It’s been a great weekend for the Buffalo waterfront, thanks to the Tall Ship Festival. Along with a number of brigantines and schooners, the waterfront also welcomed another important visitor – the Grande Caribe (Great Lakes Cruise Company). I was pretty excited to see the vessel, because I assumed that it had come to town to bring visitors to the Tall Ship Festival. But that was not the case. I asked one of the shipmates about the reason for the visit, and he told me that the passengers, traveling from one Great Lakes city to another, had made a stopover to Buffalo so that the passengers could pay a visit to Niagara Falls. Currently, Buffalo is still no more than a convenience to get sightseers to The Falls.
If you visit the company’s website, you will find a page that allows you to search cruises per city. The ships in the fleet appear to have a lot of intersecting destination cities to choose from, where Buffalo is looked at as more of a layover city. And that’s unfortunate.
Our elegant, unique ships all embody a charming, maritime style. The fleet is perfectly suited for cruising the Great Lakes, and embodies an open-air, inviting atmosphere. With a relaxed, accessible design and impeccable service, we are certain you will find a vessel to suit your needs. We look forward to welcoming you aboard.
Because of the Welland Canal, Buffalo gets bypassed for the most part. Every few years, I post about this missed opportunity. How can we get this city on the radar of this company? With all of our world-renowned architecture, great restaurants, rebounding waterfront, etc., one would think that Buffalo would be a primetime city to visit. Also, don’t you think that Buffalonians would want to travel to Cleveland, Chicago, Toronto, etc., on a fully equipped luxury vessel such as the Grande Caribe? I bet there would be plenty of takers for these types of overnight cruises if Buffalo was added as a full fledge stopping point instead of a convenient port for Niagara Falls excursions.
Maybe it’s time to make a couple of phone calls to Great Lakes Cruise Company’s Senior Booking Specialist, Jeanne Psychas? Anyone up for a cruise?
