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Viking River Cruises orders two more ships
July 24, 2012

The rapid expansion at Viking River Cruises is getting even more rapid.

The river cruise giant announced that it had ordered two more of its new-generation, 190-passenger "longships" for delivery in 2013, bringing the total number of the vessels scheduled to debut next year to eight -- an industry first.

The order is on top of the six longships the company rolled out this year. All of the vessels would sail on Europe's waterways.

"As the fastest-growing segment of travel, river cruising is inspiring more vacation plans than ever before," Viking chairman Torstein Hagen said in a statement accompanying the announcement.

"We are very pleased by the response we have seen to our new Viking Longships, and we are continuing our expansion to meet that demand."

Demand for river cruises in Europe has hit a tipping point with American vacationers, Hagen told USA TODAY earlier this year during a tour of four Viking ships under construction at the Neptun shipyard in Rostock, Germany.

Hagen is touting the new longships as a game-changer for the industry. The ships feature a new design that includes the largest suites ever for a river vessel in Europe as well as cabins with balconies -- a feature made possible by an innovative new cabin area layout that includes corridors that are offset from the middle of the vessel. The offset corridors allow for larger suites.

Viking is boasting that the longships are the only river cruise vessels in Europe with an array of true suites -- that is, cabins that have an en-suite sitting room in addition to a bedroom. Until now, what have been called suites on European river ships have been no more than single-room cabins that are larger than standard size cabins, the line says. See photos of longship cabins, suites.

The longships also have innovative all-weather indoor/outdoor terraces at their fronts -- a new concept for river ships in Europe. The terraces have retractable floor-to-ceiling glass doors.

Source :- http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/