Marina and Walter Unger on the ship in Ukraine - first cruise 1995     Paul Toews at lunch in Yalta overlooking the "Swallows Nest" 2007
The Mennonite Cruise leases the whole Dnieper Princess with a customized itinerary for each cruise

Press Release:  January 29, 2010

Marina and Walter Unger confirm that the 2010 October Mennonite Heritage Cruise will be the sixteenth and last annual cruise, saying:

"Our cruise has had a wonderful long run. We could not have wished for a more fulfilling roots travel project or more endearing pilgrims (passengers) from all over North America. We have enjoyed hosting more than twenty-five hundred of them in Ukraine. Most of all we have learned to love Ukraine and Ukrainians!"

Historian Paul Toews of Fresno Pacific University, who has been with the Mennonite cruise since its inception, writes:

"The Ungers often refer to the passengers on the Mennonite Heritage cruise as pilgrims. And pilgrims many have been - pilgrims in search of their ancestral homeland, pilgrims seeking to understand a past that inhabits their present, pilgrims in search of reconciliation with the fractured and tragic dimensions of the Russian Mennonite story.

While pursuing their own journey the pilgrims have expanded friendships between Ukrainians and Mennonites, enlarged Mennonite social services in Ukraine, nurtured the scholarly and archival recovery of the Russian Mennonite story by both Ukrainians and Westerners, reinvigorated North American historical societies and assisted in emerging Slavic Mennonite congregations.

The Mennonite-Ukrainian landscape is different because of the Mennonite Heritage Cruise."

Late July 2010 - There is still room left on the top (Boat) deck. Special airline fares though are in short supply.
Not to worry - we can get everyone to Ukraine by various airline routes and prices, especially if you book soon.

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