The steel cutting ceremony of the seventh ship which Fincantieri is building for Viking Cruises, took place on March 18 at the shipyard in Ancona.

The new unit, whose delivery is scheduled in 2021, will be placed in the small cruise ship segment. As its sister ships, she will have a gross tonnage of about 47,800 tons and 465 cabins with accommodation for 930 passengers.

The Viking units are all built according to the latest navigation regulations and equipped with the most modern safety systems, including the “Safe return to port”. Furthermore, they feature the most advanced technologies for energy saving and for meeting the strictest environmental regulations with energy-efficient engines and an exhaust gas cleaning system.

Fincantieri started its partnership with Viking in 2012, trusting the shipowner who was entering the ocean cruise market as a start-up. Today, the cooperation which first began with an order for two ships, has reached a total of 20 units, including the order awarded to Vard for two exploration cruise ships and the options. This is an all-time record, the largest number of units built by a shipbuilder for one sole shipowner.

The first of the series, Viking Star, has been built at the shipyard in Marghera and delivered in 2015. The other units, Viking Sea, Viking Sky, Viking Sun, and Viking Orion, handed over in 2016, 2017 and 2018, were all built at the Ancona yard, as well as Viking Jupiter, which joined the shipowner’s fleet in February. Other 10 units, options included, for Viking Cruises will take to the sea from the Group’s Italian yards between 2021 and 2027.