It seems to be a go - start packing

From 3/24/15 Travel Weekly

"Viking is entering the ocean cruise business this year, and Hagen said it would take delivery of the 930-passenger Viking Star over the weekend and conduct an initial shakedown cruise from April 3 to 11."

Looking forward to your opinion and first hand experience:D

It has been a long time coming for all of the initial 930 passengers who will be on this maiden voyage. You all must be excited that Arpil 11 is just around the corner.

I too hope some of you will share your first hand experience of a brand new ship that by all accounts has many new features.

Happy Sailings to all of you.:)

Great news! Thanks for passing it along!

...although I was counting on being the first to sleep in my bed....

Wonder when the Star will arrive in Istanbul? The morning of the 11th, or before?

Great news! Thanks for passing it along!

 

...although I was counting on being the first to sleep in my bed....

 

Wonder when the Star will arrive in Istanbul? The morning of the 11th, or before?

I noticed she was scheduled to dock in Venice (regular port on the island, not the shipbuilding location north of there) in early April. I think it was the 3rd, 4th and 5th.

Maybe I'll see if there's an Istanbul port site that shows when she'll be in Istanbul pre-voyage, and maybe I can find her listed as making a call in a port somewhere between the two cities! I love looking at marinetraffic.com - you can track a ship's progress.

Yes, many of us have waited a very long time for this!

Star appears to be doing a dry run of sorts after she leaves Venice. Since Empires of the Mediterranean was her first itinerary, I checked those ports and found:

Arriving Venice April 2 at 6 AM, departing April 4 at 6 PM

Pula - haven't found a port site yet

April 6 - Dubrovnik - on port site for 8 to midnight

April 7 - Kotor - on port site for 7 to 5

Would be at sea next day if going to Greece next

Santorini only posts current month, so unable to check

If going to Athens, I couldn't find her on the port's website

Unable to find port website for Kusadasi or Istanbul

Hope those travel agents are neat and tidy, and hope any bugs can be worked out quickly!

Ruthy - Don't say the word BUGS!!! Why do you think I wanted to be the first person who slept in my bad???????????

Last year on our Viking French cruises, we stayed a couple extra days in Provence, and splurged for a "high-end" hotel in Aix - quite expensive and deluxe. Unfortunately, came home with bed bugs.....

Ruthy - Don't say the word BUGS!!! Why do you think I wanted to be the first person who slept in my bad???????????

 

Last year on our Viking French cruises, we stayed a couple extra days in Provence, and splurged for a "high-end" hotel in Aix - quite expensive and deluxe. Unfortunately, came home with bed bugs.....

Oops...I meant KINKS! I have never experienced bed bugs - and hope I never do!

Dang! I wanted to be the first in OUR bed too! Plus this means they have to turn the boat over in Istanbul and accordingly the cabins won't be ready any earlier. We'd had hopes that since we were the "first" travelers, everything would be ready ahead of time :-(

Oh, well... Just over 2 weeks now. See y'all soon!

My thoughts exactly. See you in Toronto

Maybe they're doing this shake down cruise with only the crew?

Sometime, quite a while ago though, I think someone on these boards mentioned that Viking was going to take a bunch of big-wig travel agents on the shake-down. (sigh...)

But on the bright side, maybe they will get all the KINKS worked out!

Maybe they're doing this shake down cruise with only the crew?

 

Sometime, quite a while ago though, I think someone on these boards mentioned that Viking was going to take a bunch of big-wig travel agents on the shake-down. (sigh...)

 

But on the bright side, maybe they will get all the KINKS worked out!

That would be normal. My parents were independent travel agents for many years, specializing in high-end cruise travel, and they went on quite a few of these junkets.

At least if a light bulb has burned out, it will be fixed for you! If it takes more or less time to get to a port than expected, there's time to adjust before the "real" passengers get on board, and perhaps time to work with excursion vendors on timing. Maybe they'll find the best place to set anchor and the best place to tender passengers, and meet the port agents and port authorities to make things run smoother for you guys on the maiden voyage. They'll get a feel for how many people might show up for the waffle samples and if anyone buys the things at the Scandinavian-based deli - I'm kind of curious about those things! And, of course, they'll get some hints as to how their food, service and a host of other things are received!

Maybe some of those travel agents or whoever is on board will post some new pictures, or blog a bit!

My TA, when I voiced my concerns over Viking meeting the maiden voyage date, told me not to worry, as there would be a roll-out cruise, prior to our maiden voyage, with dignitaries and high-end TA's to shake out any issues. Don't know that the ship will be full, so maybe some of you will have virgin sleeping quarters. :D

Becki

We will be on the Viking Homelands trip out of Bergen on the 11th of July. We are still in the "waiting" phase ... 20 something days before we can book our shore excursions. I am anxiously awaiting the reviews from those of you on the maiden voyage! We have done several Viking river trips and loved every one so we are anticipating a great time. Hope all goes well for those of you adventurous enough to "brave" the maiden voyage! :D

Mollymoo- we are on the same cruise as you....looking forward to a great trip!!

So she's leaving Venice the evening of the 4th? We're flying into Venice that morning to spend a couple of days before we fly on to Istanbul to board on the 11th. I'll have to see if I can get a picture of her before she sets sail.

If you are able to snap a picture, please share if you can!

Countdown is on......

So she's leaving Venice the evening of the 4th? We're flying into Venice that morning to spend a couple of days before we fly on to Istanbul to board on the 11th. I'll have to see if I can get a picture of her before she sets sail.

Port site says she leaves at 6 PM on the 4th, so I assume that's what she plans to do. Also in port that day will be "Berlin" (smaller ship, FTI Cruises, may be along the waterfront at San Basilio) until 4:30. Arriving 1 PM and staying overnight is Island Princess (Princess Cruises). I think that's one of the smaller Princess ships (700 pax). So fortunately for you, there won't be gigantic ships there that day. I hear Venice can be pretty intense when cruise ships are in town.

You may already know this, but if not: The main part of the port is called "Stazione Marittima" and it's located on the NW part of the island, reachable via the People Mover located at Piazalle Roma, or from the Alilaguna Blu line boat, Marittima stop (which should be running, but transportation in Venice seems to change a lot, so who knows?) If you don't see Star at Marittima, perhaps she's at the dock area just SE of Marittima, near the San Basilio vaporetto stop.

Many cruise ships go out to sea via the Guidecca Canal, so if you're free 6:15 - 6:30 you could probably see her heading through the Canal (from around Zattere promenade or whatever). That would be sensational in my book! If you want to ensure you see her pull out, you could just get yourself down to the bottom corner of Dorsoduro (as far west as you can go before the water, at the waterfront) so you could see her heading out of Marittima berth.

Roothy - the Zattere Promenade sounds like a perfect place to have an early dinner - that's a wonderful idea to sit and wait for the ship to pass by. We were originally going to stay in Dorsoduro, and wouldn't that have been easy? We're in San Marco instead, so it will be a bit of a haul, but that's the golden hour after an overnight flight anyway, where you need to make sure you're busy so you don't go back to the room and crash too early. I'm glad to have something we HAVE to do or we'd probably eat dinner at 5:00 pm and be in for the night, fall asleep, and wake up at 2:00 am raring to go :eek: