After Dark Cruise Ship Crashing the Party

As far as I know this is a first! Cruise ships usually leave between 5:30 and 6:30pm for standard stops, and 8:00 to 8:30pm when swapping out passengers, usually daylight or sunset hours during the cruise season. But on this particular trip the software crash that caused issues for flights across the country delayed their departure until about 10:40pm as they waited for a late flight to arrive with the last of their passengers. This meant a nighttime departure, in the middle of a concert going on in the background at Bayfront Park. Her horn probably interrupted the music a bit! Low clouds, a steady breeze and some choppy 5ft waves further added to the atmosphere, making an absolutely beautiful sight! Unfortunately, at the exact same time as this departure, on the other side of the harbor in the Superior Entry, the Vista Star tour boat was getting washed up onto the breakwater rocks after attempting to sail into the lake and turn around to reenter with 84 passengers aboard, injuring one person but fortunately not critically damaging the boat. I did not find out about these events until the following day.

Viking Polaris and her sister Octantis are the largest passenger vessels ever to sail the Great Lakes, and currently the newest. 678ft long with a 375ft passenger capacity and 210 crew, she’s not just a luxury cruise ship but also a fully equipped floating laboratory. In her stern she carries a fleet of small boats and zodiacs, plus a small submarine. Designed specifically for the Great Lakes and Antarctic waters, she was launched in late 2021. The two vessels have brought a lot of attention to the Lakes and have revived long forgotten areas of the lakes with their visits, including the DECC dock in Duluth, which is currently being rebuilt to accommodate cruise ships of this size. Hopefully their success will continue to draw more ships and companies in! Despite this, she was a little quiet for passengers this trip, most likely because of the late hour and the fact that they were scheduled to arrive at their next port at 6am the next morning, but also possibly because the Microsoft crash occurred that day, grounding most airlines and flights for a significant part of the day. That would be a sad scenario if a lot of people missed the boat due to that :( It’s also possible that everyone was just on the other side of the ship watching the concert as they sailed past.

Hopefully they enjoy their trip though! Have a safe and fun vacation!