GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – It has been years in the making, but a Great Lakes cruise ship has officially arrived in Green Bay.
The nearly 290-foot Ocean Navigator turned the final corner toward Leicht Park as the sun rose behind it just before 7am Thursday morning. It’s the twelfth day of the cruise ship’s current journey.
Discussions about bringing cruise ships to Green Bay date back to at least 1999, when dock and park improvements were included in an effort to revitalize the city’s downtown. In 2000, a German ship was forced to skip a planned stop in Green Bay due to high winds. A year later – the Arcadia skipped Green Bay for the same reason.
“It’s been a long time coming. We’ve been working at this for probably at least five years, and it seems every year there was something that came up – even a world pandemic, imagine that,” said Discover Green Bay President Brad Toll. “To have it sail into our port this morning is very exciting for everyone that’s been working at this.”
Toll and his team were almost speechless when they saw the ship in person.
“Well as they say, seeing is believing! We’ve kind of had a joke within our office that we’ll believe it when we actually see it come in and pull on to our dock. And gosh, this morning, here it is!” Toll told WTAQ News.
“It was a great visual coming across the bridge from the east side this morning and seeing the first of what we hope will be many more cruise ships in the city of Green Bay,” said Mayor Eric Genrich. “We’ve been working on this for several years and have invested significant funding at Leicht Park here in order to accommodate this.”
In 2005, the city used about $350,000 in grant money to install wood fenders, rub rails, bollards, and fencing.
Late last year – the city’s Redevelopment Authority agreed to spend another $740,000 to install new bollards and floating fenders – and to modify fencing and gates. That project used surplus money from a TIF district created for revitalization in 1999.
Crew and passengers take in their first views of Green Bay. (WTAQ/Casey Nelson)
The excitement on the ground was palpable, as optimism for the future seemed to unfold in front of the eyes of spectators.
“A number of these cruise lines have advertised Green Bay as a destination, actually, for several years. So a few of us were crossing our fingers and knocking on wood until we really saw the ship arrive,” Genrich told WTAQ News. “It’s a close-knit group of cruise lines that offer this experience. Our hope is that the world is going to spread really quickly. Green Bay is known as an incredibly hospitable place to visit with tremendous amenities.”
“The impact may be just dollars and cents. It’s not as big as a lot of things we bring in, but every one of these passengers gets off today and spends a little time in our community. Hopefully they’ll decide to plan a trip to come back for 2-3 days and really explore the community and they tell their friends and family,” Toll said. “There may be some people that could consider our community as a home someday or to move a business here, so there’s a lot of opportunity. These cruises are also a little pricey, so we know it’s an affluent crowd that’s coming in too.”
It took crews some time to get everything properly tied down and set in place for passengers to disembark, but the first people strolled down the gangplank around 8:30am.
“They’re doing tours of our community, guided tours. There’s a group that’ll be going over the Lambeau Field, but a lot of people will have free time to just explore,” Toll said.
“It’s been wonderful! We went a lot of places I haven’t been, I couldn’t name all the names, but it’s been great. It’s been enjoyable and relaxing,” said Darrell Cook of Belleville, Illinois. “I’ve always want to come here because it’s just a beautiful area…I have got to go see the stadium! I have always wanted to go there. It’s historic and I’ve always wanted to walk on Lambeau Field.”
“We had bad weather last night, then we came in here with beautiful weather. The dock is fantastic, brand new, and we christened your [fenders], so we’re really happy to be here,” said Ocean Navigator Captain Gary Kerr. “The wind was on the perfect side, so I didn’t do anything much. I just brought her alongside [the dock] and the wind took me [in].”
Passengers disembark from the Ocean Navigator cruise ship, becoming the first cruise passengers to arrive in Green Bay. (WTAQ/Casey Nelson)
The storms from Wednesday night were seen over the bay as well, and Kerr worked to navigate the winds the best he could.
“Oh, we had fun. Broke my computer. Just the front of that squall came, when it hit us it had 50-knot winds. We leaned over a little bit, but it soon passed,” Kerr told WTAQ News. “Mostly we slowed down to see which way the wind was coming and we go into it. We knew it was coming fast, so it wouldn’t last long.”
The Ocean Navigator become the first cruise ship to dock in Green Bay. (WTAQ/Casey Nelson)
Without stepping foot off the ship, Kerr was excited to enjoy the city for the day – and to return later this month for a second trip. That’s set for June 30th.
“Well the Great Lakes, they’re becoming more popular. We’ve been up here for five years now, and there used to be just two ships, and now we’re seeing a lot more vessels coming up. The word is out, the secret is out, it’s a fantastic place in the summer,” Kerr said. “We’ve got one more trip this year. I’m sure next year, there’ll be more for both ships. We’ve got our sister ship, the Ocean Voyager, she’ll be coming here next year as well.”
The Ocean Navigator and Ocean Voyager are currently set to dock in the city a total of six times over the next three years.
