Until now, little was known about the new Viking Ocean product other than a teaser press release ann

Viking Cruises made a huge Nordic splash in Beverly Hills, CA, on Thursday with the launch of their brand new Viking Ocean Cruises product line! Sister company to the global leader of river cruising, Viking River Cruises , Viking Ocean will take the Viking brand to the next level with the launch of destination-focused European ocean cruises to sail in the Mediterranean, Adriatic, North and Baltic Seas. With the debut of its first ship, the Viking Star in May 2015, you can expect this new class of ocean liners to be infused with the finely appointed elegance that Viking is world renowned but on a grander scale. A sister ship, yet to be named, will sail on her maiden voyage in 2016 and right now, Viking has conditional orders and options for four additional ocean cruise liners a mark of their aggressive plan to expand this new venture. But it's not all about ocean liners because after Viking River Cruises set world records with the debut of 10 Viking Longships at a mega Christening event last March, they plan to kick it up a notch and debut 12 more next year! Now that's growth!
Until now, little was known about the new Viking Ocean product other than a teaser press release announced in April last year. But that all changed Thursday night when Torstein Hagen, Viking Chairman, slowly unveiled the product and his rationale for embarking on this new venture inspired by Viking River Cruises passengers. One by one, passenger demographics, ship features and stunning midtown madness 1 artist renderings were presented and captured the attention of the social media spheres as evidenced midtown madness 1 by the buzz Viking generated across the social networks. As you know, I am a HUGE Viking River Cruises fan and this announcement of a new Viking product in Europe sent me over the moon despite the fact that I am not a big ocean-cruising fan.
"It is our view that in the race to build bigger ships, many cruise lines have lost sight of the destinations midtown madness 1 to which they sail," said Torstein Hagen, Chairman of Viking Cruises. "With our new ocean cruises, we are applying the same principles behind our award-winning river cruises to our itinerary and ship design; privileged-access excursions; and onboard experiences to make destinations the true focus."
With a laser focus on maximizing destination immersion, Viking will offer guests enriching shore excursions to experience the cultures, art and history with extended stays in each of the destinations they will visit, including overnights in some of the ports to allow the opportunity to enjoy the evenings after all the other tourists have gone for the day. Now this is my kind of cruising in Europe!
Relatively smaller by industry standards, the 928-passenger Viking Star combines state-of-the -art-Scandinavian design, "green" technology and understated elegance you've come to expect with the Viking products plus:
The Restaurant is just one of the multiple dining locations onboard and offers an exquisite setting and panoramic views for your dining pleasure. All photos: Viking Cruises. Unauthorized use is prohibited.
Your choice midtown madness 1 of destination excursions offering enriching experiences in culture, art and history. And because of Viking Star's intimate size, the ship will be able to cruise into ports not usually visited by the mega cruise liners, bringing their guests even closer to the destinations!
Viking Homelands a 15-day midtown madness 1 cruise through Viking country from Stockholm to St. Petersburg and Copenhagen to Bergen; plus stops in Helsinki, Tallinn, Gdansk, Berlin (Warnemünde), Aalborg, Stavanger and Flåm.
Passage Through Western Europe midtown madness 1 another 15-day cruise through Bergen, Norway; London's Thames (thanks to Viking Star's intimate size); Paris (Rouen); Lisbon; and Spain's Cadiz, Gibraltar, Cartagena and Barcelona
Mediterranean Odyssey this 13-day cruise will take the Viking Star to Toulon, France; Monte Carlo; Tuscany (Livorno), Rome and Naples in Italy; Corfu (Kerkira) Greece; Dubrovnik and Split in Croatia; plus overnights in Barcelona and Venice.
Empires of the Mediterranean a 10-day midtown madness 1 cruise voyage that begins in Venice and travels to Pula and Dubrovnik in Croatia; Kotor, Montenegro; Greece's Santorini, Athens (Piraeus), and Ephesus (Kusadasi); plus an overnight in Istanbul.
What a gorgeous ship! And after watching the series Viking on History channel, this post has got me even more interested in setting sail for Scandinavia! Reply Delete Replies Jeff Titelius May 20, 2013 at 4:34 PM
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