Unusual as they may seem today, Great Lakes vacations are a part of North American travel history. From the Gilded Age of the late 1800s through their peak in the Roaring ‘20s, cruising on the Great Lakes—Lake Superior, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario—was once a luxurious holiday that catered to social elites.
Passengers visited the jazz clubs of Detroit, the sand dunes of Lake Michigan’s east coast, and the untamed wilds of northern Minnesota and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan on big, fabulous ships whose ballrooms and grand staircases rivaled the liners on the ocean.
The industry mostly dried up in the 1950s as the ships aged out of service (or sank, sadly), and customers pivoted to taking planes to far-away destinations like California and Florida. The glamour of Great Lakes cruises faded.
Until now. Great Lakes cruising is on the rise once again. North American cities like Cleveland and Detroit are being reborn as ports of call for cruise travelers on Hapag-Lloyd, Pearl Seas Cruises, Ponant Cruises, and Viking Expeditions.
Do these Great Lakes cruises really compare to their oceanic counterparts? We went on a Great Lakes cruise with Viking around Lake Superior, Lake Huron, and Lake Michigan on an itinerary that stopped in both cities and wilderness destinations. Is the modern version of Great Lakes cruises worth the trip?
Luxury, down a dirt road
Thunder Bay in particular felt like an odd place to start a cruise—it’s a small city, accessible mainly through air connections in Toronto, and its port sees more cargo than passengers. The beautiful, gleaming Viking Polaris looked like it had taken a wrong turn and stopped here to ask for directions. Driving down the one-lane dirt road that leads to the dock was hardly an auspicious introduction to a week-long luxury holiday.
On board, however, it was a different world. Viking is a top international brand for luxurious river cruises and high-end ocean cruises, and its customers pay big bucks for the small ship experience—usually around $1,000/night and up. Its most loyal customers are people who are primarily at retirement age or older, many of whom take multiple cruises per year, gleefully spending their children’s inheritances while sailing to exotic destinations around the world.
Viking’s customers are well-traveled, and they expect the finest service and amenities at sea—or, in this instance, on lake. So Polaris and its sister ship Viking Octantis both have three bars, four dining concepts, a spa with an indoor pool, multiple seating areas for playing games or listening to small-scale live entertainment like an onboard violinist, and public spaces that feel more like a private club rather than a cruise ship. Even the lowest-priced cabins are outdoor-facing suites with windows that lower to create a balcony concept. It all adds up to a gorgeous, indulgent passenger experience, just like the Great Lakes cruise ships of yore.
Is it a cruise—or an expedition?
Glamorous as they may be, Polaris and Octantis are classified as “Class 6 expedition” ships—they were originally custom-designed to take passengers on journeys to Antarctica but they spend their off season running itineraries like the Great Lakes. These ships have various design modifications to manage more rambunctious voyages, like steel-reinforced hulls and enhanced maneuverability for scooting around icebergs. These features really aren’t necessary for sailing the much tamer waters of the Great Lakes, especially during their cruise season, which runs from June through September. But nonetheless, because of the ships it uses, Viking classifies these Great Lakes cruises under its Expeditions category.
While other Great Lakes cruises may focus more on cities and towns, Viking leans into this expedition theme and tends to bring guests to more natural areas. On our itinerary, the first three days had stops along the shores of the Canadian wilderness, where we were encouraged to take sightseeing tours aboard Zodiac inflatable boats—one of the numerous expedition-style toys available. Guests (carefully) board the little boats, sit on its inflated perimeter, grab a rope along its side, and hang on while the guide zips around the water. Viking includes these Zodiac excursions in the price of the cruise.
This raises questions about the fitness level required to participate in excursions, especially for the young-at-heart retirees that make up Viking’s core customer base. On the several Zodiac trips that we took, nobody failed to stay dry and safely in the boat the entire time. Viking’s staff insist that they never have guests fall over the side. Even riding over choppy water on windy days was surprisingly stable and smooth.
Viking guides guided our excursions past beaches and secluded bays, pointing out interesting features of the area’s geology, their favorite types of trees, or any bird that happened to fly by. The shores of the Great Lakes, while green and peaceful, do not have much topographic variety. In many areas they’re completely flat and covered with trees. But while the Great Lakes do not have the drama of a Norwegian fjord or the icebergs of Alaska, there are still beautiful sights to see, like Sea Lion Rock, near Thunder Bay.
Back aboard the ship, evenings usually included a visit to the theater/lecture hall, named The Aula (pictured below). All Viking cruises offer educational lectures by scientists and academics who also work as part of the staff. Educational lectures serve as the mainstage entertainment for the Great Lakes Viking trips—there is no typical cruise song-and-dance fodder. On our trip, the most popular lecture was about the history of shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, and it was delivered by a former university professor who told delicious, gossipy anecdotes about the ships’ owners and their maritime misfortune.
Then the day after that lecture, a group of lucky passengers got to climb into the ship’s onboard submarine, another piece of expedition equipment, to dive below the surface and experience the wreckage of the Gunilda, a luxury ship that sank in 1911 that is now preserved remarkably well in the cold, freshwater depths of Lake Superior. (Unlike the free boat excursions, going on the submarine cost an additional $500 per person.)
The simple pleasures of the ports of call
After floating in the wilderness for a few days, our cruise visited some actual city destinations, where passengers could partake in the typical cruise excursions run by third party vendors for $100–300, with options for walking tours, visits to museums, or partaking in whatever activity made that destination unique.
One of our stops was at Mackinac Island, a tourist enclave in Michigan famous for its Gothic Revival architecture, its rocky lakeside cliffs, and its ban on cars. We disembarked from the ship and joined a horse-and-buggy tour, and then dined at the Grand Hotel, made famous by the 1980 film Somewhere in Time, starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. Mackinac Island is a popular destination for Midwesterners, and the afternoon on the island was lovely. Touristy and lovely.
Our trip also stopped in Duluth, Minnesota, a small city on Lake Superior that, back in its glory days, was an important industrial port for westward expansion, but is now best known as the home of the working man’s atelier, Duluth Trading Company (like a Midwestern L.L. Bean). And as the best vacation stories include trying weird food items, to anyone who is lucky enough to be in the random city of Duluth, seek out the little restaurant Northern Waters Smokehaus to eat a piece of its house-made spicy smoked salmon. You will remember it for many years. Because it is delicious.
What Viking’s Great Lakes cabins and food are like
Don’t be misled by Viking’s small ship concept—the staterooms on these expedition ships are spacious. Most of the staterooms on Polaris and Octantis are classified as Nordic Balcony, and at 215 square feet, they are almost palatial by some cruise standards. Electrical outlets are placed beside both beds and the desk by the window (with North American fittings and power), and Viking provides free Wi-Fi, which is a big plus for streaming shows while you are in your cabin, since the onboard TV selection is mostly cable news channels and cringeworthy international sitcoms.
The next level up in staterooms, the Deluxe Nordic Balcony, includes some extra amenities like priority spa bookings and early access to excursion reservations, but on our voyage, most spa slots had availability anyway so priority access wasn’t necessary. (The excursions did fill up, however, so secure a spot for those early.) Despite their names, Nordic Balcony and Deluxe Nordic Balcony staterooms do not have an actual balcony or outdoor space—the top half of the wall-to-wall window lowers with the push of a button to let lots of air in.
The bathrooms were perhaps the biggest surprise. They’ve got plenty of space to move around, including in the showers, which are big enough for even passengers who are more than 6 feet tall.
Catering to a discerning clientele, the caliber and quantity of Viking’ food would befit the cuisine at a fine restaurant on land. Viking’s expedition ships have three specialty food concepts: a main dining room (The Restaurant), an Italian specialty restaurant (Manfredi’s), and a small traditional Norwegian eatery (Mamsens) plus an enormous buffet called World Cafe, which serves tomahawk steaks, sushi, fresh pasta, grilled fish, often prepared fresh to order. (Order the Grand Marnier soufflé—it’s fluffy, decadent, and delicious.)
Who is a Great Lakes cruise for?
Despite the fancy excursion equipment, the enthusiastic nature guides, and the Viking hype about this cruise being an “expedition” on a Class 6 vessel, an expedition in the Great Lakes does not have the same theatrical impact as an expedition in Antarctica. Zipping around on those Zodiacs is fun, but the scenery of trees, water, and a few beautiful rock formations is… nice.
That “nice” factor might be exactly what you are looking for. Folks these days are worn out, they want to stay close to home, and overtourism is ruining everybody’s fun. For anyone who really does want to ramp up the excitement, some Great Lakes cruises do visit Niagara Falls, Chicago, or Cleveland, but the dominant mood is calm.
But this is a new age of travel, where vacations can once again be easy, thoughtful, and actually relaxing, and all some people need is to eat good food and drink glasses of fine wine on a top-of-the-line ship. On the Great Lakes, life can be beautiful simply watching the world float tastefully by.
