CLEVELAND, Ohio – One of Viking’s newest, sleekest ships sailed early Tuesday into Cleveland, the luxury cruise line’s newest port of call in the Great Lakes.
It’s the first of eight stops the ship will make this summer on the lakefront in Cleveland, which has seen a resurgence of cruise traffic in recent years.
Viking, best known for its high-end European river cruises, is one of five cruise lines that will stop in Cleveland this summer. Will Friedman, president and CEO of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority, expects more will follow.
“We’re excited about Viking,” Friedman said, in part because the brand is so well known.
“If they’re selling out these ships,” he said – and they are, according to Viking officials – “that will make the competition take notice.”
He added, “We’re one of the last undiscovered cruising grounds in the world. The future looks good.”
This Viking ship, dubbed Polaris, is nearly brand new, debuting last fall in Antarctica, with room for 378 passengers and 260 crew. It will sail in the Great Lakes through September and then make its way back to Argentina and Antarctica by late November.
The ship, 665 feet long and 77 feet wide, was built specifically to traverse the Great Lakes, with a narrow profile that just fits through the 78-foot-wide Welland Canal, linking lakes Ontario and Erie, and other tight spaces. (Even so, crews in Cleveland were touching up the side of the ship, which two days ago got scuffed after hitting the side of the Welland, en route to Niagara Falls.)
Polaris joins Viking sister ship Octantis in the Great Lakes, currently sailing seven-night itineraries, Toronto to Milwaukee, that do not stop in Cleveland.
Cleveland was the second stop on Polaris’ maiden 15-night Great Lakes Collection voyage, which departed from Toronto Saturday and stopped Monday in Port Colborne, Ontario, near Niagara Falls. The ship was set to depart for Detroit late Tuesday.
The 15-day voyage also stops in Alpena and Mackinac Island, Michigan; Door County, Wisconsin; Parry Sound and Thunder Bay, Ontario; and ends in Duluth, Minnesota.
The large majority of passengers are from the United States and Canada, age 55 or older and are interested in arts, culture and history, according to Viking officials.
Among those on board:
* Dan and Esther Imbagliazzo, from Los Angeles, who were making their first trip to Northeast Ohio. Dan said the opportunity to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was one of the reasons he chose the trip – that, and Lebron James, whose tribute to Cleveland after the Cavaliers won the NBA championship in 2016 impressed him. “When he said, ‘Cleveland, this one’s for you – it really touched me,’ " said Imbagliazzo. “I wanted to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and to say that I had been to Cleveland.”
* David and Jeannine Meidinger, from San Jose, California, also making their first trip to Ohio. “It’s someplace we haven’t seen before,” said Jeannine, explaining the appeal of the Great Lakes itinerary. “We’ve been on Viking before and we enjoy the accommodations and the service.”
* Peggy Witt of Toronto, who was most looking forward to the ship’s stop on Mackinac Island, Michigan. “My room is very nice – the floor in the bathroom is heated, if you want it,” she noted.
* And Barbara Glaser and Paul Zachos, from Saratoga Springs, New York. Barbara, who grew up in Duluth, Minnesota, said she was drawn to Viking’s focus on education and research. “I used to watch all those boats leave Duluth and wonder where they were going.”
Soon, she’ll know, after traveling on all five Great Lakes, plus Georgian Bay.
The trip is not for the frugal, with prices starting at about $12,000 per person.
But there are plenty of amenities for your money, including four restaurants, six pools, lectures, entertainment and numerous included shore excursions.
Passengers in Cleveland were given the option of several shore excursions, including a Cleveland Highlights tour, with a bus tour through downtown followed by a stop at the Rock Hall; a Taste of Cleveland tour, focused on the West Side Market; an Arts and Parks tour, with a stop at the Cleveland Museum of Art and a drive through the Cultural Gardens; and hike or bike tours of Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
A walking tour of Little Italy was the most popular add-on excursion, according to a company spokesman.
While the passengers were out exploring Cleveland, Viking invited port and government officials, as well as members of the media, to tour the ship.
Among its unique features:
* 189 well-appointed staterooms, with heated bathroom floors, king-sized beds and what Viking calls a Nordic balcony, with floor-to-ceiling windows that can be open for al-fresco viewing.
* Dozens of kayaks and Zodiac rafts at the ready for on-the-water tours, plus two, seven-passenger submarines for underwater exploration of the lakes.
* A serene Nordic Spa, offering, in addition to massages and facials, a warming cave, a wood-sided hot tub that opens to the elements, and a specialty shower called a Snow Grotto, which sprinkles snow onto bathers below (maybe not that enticing to us Northeast Ohio natives).
* A research laboratory that collects scientific data, including information on weather and water quality, and shares it with universities and other researchers.
The port is expecting eight separate ships to make 53 ports of call in Cleveland this summer, a modern record. The ships dock on the lakefront just west of Cleveland Browns Stadium.
The port last summer debuted a new customs facility on the waterfront, which simplifies and speeds up the customs process, as most Great Lakes cruises travel back and forth between Canada and the United States.