Fast-growing Viking hits major milestone with 100th cruise ship

October 22, 2025

By one measure, at least, Viking now rules the cruise world.

The fast-growing cruise brand officially welcomed nine new ships to its fleet on Tuesday during an upbeat naming ceremony in Basel, Switzerland, bringing its total to 103.

The addition of the new vessels, all designed for river cruising, puts Viking firmly ahead of cruise giant Carnival Corporation for the title of the cruise company with the most ships.

After reducing its ship count in recent years, Carnival Corporation, the parent company of eight major cruise brands including Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises and Holland America, currently has just 94 vessels in its fleet. As recently as 2020, it had 104.

“It’s a big day for us,” Viking founder, chairman and CEO Torstein Hagen told dozens of Viking executives, port officials, business partners and media assembled for the naming event atop one of the nine new vessels, Viking Honir.

“We’ve been adding ships like counting sheep,” he quipped.

The 190-passenger Viking Honir, which will sail on the Rhine River from Basel to Amsterdam, was the only one of the nine new ships physically present in Basel for the naming ceremony.

Five of the eight other vessels were located on other rivers where they will be sailing, including the Nile in Egypt, the Douro in Portugal, the Mekong in Vietnam and the Seine in France. Three more of the ships were at the Neptun Werft shipyard in Rostock, Germany, where they were undergoing the last stages of construction.

Still, the captains and godmothers (and in a couple cases, godfathers) for all nine vessels were present on the top of Viking Honir for the ceremony, which included video feeds from each of the vessels as, one by one, they were officially named with a smash of Norwegian aquavit against their hulls.

The use of bottles of aquavit instead of bottles of Champagne to name the vessels was a nod to Viking’s Norwegian heritage. Viking founder Hagen is Norwegian.

Tuesday’s event, which included the unveiling of Viking’s 100th ship (Viking Honir), was just the latest milestone in what has been an extraordinary period of growth for the 28-year-old company.

With the addition of the nine new river ships, Viking now operates 88 river ships around the world as well as 12 traditional ocean ships and two expedition cruise vessels. It also markets a chartered river vessel on the Mississippi River.

As recently as 2012, the company fielded just 29 ships — fewer than a third of the number it operates today.

The newly public company, which now has 12,000 employees, has been one of the fastest growing cruise operators in history and shows no signs of slowing its growth.

As Hagen noted at Tuesday’s event, the company has 31 more river ships on order for delivery by 2030 — an astounding number. It also has 14 ocean ships on order for delivery by 2033.

An aerial view of Viking’s nine-ship naming ceremony atop Viking Honir. VIKING

The additions will put the company’s rate of growth in terms of passenger capacity at more than 50% between now and 2030. Carnival Corporation’s projected growth over that same period, by contrast, is just under 10%.

The next biggest cruise company, Royal Caribbean Group, has a projected growth rate in terms of passenger capacity of around 20% between now and 2030.

Royal Caribbean Group currently has 68 vessels in its fleet, split among several brands including Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises and Silversea Cruises.

While Viking now has more ships than either Carnival Corporation or Royal Caribbean Group, it still carries significantly fewer passengers than those two companies, as its average ship size is considerably smaller.

That said, by some measures Viking is the most profitable of the three companies, with a return on invested capital of around 40%.

The nine new river ships that Viking welcomed on Tuesday include four — Viking Annar, Viking Dagur, Viking Eldir and Viking Honir — that will sail the brand’s most popular itineraries along Europe’s Rhine, Main and Danube rivers.

Three more of the vessels — Viking Nerthus, Viking Gyda and Viking Tonle — will sail the Seine, Douro and Mekong rivers, respectively.

The two other new ships named on Tuesday — Viking Thoth and Viking Amun — will sail the Nile.

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Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

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