Many people are uncomfortable with the cost of a cruise. They feel they can’t afford the high cost. For those people, Great Lakes cruises can be an affordable alternative. True, you can spend a lot on a luxury cruise, but you can also find significant bargains compared to some of the prices charged for ocean cruises.
Lakes cruises can be had for under $100 a person if you are willing to cruise for under 1 day. Longer trips can be had for under $1000 and still longer trips might reach the $5000 mark. A lot depends on length of the trip and what you expect out of it.
A nice thing about Great Lakes cruises is the number and variety of small cruise operators running one to three boats and providing sightseeing tours of the shoreline. These tours are often centered around a scrumptious dinner, but there are also shipwreck tours, color tours, ice cream social tours, wine tasting tours, paddle wheeler tours, fireworks tours, waterfall tours, river tours and a host of others. Almost every port on the Lakes have at least one operator offering these short tours and some of the larger cities such as Chicago have many.
It is important to remember that even though these ships are smaller, they are still required to meet stringent US Coast Guard requirements for passenger vessels, which means they are inspected for safety on a regular basis.
Even longer Great Lakes cruises may be cheaper in direct comparison to ocean cruises because the ships are smaller and less costly to operate. And, while the ships are smaller, they are still luxurious mini-yachts.
