Viking closes down German boats

Viking Flusskreuzfahrten (Cologne) who are operating the river cruise ships for Germany has announced to quit operations by the end of this year. They want to concentrate on the US business.

Viking has separate ships for US and German customers. While all the longships are US only Viking has chartered ships from Lüftner for the German customers. They used to have long time charters from Premicon which included a Viking ship name (like Viking Legend, Viking Primadonna).

Last year they´ve lost a law suit against K-D (Köln-Düsseldorfer). Some 30 years ago Viking bought their river cruise ships and K-D was forced to step back to excursion boats. K-D invented river cruising on the Rhine river.

steamboats

Interesting. Thank you for the info...

Wondering where Viking Primadonna is now? The best ship we've ever sailed.

Interesting. Thank you for the info...

Wondering where Viking Primadonna is now? The best ship we've ever sailed.

Just left Bratislava heading down river. http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/default.aspx?level0=100

Yes, thanks. :) But I mean what company is using it now? It is not in Viking fleet anymore.

id est - we had a chance to sail on Primadonna in 2011 and glad we did. Loved the glass floor in the reception area and the way the seating area ran through the middle of the ship. Another interesting design was the stadium seating with the huge windows in the front of the ship. To bad she's gone.

Thanks Steamboats for starting this thread.

http://www.seatrade-insider.com/news/news-headlines/viking-gives-up-german-market-md-laukamp-exits.html

"Better yields and a much more significant market growth are the main reasons for this decision, confirmed by Viking."