Moments after welcoming a relatively new French cruise ship to Milwaukee on the boat blog Sunday, our eyes did a double take outside BIG BOAT MKE HQ. Is that…

MS Hamburg arrives in Milwaukee

A second cruise ship?!

Sure enough, approaching the Port was a large vessel and our French was quickly changing over to German. Arriving Sunday, the MS Hamburg.

MS Hamburg passes the lighthouse

This is not the first time the Hamburg has been in Milwaukee. In September of 2017 while we were out of town the largest cruise ship on the Great Lakes made a visit, stopping inside the inner harbor and letting off mostly German tourists.

MS Hamburg and Le Champlain in Milwaukee

With a capacity of 420 passengers, the Hamburg is much larger than the French cruise ship Le Champlain which also arrived Sunday. In fact, the ship is too big to dock at the cruise ship dock at discovery word.

Instead the Hamburg turned south.

A tour boat sails alongside the Hamburg as it heads to the ferry dock

And made her way to the ferry dock.

2 cruise ships is a rare sight in Milwaukee

This may be a historic moment for Milwaukee. I can’t recall there ever being two cruise ships in the port at the same time, and certainly not of this size.

Algoma Innovator sails by Le Champlain after a quick visit

Port and tourism officials have been working hard to try to expand the market for great lakes cruises and it appears that hard work is paying off.

We believe the Hamburg’s itinerary will send her to Chicago next. At first we thought Le Champlain would be hanging out for awhile. Her itinerary had her leaving October 6th. We saw her taking off Sunday evening for Muskegon. Our guess is she will be back in Milwaukee on the 6th to begin an 11 day day cruise to Quebec on the much newer French cruise ship.

Dennis Sullivan sails as Algoma Innovator takes off and Le Champlain waits for guests