11-Dec-14 – A tour of Chicago by bus and by boat does not have to be two separate tours, believes a company in the early stages of getting approval for a “duck tour.”

Entertainment Cruises, a large dining and sightseeing cruise operator with 30 ships in nine locations, wants to offer tours of Chicago from an amphibious vehicle. The tour would start on land at Navy Pier, enter the Chicago River at Marina City, exit at River City, and return to Navy Pier by city street.

An amphibious vehicle must be registered as a boat. A representative of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, which regulates boats in Illinois, says they have received an application for a duck tour and will distribute a public notice in January.

According to the IDNR, ramps would be constructed on the marinas at Marina City on the main branch of the Chicago River and River City on the south branch. The ramps would not protrude into the river.

(Above) The tour would start and end at Navy Pier in the upper right corner of this map. The amphibious vehicle would enter the Chicago River at Marina City in the upper left corner and exit the water at River City at lower left. Both complexes are mixed use (residential and commercial), have marinas, and were designed by the same architect, Bertrand Goldberg.

The first duck tour company started in 1946 in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. Duck tours are now popular throughout the world.

During World War II, General Motors Corporation took two-and-a-half ton cargo trucks and made six-wheel-drive amphibious vehicles out of them. The word “duck” comes from GMC’s name for the vehicle, DUKW. “D” means the model year was 1942, “U” stands for Utility, the basic type of vehicle, “K” means the vehicle has all wheel drive, and “W” means it has dual rear axles.

The vehicles have been involved in notable accidents on land and water. In 2010, two people were killed when a duck boat on the Delaware River in Philadelphia, disabled by engine fire, was run over by a barge. In 2011, a motorcyclist in Seattle was critically injured when a boat hit him while he was stopped at a red light.

Entertainment Cruises was formed in 2006 from the merger of Premier Yachts and Spirit Cruises, which had been operating since 1978. The company is based in Chicago and currently owned by Pritzker Group Private Capital. From Navy Pier, they operate Elite, Mystic Blue, Odyssey, Seadog, and Spirit.