A Viking Is Loose On The Mississippi - The First Viking Cruise Ship Sets Sail on The Mississippi
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- A Viking Is Loose On The Mississippi - The First Viking Cruise Ship Sets Sail on The Mississippi
What's Going on With Shipping?
September 12, 2022
In this episode, Sal Mercogliano - maritime historian at Campbell University and former merchant mariner - discusses the introduction of the new Viking Mississippi. The ship is built to a modified Viking Longship design, different than the vessels they operate in Europe, but have some new features not seen on American river cruise boats. We also examine the issue of how this ship meets the requirement of the Jones Act and the Passenger Vessel Service Act due to Viking Cruises being a Switzerland based company and how the ship differs from its main competitor - American Cruise Lines.
#Mississippi #cruiseship #viking
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The New River Cruse Ship Viking Mississippi Northbound for Hannibal
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Viking Mississippi
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I thought you were going to tell us this thing got stuck and blocked the Mississippi River. This is a surprisingly upbeat story!
Hey...change of pace. I cannot be the face of maritime disaster all the time.
Now that’s comedy
@@wgowshipping Lol well said
Give it time…
The stuck portion I could see, blocking the Mississippi is hard unless your up on the Upper Mississippi. (See my other comment as to why I could see the Viking ship getting stuck.)
My wife and I did a Viking cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam a few years ago and are definitely considering this or one of their Great Lakes cruises. The big air draft restrictions were some of the several dozen locks on the Rhine-Main Canal, which have overhead equipment. It was impressive how Viking managed to pack three interior decks into the space while most other boats only have two. The upper deck with its outdoor seating and walking track was closed for much of the cruise. (They don't tell you that.) The pilot house could be retracted into the hull, while the stanchions and furniture on the upper deck could be laid flat or taken below. The lowermost deck has portholes barely a foot above the waterline. It felt like you were riding in a kayak.
It was a really cool experience and I recommend it to anyone, even if we were the only people under 40 who weren't cruising with a parent. Sign up for their email notifications. They have all kinds of last minute deals. Don't do the included walking tours, as they are conducted at a pace that an 80 yo can maintain.
Most other river cruise ships in Europe have 3 interior decks, Viking is nothing special in that regard. I've been on 5 river cruises with 3 different companies so I should know. Indeed some have a lower sun deck for the front third of the vessel that remains open when Viking does not to get under bridges, so in that regard Viking longships are sub optimal.
@@owensmith7530 Interesting. I'll agree that most of the images of European river boats available now do show three decks over at least most of their length. The cruise I took was nearly 10 years ago (the Longships) were still pretty new). Is it possible that two-deck designs were more common then?
@@Zeppflyer 3 interior decks has been common for at least a couple of decades. In 2015 I went on one that had been build in 2005. River cruise web sites say when each ship in the fleet was built, and there are plenty built prior to 2010 with 3 interior decks.
You get extra points for the Head Line. You have has some good lines, but this one should be high on the list.
Professor Sal, do your lectures improve with the number of Margaritas consumed when you’re on a cruise?
It is exponential based on my consumption.
🤣🤣
Mid 1800’s the paddle wheel boats had a hard time turning into St Louis docks and found it it easier to almost coast into Alton docks. In some seasons and wind.
No surprise here; I was served American Cruise Lines ads during this video.
My former wife worked for the Delta Queen Steamboat Co. (now defunct) back in the 90's. We were able to take cruises on the Delta Queen and the American Queen. I really enjoyed the slow, relaxed pace on the river. I don't think I'd like the ocean cruises, too many people crammed into what, for all intents and purposes is a giant floating hotel. My favorite cruise was a Windjammer cruise, 30 passengers on a three mast schooner in the Caribbean for a week. That was a lot of fun.
A Windjammer cruise does sound like so much more fun than a cruise on some of the huge floating hotels. Not knocking cruising, it's just not for me. :) Do they put you to work a lot on the Windjammer ships? The only thing I would not want to do is climb the mast. 😂
@@tinacatharinaeden2711 we were welcome to help out, but it was not mandatory. We sailed out of Puerto Rico, and as we left port, everybody pitched in to hoist the sails. After that, if we wanted to pitch in, they would find something that needed to be done.
@@eherrmann01 That's really cool! Friends use to have a schooner that we would all go out on. But unfortunately it was lost in a freak storm in the Azores.
@@tinacatharinaeden2711 So sorry to hear about the loss of your friends boat. When I was a child, my best friend's family built an ocean-going trimaran in their back yard. I was able to sail on it when they did the sea trials on lake Erie. They ended up sailing around the world on it.
@@eherrmann01 Thank you, they were OK but very shaken up , they bought the boat in very bad shape and fixed it all up. Had it for many years and they sailed almost around the world. I have the utmost respect for people who sail around the world or even make long trips. Takes a lot of dedication. :)
I live in Dubuque Iowa, we have a Lock and dam number 11. I really wanted to see it go through the lock. Unfortunately I missed it
I am keeping an eye out for her, for when she passes through Lock & Dam #25 which is near my home. Now there are others that also cruse the big muddy. I'll send you photos when I can catch up with them.
I was on the Viking Mississippi when you filmed this it was way cool, I was worried about crowds but felt none, plenty of space only crowds at Restuarant Opening for Dinner ;-)
Thanks for the explanation of the ownership/operator. I knew from reading the fine print (Thanks, Law School) that Viking was not operating the boat, and that the Captain is the Master of the Ship - and hired by the boat builders And the Boat builder/operator was struggling to hire and train staff up to the Viking Standard, my understanding we had a grand time with the crew I loved it!
Bill...thanks for the first hand report.
I feel like cannabis should be allowed on cruise ships. Maritime law regarding cannabis Sucks!
Sal, I'm sure I am not the only one interested in this and would love to see an episode regarding cannabis and ships, law and any attempts at potential law reform towards cannabis (If it's happening).
I'm sure it would bring in a new wave of subscribers for you. Have a great day! ✌️
I think the increased competition will be good. I could be wrong but although labor costs may be higher, operating costs have got to be much less. It's basically a river barge versus an ocean going salt water vessel that makes calls in multiple foreign ports.
I saw the Viking ship at dock in Alton, IL on my way home from airsoft Saturday.
Well, Sal, let’s hope that ship was not loaded down with too many Rune Stones.
It's actually six decks if you include the deck below the waterline that incudes, bow thruster room, crew quarters, laundry, galley, sewage treatment, HVAC chillers, engine power generation room, control room, and drive room at the stern.
I like this good news thing
Great job as always Sal!!
Interesting!!
I from STL and will definitely check them out,
Thanks for sharing Sal.
If the cruise business does not take off, Viking can always sell this ship to an Indian tribe and convert it into a gambling casino.
As a Missourian…the idea of a Mississippi River journey seems wild…but if we have a folks willing to pay…I’m for it. Also the big US Rivers are serious flow.
As an Iowan I thought the same thing!! Once I started working on domestic cruises, I learned that people who didn’t grow up on it are really intrigued by its history and culture. Very cool.
Sal,
BP has effectively owned and operated tankers since the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) started bringing North Slope Alaska crude oil to Valdez. Alaska Tanker Company (ATC) operates tankers for BP in much the same way ECO will operate Viking's ship.
Bob
1:44 you are totally correct Sal, that ships will be way too big for Europen river tours - did Viking foresee the issues Europen rivers are going to have and thus developed this boat for the USA market?
Viking is a big name here in Europe. I live in Amsterdam, quite near their turn-around point. - There is some international set of rules for the dimensions of ships on the Rhine, and Viking definitely adheres to these. (See the comment by Sean O'Brien, about concurrent with yours.) Vertical adjustabilities are common here, from hinging smokestacks on old steamships to elevating flighthouses on container barges. - Note that the Rhine in its different guises has no locks between Schaffhausen (CH) and the sea past Rotterdam (NL), whereas the canals between Wijk bij Duurstede (NL) and the sea past Amsterdam (NL) have their water levels controlled by sets of locks. I don't know about water levels and ship dimensions on other European rivers, like the Elbe (featuring the port of Hamburg (DE) or the Danube (from the Black Sea to Germany).
It has been my personal opinion for some ten years now, that the Rhine should be partitioned by sets of locks, in order to keep enough fresh water in (for shipping and as a base for drinking water) when the glaciers in the Alps will have disappeared. - I don't know about the Mississippi.
Saw this ship pass the famous Fort Madison IA swing-bridge thanks to the Virtual Railfan live-feed railroad (and river) cameras there. It almost looked too wide to fit through the eastern side of the bridge!
@geekfreak618 ummm, lol. A barge-tow in that region is FAR larger and longer than that Viking ship. Saying it's "too big" is laughable at best.
As for "flooding the river with them," puh-leeze. Overdramatize much? Viking river ships have been cruising Europe's rivers for decades and have somehow managed not to "flood" their rivers....and in so doing, they have not polluted Europe's drinking water. Believe me, in Europe, if they HAD been polluting, it would have been noted and stopped immediately.
Nice looking boat .
As an aside - Madeline has gone motorcycling - we knew she was a cool adventurous person!
Kia kaha.
The Upper Mississippi essentially has 27 lock and dams with the last one located at Granite City IL. I believe from Lock and Damn #2, in Minneapolis, all they way down to Granit City the commercial locks are 110' x 600'. The Corp of Engineers do everything in their power to maintain a 9' channel for commercial traffic.
I thought the only lock on the Mississippi was Saint Antoine falls.
@@thomasfranche6770 Nope.Papa is correct.
@@mikeboschert4905 What does that mean ?
Our maiden passenger voyage upstream left from Alton in Pool 26 and arrived in St Paul, Pool 2. No Lock 23 and a 5A L&D so we locked through 24 Locks I saw almost all of them :-) We were there for the River The boat was beautiful but with a punch list almost as lomg as the River Lots of Boat builders on the voyage working on the boat
@@billcrews6704 Wow. I don't know why I thought there was only one lock in Minneapolis. Thanks.
Happy amused Sal is good
This funny the Swiss own Viking Cruise line and yet Switzerland is a landlocked country.
Just love "Whyking" (how the Norwegians, Swiss, and Germans aboard attempt to pronounce the English word). Their European river cruises are great. And this a great review, Ty. We'll board if it ever embarks from NOLA. Welcome state side Viking!!
This is going to be interesting to watch. I suspect it will have a large effect on ACL and American Steamship Company. Viking has a great reputation in the European River Cruise industry, and also in the ocean cruise industry with Viking Ocean. I expect their product to improve on the quality of existing US river and coastal cruises. So far they're not much more per night than ACl etc.
We were on Queen of the Mississippi, an ACL river boat, for our 50th Anniversary in May/Jun of 21. I often say it was a 4 star experience for a 6 star price, when compared to ocean cruises. NOW to be fair we were on the one of the first, if not the first trip post COVID. They did not have a full staff when we set sail, adding staff each day. The staff was not fully trained. For you Sal, the guest lecturer was the highlight of the trip. :-) He took our daughter under tow and between them they made our 50th an event. The line had NO ability to do special events at that point. So yea! guest lecturers.
Though we have our own boat in the East Coast, if we know when you'll be doing your guest lecturer thing, we might just join that cruise.
David
I second the 4 star for 6 star price. My family's tales of our river cruise on the American Splendor last month has the main issue of a crappy dining experience. 2 stalks of asparagus for surf and turf? Lay out a large wheel of brie with no crackers? Small issues but ongoing for each of the 15 days.
They had the same staffing issues with our cruise since ACL hadn't thought of needing a lot more dining staff for 177 passengers vs. 66. (Downstream vs. upstream cruise. My family were on the downstream cruise.)
There was also a soda shortage after the stop in Memphis, which was on a Friday, as we sailed to Vicksburg, MS, which was a Sunday stop.
The Vicksburg stop was too short to experience the Vicksburg Military History Park. 20 minutes for the USS Cairo? Too short. So many memorials alongside the road in the park that could have used a mention both Union and Confederate. The cannon talk was good but, again, too short.
Vicksburg being on a Sunday didn't allow us to check out the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory of the Army Corps of Engineers.
The other Sunday was spent at Fort Madison, IA which was ok if the ship hadn't had a parts failure and we got stuck there for extra time while we on ship watched the trains pass by.
There was a brand new Viking cruse ship on the Great Lakes in 2022. Went to both US. And Canada, so not a Jones act boat. How is that ship’s operation different or similar to the Mississippi?
She will operate exclusively on the Inland waters.
Interesting video Sal. With all these newly designed ships including cargo with their new types of propulsion is Flettner Rotor every going to be factored in?
Was kind of hoping that there was a ghost ship in the Mississippi.
Nice looking ship
We all know Lief Erickson discovered Minnesota
Thanks!
Danube doesn't have any passenger ships over two decks. The lock on the Freudenau dam in Vienna is the limiter.
Viking actually got started in Russia, through some Danish? guy buying Soviet river cruise assets on the cheap. This is probably where they got the designs for really large river ships. 4 meter draft, 5 decks is normal on Russian internal waterways.
I think this was the ship one of the deckhands on my cruise saw heading up the Mississippi as we were headed down. He had an observation on this ship's travel lane as it was passing our ship that makes me wonder how well the initial cruises on this ship will go?
As an aside, my mom won't cruise with Viking since she smokes and she's the cruise person amongst my family.
I wonder if Viking is the only one going all the way to Saint Paul ? I would love to do that cruise, but 18,000$ ! At that price, I'd rather hire a skipper and go down the Mississippi myself. I know a guy who kayaked from MN to the Gulf.
i would like say a 14 day cruise from north to south and day stop overs. i think there very expensive, like 4k a week or so.
ECO owns the ship and an ECO crew runs the ship. Viking operates and staffs the hotel operations on the ship.
I'll bet there is some fuming going on in Connecticut.
two thousand hours at min wage is 15 times 2,000 = 30k. just for starters. Make minimum wage 30k instead of hourly.
9/12/22. 2day video on Viking Cruise Ship on the upper Mississippi..very nice...but...where are the life boats? I did not see any amidship like on ocean going vessels. Why? Please give me some confidence vessel owners believe Mississippi River water depth is not 3ft deep so passengers could 'walk' away from a river accident. Nice report, well made vessel, no doubt full compliance with xyz Maritime Law...but where are the life boats? Help!😯🤔⚙
The passengers have access to floatation devices. In years past the captain of damaged boat would attempt to run into a sand bar to avoid sinking. The wood bottom boats were more vulnerable to snags like underwater trees.
Did Vikings go "Arrrrrrgh!"?
Why would you want to cruise thru a post industrial wasteland?
Mississippi River is beautiful. You're about 50 years out of date.
I moved from Iowa to MI to retire, but before I moved there was a guy who started pulling junk out of the banks, by himself. He got some publicity and before you could shake a stick it had turned into a large project, some employees, lots of volunteers, funding from Alcoa and some other companies. Most cities allowed them to drop stuff at trash dumps without typical fees.
Amazing.
They'd pull up a lot of tires, all cleaned up, then come back to check next year and it would be loaded with tires again. Very few new, but tires had been dumped for so many decades they'd been sunk and squeezed downward. As the upper layer was taken off, more tires oozed their way up.
So they'd clear those up.
A lot of dumping has stopped or at least been reduced. I think people are fed up with that kind of behavior, lots of public pressure to do right by the environment.
@@veramae4098 You must not have been on the river in about 50 years.
@@veramae4098 Not only is the Mississippi beautiful, but its got plenty of water in it, and its cleaner than it was 100 years ago. The inland water navigation system of the U.S.A. on the Mississippi and its tributaries is larger than that of the rest of the world combined. I assume this boat could travel the Tennessee river as well.
Go Campbell
What kind of competition will Viking coming to the table bring?
well, that didn't go well.
With the depth of the Mississippi sometimes less than 12 feet deep, could this end up getting stuck if it's not deep enough for the ship?
The Army Corps maintains a minimun 9 feet channel depth. I'm sure the boats have depth measuring instruments. You're correct, much of the river can have sand and mud just a few feet under the surface.
@@timothykeith1367 thank you! I've been fascinated by the Mighty Mississippi since I was a little girl. San Diego born and raised but spent my summers growing up visiting my aunt and uncle in St. Louis. I loved the Admiral cruises. The Mississippi is definitely a big part of my youth 🙂
where's the life boats
Will it go to St. Louis or Alton?
Different cruises from St Paul down to New Orleans.
Hey
I saw that Campbell has a football team. The score I saw suggest they lost. Do you enjoy their games?
They are DIII I've never known Campbell to win a football game in 30 years living in NC
We won our first of the season, but lost to William and Mary.
Not DIII. We are a DI school but football is FCS, vice FBS. We are heading over to the CAA next year.
You need to be vax’d in order to cruise on Viking… no thanks
Sounds ideal, I caught covid on my last holiday due to unvaccinated other guests.
Good we don't need YOU
they no what their doing .
#Lousyana
American ship, Swiss funding.
Norwegian family owners.
👍👍👍👊👊
Shes a modern paddle boat lol
Oh dear this video actually does sound like some people are having a bad attack of "sour grapes!" American's like to believe they can do what they like in every other country in the World, but damn-it nobody should be allowed make any money out of them.
I actually think it sounds like someone trying to explain the introduction of a new company and ship in service on the Mississippi.
So it meets the requirements of the jones act, built America and crewed by Americans but I have to ask is the chef American or Norwegian or is the “Swedish chef” aboard working under an assumed name🥸 Sorry I just had to throw in a Muppet’s character 🤣🤣🤣
American with disabilities act too??❤
No they don’t American with disabilities act
Goody! novovirus outbreaks closer to american hospitals
I've been on two Viking Ocean cruises, no Norovirus on either.
Thanks! Professor…on the pulse of shipping…human cargo this time. Was curious about draft, you addressed it right away. BTW you sound so much better, glad you are recovering from that @#%-+ cold. ⛴🍾
Me too JA!