Viking made last minute changes to avoid Asia and South America.
Viking Cruises has announced last minutes changes to the 120 day World Cruise of the Viking Star. Original, scheduled to sail from Los Angeles today, will sail on Wednesday.
The guests were notified of the changes in a webinar with Viking Chairman Torstein Hagen. During the webinar, Torstein told the guests, "There will be fewer Pacific beaches but more cultural content."
Hagen also appealed to the explorer mindset of Viking travelers in expressing his hope they'll stick with the new program.
He likened the short-notice '180-degree chance of course' to Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen's action more than a century ago when he turned away from the North Pole after learning others had already reached it and headed toward the South Pole instead.
Guests were also informed that instead of sailing westward from Los Angeles to Asia and beyond, Viking Star would chart course south to Mexico and Central America then around South America on an eastbound itinerary continuing to the Mediterranean and through the Suez Canal to the Red Sea. In late March at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the ship will resume its original program and travel back through the Mediterranean to end at London in May.
According to a Viking, if any of the 550 travelers who booked for the first leg of the trip on this 930-passenger ship choose to cancel, they will receive a voucher valued at 110% of what they've paid Viking for use on a future cruise.
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