Viking Ocean - Combined Cruise Schedule

[JeriGail]

I just checked French Polynesia's COVID vaccination stats and they are pretty bad - 40% 1 dose and 30% 2 doses.

[CharTrav]

Just uploaded corrected spreadsheet.

[MarkTapley]

@CharTrav

 

Viking just cancelled Far East and Alaska, departing April 18, 2022, on Orion. Not sure if you had that.

[CharTrav]

40 minutes ago, MarkTapley said:

@CharTrav

 

Viking just cancelled Far East and Alaska, departing April 18, 2022, on Orion. Not sure if you had that.

Nope. Thanks! Will make that update and check to see what else was affected. 

 

Yup - way more than just that one. Cancellations starting in March. Will post complete uidate in a bit. 

Edited August 18, 2021 by CharTrav

[CharTrav]

As promised -- checked the VO site -- and updated the spreadsheet accordingly.  Thank you @MarkTapley for the heads-up!  Not only was Orion's April sailing of Far East & Alaska cancelled but everything in what I call the "Grand Pacific Explorer" group between March and May 2022.  This covers: Komodo & Australian Coast, Australia, Asia & Alaska, South Pacific Sojourn, Southeast Asia, Bangkok, Bali & Beyond, Southeast Asia Horizons, Southeast Asia & Hong Kong, Far East & Alaska, Far Eastern Horizons, and North Pacific Passage. Schedule resumes in May with Alaska & the Inside Passage.

 

Will Viking decide to have Orion continue running Hawaiian Islands Sojourn and Grand Hawaii & Polynesia during the intervening period?  IMHO -- would make perfect sense.  

 

As always, if you already have a copy of the spreadsheet, use the link on the ReadMe tab to download a fresh copy. If you don't -- use this link to download from DropBox (no DropBox account required) https://www.dropbox.com/s/dk0llty8bgubssk/Viking Ocean Cruises (2021 to 2023).xlsm?dl=0

Edited August 18, 2021 by CharTrav

[CharTrav]

20 hours ago, JeriGail said:

I just checked French Polynesia's COVID vaccination stats and they are pretty bad - 40% 1 dose and 30% 2 doses.

Next year should be much better. 

[CharTrav]

On 2/16/2021 at 9:07 PM, CharTrav said:

FYI -- not specifically related to the schedules but indeed related to Viking's ships and cabin classes.  I decided a while ago I wanted my own reference for all of Viking's ships (Ocean, River & Expedition) and features associated with each of its cabin classes (particularly significant with the river ship classes).  So.. I created two spreadsheets -- one for the physical configurations of each of the many ship classes and one dedicated to the cabin class features.  These two sheets have been posted in my DropBox for a while now (may even have told you all about them a while ago too.. can't remember) but anyway, decided to update the two yesterday to (a) remove VE's Santa Cruz II and (b) to add VR's new Viking Saigon.  The link to the DropBox folder containing these two files is provided in my signature. For mobile users who can't see it --  here's the link to the folder: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8pm1betyh91wlhf/AABBcPIWuqWJQtR5JrNSFOqMa?dl=0.  No DropBox account is required.

Decided it was time to check out and then update these materials today. There indeed were some changes in the Viking River fleet:  Danube classes are gone; also two of the older (chartered??) classes used in Asia (China & Viet Nam). And the addition of a sister ship to Osiris for Nile cruises called Aton.  Did some general clean-up.  Uploaded the updated files to DropBox  If you already have a copy of Viking Cabin Classes.xlsx -- just use the link on the Directory tab to download a fresh copy. Otherwise use the link in the quoted post to open the DropBox folder where both files are stored: Viking Cabin Classes.xlsx and Viking Ship Classes.xlsx.

[CharTrav]

Sigh .. more updates to the Viking Ocean cruise schedule.  

 

Schedule now extended far enough into 2024 (primarily Orion) that decided to revive the OutYear tab (keep it too!).  In this case,  "Out Year" is 2024.  Not as nicely formatted as the main Cruises tab but enough to provide info about cruises planned in the OutYear without having to abandon the current year in the 3 yr cycle too soon.  In late Fall, when start up the spreadsheet for the next 3 yr cycle, i.e., 2022-2024, will copy the OutYear data into the main Cruises tab. 

 

Summary of Changes and overall Status

• Star: Fully scheduled through March 2023 with remaining hole from Sept to Oct 2021.
• Sea & Jupiter: fully scheduled through July 2023
• Sky: also fully scheduled through July 2023, followed by a gap from Aug-Nov 2023, and then the Viking World Cruise with its two associated segments from 2023-2024 starting 3 days before Neptune departs from Ft Lauderdale.  Guess the intent here is to satisfy the pent-up demand for World Cruises after the 2020-21 WC was cancelled (build in some flexibility too?)
• Orion: fully scheduled through April 2024 with a gap from Mar-Apr 2022.
• Mars:  a number of cruises added to 2023 alongside Orion cruises of same name. Fully scheduled from May 2022 to April 2023.
• Neptune:  still only scheduled to do World Cruises plus the 2 segments (Viking World Journeys and Panama Canal & Coastal Holiday) in 2022-2023 and 2023-2024. Nothing in between .. yet.

As always, if you already have a copy of the spreadsheet, use the link on the ReadMe tab to download a fresh copy. If you don't -- use this link to download from DropBox (no DropBox account required) https://www.dropbox.com/s/dk0llty8bgubssk/Viking Ocean Cruises (2021 to 2023).xlsm?dl=0

Edited August 23, 2021 by CharTrav

[Donaghadee]

Octantis (new Expedition ship) is supposed to go into revenue service January 2022.  Inaugural cruise starting in Argentina and visiting Antarctica.  Schedule seems rather sketchy at the moment.  

Rub some Windex on your crystal ball and tell us what you see.

[CharTrav]

1 hour ago, Donaghadee said:

Rub some Windex on your crystal ball and tell us what you see.

My crystal ball is no better than yours. Perhaps I should be reading the trade mags to get a deeper view but I don't. All I use is the Viking site.  🙄

[CharTrav]

On 8/23/2021 at 8:01 PM, Donaghadee said:

Octantis (new Expedition ship) is supposed to go into revenue service January 2022.  Inaugural cruise starting in Argentina and visiting Antarctica.  Schedule seems rather sketchy at the moment.  

Rub some Windex on your crystal ball and tell us what you see.

Actually - Octantis' schedule is not what I would call sketchy at all. Pretty well defined from Jan 2022 to March 2023. Polaris is scheduled starting August 2022 (we're booked on her maiden voyage) but not scheduled beyond Feb 2023. My spreadsheet includes Octantis and Polaris. Should include those two in the ship summary each time I do major updates. 

 

FYI - watched a video on the Octantis last week on Viking.TV. She is currently docked at the VARD shipyard in Norway getting her innards outfitted. So she be real. Yay!! Assuming Polaris is under construction at the VARD shipyard in Romania now that Octantis is in Norway. You should catch the video of Octantis' transfer from Romania thru the Med.  Quite impressive!

https://viking.tv/tv/this-week-on-viking-tv/wednesdays/special-episode-update-on-viking-expeditions

 

Edited August 28, 2021 by CharTrav

[CharTrav]

Decided to check the schedule again today .. more changes!!! Good changes, too!  Filled in the gaps I noted last week:

Changes since last week:

• Gaps in Orion's 2022 schedule filled: 
  • return to Ft Lauderdale (Panama Canal & Pacific Coast) followed by two sailings of Panama Canal & Central America (Ft Lauderdale loop), and then back to LA (Panama Canal & Pacific Coast) then
  • new cruise! (Pacific Coast Explorer) from LA to Vancouver - repeated three times to end in Vancouver ready for Alaska & the Inside Passage.
• Mars 2023 schedule extended to May 2023:
  •  Return from the Pacific (Across the Bay of Bengal, Passage to India) to Athens 
  • Start cruising in the Med on 23 May (3 cruises in May with more to be scheduled soon)

Status Summary (including Expedition ships)

• Star, Sea, Sky, Jupiter, Sky, Neptune: no change since last week
• Orion: fully scheduled through to April 2024
• Mars: fully scheduled starting May 2022 to May 2023 - expect more Med cruises to be added soon.
• Octantis: scheduled starting Jan 2022 to Mar 2023 (Antarctica→Great Lakes→Antarctica)
• Polaris: scheduled starting Aug 2022 to Feb 2023 (Arctic→Antarctica)

As always, if you already have a copy of the spreadsheet, use the link on the ReadMe tab to download a fresh copy. If you don't -- use this link to download from DropBox (no DropBox account required) https://www.dropbox.com/s/dk0llty8bgubssk/Viking Ocean Cruises (2021 to 2023).xlsm?dl=0

[Donaghadee]

20 hours ago, CharTrav said:

Actually - Octantis' schedule is not what I would call sketchy at all. Pretty well defined from Jan 2022 to March 2023

I should have clarified and stated that Argentina is and will be off limits to foreign visitors for some time.  See here:  https://ar.usembassy.gov/covid-19/

The actual execution of the schedule is what I assert as sketchy.

[CharTrav]

2 hours ago, Donaghadee said:

I should have clarified and stated that Argentina is and will be off limits to foreign visitors for some time.  See here:  https://ar.usembassy.gov/covid-19/

The actual execution of the schedule is what I assert as sketchy.

Ah! Makes sense. That certainly clarifies things. Thanks!

[Homerody]

It has been reported elsewhere on CC that Argentina is looking at cruise resumptions in October.

 

Additionally, from local Argentine media reports -  officials from Uruguay, Chile and Argentina have been working on coordinated effort for cruise resumption, this bodes well.

 

It is my understanding that Argentina may open its borders to tourists on 1 October.  And they are considering allowing spectators (30% capacity) at the upcoming Argentina v. Brazil quarter finals soccer  (I mean football) match.

 

This is good news to see that they are making progress in battling COVID.  And that is most important.

 

Secondarily, and not as important - a bonus for tourists and cruisers.

 

[CharTrav]

2 hours ago, Homerody said:

 

This is good news to see that they are making progress in battling COVID.  And that is most important.

 

Secondarily, and not as important - a bonus for tourists and cruisers.

time will tell. patience is. 

[CharTrav]

Just posted a very minor update.  Have to wonder if Viking was updating their schedule at the same time I was reading it.  Decided yesterday .. on a whim .. to check not just the number of itineraries but the number of sailings of these itineraries .. which is how I caught it.  Anyway -- the change is basically that Orion's first sailing of Alaska & the Inside Passage in 2022 will be on May 3 translating into three -- not one -- sailing in May 2022 for a total of 14 sailings that Summer.

[CharTrav]

a heads-up! big schedule drop this weekend. Looks like the 2023 schedule is being filled up. Will update the spreadsheet tonight and hopefully post it tomorrow. In the meantime you may want to check the VO site yourself. 

[CharTrav]

3 hours ago, CharTrav said:

a heads-up! big schedule drop this weekend. Looks like the 2023 schedule is being filled up. Will update the spreadsheet tonight and hopefully post it tomorrow. In the meantime you may want to check the VO site yourself. 

Don't know what's going bonkers again with Safari on my iPhone .. have tried to make a reply to this post twice .. and each time it's gone off into the wild blue ether. So now I'm on my desktop workstation.  To wit.. the schedule updates in 2023 weren't as big as I thought.  Bottom line for 2023: Sky, Neptune, and Orion are fully scheduled; Jupiter, Venus, and Mars had a few additions; Star and Sea remain unchanged.  Will post the updated spreadsheet tomorrow after I do some more double checking to make sure I recorded everything off the VO site correctly.

 

Fingers crossed this post will land!

Edited September 20, 2021 by CharTrav

[Little Monty]

22 minutes ago, CharTrav said:

Don't know what's going bonkers again with Safari on my iPhone .. have tried to make a reply to this post twice .. and each time it's gone off into the wild blue ether. So now I'm on my desktop workstation.  To wit.. the schedule updates in 2023 weren't as big as I thought.  Bottom line for 2023: Sky, Neptune, and Orion are fully scheduled; Jupiter, Venus, and Mars had a few additions; Star and Sea remain unchanged.  Will post the updated spreadsheet tomorrow after I do some more double checking to make sure I recorded everything off the VO site correctly.

 

Fingers crossed this post will land!

Australia / New Zealand and some of the Asia based cruises are listed into early 2024 (.. at least they are in the Australian website). 

[CharTrav]

9 hours ago, Little Monty said:

Australia / New Zealand and some of the Asia based cruises are listed into early 2024 (.. at least they are in the Australian website). 

I have them recorded in the OutYear tab and will move them into the main three year cycle tabs when I publish the 2022-2024 edition. Just waiting for the rest of 2021 to stabilize. Not assuming further cancelations mind you but being realistic. 

[CharTrav]

Apologies for leaving all of you hanging in suspension all day.  When Viking drops such a big update, I like to very carefully review what I've done to make sure I haven't missed anything.  I carefully track the number of itineraries posted by year and month, which -- usually -- is enough to help me notice changes and start digging into why.  Other times, I need to check the number of sailings in a month too (e.g., my posting on Sept 12th).  Anyway -- I just posted the updated spreadsheet.  If you already have it, just use the link on the ReadMe tab to download a fresh copy.  If you don't -- use this link to download it from DropBox (no DropBox account required) https://www.dropbox.com/s/dk0llty8bgubssk/Viking Ocean Cruises (2021 to 2023).xlsm?dl=0.

 

In summary,  the schedules for 2021 and 2022 have not changed (phew!).  The big change was in 2023, which affected Sky & Neptune the most and to a lesser extent Jupiter, Venus, & Mars.  The schedule for Star & Sea (in 2023) and Orion (into 2024) remains unchanged since my last update:

• Fully scheduled through May 2024:  Orion, Neptune, Sky
• Extended to August 2023:  Jupiter, Mars (was July)
• Extended to Sept 2023: Venus (was August)
• No change: Star (still March); Sea (still July)
• No changes to Viking Expedition Polaris or Octantis either.

Btw -- I noticed that Viking Homelands is completely sold out in 2022!

[CharTrav]

Checked today (making a habit of checking for changes on Sunday or Monday given that it seems updates are posted over the weekends) and noticed some changes .. not big but changes nonetheless.

 

The first is for Orion in March 2022 -- a new itinerary from Ft Lauderdale to Vancouver called Panama Canal & West Coast Explorer -- a combination of Panama Canal & Pacific Coast and Pacific Coast Explorer, which is then followed by a series of back and forths between Vancouver and Los Angeles (Pacific Coast Explorer) before the Alaska season begins.

 

The second is for Neptune which I mistakenly claimed in my last posting was fully scheduled through May 2024. I hadn't noticed that Neptune didn't have any itinerary to carry her from Rome to Ft Lauderdale before the beginning of her World Cruise in 2023.  Oops!  Three existing itineraries are now scheduled starting 30Nov2023 to take care of this: Mediterranean Explorer & Crossing (Rome-->Ft Lauderdale); Western Mediterranean Explorer (Rome-->Lisbon); and Mid-Atlantic Crossing (Lisbon-->Ft Lauderdale).

 

Use the instructions on the previous posting to either refresh your existing copy or download the file if you don't already have it.

[CharTrav]

Major update today.  Have posted the next 3 yr cycle of the combined schedule -- covers 2022 to 2024.  Direct link to the spreadsheet is:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/smx4xeq1yhq8ymi/Viking Ocean Cruises (2022 to 2024).xlsm?dl=0. No DropBox account required.  After you have a copy of it, you can use the direct link provided  on the ReadMe tab to download a fresh or updated copy.  To look at previous versions (3 yr cycles), use the link under General Viking Stuff in my signature block: 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8pm1betyh91wlhf/AABBcPIWuqWJQtR5JrNSFOqMa?dl=0 

and follow the directions provided for downloading files from there.

 

To summarize the changes:

• New future ship : Saturn, will start sailing in 2023. 
• Three new itineraries: Iceland & Norway's Arctic Explorer; Iconic Iceland, Greenland & Canada; and Greenland, Iceland, Norway & Beyond.  
• Saturn is scheduled to do just these three new itineraries for now
• Star's schedule extended into August 2023: cruising the Med from April to May and then one of the "Welcome Back" cruises in 2021 (decided it was a keeper??) - Iceland's Natural Beauty - from June to August before heading to New York via Iconic Iceland, Greenland & Canada. And then...??
• The gap in Neptune's schedule prior to her World Cruise in 2022 is being filled: maiden voyage departing from Athens 24Nov22 ending in Barcelona.  Still not scheduled is the TA from Barcelona to Ft Lauderdale.

Other than that, nothing else has changed. 

 

And I'm hoping (fingers crossed!) that the 2021 schedule remains stable through the rest of the year. If anything does change (heaven forbid!), I'll update the 2021-2023 edition, post it, & notify you about it but with the caveat that it will ONLY provide up-to-date information about 2021 sailings.  The latest info on 2022 and beyond will be in the 2022-2024 edition.

 

 

Edited October 14, 2021 by CharTrav

[CharTrav]

1 hour ago, CharTrav said:

Saturn is scheduled to do just these three new itineraries for now

Sorry - Saturn is scheduled to do four cruises in 2023. The fourth is from Rome to Barcelona. Clearly the schedule has holes. Such is way these things go.