Milwaukee’s Cruise Ship Dock More Than Doubled In Cost, Is It Worth It?
Port says yes, at least one council member says no.
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Port says yes, at least one council member says no. Back to the full article.
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Categories: City Hall
Having recently experienced a Virgin Cruise leaving from Miami, I noted that there were many opportunities for transit to and from the rather spartan Miami and destination docks to nearby site-seeing opportunities. Uber & Lyft in Miami, to golf carts and site-seeing day tours in buses that transported travelers. The tours were cultural, tasting, drinking, and recreational opportunities. This is a great opportunity for the Port, the City, the State, and the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau to team up and create some wonderful day tours and transportation resources that would impress visitors.
And oh yes, it is definitely worth the investment!
There is no such thing as a ‘cruise ship dock’. There is such a thing as a ‘cruise ship terminal’.
The vessels doing turnarounds are all doing international voyages, and consequently a complete suite of requirements from the CBP (US Customs & Border Patrol) must be fulfilled. Please see https://dsmic.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Duluth-Superior-Cruise-Ship-Terminal-Study.pdf (All 113 pages of it!) for an excellent discussion pertaining to this.
BTW, Viking’s ship draft is approximately 20 feet, not 27 feet. The 27-foot depth comes from the Seaway regulations.
I have had discussions with the (I think current) previous attorney for the DNR, he said ‘very likely’ in letting commercial activity occur there. The long and short of it is that the DNR would be instantly sued by what could be dozens of entities wanting to know why Milwaukee Port gets an OK, and they (the other entities) didn’t. So it has nothing to do with whatever persuasive argument Milwaukee could put forward to the DNR. BTW- A) Harbor House is not a good example, it’s apparently a very funny story. B) The Lake Express Terminal doesn’t have a bar, restaurant, gift shop, etc. because they knew the DNR wouldn’t allow it. Revenue from such things would have been a giant pile of money for LE.
I’ve been on a number of Hapag-Lloyd Great Lakes cruises, and the captain always noisily bitches about the lousy facilities as soon as he’s out of hearing range.
“A 2021 request for information drew no serious inquiries” … that’s funny, the guy that submitted it led Honolulu’s nearly $200,000,000 Cruise Port Terminal Project, now built.
I am a very enthusiastic supporter of Great Lakes cruising for Milwaukee, it is just that it has to be done correctly.
Thank you for this reporting.
Separately from the DNR/filled lakefront rules –
How long does it take to get from the foot of East Lincoln Avenue
to any tourist destination? Hotel?
Is there better use of this location?
How many competitors are there for this and how nimble are they?
Will we be playing catch-up/crack the whip in the future?
(The Bradley Center lasted all of one generation)
Should we be dedicating this much money, space and infrastructure
to a sector of the economy vulnerable to economic
downturns, new pan/plandemics, lease renewals?
Marty Ellenbecker:
You can get to downtown in less than 10 minutes from there.
Considering the economic sector that buys GL cruises (rich people), I don’t see that part of the business going anywhere if the economy goes South. There are very, very few locals that book these things.
I don’t know what you mean by competitors. Do mean vessel operators or terminal operators? If you mean other ports, the leading contenders are Duluth and Sault Ste Marie. Chicago got tired of international vessels at their pier, and the logistics were/are a pain in the a$$. Detroit, in the middle of a river, is a long way from the next port. Lines using Alpena as a call is a very funny story outside the scope of this message.
It’s very important to note that Milwaukee was NOT chosen because of it’s destination value. It was chosen because it’s 1) close to ORD, and 2) it’s cheap to dock here. Every last operator would dump Milwaukee in a New York minute, if say, Racine decided to fund something that’s technically exactly what they need. The city of Milwaukee people really need to understand that.
Non-GL area people want to see 2 things during their cruise: Mackinac Island and Lake Superior. They want those 2 destinations because those are the only 2 they are familiar with. Lake Huron is a better destination in my opinion, but nobody has ever heard of that, so that’s that.
One of the major components of this plan originally was to create a complete destination there, namely a selection of places to go to and sit and drink, eat, and/or be entertained for most of the day or evening.
One of the downsides of that space (about 5 acres), is that there is nowhere nearly enough land to contain the number of parking spaces you need to facilitate the number of people you need to make it financially viable. (vessel dockage will never be enough money to make it viable on it’s own, you need locals spending money there year-round) This is an added expense I don’t know if the Port figured in or not, but an at least 3-story parking ramp would probably be needed to contain that. Whether reclaimed lakebed can support a heavy parking ramp is another technical question.
To be clear about the parking, that is not for cruise passengers. It’s for locals coming in to use the entertainment facilities there. The vast majority domestic of GL passengers come from: the East US Coast, West US Coast, Florida(!), and AZ. I don’t have the latest numbers, but a very substantial number of passengers are international.