Detroit a popular port of call?

Detroit a popular port of call?

A $21.5-million port development along Detroit's riverfront will debut next month with the tall order of changing how the waterway is used.

Detroit has hopes of luring Great Lakes cruise ships, starting a Detroit-Windsor ferry and creating a new era of waterfront tourism.

The project mirrors efforts of other Great Lakes port cities looking to maximize their waterfronts, including Cleveland, but critics doubt that Detroit has the demand to match the cost.

The Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority plans a ribbon-cutting next month; the Grande Mariner cruise ship is expected to be among the first to use the new dock in July.

Among the Detroit port's first customers will be the Grande Mariner. The 96-passenger vessel will dock in Detroit for one night during a July 15-23 cruise, then again sometime between July 25 and Aug. 3 for the "Discover Ontario -- Scenic Georgian Bay" cruise. Grande Mariner's journey goes from Chicago to Toronto.

Shore excursions for passengers at the Detroit port will be the Henry Ford and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, plus Windsor.

Next year, the Yorktown, a 138-passenger American-flagged vessel, is expected to sail the Great Lakes. Its itinerary will be announced once operator Travel Dynamics International of New York completes its negotiations with ship owners in May.

In the 1990s, the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority helped finance and build that city's waterfront Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. The port authority says cruise ships don't stop regularly in Cleveland, but the agency is in discussions with Port Stanley, Ontario, about possible ferry service across Lake Erie.

It hard for me to think of Detroit or Cleveland as a cruise vacation spot; however as more and more people would like to drive to a port close to home for a cruise, anything is possible.