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April 2011 Edition

Viking River Cruises' next generation of vessels - bigger & better

Viking River Cruises' next generation of vessels in Europe will boast the largest suites ever for a river ship in the region as well as other new features the line says will revolutionize the industry.

Image: Explorer Suite

Details of the new vessels, dubbed Longships by the line, will be announced today and include top suites that measure 445 square feet and feature a separate living room, bedroom, bathroom and private wrap-around balcony.

The vessels also will feature all-weather indoor/outdoor terraces at their fronts -- a new concept for river cruises in Europe. The terraces will have retractable floor-to-ceiling glass doors. Also innovative will be al fresco dining areas with grills on the upper deck, adjacent to the lounge.

"We are appealing to the people who have been on ocean ships," Viking River Cruises chairman and CEO Torstein Hagen, notied the ships also will have large balconies with many cabins. "People have become so used to balconies on ocean ships (that) they are demanding balconies when they go on river cruises."

Viking is spending $120 million to build four of the ships for delivery in 2012 -- part of a massive, $250 million expansion the line announced last year.

The 443 foot long vessels Viking Freya, Viking Idun, Viking Njord and Viking Odin will have 95 cabins each. They'll sail four of Viking's most popular European itineraries spanning the Rhine and Danube rivers.

The Longships were designed by maritime architects Yran & Storbraaten, who also worked on Disney Cruise Line's much-heralded new Disney Dream and a number of Seabourn ships.

 Image: Veranda Stateroom

Viking is boasting that the Longships will be the only river ships on European rivers with true suites -- that is, cabins that have an en-suite sitting room in addition to a bedroom. Until now, what have been called suites on European river ships have been no more than single-room cabins that are larger than standard size cabins, the line says.

In addition to two of the 445-square foot top suites, to be called Explorer Suites, each of the new ships will have seven 270-square foot Veranda Suites that feature large balconies -- a rarity for a river vessel.

Large suites, and cabins with large balconies, are uncommon on river ships in Europe, which must be narrow to fit through the Continent's locks and low to fit under its bridges. Space on river ships is at a premium, and balconies in particular are considered difficult to add due to how narrow the ships must be. But Viking has come up with an unusual solution to carve out more space for balconies: The line is off-setting the central corridor between cabins by about three feet.                                          Image: Veranda Suite

The result of off-setting the corridor is that cabins on one side of the corridor are about three feet wider, creating room for balconies without shrinking the width of the cabins. The other side of the corridor, where the space for cabins is narrow, will be home to the ships' two-room suites, which will spread out sideways with a glass wall-lined bedroom set next to a sitting room with a full size balcony.

"We are all prisoners of our past," Hagen says, trying to explain why no one had thought of off-setting corridors before. "This is a way of squeezing real balconies on river ships."

Viking made a few other notable decisions in the design stage of the ships

 Image: Indoor / Outdoor Terrace

to carve out more space for the larger suites. The ships won't have one of the small spas that sometimes are found on river ships. Instead, the line will offer passengers spa and health club packages at four- and five-star facilities in key ports of call.

In addition, instead of building a theater on the ships for movie watching and lectures, the line's designers have built four screens and surround sound technology into the ship's main lounge so it can be used multiple ways.

The ships will have putting greens, extra-large windows in all cabins, hybrid engines that are more energy efficient than river ship engines of the past, solar panels and an on-board organic herb garden, the line says.

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