Ocean Navigator Cruise Ship in Green Bay, June 14, 2023.
PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — For the second year, a cruise ship is docking in Green Bay.
The Ocean Navigator arrived in port Wednesday morning with 71 passengers.
It’s on a two-week tour of the Great Lakes.
Passengers cruising on the Ocean Navigator are enjoying their time seeing the Great Lakes.
“We’ve done a number of river cruises with this company American Queen, we always kind of had a desire to do the Great Lakes so here we are,” says Paul Fell, a passenger from Lincoln, Nebraska.
Fell is from Lincoln Nebraska and is sad his excursion is almost over.
“We started in Milwaukee, and went up to Mackinac Island, and went to Marquette Michigan, Houghton Michigan, Duluth, Thunder Bay Ontario, Sault Ste. Marie, and here,” says Fell.
This two-week-long trip comes with a large cost.
“It’s rather expensive, I think the original cost was around $17,000 for both of us,” says Diane Fleck, a passenger from Bridgeville, Delaware.
“It is a longer cruise it’s 15 days, so if you think about it as an over two week vacation it gets up in the five figures,” says Ocean Navigator, Shore Excursion Manager Leslie Baker.
In Green Bay, the passengers are taken to Neville Public Museum, The Automobile Gallery, Captains Walk Winery, Lambeau Field, The National Railroad Museum, and can go to the Farmers Market on Broadway.
Passengers who have never been to the area say they were happily surprised.
“I always thought, local people forgive me, that this was a very small town…the people are very friendly here,” says Conrad Fleck, a passenger from Bridgeville, Delaware.
“This has a lot of planning behind it, we have about about 84 crew members on board, and there are people behind the scenes in several different offices around the country,” says Baker.
There are several other cruise ships that go throughout the Great lakes
“There’s nine couriers that do Great Lakes cruises, and of those nine couriers there are 11 ships,” says Discover Green Bay VP of Communications, Nick Meisner.
The Viking Polaris will be in Algoma on Friday.
“They are going to be doing a few stops in and around Algoma, as well as bussing a few of the passengers who selected to come to Green Bay for a little bit as well,” says Meisner.