CRUISE MILWAUKEE

AHOY! CRUISE SHIPS TO CALL ON PORT OF MILWAUKEE

(a milwaukeeworld exclusive)
By Michael Horne

Three ships plan to make a total of nine calls on the Port of Milwaukee this summer, according to information from the Port of Milwaukee. Great Lakes Cruising Co., an Ann Arbor, Michigan firm, manages all cruise ships in the Great Lakes. This is the firm’s eighth year offering cruises of our inland seas. According to the firm’s website, www.greatlakescruising.com, a number of trips – some lasting up to two weeks – are available.

The Great Lakes provide an intermediate sort of ship travel, coupling some of the openness of the high seas with the intimacy and frequent ports of call reminiscent of European ships that cruise the rivers and canals of that continent.

In fact, it was a German firm that revived the concept of Great Lakes cruising in 1997 when the newly-launched MV Christopher Columbus of the Hapag-Lloyd fleet ferried 400 people, mostly Germans, around the Great Lakes. The ship, which was specifically built to accommodate Great Lakes locks, returns to the scene this year with three trips, none of which will stop in Milwaukee.

However, as June approaches you might want to climb up to the widow’s walk where you will espy the Niagara Prince heading to our shores on the 17^th. It will pay another call in Milwaukee on June 26^th, to be followed by the Grande Mariner on July 7^th and 16^th and August 4^th.

Later that month, beginning on the 8^th, the Nantucket Clipper will pay weekly stops to our city.

The resumption of Great Lakes passenger cruises is a welcome sign for the continued vitality of Milwaukee. Europeans, it seems, are crazy about our lakes, which they lack.