“Our guests want to stay a little bit closer to home. It’s a perfect year with America’s 250th to explore home,” said John Waggoner, founder and chairman at Victory Cruise Lines.

The company has its two ships on the Great Lakes this summer and is pushing the season longer into the fall. In addition are repositioning voyages to and from Jacksonville, and a winter roundtrip sailing from the Florida port.

For the company’s Great Lakes program, the highlight is a nine-day Chicago-to-Toronto sailing touching all five lakes. Waggoner pointed out some 26 million people live within a five-hour drive of Chicago.

“People aren’t flying for six or eight hours. They don’t want to get stranded,” he said.

Market

“We operate in what I call a virtual oligopoly,” he said, noting that only six ships currently sail the Great Lakes.

“There’s plenty of room for all of us. The Great Lakes are still like an uncapped market. Anything we can do to get brand awareness is great for us.”

He compared Viking’s advertising to a Ford commercial that sends shoppers to the dealership, where they might ultimately buy a different car instead.

“Rising tides raise all ships,” he added.

The company’s competitive advantage comes in its ship size. Victory’s vessels can dock at Navy Pier in downtown Chicago and also dock at Mackinac Island, while others may have to tender.

“Our guests really do want the intimate experience. They want 200 passengers or less. They want memorable experiences. They want their crew members to know their name,” added Waggoner.

The enrichment programming is also being deepened. Victory is adding a photographer-lecturer on upcoming sailings, with a broader goal of expanding the onboard learning experience heading into 2027.

Victory spent the off-season at BAE Shipyards in Jacksonville, which was a shift from the previous winter base in Portland, Maine, where painting and exterior work was hampered by weather. The decision also opened a new door.

“Because of that, we’ve added a couple of itineraries down the Eastern Seaboard and then round-trip Jacksonville,” Waggoner said. “We’re excited about those and excited about extending the season.”

The Bahamas itinerary, in particular, draws a slightly different traveler profile, which are warm-weather seekers who might not otherwise consider a Great Lakes product, broadening Victory’s addressable market without abandoning its core identity.

When Victory first acquired the ships, the initial $6 million investment in the vessels was focused heavily on safety and mechanical systems, including engine rebuilds.

This past winter the spending mix shifted toward the guest experience.

“Most of the money was really spent on satisfaction things, new flooring, building new walls around the galleys, new carpet, new chairs, new light fixtures, wallpaper in the staterooms, new upholstery, new china and more,” Waggoner said. “We spent a lot of time and money.”

His longer-term goal is simple: keep the ships moving.

“As a boat owner, I don’t like to have our boats laid up more than 60 days.”

The goal, Waggoner continued, is to add a couple new departures each year.

He’s also working on alumni charters to fill gaps during the shoulder period, and a Newfoundland itinerary is already in early planning for 2029. The St. Lawrence Seaway sailings, in particular, are generating buzz as a recent voyage spotted a pod of nine whales.

Sales Mix

Victory’s current sales breakdown is 50 percent travel agent, 30 percent direct FIT, and 20 percent groups and reflects a deliberate balance.

The all-inclusive model, which bundles shore excursions at multiple tiers from standard (included) to high-end private experiences at an additional cost, is a key part of the pitch.

“Our guests love that we don’t nickel and dime them,” Waggoner said.

With only around 400 total berths across both ships, the math of filling them is small by cruise standards.

“One Oasis of the Seas departure is us for the whole year,” Waggoner noted.

Current sales are tracking 23 percent ahead of last year, and 2027 bookings were described by Waggoner as very strong.

That said, the market volatility of early 2026 was noticed.

“We had four weeks there where our sales went down by about 50 percent,” Waggoner acknowledged, referencing the stock market swings. “But, we bounced right back up.”

“When we bought the ships, it wasn’t investment dollars, it was us going into our savings, pulling money out,” Waggoner said. “I told everybody: we are not going to experiment. We need to hit a home run.”

Waggoner’s definition of a successful year is grounded and specific.

“Hitting our revenue numbers, being at 80 percent occupancy or higher, not having any guest incidents, not having any mechanical failures, seeing fuel prices come down, and getting unbelievable guest scores,” he said. “We know we have a great product.”