Sailing high on a year of impressive accolades, Viking River Cruises® (www.vikingcruises.com.au) has once again been named the #1 River Cruise Line by readers of Travel + Leisure. The results of the annual Travel + Leisure World's Best Awards are based on a survey that asked readers to cast votes for the very best in cruising on the following characteristics: cabins/facilities, restaurants/food, service, itineraries/destinations, excursions/activities and value. The full results of the awards can be found at http://www.travelandleisure.com/worlds-best. This is the eleventh consecutive year that Viking has appeared on the World's Best Awards list, and this year the company earned a score of 93.92 – higher than any other river or ocean cruise line.
“We are delighted to be named the top river cruise line and would like to thank our guests and the readers of Travel + Leisure for this great honour,” said Torstein Hagen, chairman of Viking Cruises. “As the river cruise market continues to grow, we will never lose sight of the Viking Way of travel – we offer our guests the 'thinking man's cruise,' not the 'drinking man's cruise.' We provide enriching experiences for our guests in every destination, and we do it at a great value.”
“The Viking Way” of travel is small ship cruises that focus on the destination, that provide authentic cultural touch points along the way and that offer a wide variety of choice for many different budgets and individual travel preferences. Every Viking itinerary covers a destination's most famous sights and landmarks, but guests are also offered opportunities to go beyond the iconic and expected – a “Local Life” experience, such as a home-hosted visit; a “Working World” experience, such as a factory visit; and a Privileged Access experience, such as an exclusive, behind-the-scenes museum tour.
As a response to increased traveller demand for Viking's destination-focused cruises, the company expanded its river offerings in 2015 with the launch of new award-winning Viking Longships® and new European itineraries. Since entering the North American market in 2000, Viking has continued to set industry standards with best-in-class river cruise ships, award-winning service, outstanding quality and all-inclusive itineraries offered at a competitive price.
In early 2015, Viking officially expanded into the ocean cruise market and with the launch of its first ocean ship, the 930-passenger Viking Star® – marking the arrival of the travel industry's first entirely new cruise line in a decade. In June, Viking “floated out” its second ship, Viking Sea® at Fincantieri's Ancona shipyard. Viking Sea is set to launch in early 2016, and the company's third ship on order, Viking Sky®, is currently under construction for debut in early 2017. All three ships will sail popular routes in Scandinavia and the Baltic; and the Western and Eastern Mediterranean.
Booking Details
From now through July 31, 2015, Viking is offering an Early Booking Discount of AU$1,000 per couple on all Viking ocean cruises and a competitive AU$995 economy class airfare from Australia to Europe in conjunction with 2016 Viking river & ocean cruises.
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