It figures.  Just when cruise lines had begun to heal wounds suffered in battle with fierce new Viking Ocean Cruises, it happens. The Viking sneak attack caught the rest of the cruise industry by surprise, attracting top crew and well-traveled passengers.  Also unexpected, a robust initial traveler interest buoyed by a first-class land-quality hotel operation in the guise of a cruise ship.  Further solidifying Viking as a solid contender in the oceans of the world, reports from those who sailed are nearly unanimous: it’s really good. Maybe that energy transferred to other lines as well.  The last few years introduced a great many non-Viking travel innovations with more in the pipeline and no end in sight.  Everyone is getting happy again. Then it happens.

Viking’s original trio of ships that wound up growing into a solid ten ship fleet will be adding six more ships.  Do the math.  That’s the bomb. Watch it explode. [DETAILS]

Historically, Viking’s timing has been uncanny in so many different ways, often throwing away the box that others fail to think outside of. It is probably not a coincidence that Viking chose smack dab in the middle of the annual Seatrade cruise industry convention to announce this.

Fast-growing Viking Cruises creates their own playground, rules, and standards that begin by tagging the pie-in-the-sky dream goal of other organizations as a starting place. Sort of.  Silly elements of the other guy’s thing, they just skip. Getting the heck out of Istanbul when every other cruise line had left in an abundance of caution comes to mind.  That phrase, translated to Viking means “No, we’re staying because this is one of the most interesting places on the planet”. Perhaps not in those words but you get the idea: Viking does not falter on the destination element. Ever. Does this mean they send travelers to dangerous places? Of course not.  This speaks to Viking’s ability to attract the well-traveled. The kind of traveler that probably won’t get into the bad situations that less experienced travelers might. For all practical purposes, they don’t scare easy.  Vikings or their passengers.

The destination element runs throughout the organization, not just the shorex department, making it one of their superpowers.
Not a superpower any longer: the interesting destinations Viking Ocean ships visit or even Viking’s interesting combination of them.  Everyone does that to the best of their ability, all factors considered.  This Viking superpower (they have more than one) speaks to the lengths the three-year-old company will go to ensure delivery of a quality destination experience for their equally unique target demographic.  Example: an orientation tour is included at each port of call on a Viking itinerary, effectively taking the cost element of the tour decision off the table.

The attention now is on the sheer number of ships in a young fleet that is growing very quickly. That fact was punctuated recently by the naming of fourth ship Viking Sun in Shanghai during the ship’s inaugural 2018 Viking World Cruise, as we see in this Viking video:

While this may have been Viking Ocean Cruises first time in China, sister-brand Viking River Cruises has been coming here since 2004.  That seemingly unrelated fact is actually another superpower of Viking: their river cruise heritage.  That 14-year head start on shoreside operations via river gives Viking’s ocean effort is substantial.

Stepping back into the world where the rest of the cruise industry operates, considering all of the above and looking forward; this is good for cruise travelers.  Even if they never sail a Viking ship on a river or in an ocean. The addition of Viking to the pool of choices for ocean cruise travelers has done more than bring one more choice.  Viking’s solid commitment to our enriched travel experience has resolved as something we can take home with us that is meaningful.

It’s the Enriched Travel History concept we vaguely introduced yesterday in Designing Your Enriched Travel History: A Great Big Global View.  This is what any decent travel agent with their head in the right place does for clients and may never speak of.  It’s perhaps the greatest benefit of using a travel professional to help guide our planning efforts. And brother, let me tell you: we need those agents more now than ever before, for a reason we have been talking about here for quite some time.

Cruise lines are nearing fruition of a differentiation process which began before Viking Ocean Cruises was a dream.  Look back ten years.  A large number in the consumer pool Viking now draws from was created by big ship cruise lines in the Caribbean.  Not all that long ago, we could confidently schedule time off and book flights to and from a Florida embarkation port from our then home in Kansas before booking the cruise.  It was just a matter of which cruise line and ship to choose and those choices were not all that difficult. The differences between cruise lines: negligible. Not so today as the differentiation process nears the finish line with a variety of “what’s next” scenarios we will have to wait and see resolve.

Interestingly, this Viking move has been framed as a reaction to solid booking numbers in the new cruise line’s short history, adding additional booster fuel to the rocket. It will be interesting to watch the flight, see where that rocket eventually lands and what Viking’s place in the world of travel will eventually be. The experience on Viking ocean ship #16 will have evolved from what it is now. No telling what that might resolve as but tt should be a fun story to follow along on.  There will be more bombs. Stay tuned.

 

 

[PRESS RELEASE] Viking® (www.vikingruises.com) today announced a new agreement with Fincantieri that could see the delivery of six additional ocean ships by 2027. The new understanding expands Viking’s partnership with Fincantieri, raising the company’s total ocean ship order and options to 16 – the highest-ever for a shipyard from a single owner. The agreement for the six additional ships, which will be delivered in 2024, 2025, 2026 and 2027, is subject to specific conditions.

“When we launched our first ocean ship in 2015, we set out to reinvent ocean cruising. We focus on the destination, and we do not cram our ships with gimmicks and waterslides. Our understated, elegant, award-winning ships are designed to simply enable our guests to better explore their destination,” said Torstein Hagen, Chairman of Viking. “In our first two years of operation, we have been named the #1 Ocean Cruise Line, and this new order speaks to the positive response we have received from our guests and the industry. As we continue to expand our brand, we look forward to bringing guests to more destinations around the world and introducing them to the Viking way of exploration.”

This announcement comes just prior to the naming of Viking’s fourth ocean ship, Viking Sun®, on March 8 in Shanghai. The ship is currently sailing Viking’s sold-out 141-day World Cruise from Miami to London, and its stop in Shanghai will mark the first time one of Viking’s ocean ships has called in China. Viking Sun will also be the first-ever cruise ship to be named in Shanghai.

Classified by Cruise Critic® as “small ships,” Viking’s all-veranda ocean ships have a gross tonnage of 47,800 tons, have 465 staterooms and host 930 guests. Viking Sun is the newest addition to Viking’s award-winning ocean fleet, which also includes Viking Star®, Viking Sea® and Viking Sky®. Viking will welcome two more sister ships in the next two years, including Viking Orion® in June 2018. With the arrival of Viking Jupiter® in 2019, Viking will be the largest small ship ocean cruise line. Ten additional ships are now on order for delivery starting in 2021, which will bring Viking’s ocean fleet to 16 ships by 2027.