After pandemic shutdown, the cruise ship industry is booming on the Great Lakes

Scott Kidd and his wife had always wanted to go on a cruise. But the 63-year-old Episcopal priest from the rural mountains of Georgia wanted something different. He wasn’t really interested in the Caribbean ocean liners that carry several thousand people at a time, and the pandemic made travel to other countries difficult.

Then, two years ago, Kidd stumbled upon a Viking Cruises announcement. The company was building an entirely new ship — one designed specifically for the Great Lakes.

“We thought ‘Well, we could go on an ocean cruise, a typical ocean cruise like everybody goes on,” Kidd said. “Or we can do something just a little bit unique and explore the Great Lakes.”

So Kidd booked the cruise, monitoring the progress of the ship as it was built, outfitted and launched. He followed it as it made its inaugural journey through the Arctic before arriving in the Great Lakes this year. In June, Kidd and his wife boarded in Milwaukee and toured the lakes, wending their way to Toronto. Kidd said it was an exciting first for the ship and for him and his wife.

Even though this is Viking’s first year on the Great Lakes, commercial cruising has been slowly expanding in the lakes the past decade, with the exception of the initial pandemic years.

However, 2022 may be setting records, with nine cruise ships setting sail this season, four of them new ships making their inaugural trips through the locks and into the lakes. Each ship will make numerous calls at the ports that surround the lakes. Port Milwaukee, for example, is expecting 33 port calls this year compared with the 10 stops made in 2019, the year before cruises were halted due to COVID-19. And the port is planning a multimillion-dollar renovation to match.

Although only two cruise ships stop in Chicago at Navy Pier, both owned by American Queen Voyages, a Choose Chicago spokesperson said the city hopes “to welcome other cruise lines as well” and is looking forward to seeing more growth in the Great Lakes.

Meanwhile, other cities and ports scattered along the lakes are taking the lead, investing millions in this developing source of tourism, whether that means increasing the docking capacity of ports or building new customs facilities to accommodate passengers as they traverse back and forth across the Canadian border.

With this increased traffic, many are also hoping the environmental impact of cruising, which has a poor reputation for stewardship in other regions, is limited.

Joel Brammeier, president and CEO of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, a nonprofit that advocates for the lakes, said environmentalists and cruise companies have a mutual interest in preserving the Great Lakes.

“The idea of increasing or diversifying the uses of maritime in the Great Lakes toward more sustainable uses and ones that are focused on the importance of keeping the water clean, keeping our Great Lakes beautiful, making them wonderful places to visit are all good things,” he said.

Investing in cruising

While cruising in the lakes has been going on since as early as the 1920s by some accounts, contemporary cruising began picking up in 2014.

Before the pandemic, interest in domestic cruising had been rising, said Chris Gray Faust, the managing editor of Cruise Critic, a cruise ship review site.

With COVID-19 and an aging baby boomer population — a large portion of cruise customers — domestic cruises became even more appealing. “So they looked for places close to home, maybe places they hadn’t been. It made sense that cruising would evolve on the Great Lakes,” she said.

People were asking their cruise lines to expand into the Great Lakes, and a number of cruise lines were obliging, Faust said. Meanwhile, some port cities began working with cruise lines to make themselves more hospitable for passengers.

Port Milwaukee has positioned itself as a top destination for cruise ships, making deals with several cruise lines to be a “turnaround city,” meaning passengers start and end their journey there. In February, Port Milwaukee received a $3.5 million grant to expand its docks to hold the largest ships that can fit in the lakes.

Port Milwaukee Director Adam Tindall-Schlicht said the city is expecting 10,000 tourists from cruises this year. Since Milwaukee is a turnaround city, some might come a day early or stay a day after they disembark, meaning a higher economic impact.

Other Great Lakes cities like Cleveland and Duluth, Minnesota, are also investing in the cruise industry and hoping to grab a slice of tourist dollars. Both opened new customs facilities this year.

Passengers on Great Lakes cruises pay a hefty premium for the experience. But the revenue to the ports themselves is minimal, said Port of Cleveland CCO Dave Gutheil. The real value is to the extended Cleveland area and tourism industry.

On average, each passenger will spend roughly $150 on shore, according to Gutheil. With 36 stops planned in Cleveland this year, and each ship holding roughly 200 to 400 people, the spending adds up.

“It’s more about selling Cleveland and promoting Cleveland as a tourism destination than any revenue that we would derive from the business,” Gutheil said.

At the Port of Toronto, another major turnaround city, the number of cruises coming to the city more than doubled between 2018 and 2019 with 36 port calls. In 2022, 40 port calls are scheduled.

“In 2019, we saw a lot of growth,” said Jessica Pellerin, spokesperson for the Port of Toronto. “I think that made the pandemic even more disappointing for the cruise industry, given the incredible decline that we saw in those two years. But back to 2022, this year an even higher number of ships are expected.”

In Chicago, city boats and dinner cruises are prioritized, according to Rebecca Yackley, the director of trade and economic development for the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corp., a U.S. Department of Transportation agency that has been promoting the cruise ship industry in the Great Lakes.

A sister company to American Queen Voyages operates dinner cruises out of Navy Pier, said spokesperson Michael Hicks, which gave them an in with the pier, although only on weekdays so far.

On Thursday afternoon, as guests boarded the four-story Ocean Voyager cruise ship, crew members greeted them with warm smiles and a complimentary glass of champagne.

Constructed in 2001, Ocean Voyager can hold up to roughly 200 travelers. Inside are several dining rooms offering food around the clock and a wooden bar with an area for live performances.

Jason O’Keefe, senior director of marketing for American Queen Voyages, said although the cruise ship is smaller than some ships, it offers a level of intimacy others may not.

“It’s not like you’re in a hotel and people pass by each other day in and day out,” O’Keefe said. “For nine to 14 days the crew gets to know the guests by name, and the guests get to know each other well.”

Bob Simon, 70, and Amy de Rie, 61, traveled from Seattle to embark on the Ocean Voyager for a nine-day journey across all of the Great Lakes, with excursions including museum visits, a Mackinac Island carriage tour and a Motor City Highlights tour in Detroit.

No strangers to domestic cruises, the pair said they went on a “fabulous” cruise on the Mississippi River and were looking for a similar experience.

“I will say these inland cruises, whether it’s this one, the Mississippi, or the Columbia River on the West Coast, tend to the older community,” Simon said. “There are no rowdy parties or casinos.”

Although they have enjoyed cruises as far away as the Mediterranean Sea, de Rie said they did not want to leave the country because of COVID-19.

“I’m originally from Minnesota, but I hadn’t otherwise been to the upper Midwest so I’m excited to be able to get a little taste of these great American cities like Cleveland and Detroit,” de Rie said.” “I’m also looking forward to learning about the history, the culture, and the environment and ecology of each of the Great Lakes.”

Invasive species threat

As more ports court cruise lines, environmental advocates wonder about the safety practices in place to protect the single largest freshwater system in the world.

According to Yackley, a ship that passes through the St. Lawrence Seaway, which connects the ocean to the Great Lakes, will cross the U.S.-Canada border 27 times. Ships must meet numerous safety and environmental requirements to traverse the lakes and have to be able to navigate the seaway’s 15-lock system to get to Lake Erie.

“I comb our sister agencies to make sure that all those boxes are being checked off before that cruise ship comes into the Great Lakes,” Yackley said. “If we don’t get it right, they’re not going to come back.”

The U.S. Coast Guard oversees enforcement of safety and environmental regulations in the Great Lakes.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency notes five streams of potentially hazardous waste and discharge produced by cruise ships: bilge water, which collects in the lowest part of the ship’s hull and may contain oil, grease and other contaminants; graywater, from showers, laundries and kitchens; ballast water, taken in or discharged to maintain stability; and solid waste, including food and garbage; and sewage.

In the oceans, cruise ships are legally allowed to dump much of this waste, treated or not, within certain parameters. But there are more regulations governing the Great Lakes, and regulators and environmental groups want the water and biodiversity of the lakes protected as the industry grows.

Large parts of the U.S. portions of lakes Michigan, Superior, Huron and Ontario are classified as “no-discharge zones.” In these zones, no effluent like sewage or waste can be discharged. Ballast water treated in an approved water treatment system, however, can be released in these zones.

According to Coast Guard External Affairs Officer Lorne Thomas, the discharge allowed outside these zones, when properly treated, is physically and biologically similar to that of water treatment facilities along the shore. The Coast Guard has regulations that require different classes of vessels to have filtration systems on board.

Ballast water is notorious for carrying pollutants and invasive species as it is water carried from place to place to stabilize ships with light loads. The water is typically released once the ship reaches its destination and takes on cargo or passengers, releasing any species that traveled inside. Ballast water has introduced highly invasive species like zebra mussels to the Great Lakes, which have caused massive upheaval to the native ecosystem. Scientists, politicians and advocates are trying to prevent the introduction of yet more invasive species to the lake system.

“A lot of damage has been done, unfortunately,” said Brammeier. “The job now is to make sure that we prevent any more new species from getting in.”

As long as cruise ships comply with regulations and work sustainably, Brammeier said he is optimistic that they can “avoid some of the damage that we’ve seen in the past.”

The St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corp., which maintains some of the waterway’s facilities and encourages the development of trade, now conducts a ballast water inspection program that seeks to eliminate further introduction of such dangerous species from incoming ships.

Still, Brammeier said, there is a lot of work that needs to be done to limit the spread of invasive species both from the ocean and, once they enter the lakes, from being spread within the lake system.

Cruise the Great Lakes, a consortium of cruise lines, ports and tourism groups, released a sustainability pledge signed by 12 ports and visitor bureaus and two cruise lines, Pearl Seas and American Queen Voyages. It focuses on stewardship, emissions reduction, recycling and wastewater management.

“A combination of goodwill and voluntary commitments with strong and fair regulation is the way to go. We’ve shown that in the Great Lakes, without clear and fair regulations, we have some problems” Brammeier said.

Great Lakes appeal

For Yackley, turning the Great Lakes into a cruise ship destination has been a goal for the 22 years she has been on the job.

The entire industry took a massive hit during the pandemic, when cruising was completely shuttered in many countries, including the United States and Canada, but it is once again surging.

But who are these people who want to cruise the Great Lakes? What is the appeal over more tropical or exotic locales? Yackley said a lot of her work has been marketing the lakes, and not just to cruise lines. She has tried to position the lakes as “a destination close to home,” appealing to Americans who possibly didn’t think of the lakes as a tourist spot before.

Due to the locks leading into the lakes, the size of cruise ships is fairly limited with the largest, Viking’s Ocantis, carrying 378 passengers at capacity. It is 77 feet wide — the locks in the St. Lawrence Seaway are just 80 feet wide — leaving about a foot and a half on either side of the vessel.

According to Alexa Paolella, the media representative for Pearl Seas Cruises, the majority of their passengers are 60-plus Americans. Pearl Seas has only one ship in the lakes, the Pearl Mist, but it’s also one of the longest serving. Pearl Seas was the first ship to use Milwaukee as a turnaround site in 2018 and signed a 20-year contract with the port last year to stay there, Tindall-Schlicht said.

The cruises are marketed as a luxury experience for tourists looking for a more cultural and educational experience.

The Wall-Street Journal recently reported that the current average cost of a five-night Caribbean cruise begins at an all-inclusive $100 a day, making it cheaper than the average stay in a midscale hotel. The same discounted pricing doesn’t seem to hold true for their Great Lakes counterpart, however. A seven-night tour on the Pearl Mist’s Great Lakes and Georgian Bay itinerary costs more than $800 per night in July. An eight-day trip with Viking from Toronto to Milwaukee starts at $5,995.

Kidd, the Georgia priest, has childhood memories of the lake when he visited a friend in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Standing on the edge of Lake Michigan felt like standing by the ocean, he said.

But as an adult, cruising on a new ship, the biggest of its kind on the Great Lakes, was a totally different experience. He said people lined up on the shores and bridges when they came to a new port, taking pictures and videos.

“It was real obvious that this was something new,” Kidd said. “We saw news reports in these different cities where they were welcoming the ship … and talking about how the cruise industry is now going to start taking off. It was real exciting to be a part of that.”