Fresh cruise destinations
The next cruising hot spot is closer than you think: Get ready for more ships on the Great Lakes
When it comes to hot new cruise destinations, the Great Lakes are living up to their name.
This veritable freshwater ocean — boasting 11,000 miles of shoreline, including islands — is attracting a lot of attention lately from cruise ship companies wanting alternatives for passengers who may be tired of pingponging around the Caribbean or who loathe to make a long flight across the ocean for a European voyage.
Great Lakes cruise operators are bulking up their brochures with additional trips this season, and lines that bailed on the area years ago are headed back. Industry experts expect companies that have never plied Great Lakes waters to come on board in the near future.
“I’m extremely excited about what’s happening,” said Dave Lorenz, chair of Cruise the Great Lakes, a new international partnership aimed at bringing more cruise passengers to the region. The initiative was announced last summer on Michigan’s Mackinac Island, a popular port of call on Great Lakes itineraries.
“The best thing about it is that these are not 4,000-passenger ships that destroy the experience for people who live there,” said Lorenz, vice president of Travel Michigan, the state’s tourism arm. “You look at places like Venice or Barcelona, and they’re actively fighting to keep out the huge cruise ships. In our case, you’re talking a couple hundred people per ship. They get to see this is a pretty stunningly beautiful area, and it opens the door for them to come back later on.”
Ships, of course, are no strangers to this charm bracelet of five inland seas, a gift from the glaciers that, when measured by total area, make up the world’s largest source of fresh surface water. Mark Twain and Charles Dickens both wrote glowingly of their 19th century Great Lakes voyages, a form of transportation that eventually gave way to automobiles and airplanes.
“There was a pretty good industry in the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, and then it just vanished,” said Chris Conlin, president of Great Lakes Cruise Co., Michigan-based travel advisers who charter ships for Great Lakes trips. “We started back in the late ’90s, during a rebirth of passenger cruising on the Great Lakes.”
Most of Conlin’s clientele hails from the Sun Belt.
“They look at the Great Lakes almost as a foreign destination,” he said, noting that the sentiment is accurate, given the shared shoreline with Canada.
Great Lakes trips hold a special appeal to Midwesterners too. Getting to and from the ship is quick and easy. And even though the area might be right out the back door, it’s big and varied enough to pack plenty of surprises.
“Many people in the Midwest have never heard of Georgian Bay, for example,” Conlin said, referring to Ontario’s massive aquatic playground off Lake Huron. “It could be a sixth Great Lake all to itself. The sailing is spectacular up there.”
One segment of the market that Conlin doesn’t see much of on Great Lakes cruises: families with young kids.
“The ships are small; they have to be to get through the locks, so there aren’t a lot of onboard activities for children,” he said. “This is more of an educational, experiential trip than it is fun-in-thesun.”
Passengers must be at least 14 years old to cruise with Blount Small Ship Adventures, whose two sister ships — the Grande Caribe and Grande Mariner — hold 84 passengers each on BYOB voyages.
Blount’s best-selling Great Lakes itinerary goes from Chicago to New York, a 16-day trip that features four Great Lakes and the Erie Canal. Blount also runs an eight-day loop around Lake Michigan, beginning and ending in Chicago’s Burnham Harbor.
It added a new trip this season that sails from Chicago to Montreal, hitting four Great
Lakes over 14 days on the water.