Viking has signed contracts with Fincantieri for two more ocean ships, both due for delivery in 2032.
They will be 54,300 gross tonnes, with 499 cabins carrying 998 guests. Which is to say they will be the same ship Viking has been ordering since 2024.
What was signed
The two vessels are options from the April 2025 contract that also produced Viking Libra and Viking Astrea, the first cruise ships designed to run on hydrogen. Viking has now exercised them.
Both will be built at Ancona on the Adriatic, the yard that has turned out most of the recent fleet, including Viking Mira, which started her maiden season in June.
Fincantieri values the pair as “large”, its own category for contracts worth between €500 million and €1 billion.
Coming after two expedition vessels ordered in March, it takes Viking’s total orderbook at the Italian shipbuilder to 28 ships.
The thing that hasn’t changed
Every Viking ocean ship since Viking Vela in 2024 has been 54,300 tonnes and 998 guests. Every one before that was around 48,000 tonnes and 930 guests.
That is the entire range of variation across a fleet heading for more than 20 ocean ships.
All are all-veranda, all adults-only at 18 and over, none has a casino, and none has a waterslide.
The contrast with the rest of the industry is not subtle. Norwegian Aura, revealed this week, is 170,000 tonnes with six waterslides and a spa pool that simulates a thunderstorm.
Viking’s answer to what people want next is another 998-guest ship with no slides on it.
What it means if you sail Viking
Nothing you can book yet. Ships ordered in 2026 for 2032 delivery are a statement of intent, not a holiday.
What it does tell you is that the product isn’t about to change under you. If you like the Viking formula, the line is committing more than half a billion euros to not altering it.
There is a practical upside to the sameness. Move between Viking ships and you already know the layout, the restaurants and where everything is, which is unusual in an industry that reinvents its ships every few years.
For British cruisers the relevant part is closer than 2032 anyway. Viking’s 2028 to 2029 programme puts the new Viking Vega in London for her first summer, sailing from Greenwich.
The bottom line
Two more ships is not a surprise. Viking has ordered so many that individual announcements have stopped being events.
What’s notable is the discipline. Eighty ships are on order across the industry and most lines are using their newbuilds to add something: more decks, more attractions, more people.
Viking keeps buying the same 998 berths and betting that a good number of people want exactly that, and nothing extra.
