Crewing for Oceans vs. Rivers

As someone who has worked on ocean as well as river vessels, I am aware of the many technical differences between ocean and river vessel operation. It seems unlikely that Viking will be able to take people from a longship and put them on the Star. Ocean going vessels are more strictly regulated under IMO (International Maritime Organization) with various international conventions, including SOLAS, ISM, ISPS, and STCW. Ocean going vessels have more logistic challenges, and must be able to deal with mechanical problems with a machine shop and many spare parts. They must be able to carry a lot more fuel, water, food, and general stores than a river boat. Moreover ISM requires inspections and audits not only for the ship but also for the shoreside operation. I wonder how Viking will deal with these challenges. I have booked the maiden voyage in April 2015, and one reason was to see how Viking has handled this problem. Perhaps they have hired a crew of good reputation from the competition.

I've been wondering about this as well. While your expertise is in maritime procedures, I don't know much about that and have been wondering mainly about the service end. The differences between river ships and ocean ships in that regard is huge!

We were just on Celebrity Reflection (too big for me!) and the maiden voyage on her was fairly painless from what I gather. They just moved experienced people over from identical ships, and were on their way.

It will be very, very interesting. I imagine there will be some kinks, but I'm sure we'll all be in the spirit of the adventure!

I was gratified to learn that Viking is not starting up an ocean cruising operation without previous experience. Apparently they have been offering crewing for cruise ships and mega-yachts for a few decades. Here is a link to their crewing operation http://www.vikingrecruitment.com/about_us

A few more details:

"The company will be outsourcing technical operations, likely to a Scandinavian firm, but will handle hotel and catering in-house."

http://www.seatrade-insider.com/news/news-headlines/hagens-viking-ocean-concept-aims-to-revive-destination-cruising.html?nspPage=4

A few more details:

 

 

"The company will be outsourcing technical operations, likely to a Scandinavian firm, but will handle hotel and catering in-house."

 

http://www.seatrade-insider.com/news/news-headlines/hagens-viking-ocean-concept-aims-to-revive-destination-cruising.html?nspPage=4

Alas, your link does not work. Get the dreaded "404 Error" message. Can you re-post a valid link, please?