It's a Viking Invasion

Not literally. I'd hate for any of my Northern readers to start avoiding Yorkshire in the fear that the county is set to be pillaged by a ferocious horde of beefy blond barbarians in horned helmets from Scandinavia.
However, in a very real sense the cruise world is set for a bit of Viking invasion. So what am I talking about?


Have you ever heard of Viking River Cruises? They're a 5* luxury cruise line who offer river cruises all over the European waterways and even further.
They're a very popular cruise line with most river cruisers for the luxury they offer onboard and the in-depth knowledge they offer whilst you're on shore excursions and they've just made an announcement that they'll be expanding their fleet in 2014 and 2015.

Not too surprising you may say, cruise lines order new ships all the time.
What is surprising however is that Viking will be branching out into ocean cruising with two new ocean going cruise vessels, one due in late 2014 and the other in 2015, with an option for a third if all goes well.
They've arranged the deal with Fincantieri, an Italian ship builder, for two ships that will hold 998 passengers in 499 cabins.

Now as any keen cruiser will tell you that's small for a cruise ship these days so I'm hoping that Viking intend to keep their focus on offering great itineraries to people, as they do on their river cruises but I'll let you know more as more details are released.

So what do you think? Are you a fan of Vikings River cruises? If they had ocean going vessels could they tempt you away from the rivers and back to the sea?


Happy cruising