Did You Know The Cruise Ships That Come To Duluth Offer Submarine Tours?
With the recent disaster with the Titanic tourist adventure submarine Titan, submarines and safety have been on people's minds. Many people are coming forward now about the questionable design and safety of the Titan submarine, including stories about how it's been lost before.
That sparked my curiosity and I wondered if there were any submarine tours in the Great Lakes. It turns out there is a company that owns not just one, but four yellow submarines. Paul, John, George, and Ringo are the names of the submarines. Obviously, they are named after The Beatles.
The Viking Octanis, which frequents Duluth offers their passengers the chance to see the depths of the Great Lakes with submarine tours. The submarines go down a few hundred feet depending on conditions, so it's not nearly as risky as deep ocean dives. It can go down as far as 1,000 feet and say submerged for 8 hours.
The cruise ship lowers the submarine out the side of the ship. Then, passengers take a small boat to load into the submarine.
Once everyone is onboard, the pilot crawls in and begins the descent. Thrillist sent a journalist down to check it out, and they claim it's pretty safe. The sub is programmed to automatically surface if the controls aren't active. There are instructions and safety features for bringing the sub up if the pilot goes unconscious. A safety boat also follows the sub.
Still, it would be a little unnerving at first to go under the waves. Once the descent begins, underwater tourists will likely catch glimpses of underwater sea life. Like a fish that swam by shortly after going under.
Sometimes, the submarine will actually "land" on the bottom of the lake. In this instance, the submarine didn't want to disturb the sea life that was on the lake bottom.
So how do you get into one of these tours? You need to be a passenger on the Viking Octanis or Viking Polaris cruise ship, and it is not cheap. Packages for the Great Lake Collection that goes from Ontario to Duluth start at around $12,000.
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