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Thanks to comings and goings of Great Lakes cruise ships, the Milwaukee summer seems especially festive in recent years, and no vessel has been turning around here longer than Pearl Seas’ Pearl Mist, which arrived at Pier Wisconsin Monday morning at 8 a.m.
Because of a 10-year deal with Port Milwaukee signed in 2019, Pearl Mist has perhaps the highest-profile mooring site in the city, too, right next to Discovery World.
Pearl Mist, which can carry about 200 passengers in the state rooms on five decks, along with a crew of about 65, was launched in 2014, plying the waters of the East Coast.
“In 2018, we had a trial call, one time only,” recalls Captain George Ciortan, who has helmed Pearl Mist for 10 years. “We docked at the (Lake Express) ferry terminal on the other side of the (Hoan) bridge and it just took one cruise for us to say, ‘okay, let's change it from Chicago’.
“We love it. We feel very welcome here.”
Pearl Seas is a sister company to American Cruise Lines, which flies an American flag on its 19 vessels, meaning it can only have U.S. citizens on its crew and it cannot sail in international waters. Thus, Pearl Mist – the only Pearls Seas vessel – flies a Marshall Islands flag and carries a crew with citizens from all over the world, including the Phillippines, Montenegro, St. Lucia, Panama, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Turkey and Romania, which is where Captain Ciortan is from.
There are Americans, too, says Operations Manager Kristen Lambert.
“One of our cruise directors, Krista Stark, is from Menasha and she is very passionate about that and very passionate about talking about Packers and different Wisconsin beers like Spotted Cow,” says Lambert, who is from Illinois.
Earlier this year 24 crew members celebrated 10 or 11 years on the Pearl Mist.
“Because we're working so long together, we make quite a nice team, " says Captain Ciortan. “I try to keep it as it is because if we have a common effort with the management and crew, the passengers are happy. If the passengers are happy, everybody's happy.”
“I've been with the company now for nine years,” adds Lambert, “and it's sad to say that I feel this is more of my home than my actual home in Illinois.”
Pearl Mist’s contract with Port Milwaukee requires it to dock here at least five times a year and that’s how many times she will call in Milwaukee in 2025.
When she arrived Monday carrying 181 passengers, she’d originally departed from Toronto on May 23 and made stops in Detroit, Sault Ste. Marie, Cleveland, Mackinac Island, among other ports.
Those passengers are exploring the city today, thanks to planned excursions that include the Milwaukee Public Market, Harley-Davidson, the Grohmann and Bobblehead Museums.
Tomorrow they will fly home and be replaced by 183 new passengers who will get a bus tour of the city and then celebrate with champagne up on the Sun Deck for a 3 p.m. departure.
According to Lambert pretty much all Pearl Mist passengers – 99 percent of which are Americans – travel through Mitchell International Airport.
Most passengers also opt to have Pearl Seas book their passage to Milwaukee when they begin their journey here, and on Monday night, 100 of the 183 arriving passengers, will stay at The Pfister.
“We see demographics from all over the United States, but our most common demographic that we travel with are those that are more experienced, and they're curious travelers,” Lambert says. “They have been all over the world, but now they have started to realize that there's so much beauty in our own country, especially the Midwest, like the Great Lakes.
Although the average age of a passenger is 75, Lambert adds, “We have a variety of different guests that travel with us, multi-generational grandparents, children, grandchildren.”
In addition to the Great Lakes, Pearl Mist offers excursions in the St. Lawrence Seaway, the Canadian Maritimes and New England, including autumn colors cruises in the latter two areas.
According to Lambert cruises cost roughly $1,000 per day per passenger and all food and beverage and on-board entertainment – which includes an artist, musicians, speakers, etc, traveling on board as well as local entertainers at each port (in Milwaukee that includes the likes of folk singer David HB Drake and Madison jazz duo Harmonious Wail, among others).
Excursions typically cost extra.
“We have a large following, a really great loyalty program between both of our cruise lines, and after you've cruised with us three times, all of your excursions are complimentary,” she explains. “After you've cruised with us 10 times, your 11th cruise is free, your 22nd, your 33rd, your 44th, and we have a number of guests that have surpassed those cruises.
“In fact, (on Tuesday) we'll welcome a woman on board that's traveled with us already 43 times.”
What folks find on board are a number of outdoor decks – fore and aft – with deck chairs, umbrellas, tables and bag toss and other games.
Because passengers were still on board, we did not get to see any of the state rooms, which were all occupied.
A dining room offers open seating; a library has books, puzzle and games; fitness equipment; the Atlantic Lounge hosts entertainment and a cocktail hour, snacks and refreshments; the Coral Lounge is a quiet space for reading; and the Pacific Lounge has comfortable seating and panoramic views.
Certainly those views are at their best when Pearl Mist is docked in Milwaukee, at the foot of Discovery World, near the Milwaukee Art Museum, with the skyline as a backdrop on one side and the vast blue Lake Michigan on the other.
“Pier Wisconsin is probably the most beautiful dock that we have on our Great Lakes itinerary,” says Lambert, “not just because there's a beautiful sign at the front that says ‘Home of the Pearl Mist,’ but just the background alone.”
It’s no surprise, I guess, that the view is featured on the cover of the Pearl Mist brochure.
It’s part of what helped keep Captain Ciortan at the helm for a decade.
“I love this area,” he says, as we stand atop the sixth and top deck, with the skyline behind us. “I used to sail in Europe, Brazil, Caribbean, with a bigger ship where I was a captain for a long time. They called me for a month and I came from another contract from Greenland and the Baltic Sea in Europe. I came for a month and now I am already (here) 10 years. So I love it.”
And passengers love it, too, which is why the Pearl Mist moved to Milwaukee from Chicago all those years ago.
“Chicago is a fantastic city,” says Lambert. “I am from Illinois. I love it there. My friends live there. But for our demographic, we found that once we visited Milwaukee, we couldn't go back to Chicago just based on the feedback, the accessibility, the proximity of all the destinations, the museums, the public market is a huge destination that our guests really enjoy visiting. It's within walking distance.
“It's a smaller city, but with a bigger city feel.”
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
