Viking Cruises has developed a habit of creating excitement in the travel industry.

By a significant margin, they’ve become the dominant river cruise company in the world.  They’ve broken Guinness World Records launching more ships in a single day than anyone else.  And just yesterday, they announced that they were bringing their style of river cruising to the Mississippi River.  Booyah!

Now, we already have a few river cruise lines already sailing the Mississippi, and other of our nation’s largest river-ways.  However, they seem to be delivering more of a Mark Twain, Cracker Barrel type of experience.  And while that’s nice, Viking Cruises is going to force the river cruise market in the U.S. to up its game!

Flash: Come sail Viking in France with Carol and I this coming May!  For details, click here.

Here’s a few of the highlights from yesterday’s announcement:

• Gov. Bobby Jindal and Viking Cruises Chairman Torstein Hagen announced the selection of New Orleans as the homeport for Viking River Cruises’ first North American river cruise itineraries.
• Plans call for the construction of six new vessels over the next three years at an estimated cost of $90 million to $100 million per vessel, all of which will be built in U.S. shipyards and crewed by U.S. citizens.
• With the launch of cruise operations on the Mississippi River in late 2017, two boats will be deployed per year, for a total of six new boats in the first three years.
• Cruises will take passengers on a journey along the Mississippi River from New Orleans to itinerary stops in St. James, East Baton Rouge and West Feliciana parishes; continuing upriver to Memphis, Tennessee; St. Louis; or St. Paul, Minnesota, depending on the season.
• The specialty-built riverboats will have a full complement of luxury amenities and host up to 300 passengers at approximately one-tenth the size of oceangoing cruise vessels.

We welcome the news, and look forward to exploring our own nation’s waterways in the future.  Specifically, the Snake and Columbia rivers come to mind in the Pacific Northwest.  🙂

For information about booking a Viking River Cruise anywhere in the world, call us at (480) 550-1235, or use our convenient online request form by clicking here.

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