By
Rebecca Gibson |
Viking Ocean Cruises is to offer five new itineraries in North America and the Caribbean between September 2016 and February 2017.
Created in part to honour early Viking trade routes beyond Scandinavia, Viking’s new North American itineraries will allow guests to sail the North Atlantic and visit original Norse settlement sites that date back more than 1,000 years. The Caribbean itineraries will provide more time in port. The ship will return to Europe in February 2017, with a transatlantic sailing from San Juan in Puerto Rico to Barcelona, Spain.
“We have always had a vision to reinvent ocean cruising – to bring destinations back to the forefront of the itinerary and to build ships that are designed to help our guests better explore their destinations,” said Torstein Hagen, founder and chairman of Viking Cruises. “We launched our ocean cruises in Europe earlier this year, and just as the Viking explorers before us, we are now looking across the Atlantic for new discoveries. Our new itineraries in North America and the Caribbean will offer our guests experiences that broaden their horizons both on and off the ship.”
New itineraries include a 15-day ‘Wake of the Vikings’ cruise from Norway, which will trace the route of Viking explorer Leif Eriksson, who set foot on North American soil 500 years before Columbus. Starting in Bergen, the ship will head to the Shetland Islands in Scotland, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland and like Eriksson, will stop at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada. Guests will then visit Quebec to visit Saguenay and Quebec City, before arriving in Montreal.
On 2 October, Viking Star will sail a 13-day ‘Eastern Seaboard Explorer’ itinerary from Montreal to New York, US. The ship will visit Quebec City, Saguenay, Prince Edward Island and Halifax before overnighting in Boston and then cross the Cape Cod Canal en route to New York.
Immediately following this, Viking Star will offer a 15-day ‘Eastern Seaboard to the West Indies’ from New York to San Juan, where guests will have the chance to visit the US cities of Newport, Baltimore, Jamestown and an overnight in Port Everglades, Florida. They will then head to the Caribbean islands of Turks and Caicos, Antigua and St. Thomas.
Between October 2016 and February 2017, guests can also enjoy 11-day ‘West Indies Explorer’ itineraries. These depart San Juan and include calls in the Lesser Antilles, Tortola, Antigua, St. Lucia, Barbados, Guadeloupe, St. Kitts, St. Martin and St. Thomas.
At the end of February, Viking Star will sail an 18-day ‘West Indies to Iberia’ voyage that departs San Juan and calls in the Dutch side of St. Martin. Guests will then enjoy a six-day trans-Atlantic crossing, before calling at Madeira in Portugal, Casablanca in Morocco, and Cádiz, Valencia and Barcelona in Spain.