Green Bay prepares to welcome first cruise ship to town Thursday

GREEN BAY – For more than 20 years, Green Bay wondered when its cruise ship would come in. 

The answer, it turns out, is Thursday. 

After years of work and near misses, tourism leaders plan to welcome the 100-plus passengers on American Queen Voyages‘ Ocean Navigator when it docks at Leicht Memorial Park at 7 a.m. Thursday. The arrival will mark a milestone in the city’s decades-long effort to attract Great Lakes cruise ships to town. 

The passengers will spend the day and night docked in Green Bay. The ship will return to Green Bay two weeks later, on Thursday, June 30, again with more than 100 passengers on board. The hope is to convince more cruise operators to bring more ships to Green Bay in the future.