Teri West
It’s a great time to cruise the Great Lakes. Or at least
that’s what the industry clearly thinks.
American Cruise Lines announced its first Great Lakes
itineraries last week, and
Victory Cruise Lines relaunched on the lakes this past spring.
The itineraries offer more options for what advisors say are
in-demand sailings with lines already sailing the lakes including Ponant
Explorations, Viking, Pearl Seas Cruises and Tauck.
American Cruise Lines, which only visits U.S. ports, said it
decided to launch Great Lakes sailings due to the number of customer requests.
Pearl Seas, a sister brand to American Cruise Lines, “offers
a fantastic experience” in the region, American Cruise Lines CEO Charles
Robertson said, “but our guests would often ask us why we can’t just put an
American ship on the lakes.
"In the past several years American’s growth was
prioritized in other regions of the country, but now that we have at least five
ships in every major U.S. cruise region, it’s time to surge into the Great
Lakes with some new domestic options,” he added.
What travel advisors are saying
Advisors have also heard from their clients.
“They’re tired of the Caribbean,” advisor Marybeth Ricciardi
said of her clients at Bon Voyage Travel, an Arizona-based agency.
With the addition of new cruise lines on the lakes, it will
be good to have more options for clients, she said.
“They do get sold out, and people want to go,” she said.
Travel advisors and cruise lines describe the Great Lakes
like a hidden gem in the cruising landscape; they may seem like less glamorous
of a destination than, say, the Caribbean or Europe, but the beauty of the
lakes and the small-ship experience can be similarly awe-inspiring.
One of the biggest draws: The distance. For cruisers living
in the Midwest, the ports can be just a drive away, and those based elsewhere
in the U.S. still don’t have to cross an ocean to get there.
Bridgett Quinn Weber, an advisor with Cruise Specialists,
said she’d never previously considered a Great Lakes cruise before sailing
there with Viking this summer.
“Best cruise I’ve ever taken,” she said.
Weber found herself surprised by the vastness of the lakes,
which felt like being on the ocean, and said she loved visiting Michigan’s Mackinac
Island and Niagara Falls.
“I did this whole writeup when I got home and sent it out to
a bunch of my clients, and just said, ‘If you think you've been everywhere and
done everything, I bet you haven't done this,’” she said. “It was just such a
unique experience.”