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Solo cruiser; Grande Mariner will be the last of three ships to sail Great Lakes in 2008.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Tracy Mishler

Those looking to sail the Great Lakes on a cruise ship had better jump aboard this summer or risk missing the boat.

Availability of cruise ships will be in short supply for next year's season, reducing the number of slots for passengers from 1,800 in 2007 to just 600 next year.

By the start of the 2008 cruise season - which begins in May and ends in mid-October - just one of three cruise ships will be touring the northern Great Lakes, including Michigan, Huron and Superior.

The Grande Mariner, owned and operated by Rhode Island-based American Canadian Caribbean Lines, will have the Great Lakes to itself in 2008. It has capacity for 100 passengers in each of its six sailings.

In 2006, 400 passengers traveled on the Grande Mariner in four sailings, and about 200 passengers sailed on two cruises aboard the Nantucket Clipper. An additional 1,200 passengers booked cruises on the MV Columbus in its three sailings.

According to the Great Lakes Cruising Coalition, the MV Columbus, the lakes' largest cruise vessel with a capacity of 423 passengers; and the Nantucket Clipper, also known as the Spirit of Nantucket, with a capacity of 100 passengers, will not return next season.

"The Columbus has to be dry-docked for repairs,'' said Stephen Burnett,...