Victory Cruise Lines inaugurates refurbished ship into service

Victory Cruise Lines, a US-based operator specialising in coastal cruise sailings in the Great Lakes and Canada, inaugurated a refurbished ship into service in a ceremony in Toronto on Sunday, April 27.

The 2001-built Victory I will serve as the flagship of Victory Cruise Lines. The ship was purchased by the company in 2024 along with sister Victory II. Both ships were purposely built for the Great Lakes.

Victory Cruise Lines will offers 33 departures in 2025, passing through all five of the Great Lakes in one voyage. The cruise line is also the only company to dock at Chicago’s downtown Navy Pier, where Victory II will be christened on May 12, 2025.

Both ships will operate 10- to 15-night voyages from Chicago, Toronto, and Montreal from now through October.

Victory I's inaugural sailing will cover 10 nights between Toronto and Chicago. Ports of call will include Port Colborne (Niagara Falls), Cleveland, Detroit, Sault Ste. Marie, Mackinac Island, and Escanaba, Michigan.

The inauguration also marks Victory Cruise Line's return to operations since February 2024, when its then-parent company American Queen Voyages ceased doing business due to it being unable to rebound from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.