Great Lakes cruising is back for the spring and summer, producing once again an impressive — and now familiar — sight for Milwaukee’s lakeshore: the 665-foot Viking Octantis.
The 634-person passenger cruise ship docked at Port Milwaukee Wednesday morning, marking the first port call of 27 expected in the city between early May and mid-October. Those visits will be made by seven different cruise vessels, collectively carrying more than 12,000 global passengers, Port Milwaukee said in a news release.
This is the third consecutive year Viking has docked at Port Milwaukee, having constructed the Octantis and its twin sister Polaris in 2022 as the largest cruise ships to set sail on the Great Lakes. The ships were built for the launch of the Switzerland-based company’s Expeditions cruises, which traverse the Great Lakes as well as the Antarctic and South America.
Milwaukee is the turnaround port for five of Viking’s Great Lakes voyages this season, including to and from Ontario and to and from Thunder Bay. The new 10-day “Great Lakes Treasures” cruise starts and then ends in Milwaukee. The starting price for those range from $5,995 to $14,190. Milwaukee is the turnaround port also for four new “Longitudinal World” cruises Viking is now offering to and from Buenos Aires and Ushuaia, Argentina. Those cruises are more than two months in duration with a price range of $40,000 to upwards of $50,000.
In addition to Viking, early-summer cruise visits will be made by the Pearl Mist, which is operated by Connecticut-based Pearl Seas Cruises. The port expects a significant increase in cruise vessel traffic in September as passengers set their sights on the region’s fall colors and fair weather, according to the release.
The other cruise lines making stops in Milwaukee this season are Florida-based American Queen Voyages, France-based Ponant, Germany-based Plantours Kreuzfahrten and Germany-based Hapag Lloyd, according to the port’s website.
Projected cruise ship activity for the 2024 season is down from record-setting 2022, with 33 port calls, and 2023, with 30. Still, the port’s efforts in recent years to attract cruise vessels from across the globe are paying off and evident when comparing 2019’s 10 port calls and 3,214 visitors.
“The Great Lakes cruise industry is a big contributor to our region’s tourism,” Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said in a statement. “Cruise passengers continue to see why Milwaukee is a highly desirable destination. As we kick off the 2024 cruising season, Port Milwaukee continues to prove its role as an economic engine for the City of Milwaukee and the State of Wisconsin.”
Port Milwaukee carried the momentum from a record-breaking 2022 into the 2023 cruise season by welcoming the inaugural visits of the Hanseatic Inspiration and Viking Polaris. The number of unique cruise vessels that visited Milwaukee in 2023 climbed to nine, the highest in any season, according to the release.
