DULUTH, Minn. –The Viking cruise line will inaugurate cruise tourism to the Lake Superior port of Duluth. The new Octantis, now in Antarctica, will be on a 15-day Toronto-Duluth voyage in June 2023 with 378 passengers and 256 crew. The voyage is part of an extension of current itineraries along the New England coast and up the lower St, Lawrence River. Cost of the 15-day maiden Toronto-Duluth voyage: $14,000 to $36,000 per passenger double occupancy. Although Viking doesn’t anticipate winter cruises on the Great lakes, the Octantis has a enforced hull for its Southern Hemisphere expeditions to Antarctica.
Ports of call. Viking already has cruises as far inland as Milwaukee. The plan is to have several ships on a variety of Great Lakes routes. Duluth voyages will include a one-day foray into Lake Huron’s rarely visited 5,800-square mile Georgia Bay.
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Octantis. At 666 feet and a beam of 79 feet and 30,000 tons, the ship is much larger than the 1930s-vintage Mississippi River locks can accommodate. The St. Lawrence Seaway locks around Niagara Falls as and at Sault Stee Marie were expanded in the 1950s for oceanic commerce.
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