Viking took delivery of Viking Venus, the company’s newest 930-passenger ocean ship, at Fincantieri’s shipyard in Ancona, Italy, on April 15, 2021. The new ship will now sail to the U.K, where it will be officially named on May 17 by Anne Diamond, a British journalist and broadcaster. The ship will then sail spring and summer departures of the “England’s Scenic Shores” itinerary.
“We are especially proud to welcome our newest ship to the fleet this year. Many of us have stayed close to home for months, so this is an important milestone as we begin to get back out into the world again,” said Viking Chairman Torstein Hagen. “We look forward to celebrating the naming of Viking Venus by her esteemed godmother, Anne Diamond — and to welcoming our U.K. guests back onboard next month.”
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For more than a year, Diamond has been a key figure on Viking’s enrichment channel, Viking.TV (www.viking.tv). Viking.TV went live in March 2020, in the early stages of the pandemic, and was conceived as a way to build community and stay connected while people were unable to travel.
Today’s news follows Viking’s recent announcement that it is restarting operations with new itineraries in England, Bermuda and Iceland beginning in May 2021.
The “Welcome Back” voyages are open to vaccinated guests, in accordance with local entry rules in many of the destinations the ships will visit — and as a complement to the Viking Health & Safety Program.
Viking Venus is the newest of an ocean fleet of identical sister ships. Viking’s 47,800-gross-ton ocean vessels have 465 all-veranda staterooms, Scandinavian design, airy public spaces and abundant al fresco dining options.
The ship also has two pools, one of which is an infinity pool off the stern, and a spa designed according to Scandinavian tradition, with a sauna and a snow grotto.
The Viking vessels are all built according to the latest navigation regulations and equipped with the most modern safety systems, including the “safe return to port” systems, according to Fincantieri. The “safe return to port” regulations require a ship’s systems to continue to operate after a fire or flooding so it can return to port under its own power.
The ships also feature energy-efficient engines and optimized hydrodynamics and hull, thereby reducing consumption, as well as systems that minimize pollution produced by exhaust gases, meeting the strictest environmental regulations.