The cruise ship business keeps on cruising into the future, with new ships arriving and more on order. Earlier this week, Viking Ocean Cruises took possession of its sixth ship, and Disney Cruise Lines ordered three more, which will bring it to a total of seven.
Viking Jupiter, built in Italy, was turned over to the company by the Fincantieri shipyard, and will begin its life with a series of cruises in the Mediterranean, followed by a season in Scandinavia. During that cruise, it will have its formal christening in Oslo, Norway.
Disney, which hasn’t named its new ships yet, will bring them into service one a year in 2021, 2022 and 2023, with more Disney features and characters than even the existing fleet. The new ships will homeport at Port Canaveral, Florida, the company’s home base.
Viking, which added Ocean cruises to its river cruise business only in 2015, has on order or at sea a total of 16 nearly-identical small ships, with capacity for 930 passengers, the last of them to be delivered in 2030.
