Sturgeon Bay is located on a canal that runs between Lake Michigan and Green Bay, and connects the two bodies of water. This puts Bay in a good position to provide many types of water sports including tours and cruises. The harbor at Sturgeon Bay is large enough to accept large freighters, and many smaller ships tie up here.

For those interested in Great Lakes cruises and tours, the historic Chicago Fireboat docks at the Maritime Museum and gives narrated tours along the lake shore. Painted, (what else?) fire engine red, the Fireboat is pet friendly so cruisers don’t have to leave their furry friends in the car. The company operating the Fireboat offers several different types of cruises including morning and afternoon trips.

Another opportunity available in Sturgeon Bay is a cruise on the Harbor Lady. The Harbor Lady is a 149 passenger yacht that offers sightseeing and dinner tours. They also offer several specialty tours over the year including fireworks cruises and theme parties such as a ‘Jimmy Buffett’ party.

For those seeking something unique for their wedding venue, the Harbor Lady is available for charter to handle events such as weddings, anniversaries, and birthday parties. The Harbor Lady has complete catering available.

The area around Sturgeon Bay offers some of the finest scenery in northern Wisconsin, with spectacular bluffs, rocky outcroppings, emerald green shorelines, and magical beaches. The downtown area offers visitors a series of specialty shops, fine art stores, restaurants, museums, and parks. There also beautiful lighthouses and the historic waterfront area. Sturgeon Bay claims to have the widest selection of specialty shops on the peninsula. All of them are within walking distance of water, making this a fun place to spend some time.

For those who take their Great Lakes cruises on their own boats, some of the shops in Sturgeon Bay are close enough you can sail up to them. Making this a truly friendly port for those with their own pleasure boats.

The Bay area is unique in that it accesses Lake Michigan through a narrow canal on one end and opens naturally into Green Bay on the other. Along the waterfront between Lake Michigan and Green Bay is where the harbor is located.

Sturgeon Bay also offers several charter boats that are available for an afternoon of fishing. If your holiday vacation plans involve any type of Great Lakes cruise, then Sturgeon Bay may be a destination you want to consider.

The Columbus is a 400+ passenger state-of-the-art luxury cruise ship, built in 1997. At 473 feet long, the ship has a 71 foot beam, and gross tons of 15,000. This makes the Columbus one of the larger cruise ships that will be working the Great Lakes next summer. There are a number of domestic cruise lines offering luxury cruises, but only a few operate ships that are quite so large or as luxurious. For residents of the US and Canada, the Columbus offers an added attraction because it is operated by a foreign crew, giving passengers a feeling that they’re farther away from home than they may actually be.

The month of September can sometimes be a stormy one on the Great Lakes, but can also be one of the more pleasant months of the year. Spring months are often filled with storms and late fall beginning in October and bring many cold rains. This leaves June, July, August, and September as the prime cruise months. September is the end of the main cruise season, a time when the leaves on the trees begin to take on brilliant hues of orange, red and yellow, which can make this a beautiful time for touring the Great Lakes. The evenings are frequently cool, and the days are generally still warm to enjoy without a jacket, although those on the water will want to consider bringing warm clothing.

As always, there are a number of other options available for anyone wanting to take a color tour cruise. These range from small boats to large ships, and from cruises that last only a few hours to those that last several days or a couple of weeks; all of the Great Lakes have at least some options available for color tour cruises.

Generally Great Lakes cruises are all small ship cruises, because the size of the ships that sail the Great Lakes is dictated in large part by the size of the channels the ships have to pass through to enter the Great Lakes and by the depth of the harbors, which tend to be shallower than those found on the oceans. The Columbus just fits within the small ship category as it carries less than five hundred passengers and that makes it able to enter the Great Lakes with ease, carrying passengers in both directions.

The great advantage to sailing on small ships is that they provide a much more intimate cruise experience than you would find on the larger cruise ships which are basically small cities at sea. You get a chance to know me to and no some of your fellow passengers, and you may even get a chance to learn a little bit about the crew and a few crew members.

If you’re planning a Great Lakes cruise in 2011, you might want to remember that the Columbus is returning to the Lakes once again, and consider booking your cruise on what is perhaps one of the most interesting luxury cruise ships working the Lakes.

The Seadog is a fleet of three speedboats, and the cruise is a 30 minute thrill ride on Lake Michigan. Or, there is a 75 minute Lake and river tour. Both tours include stops at major landmarks and the longer tour includes an architecture tour.

The 30 minute tour combines high-speed runs from point to point. At each point, the ship stops and the passengers are introduced to a particular Chicago landmark, then the engines crank up and Seadog races off to the next stop. The rides don’t stop with just daytime landmarks, there is also an after dark thrill ride with Seadog racing over the waves.

If a Seadog Great Lakes cruise sounds too slow, how about the Seadog Extreme? This speedboat has twin 1400 horsepower engines. Seadog Cruises claims the Seadog Extreme is “the most horse powered commercial passenger vessel operating on the Great Lakes. In a vessel this size, this claim is very probably true, at least I haven’t run across another cruise company offering anything like this with similar horsepower.

Seadog is an open speedboat, which means there is no cabin to sit in, so you may get wet, or you may not. The cruise line advises that the ship is handicap accessible except for extra large motorized wheelchairs. That said, they do make a few limitations about potential passengers. You must be at least 48 inches tall to ride, and they caution against people with bad backs, bad hearts or late term pregnancy. One thing Seadog does that other cruise ships may not, is allow dogs.

The cost for this cruise is well in line with other cruises in the Chicago area and throughout the Great Lakes. The listed 2009 price is About $30 for adults and children under 12 at a reduced rate. Seadog is also available for group charters for schools, church groups, Scout outings or corporate outings. Contact the company with any questions and to find schedules and special events.

The menu for this dinner cruise is also better than you would find on the Spirit of Chicago. The 2009 dinner menu calls for main courses of Syrah Braised Center Cut of Beef, Seafood Ravioli Gratinee, Boneless Pork Chops, North Atlantic Salmon or a Mediterranean Vegetable Purse. The first courses and desserts are equally sumptuous and equal or exceed those found in many of the better land based restaurants. The Odyssey II experience includes the opportunity to order any of these fine meals that are prepared fresh on board every day.

Like the Spirit of Chicago, the Odyssey II offers several decks and each one has live music and a dance floor. The live music varies from jazz to contemporary and is performed by individual artists and groups. Odyssey II promises that the music won’t end until the ship returns to port.

The operators bill the Odyssey II as the “largest fine-dining cruise ship on the Great Lakes,” This may be true. At 200 feet long and 55 feet high above the water line, the Odyssey II is one of the larger Great Lakes ships offering dinner cruises. While there are other ships that are slightly larger, they won’t serve as many diners and those ships that will serve a similar number of diners appear to be slightly smaller in size and certainly not as luxurious. The Odyssey II has 3 climate controlled decks and promises skyline views from every table.

The cruise route runs south from Navy pier to the Shedd Aquarium, then back to the north to Evanston or thereabouts and then returns to Navy pier. This affords an excellent view of the Chicago skyline, and for the Midnight cruises the skyline provides an amazingly lit backdrop for this luxury cruise. The cruises last two or three hours–the exact time and route is determined by weather and the particular cruise offering.

Unlike some of her northern counterparts, Odyssey II offers cruises year around, although in the winter the are fewer days when cruises are offered and passengers may need to schedule their vacation or celebration times more around the ship’s schedule. Individuals, couple and groups are all welcome. Reservations are required, and there is a dress code so be sure to call ahead and plan to dress nicely. Lunch cruises start at $44.90 + tax and fees and dinner cruises start at $79.90 +. That is a very competitive price considering the menu and compared to the offerings of other Great Lakes cruise providers. As small ship cruises go, this one is a winner!

If you want a truly unique dinner cruise experience, the Spirit of Chicago offers a Thanksgiving Dinner cruise featuring Walnut crusted turkey breast, orange glazed ham and slow braised center cut sirloin. There are also two after Thanksgiving Champagne brunch and dinner cruises available on November 27th. There are few other small ship cruise lines that offer this level of dining, or trips as late into the fall as the Spirit of Chicago offers.

For those who like the night, the Spirit of Chicago offers a midnight moonlight cruise. This Lakes cruise includes a professional DJ, cash bar and light hors d’oeuvres. Sorry, this cruise is adults only (over 21) and you must be able to show a valid photo ID before boarding.

Another cruise offering is the Sweetest Day Dinner cruise which is offered October 17th. Offering live music, champagne and memorable views of the Sweetest Day fireworks, this cruise promises to be a winner. Fireworks cruises are always popular among dinner and evening cruisers and small cruise ships offer an outstanding platform for viewing fireworks unobstructed by either buildings or milling crowds. The Spirit of Chicago offers an upper level observation deck as well as several open patios on the other decks and should allow excellent viewing.

Fireworks cruises are available on the Spirit of Chicago on the fourth of July, Sweetest Day and News Years Eve. Since many Great Lakes cruise ships are closed for business during the winter season, this makes the Spirit of Chicago exceptional as it offers cruises most of the year.

The spirit of Chicago offers three dining decks and an observation deck and has a reported capacity of 572 passengers. They will take single passengers, small groups or even large group charters that occupy one or more decks. The decks are open and spacious and appear well lighted. The ship departs from Navy pier and the cruise provider reports that ample parking is available at the Navy Pier parking lot. There is also a continuous running (and free to ride) trolley that carries passengers from the parking a lot along Navy pier.

There is a dress code of sorts for the dinner cruises, so be certain to check with the cruise providers for exact recommendations. These cruises are generally not shirt and tie affairs, but the cruise line prefers passengers on the dinner cruises be a little more dressy. There are also enhancements you can add to your cruise to make to more memorable. These include private tables, balloons, roses, appetizer plates, open bar, champagne, wine, souvenir glasses, photographs, guaranteed window seats and other perks that add to the experience of a Great Lakes cruise on this small ship.

There are several different varieties of cabins available on the Grande Mariner. Some open onto the outside deck and some open onto an inside corridor. Cabins are available with two lower berths or with upper and lower berths. A few cabins have both a double lower berth and a single upper berth. As this ship is smaller than the competing Clelia II and a bit more austere, the cabins are also smaller and less luxurious.

With that difference noted, there are some features of the Grande Mariner that the Clelia II cannot match. One is the bow ramp which allows passengers to simply walk off the ship without the need to worry about jetties and docks. Another is the extremely shallow draft of the ship, which allows it to enter shallow coastal waters where other ships dare not go.

There are also two launches, one of which has a glass bottom. Glass bottomed boats are somewhat of a rarity in Great Lakes tours, and they offer an excellent opportunity to explore sunken ships, rock formations and to view the numerous species of fresh water fish that inhabit the Lakes. The Grande Mariner has a large dining room on the main deck and an auditorium/lounge on the second deck that can accommodate all passengers.

This small ship cruise on The Grande Mariner embarks from Chicago with stops at Holland, Michigan, Manistee, Michigan, Mackinaw Island, Michigan, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin before returning to Chicago. There are seven different waterways that the ship passes through to reach these ports and some terrific scenery.

The published prices for the 2010 Grande Mariner Lake Michigan Getaway cruise run between $1800 and $2200 depending on the cabin choice. There is an additional port charge of $100 that is also shown. Cruise dates begin June and end in late July. This could be the perfect Great Lakes cruise and one of only a few on Lake Michigan. On a small ship cruise like this, there is always the chance for adventure in the small and large port cities where the ship calls and as Great Lakes cruises go, this one offers as nice a selection of ports as any other.