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Tapping into uncharted waters: Cruise ship ready to voyage around the Great Lakes

Viking Octantis ready to explore a region that hasn’t historically seen many cruise ships

Courtesy photo of a Viking cruise line ship. (Viking Cruises)

It was a sight that many had never witnessed before.

So naturally, people followed it to different spots and took all the pictures they could.

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On May 3, something was seen sailing on the Detroit River that you don’t spot everyday: A giant cruise ship.

However, it’s something that’s about to be more common, at least during the summer months.

Viking Cruise Lines this year is offering three different cruise options to sail all around the Great Lakes aboard its Octantis ship.

Each of the trips is eight days, and stops in various ports and spots in the United States and Canada, including places such as Niagara Falls, the Soo Locks, Thunder Bay in Ontario, Mackinac Island in Michigan, the Apostle Islands and Milwaukee in Wisconsin, and Duluth in Minnesota.

Pricing starts at a little more than $6,000 per person.

Next year, the cruise line is expected to add a 15-day excursion around the Great Lakes region, with pricing starting at under $14,000.

The ship has 189 rooms and can host 378 guests.

The Great Lakes are the world’s largest collective bodies of fresh water, and feature many picturesque nature spots, so it always has seemed like a natural area for cruise ships to venture.

But given the short summers and task of sailing ships into the area and then back out before it gets cold in the fall, cruise lines have been hesitant to fully sail in the Great Lakes. That has already changed, with the Octantis being seen along the Detroit River.

Check out the report below from WDIV reporter Tim Pamplin about how excited people were to spot the Octantis sail along what, for cruise lines, has been mostly uncharted waters.

Would you be willing to book a cruise along the Great Lakes? If so, what spots would you most want to see? Let us know in the comments below.


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