Viking Ocean Cruises®’s first ship – the 930-passenger Viking Star – has been “floated out,” marking the latest major construction milestone, and the first time that the new ship touches water.
The traditional ceremony took place on Monday, June 23 , at Fincantieri’s Marghera shipyard outside Venice, Italy . With a total of three sister ships now under construction, Viking Star will be the first to debut in early 2015 with maiden voyages in Scandinavia and the Baltic; and the Western and Eastern Mediterranean.
“Today is a proud day for our entire Viking family, as we are one step closer to launching a new era of ocean cruising, ” Viking Cruises Chairman Torstein Hagen said at the ceremony.
According to Italian shipbuilding tradition, a float out ceremony is significant because it denotes a ship moving into its final stage of construction. Viking Star’ s float out began at approximately 10:30 a.m. local time, when a “madrina” – godmother – cut a cord to allow water to begin flowing into the ship’s building dock. Following a two-day process that will set Viking Star afloat, she will then be moved to a nearby outfitting dock for final construction and interior build-out.
[mappress] Press Release, June 25, 2014