We Booked

I think I may be the first person posting to the new Viking "Cruise Ship" board. :D

We originally booked the maiden voyage, Venice to Istanbul, but after checking the weather for April, 2015 we decided to change it to the October, 2015 sailing...so it won't be the maiden voyage. This ship looks like it will be great and have read that this is the first of many they plan to build! I am ready for something new and this looks like it may be the perfect cruise line.

I don't know about perfect :-), but it looks very appealing. We have a two-day hold on a stateroom on the Aug. 8 sailing - great itinerary. I think we will go for it!

Renda

Kudos on your Viking Star booking Carol.

As you know we also booked Viking Homelands in May we can't wait.

Hopefully Host Andy, Host Faith can provide us a separate Vikings Oceans roll call thread.

Carol, like you I just booked the maiden voyage from Istanbul to Venice. The weather may not be great, but I wanted to be on a maiden voyage for the first time in my life. Of course the ship will have gone through sea trials, and then a 3600 mile ocean passage from Norway to Istanbul before embarking passengers. I hope that all goes well in the shipyard, and that things stay on schedule.

We're booked on the maiden as well. I was in Istanbul in April last year, and the weather was spectacular. I'm hoping that it will be the same in Venice by the time we get there 10 days later. It's a crap shoot, though isn't it?

I'm excited to be on a maiden voyage. I expect there will be some snags, but overall everyone will be excited. I know that when the large lines debut a new ship, they send their most experienced people over, people who have worked on identical ships in the system. Viking won't have any people like that, so it should be interesting!

The ship will travel from Norway you say? Why did I think they were building it in Italy? I imagine they'll have a few side trips along the way for travel agents and dignitaries, so at least a little experience before we get on board.

The ship will travel from Norway you say? Why did I think they were building it in Italy? I imagine they'll have a few side trips along the way for travel agents and dignitaries, so at least a little experience before we get on board.

You are right. Yesterday I asked the Viking booking rep. where it was being built, and he said Norway (I do know there is a yard in Starvanger) but now I find out the following information from "Cruise Inc." a trade publication:

Viking Ocean Cruises agreed with Italy’s Fincanteri to build two new ships earlier this year. It looks like the decision was well like so far by both parties because they just agreed to build two additional with an option for one more. This could bring the total fleet for Viking Ocean to 5 ships!

That means the trip to Istanbul will be a lot shorter. It also means that the construction is more likely to be delayed by labor trouble.

We took the plunge and booked, Bergen, Norway, to Barcelona, Aug. 8, 2015. Not the inaugural sailing, but the first season :-) Bit of a leap of faith, but fun to anticipate and lots to learn and discover in the interim.

We booked with another couple, the Bergen to Barcelona. We had taken a China river cruise with Viking in 2010 and were very pleased. I like the no formal evenings and the perk of included tours although I always arranged private. I took the air since the fare is half of todays prices. Not happy about early final payment but all else is great. Will have to read their refund policy and /or buy insurance early.

We booked with another couple, the Bergen to Barcelona. We had taken a China river cruise with Viking in 2010 and were very pleased. I like the no formal evenings and the perk of included tours although I always arranged private. I took the air since the fare is half of todays prices. Not happy about early final payment but all else is great. Will have to read their refund policy and /or buy insurance early.

We're on the same cruise but the itinerary is actually Barcelona to Bergen for this date.

We're on the same cruise but the itinerary is actually Barcelona to Bergen for this date.

Oops! You are right. Those darn B's.

Oops! You are right. Those darn B's.

:):)

Another two CCrs and fellow Silversea cruisers booked, asked them to post here and on Vikings Homeland roll call in other roll call thread (P-Z) since Viking does not have a separate roll call forum yet.

Booked the maiden Istabul to Venice on April 11 with friends we made on our first river cruise on Viking. We're also cruising with them in 2014 on the Rinda.

There are six of us so far that are looking the Nov 8 2015 cruise from Venice to Istanbul.

We are getting quotes from TA's and will probably book in the next few weeks.

We are really excited to sail this new ship and cruise line.

We are on the Bergen to Stockholm cruise with Wes/Ida, Steve/Barb, David, and Ron/Sue. What a great group!

I'm jealous of all you folks who know each other. I guess y'all have got two years before any of you are likely to know me :-) Hopefully we'll meet some of you on our 22-day Istanbul-Barcelona journey. I'm a retired professional photographer, BTW; a good guy to know, on a cruise, if you're into photography, and especially if you shoot Canon dSLR gear ...

We just booked the Barcelona to Bergan for May 2. All the V1 and V2 cabins were gone so there must already be a lot of us doing some long range planning. It will be difficult to wait two years for this experience!

To answer someone elses post, we did let Viking do our air. We let them do it last April for a trip to Basel and they did fine. Layovers a bit too long but the price was good. Before booking this I had checked with the airlines about what the rate will be a year from now and it was competitive with what Viking offered. Figured it won't be any less in two years so locked it in. No, they did NOT let us get the deal to make air changes but I figure they will as the cruise gets closer as I did that for the last trip. I paid $25 pp in April to get early ticketing and be able to upgrade to Economy comfort for that flight. Our TA said they had just reserved a block of tickets at this rate.

I think I may be the first person posting to the new Viking "Cruise Ship" board. :D

 

We originally booked the maiden voyage, Venice to Istanbul, but after checking the weather for April, 2015 we decided to change it to the October, 2015 sailing...so it won't be the maiden voyage. This ship looks like it will be great and have read that this is the first of many they plan to build! I am ready for something new and this looks like it may be the perfect cruise line.

I'm thinking about Venice to Istanbul, too, but what did you find out about the weather? Is October better? I guess Venice gets occasional flooding, but is that in the spring or fall or what? I wish Viking could offer that itinerary in June or September rather than when it is, but then of course, the price would probably be higher. Oceania has a fairly similar itinerary (with more dates than Viking) and I'm torn between the two lines. Price-wise they're about the same. Itinerary-wise I like Oceania, and I love their food, but the lure of Viking Star is strong...of course, I think I still like river cruises more than ocean cruises, so maybe I should just stick to a river cruise. I keep looking at the Portugal cruise.

I'm thinking about Venice to Istanbul, too, but what did you find out about the weather? Is October better? I guess Venice gets occasional flooding, but is that in the spring or fall or what? I wish Viking could offer that itinerary in June or September rather than when it is, but then of course, the price would probably be higher.

Viking have Venice-Istanbul on September 27th...

I'm thinking about Venice to Istanbul, too, but what did you find out about the weather? Is October better? I guess Venice gets occasional flooding, but is that in the spring or fall or what? .quote]

 

Venice floods in Oct.

 

Hi emmasoma,

I'm glad we got a V1 when they first became available. I think we will enjoy the ship and the ports are new for us. A few of us here are on that cruise.

We also just booked 9/15' Viking Star Sept 27 Venice to Istanbul Currently under construction in Venice, Italy and one of two ocean ships on order; both will be built by Fincantieri at its Marghera shipyard.

http://www.eturbonews.com/35550/viking-cruises-cuts-steel-viking-star

Found some more current 10/11 2013 stuff on the build progress on both new Ocean class ships with (2) more being talked about. Will look forward to seeing where Viking expands with these new ship routes?

Meeting (Happy Hour) with Michael Weldon (Dir Bus Dev) of Viking Cruises next week and look forward to hearing about this. We hope to link up with others on this Ocean Cruise. Bob & Margie

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-relea...227092451.html

http://www.themeditelegraph.com/en/2...8pK/index.html

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-relea...235374211.html