Viking Invasion as four Longships are Christened on one day
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Viking River cruises created history by christening four of their new Longships at once last week in a glittering ceremony in Amsterdam. Viking chairman Torsten Hagen jokingly said , normally one of our marketing tricks is a two-for-one but this ceremony is about four-for –one , and is hailed as the industry’s first quadruple naming event .
Only two of the four new vessels, the Viking Odin and the Viking Idun were present at the Amsterdam ceremony, the other two the Viking Freya and the Viking Njord remained in their Rostock shipyard in Germany and christened there, whilst undergoing final finishing touches. The attendees at the event could see the two ships in the shipyard in a live video feed projected onto large screens. Four godmothers each for one ship recited the same traditional blessing from a specially constructed platform erected between the two Amsterdam ships before cutting the ribbon that triggered the traditional smashing of a champagne bottle.
The godmothers for the ships in Amsterdam were Joanna Lumley of BBC’s Absolutely Fabulous, and Lisa Randall, a Harward physicist. The godmothers for the ships in Germany were Masterpiece boss Rebecca Eaton and a top Viking cruiser Gail Wieswedel.
The four new ships, dubbed Longships each carry 190 guests, and are the first of a new generation of river ships for Viking and the only river cruise vessels in Europe with an array of true suites. They boast a new design that includes the largest suites ever on a European river ship as well as cabins with balconies a feature made possible by a new cabin layout that includes offset main corridors. The longships also have innovative all-weather indoor/outdoor terraces at their fronts, a new concept for river ships in Europe.
The company will be introducing a further two long ships this year and has under construction a further six for delivery in 2013 that will cement its lead as Europe’s biggest river cruise operator with 28 ships . The company has also confirmed that it also has options in place with the Neptun shipyard for six more ships for delivery in 2014, unprecedented in the industry, and further confirming the strength of the river cruise sector’s popularity in markets such as North America, Europe and Australia where the company has enjoyed solid growth. Hagen confirmed that more than 80% of its available capacity for 2012 is already sold and it is this demand that has provided the company with the appetite to build and operate more ships. The four new ships christened this year will be deployed on the Rhine, Main and Danube rivers.