A major player in Great Lakes cruising went away. Now, it’s back.
And while there’s still some room for improvement, the new Victory Cruise Lines is largely better than before.
Victory I and II are no strangers to the Great Lakes straddling the U.S.-Canadian border. The two 190-passenger vessels were custom built in 2001 to sail the lakes and spent years ping-ponging around them, partly under a company named Victory Cruise Lines, which was rebranded as American Queen Voyages in 2021. The ships were still sailing as recently as 2023 under the names Ocean Voyager and Ocean Navigator until American Queen abruptly went out of business in early 2024.
That’s when American Queen’s original founder came out of retirement to buy back the ships at a bankruptcy auction. He gave both vessels a glow-up, reincarnated them as Victory I and II, and returned them to the waters they were made for.
He also re-formed Victory Cruise Lines as a once-again independent line, and in April 2025, the newly reformed small-ship company kicked off its inaugural season. Victory I and II are scheduled to run 30-plus voyages this year that hit all five Great Lakes—more than any other cruise line currently sells.
I joined Victory I’s 10-night maiden voyage from Toronto to Chicago to see how the old Voyager stacks up to the new Victory on a journey to the five Great Lakes. (Spoiler alert: I only made it to four. More on that later.)
“The same but… fresher”
No one is going to mistake Victory I for a brand-new build. The ship is a quarter-century old and shows some signs of wear and tear. But her latest renovation certainly spruced things up. Both Victory vessels had makeovers before the relaunch—from fresh paint and window treatments to new cutlery, dishes, and sconces with USB ports mounted over the beds.
“It looks the same but… fresher. New drapes, new carpet,” said Donna Falgiani, a traveler from Florida. She cruised the Great Lakes several years ago on this very ship, before the original Victory Cruise Lines morphed into American Queen Voyages.
“I liked it so much,” she said, “I wanted to do it again.”
Comparison shopping
Even after the reno, Victory I’s overall vibe feels more classic and old-fashioned than sleek and modern, especially compared to some of the other big fish in the Great Lakes market, such as Viking.
Viking’s 378-passenger Octantis and Polaris expedition ships are newer and more spacious than Victory’s fleet. Their cruises also tend to be more expensive.
Apples-to-apples cruise price comparisons are difficult to make because trip lengths, destinations and amenities can vary wildly. But for Great Lakes voyages in June, for example, Viking recently advertised an 8-day cruise from Milwaukee to Toronto for $7,495 (about $1,070 a night). A mid-level competitor, Pearl Seas Cruises, promoted an 11-night Great Lakes and Georgian Bay itinerary for $8,980 ($816 a night). On Victory, 10-night trips between Toronto and Chicago—the line’s most popular offering—were going for considerably less at $6,299 (about $630/night).
Victory Cruise Lines: What you get for the money
Victory’s all-inclusive price covers quite a bit: Ground transfers to and from the ship. Wi-Fi. All three meals aboard. An open bar with a respectable mix of wine and cocktails. Passengers get one included shore excursion in every port. In Cleveland, that’s a visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On Michigan’s dripping-with-Victorian charm Mackinac Island, it’s a horse-drawn carriage ride and a trip to the 18th century fort.
Victory Cruise Lines has also rolled out a slew of new activities that it calls “premium” and “immersive” and come with an extra cost. One of them takes a maximum of 20 passengers to the stellar National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo, Ohio, where they tour a retired iron ore freighter and enjoy breakfast in the officers’ dining room. The $109-per-person price tag seems reasonable—certainly by notoriously inflated shore-excursion standards—for a nearly 5-hour experience that included transportation to Toledo from the port in Detroit.
More food options on Victory Cruise Lines
Another welcome addition to the updated Victory fleet: Tuscan Stone Grill, an alternative to the main Coastal Dining Room. Not that there’s anything wrong with the main dining room—except for an occasional culinary misfire, like the overcooked lamb chops served to me one evening. (The desserts, however, were always 10 out of 10.)
The dining room is a formal-feeling, white-tableclothed, windowed expanse where you can sit with whomever you want and whenever you want during opening hours. The variety and scope of the nightly 5-course menus are impressive for a small ship, but I preferred the more intimate Tuscan Stone Grill, a former buffet-only venue that’s been transformed into a seated-service restaurant for dinner.
The specialty restaurant doesn’t require a surcharge, just a reservation for one of the two nightly seatings. Diners get sizzling stones for cooking their beef tenderloin, tuna, and the like, all served with tasty dipping sauces and sides.
My only complaint: the ambiance. The place is lit up like an operating room. But not for long, a ship officer assured me. He said dimmer switches have been ordered and are on their way. So have small table lamps, “to make it more romantic.”
If passengers get peckish between meals, they can help themselves to chicken wraps, crudités, and fruit bowls. These and other snacks are stocked in the new grab-and-go station in the ship’s comfortable Compass Lounge, where a trio of talented musicians performs each night.
One thing Victory didn’t tinker with much is the crew. The ship’s hotel director estimates that about 80% of the cabin stewards, servers, and other staff members used to work for American Queen Voyages. That explains the palpable sense of camaraderie on board.
Sizing up the staterooms
For its size, Victory I packs in a lot. It has a compact but serviceable spa and fitness center as well as an English pub-like Tavern tricked out with a piano and stained glass windows. The bulk of the outdoor lounge space sits at the top of the ship, on Deck 5.
The vessel’s 95 staterooms, the vast majority of which have water views, are spread among four decks, with Deck 4 being the most expensive. These premium cabins come with mini fridges stocked with soft drinks and beer (not a valuable perk on a ship with an open bar) and verandas, which really amount to just a couple of chairs and a table set up on the narrow promenade, where anyone can walk by. The only way to access these staterooms is from the outside. That means if it’s cold or rainy, you’ll have to brave the elements.
Bottom line: Deck 4 probably isn’t worth the upcharge. Especially since the rooms are roughly the same size as the others, measuring a snug 146–161 square feet (14–15 square meters). They come with two twin beds that can be converted into a queen.
A nice new feature of nightly turndown service includes regional goodies periodically left on your pillow, like Joann’s Fudge from Mackinac Island and Garrett Popcorn from Chicago.
VIP parking
Tight quarters aren’t unusual on the Great Lakes, which isn’t the domain of enormous cruise ships. Vessels have to be small enough to squeeze through the locks and canals that connect these glacier-carved cavities, which are home to more than 30,000 islands and one-fifth of the world’s surface freshwater.
Victory I’s petite frame has its perks. We conveniently pulled right up to the pier at Mackinac Island, a privilege that is common on its voyages; vessels that are larger tend to have to anchor offshore and use a tender to shuttle passengers to land.
In fact, Victory is the only cruise line operating overnight trips on the Great Lakes that’s allowed to dock directly on Navy Pier in downtown Chicago.
Locked out—but happy
Something we weren’t allowed to do—at least on this particular voyage—was go to Lake Superior. That would have entailed a trip through the Soo Locks, the famed engineering feat linking Lake Superior and Lake Huron. Just as we were ready to make our short visit to the biggest lake of them all, the captain’s voice came on the loudspeaker. He broke the news that heavy traffic in the locks and other factors forced him to take the unusual step of scuttling that part of the itinerary for safety reasons.
Skipping Lake Superior didn’t really bother Falgiani, the regular customer from Florida. She’d done that before, on her first voyage with Victory. She also didn’t mind the ship’s tiny showers. Or the spotty TV reception.
“I don’t really care much about things like that,” she said one afternoon in the Coastal Dining Room, where a server delivered her customary cup of post-lunch coffee with a warm smile.
“That’s what I care about,” she added, nodding in his direction. “The people. And these people are wonderful.”
Victory I quick facts:
Built: 2001
Refurbished: 2024
Passengers: 190 (at double occupancy)
Crew: 80
Number of decks: 5
Size: 4,954 gross tons, 286 feet (87m) long, 50 feet (15m) wide
Booking: 855/556-7193; victorycruiselines.com
Price: From $4,999 per person (double occupancy)