Tag Archives: Viking Star

Viking Sky ship launch postponed until spring 2017

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By Hollie-Rae Merrick
Viking Ocean Cruises has announced the launch of its third ocean ship, Viking Sky, will be postponed until spring 2017, but remains adamant the delay will not affect its ambitious expansion plans.The cruise line’s first ocean ship, Viking Star, has completed her maiden voyage and is due to be christened in Bergen on May 17. A further two ships, Viking Sea and Viking Sky, were both due to begin sailing in 2016, with a fourth ship currently under construction.

But speaking onboard Viking Star, company chairman Torstein Hagen (pictured) said delays with the building of Holland America ship Koningsdam at the Italian shipyard Fincantieri had had a knock-on effect on the construction of one of Viking’s new vessels.

The third ship, which was due to launch next summer, will now be delayed until spring 2017, with any passengers who had already booked sailings given the option to transfer over to Viking Sea. Hagen confirmed that all three ships would share a similar design, following the pattern of the 930-passenger ‘Venice class’ ship Viking Star.

UK managing director Wendy Atkin-Smith dismissed worries that this could dampen the line’s plans for expansion. She said: “Hardly any of her sailings were on sale yet, because our 2016 offering is not for the full year yet.

“We will have some passengers booked on to the ship, but they will be transferred over. There’s as much damage limitation as possible.

“As far as I know, the Koningsdam ship that was being built is taking longer than predicted so it’s impacted on us. Everything depends on other factors, but it’s not going to affect the expansion plans at all.”

Hagen previously revealed hopes to grow the line’s fleet substantially to more than 100 Longships and 10 ocean ships – a significant increase from its current fleet of 63 river vessels and one ocean ship – within the next five years.

Extending a river cruise at sea

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By Tom Stieghorst

Many of the passengers I shared a voyage with recently on the new Viking Star ocean cruise ship were past passengers on Viking’s river cruise vessels.

I was surprised to hear from more than one of them that river cruises in general are too short.

Unlike on the ocean, where one can find world cruises of more than 100 days, river cruises are limited by the length of the river they sail on and rarely span more than two weeks.

Tom Stieghorst
Tom Stieghorst

One woman said that to justify the trouble of packing, taking an overseas flight with all of the security and customs procedures that involves, and adjusting to jet lag in Europe, she wanted to vacation for longer than a typical river cruise allows.

This woman had enjoyed a 15-day river cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest, and said she wouldn’t mind doing the reverse cruise back-to-back in order to get more mileage from her overseas trip.

Mind you, nearly one third of the passengers on my cruise from Istanbul had signed on for a full 50-night, 33-port grand ocean tour of Europe that will finish in Stockholm at the end of May.

So clearly, while there is some overlap between ocean and river cruise customers, there’s a certain contingent that prefers a longer voyage than is possible on the average river itinerary.

One solution is to combine the two, a concept that first launched last fall when Celebrity Cruises linked up with river operator Amras Cruises to create ocean-and-river cruise packages.

Viking could take that idea to the next level by being one company that offers both types of cruises.

There is already a lot of conversation about the topic at Viking’s headquarters in Los Angeles, according to Sara Conley, Viking’s director of public relations and social media, who added that it is logistically more difficult than it might appear.

Ocean and river cruises do not share many homeports, so there might be land transfers involved between one ship and the other. And the schedules of the two sides of the cruise business were not designed with coordination in mind, so they don’t necessarily match up in convenient ways.

At this point, Viking has just one ocean ship, the 930-passenger Star. Next year it expects to have another delivered, with a third to follow either late in 2016 or early 2017.

By that time Viking may have figured out a solution to offering the combo cruise that would give some passengers both a river cruise and a more extended cruise vacation in Europe.

Viking Star: The Snow Grotto

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by Tom Stieghorst

Viking Star’s Snow Grotto

The Snow Grotto on Viking Star is the latest unusual treatment feature in a cruise ship spa.

After heating yourself in a steam bath or sauna, you walk into a small room with snow on the floor and benches to sit on. The room is kept at sub-freezing temperatures.

It is supposed to mimic the Nordic bathing tradition that calls for a romp in the snow after a long sauna.

The room is cold, with dark stone walls illuminated by blue light, giving it a winter vibe. I was worried, I have to admit, that it would be uncomfortably frigid, but that wasn’t the case.

I spent about five minutes cooling down in the snow grotto after my sauna, comparing notes with the other guy in the room. He was from Chicago. I grew up in Wisconsin. We both though it was crazy that someone would put this on a cruise ship, yet we both wanted to try it, too.

The room is supposed to release snow flurries periodically from the ceiling, but we weren’t lucky enough to be there for the snowfall. We were lucky enough, however, to have been warned to wear bath sandals. Apparently, the cold snow on bare feet is not much fun.

The snow room is a first for a cruise line carrying North American passengers and fits naturally with the Nordic theme of Viking Star. There is a ferry with routes in the Baltic Sea that has a snow room and Norwegian Cruise Line also has plans to offer one on its next ship, Norwegian Escape.