Viking Star underway at last!

Marine Traffic's website shows Viking Star has been underway from her shipyard for 2 hours and is travelling at 15 knots.

She has left the Venice Lagoon and appears to be heading towards the sea-lanes that go to Pula and Rabac across the Adriatic.

Hopefully pictures will start to emerge soon of the finished ship.

Marine Traffic's website shows Viking Star has been underway from her shipyard for 2 hours and is travelling at 15 knots.

 

She has left the Venice Lagoon and appears to be heading towards the sea-lanes that go to Pula and Rabac across the Adriatic.

 

Hopefully pictures will start to emerge soon of the finished ship.

Yep, I just went on Marine Traffic a few minutes to go, expecting her to still be in Porto Maghera, but was surprised to see her trucking along 14.3 knots in the sea not that far from Lido island, near Venice. Looks like she's heading back to Venice now. I think tomorrow she's supposed to be docked in Venice for a couple days and then it looks like she's going on a trial run, leaving Venice 6 PM on (I think) Saturday.

I love Marine Traffic!

Yep, hoping for pictures soon! Those 5 pictures of her on MT need some company, and the rest of us need some inside shots!

This screenshot shows Viking Star's track out of and back towards Venice today.

This screenshot shows Viking Star's track out of and back towards Venice today.

Just out of curiosity, when I ask for Star's track, it only shows a little bit from when it left. How did you get the full track? Did you pay for their upgrade, or am I missing something?

For free at http://www.vesselfinder.com/?imo=9650418

Oh never mind, Olive, I just found it (for free) on Marine Traffic after doing another step or two. Guess I'll go to Vessel Finder next! Thanks, algaes.

Nice to see her in Venice!

Sorry for not coming back straightaway - I am in New Zealand and posted at 1 am before bed. Glad you found the track.Now a waiting game for pictures, a pity there is no webcam at terminal/port.

New YouTube video of Ving Star arring in Venice :

New YouTube video of Ving Star arring in Venice :

Wow! Thank you!

Marine Traffic website still shows Viking Star at the Venice Terminal but now her destination shows as Dubrovnik! Her ETA is 6.30am 6/4/15.

Marine Traffic website still shows Viking Star at the Venice Terminal but now her destination shows as Dubrovnik! Her ETA is 6.30am 6/4/15.

Yay! Thanks. I'll be looking for her to leave tonight - well, in a few hours, as Italy is 6 hours later than where I live). I'm curious to see if she stops in Pula tomorrow. (For those of us who put the month before the day, she's due in Dubrovnik on April 6, right?)

At this time noon Central, Viking Star is in the canal coming up on St Mark's and then on to Dubrovnik.

http://www.vesselfinder.com/?imo=9650418

OK, so I have a couple questions:

I assume there's a delay between the time a ship leaves (or moves) and the time it shows up on the tracking site as moving, right? For Marine Traffic or Vessel Tracker, is that about an hour, or variable, or what?

The reason I ask is this: Venice is 6 hours later than my time (EST in U.S.). Port website said Star was leaving at 6. I know she can leave earlier or later than that if she wants/can, but in the absence of an itinerary schedule or anything other than the departure site listed on the port site, I assumed she would leave around 6, which is noon my time. I went on MT around 12:30 and the live map showed the Star was still in port. I assumed she was just taking off late for whatever reason - perhaps because there was another cruise ship going out to sea from Venice at that time. When I checked back at around 1:30 PM or so she was trucking along in the Giudecca Canal of Venice. The timestamps showed that she departed around 4:45, and got to St. Marks square area around 25 minutes later. I'm not surprised that she left early, but now I'm just wondering what kind of delay I should expect from these sites.

Thanks.

I wish I had seen this earlier! We hoofed from San Marco over the Accademia Bridge and then back again for hours between 4:00 and 7:00 waiting. I told Cliff she must have left earlier, and I so wanted to get a picture of her sailing away. Oh well, we'll all see her soon enough.

It was cold and cloudy in Venice today. Spring has definitely not yet sprung here.

I hope you're not the person I suggested might want to be along the Zattere area around 6 pm. All I could go on was the Venice port website listed, and it said she was scheduled to leave at 6. Since she's not on an actual paid cruise, who knows what HER departure time was scheduled to be! Sorry if you missed her because of me, but at least I suppose all that walking kept you awake! Best I can tell, she was near San Marco around 5:10, and passed about a tenth mile from there.

At least you'll (probably) have the opportunity to see Salute church, St. Mark's, etc. from the ship as she pulls into Venice, unless she gets there really, really early (which is always possible). On our fall itinerary, she leaves at midnight, so about all I'll see (if I'm awake) is St. Mark's Square, as I hear it's lit up at night. I know I can take a vaporetto to see some of the same things you'll see, but after seeing pictures someone took from a cruise ship, they look much, much better than the ones taken from a vaporetto.

Spring has not yet sprung where I live, either (sigh!)

Viking Star is just off Dubrovnik ....

Next chance to catch Viking Star is entry into Dubrovnik scheduled for dawn I believe (6:30 local) which would be at 11:30 pm tonight Sunday central time US. I would start watching 15-20 minutes earlier even though it will be nearing dawn.

Search for port webs cams.

I was able to grab a shot of the Star as she was coming into Dubrovnik from the port web cam. Here she is reaching her first port of call about daybreak on the 6th of April.

Rather impressive looking ship!

Rather zoomed in images from Port of Dubrovnik web cam. Ship turned at channel entrance and backed into port it appears without tugs assistance. There is a roof in the way of the last shot but that's the closest approach to the web cam.

Doesn't appear to be anyone on verandas or upper decks even though this is well after 7am local time and is the first stop from Venice. IMHO there are no guests in significant numbers on the ship during this shakedown cruise. That means you might be the FIRST ones to stay in your cabin if boarding in Istanbul on April 11th!

Also the infinity pool looks empty but that's a real tough call.

I wasn't awake when she came in, so thanks for the pics.

There's a cool picture on the "justdubrovnik" site now of Star almost nose to nose in the port with one of the Oceana (not Oceania) ships. You can see the difference in size (I like smaller ships) and there's a little "Dubrovnik kicks off the cruise season headline/story on that site:

http://www.justdubrovnik.com/2015/04/dubrovnik-welcomes-new-ships-oceania-and-viking-star-opened-cruise-season/23102/ (not sure this link will print correctly on Cruise Critic, but if not, just go to justdubrovnik dot com and you'll see it). Also in port but not pictured is the Berlin, a small cruise ship by FTI cruises (I think, anyway). She and Star were cruising along slowly to port together last night when I last looked.

I hope the Star isn't offended by our stalking of her. I would be really upset if she were to seek and be granted a restraining order against us.

What can I say. I'm in love with a ship. And I'm counting the days to when I meet her in Barcelona on May 2nd.

I hope the Star isn't offended by our stalking of her. I would be really upset if she were to seek and be granted a restraining order against us.

 

What can I say. I'm in love with a ship. And I'm counting the days to when I meet her in Barcelona on May 2nd.

There are NO secrets when you have ship tracking services available to everyone!

I just hope Homeland Security doesn't come looking for me!

I spent a LOT of time yesterday looking at her cruising along, but have to admit, it's a bigger world out there than I thought, as it was kind of like watching grass grow. However, I'm a lighthouse nut, and between the Gruz port website and the tracking sites I learned:

Star might pass two lighthouses near Dubrovnik that I have a chance to see, one even without the binoculars that are in the room.

She is now berthed at the same place we will berth this fall (berth 10, right across from a supermarket - just in case I need something, although I doubt it will be food!)

By the way, port website reports passenger load at 790, so the mystery deepens as to who those 790 people might be, and whether they're messing up the staterooms or making sure they know lots of things before being bombarded with a million questions and orders next week! Too bad that P & O ship is the one that's now on the webcam!

The mystery of the 790 passengers is probably not a mystery at all!

The port website states that the max load of the Viking Star is 790 (in actual fact 930) ... it doesn't state that this is the actual number of passengers on board.

That means that the staterooms may not be being messed up as we speak unless a horde of TA's get on today.