We are booked on Viking Ocean for Aug 2023 and we just had to pay in full last week (June 2022). We are repeat Viking cruisers, though not on ocean cruise (only river cruise). We got our repeat cruiser discount, so I know they are aware. We were also perturbed that we had to pay so far in advance. Doing that for 900 people on every cruise and every ship, they are making a FORTUNE off our money. I do feel this is totally unfair, but like the OP said, we still chose to book.