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Viking River Cruises Coming to America
Viking Cruises to Sail the Mississippi River
That’s right. Not only has Viking taken to the open seas, but the behemoth Viking River Cruises will soon be sailing the Mississippi River. Viking Cruises Chairman Torstein Hagen announced that New Orleans will serve as the homeport for their first ever North American river cruise itineraries.
Viking River Cruises plans to start sailing the Mississippi in 2017.
Once sailing begins, Viking will deploy two boats will per year, for a total of six new boats in the first three years. Cruises will take passengers on a journey along the Mississippi River from New Orleans to itinerary stops in St. James, East Baton Rouge and West Feliciana parishes. Cruises will continue upriver to Memphis, Tennessee; St. Louis; or St. Paul, Minnesota, depending on the season.
The 300-passenger specialty-built riverboats will have a full complement of luxury amenities. Viking’s cruises are renowned for their locally oriented educational and entertainment programs.
Not the Mississippi River
“Viking River Cruises is an exciting and compelling addition to the opportunity-rich New Orleans destination,” said President and CEO Stephen Perry of the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau. “Viking is synonymous with elegance and class, and they will bring a diverse domestic and international clientele drawn not only to tremendous enjoyment of the river through cruising, but to the New Orleans part of their visit in this historic capital of American music and food as well.”
If you’re looking for work, move to New Orleans. Viking’s new service will create 416 new direct jobs and an additional 368 new indirect jobs for a total of more than 780 new jobs in the southeast region of the state.
About Viking River Cruises
Viking Cruises is taking the world by storm. This year it’s debuting its first ocean cruise with the sophisticated state-of-the-art Viking Star. Two additional ocean ships, Viking Sea and Viking Sky, are also on order. Viking River Cruises is the world’s leading river cruise line with a fleet of 60 river vessels. Viking has been honored multiple times in Travel + Leisure’s World’s Best Awards and Condé Nast Traveler’s Gold List, and gained recognition from the editors of CruiseCritic.com as Best River Cruise Line, with the entire Viking Longships® fleet being named Best New River Ships of 2012 in the website’s Editors’ Picks Awards. The travel trade has ranked Viking as the Best River Cruise Line by Travel Weekly, Recommend and Travel Agent magazines, Best Cruise Line for Luxury River Cruises at the Luxury Travel Advisor Awards of Excellence and as Best Overall Cruise Line for River Cruising, Best New River Cruise Ship and for the sixth consecutive year, Best River Cruise Line for Travel Agent Support in the 2014 TravelAge West’s WAVE Awards. For additional information, visit VikingCruises.com .
