Ship ahoy!
A brand-new luxury cruise ship, the American Patriot, will begin making regular stops in Rochester next year, providing a boost to local tourism and, perhaps, to Rochester’s self-image.
Even as the booming Great Lakes cruise industry has filled wharves in cities like Toronto, Detroit and Milwaukee with impressive passenger ships, Rochester and other New York ports have been left out. Local tourism and government officials told CITY magazine two years ago they couldn’t explain the ghosting but would be working to rectify it.
That black eye heals next year, when American Cruise Lines, a well-established domestic company, introduces Great Lakes service that includes a nine-day cruise with stops in Rochester, Buffalo, Oswego and Clayton in the Thousand Islands.
“We’re thrilled about American Cruise Lines adding Rochester as a stop on one of their new Great Lakes itineraries,” said Diana Keating, vice president for marketing at Visit Rochester, the area’s tourism promotion agency. “It’s incredibly exciting to see our community included among the destinations welcoming travelers by water, and we’re looking forward to introducing a whole new audience to all that Rochester has to offer.”
She said that local and state tourism officials have been regularly pitching cruise ship operators on the Flower City’s virtues.
The American Patriot, built in Maryland and launched earlier this year, is 243 feet long and can carry 130 passengers. That makes it on the small side in terms of today’s Great Lakes cruise ships, but considerably larger than the passenger vessels that used to tie up at the port in Charlotte.
A cruise ship last visited Rochester in September 2019; the company that operated it went out of business the following year during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the health threats slowed, the craving for travel has been robust globally.
Although Rochesterians and others on the Great Lakes may take their hometowns for granted, travelers from afar are drawn to North America’s vast and unique freshwater seas, travel industry officials said two years ago. They also enjoy touring the cultural, historic and picturesque highlights of new cities and towns.
“There’s so much that our community has to offer that sometimes I think you either forget it’s there or you don’t think of it as things that might draw a larger audience,” Keating said. “That’s all about what we do at Visit Rochester — try to shine a light on all of these wonderful attractions.”
In Rochester, the American Patriot’s passengers will be offered visits to local bright spots including the George Eastman Museum, the Susan B. Anthony Museum & House and High Falls, ACL spokesperson Alexa Paolella said.
More local stops are likely to be added.
The nine-day excursion will begin when passengers fly or drive to Syracuse, then board the ship in Oswego. From there, they cruise to Clayton, a charming town in the Thousand Islands region of the St. Lawrence River; passengers can visit some sunken ships while there.
Then the vessel cruises through Lake Ontario to Rochester, where passengers will spend a day and a night before departing for Buffalo. While there, passengers will bus to Niagara Falls. The ship then passes through the Welland Canal into Lake Erie and docks at Cleveland, where the voyage ends.
Fares for the excursion begin at $8,675. There will be four cruises next year, with the first in late May and the last in late August. Connecticut-based American Cruise Lines also will introduce two other Great Lakes cruises next year that focus on the upper lakes.
“The cruises are basically something that our guests have been requesting for years,” Paolella said. “Our demographic is primarily retired or mature travelers. Many of them have traveled around the world and are looking to have a world-class experience at home.”
More than 22,000 people were expected to board cruise ships in the Great Lakes this year, an increase of 10% over last year, according to Cruise the Great Lakes, a government-sponsored marketing group.
The economic impact of the cruise industry on the lakes was estimated at $230 million.
Rochester City Council member Mitch Gruber said leaders have worked behind the scenes in recent years to make changes at the port, such as additional dredging, to make it more attractive to cruise ship operators.
“There are some technical things that need to be done, but it’s also a matter of will,” Gruber said. “Collectively, we need to put in the investment and make sure the cruise liners understand that we are a port that wants to welcome them.”
American Cruise Lines, which dates back more than a half-century, operates 28 small cruise ships sailing 50-plus itineraries — on rivers, along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and now, on the Great Lakes.
The company prides itself on operating only ships that are American-built and whose crews and registration are American. Under U.S. maritime law, this allows its vessels to visit ports that internationally flagged vessels have a hard time reaching. ACL’s passengers also can avoid the hassle of carrying passports, clearing customs or having to fly internationally.
“These are the only domestic itineraries on the Great Lakes. We’re adding something to the market,” Paolella said. “This is what our passengers ask for.”
