Fast-growing Viking, which has grown from a river cruise line to add an ocean division and now a series of ‘expedition’ ships showed off its newest, the expedition ship Polaris, with a parade of all three types of ships at Amsterdam.
The occasion was the official naming ceremony for Polaris (and its twin, Octantis, currently doing a Great Lakes cruise), as well as Viking’s own 25th Anniversary celebration. The parade down the Amstel river was led by one of Viking’s ‘longboat’ river cruisers, Viking Mani, followed by Polaris and then Viking Venus.
The expedition class ships carry a variety of small boats to bring passengers in close in areas where the larger ships can’t go; each also has two six-passenger yellow submarines with revolving seats and spherical windows. The pair on Octantis are named John and Paul; Polaris’s yellow submarines are George and Ringo.
