LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — Lansing’s Michigan Princess riverboat is being dismantled after more than three decades on Grand River, bringing an end to a fixture of the capital city’s riverfront that carried more than half a million passengers since its debut in 1991.
The three-deck, 500-passenger paddlewheel-style vessel, docked at Grand River Park just south of downtown, had been out of service since August 2024. That was when an airbag failed during routine maintenance as crews tried to return the boat to the water, causing major structural damage.
“It was quite loud, sounded like a bomb went off inside the boat,” said maintenance worker Matt Christie at the time. “I was inside the boat, and yeah, I kind of went flying right along with everything inside the boat.”
The Michigan Princess grew out of John and Karla Chamberlain’s canoe rental business in Potter Park…