise is sold out for the rest of this season. Staterooms are available for all 2023 cruises, with the first one departing April 28, 2023, from Toronto.
There is still availability this year aboard other Viking Great Lakes cruises, including Great Lakes Explorer, which starts in Milwaukee, and Undiscovered Great Lakes, which ends in Milwaukee. Prices for those cruises start at $6,495 and $6,995 respectively.
For more on Great Lakes cruises from Viking, see vikingcruises.com/expeditions.
Contact Chelsey Lewis at clewis@journalsentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter at @chelseylew and @TravelMJS and Facebook at Journal Sentinel Travel.