The first cruise ship from the newest cruise line in the world, Viking Ocean Cruises, has recently just completed its maiden voyage and has returned home to Bergen, Norway. The cruise industry is one of the most difficult industries for a new company to enter, given the logistics and costs of everything, however Viking Ocean Cruises has been a success so far.
The boat in question, the Viking Star, is a passenger ship that can accommodate 930 passengers in total. Even though Viking Cruises considers the Viking Star to be a “small ship”, it’s still fairly large and impressive. The Viking Star marked the first cruise ship put out by a new cruise line in over a decade. Back on April 11th, the Viking Star made its maiden voyage and sailed to Istanbul. It spent five weeks out on the water, making stops in Athens, Kotor, Dubrovnik, Venice, Santorini, Seville, Barcelona, Lisbon, Paris, London, and a few other locations.
The return of the Viking Star to Norway was planned in accordance with the Norwegian Constitution Day. Around 20,000 or so individuals showed up for the event and there were parades, a concert, parties, plenty of food, fireworks, and much more. In addition to the various celebrations that went on throughout the day and night, a christening ceremony was held for the Viking Star. The city wide festivities were certainly very impressive and the massive Viking Star really shone out in the harbor. Even the mayor of Bergen, Trude Drevland, came out to give the ship a blessing and wish for it to always have safe voyages in part of a Norwegian tradition that can be traced back thousands of years.
All-in-all Viking Ocean Cruises had a successful maiden voyage with the Viking Star and they currently have two others ships that are currently under construction. It’s great to see a new cruise line hit the scene, as it gives consumers even more choice and forces competition. The Viking Star will then set sail again where it will head to Oslo. From there, it will embark on a journey that stops in Copenhagen, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Helsinki, and Stockholm. If you want to see a recap of the events, then check out the provided video seen below:
Photo from vikingcruises.com
