Viking Sea West Indies Explorer cruise Oct 29-Nov 10, 2025 has been cancelled

[rmalbers]

3 minutes ago, SantaFe1 said:

I think Orion does this route now for several years. 

Ok, wait a minute. That's goes all over.  My guess is that Viking Sea goes to Japan and sails there year around.  Maybe Korea, also.  I'm still going with my guess.

[CCWineLover]

Maybe instead of all this speculating, someone whose Viking Sea was cancelled should contact Viking directly, or have their Travel Agent do so.  Anything of this magnitude would be now known by a reputable Travel Agent.

[kctwinmommy]

1 minute ago, CCWineLover said:

Maybe instead of all this speculating, someone whose Viking Sea was cancelled should contact Viking directly, or have their Travel Agent do so.  Anything of this magnitude would be now known by a reputable Travel Agent.

Well, they emailed us at 4 p.m. today, so not much time to do anything. I'm actually at work too. And they said things will be issued in 48 hours. I will take some time tomorrow to call, but I didn't have a chance today.

[CCWineLover]

1 hour ago, kctwinmommy said:

Same! And ALL Caribbean cruises on Viking are gone from their website, except a Panama Canal one. We already have a Royal one booked for February, and my husband started a new job, so we really can't take one in the springtime. I just wanted to do a Viking one in warm weather. I'm so disappointed!

I'm not seeing this at all.  Having a vested interest in the Sea, I just checked their website.

West Indies Explorer is showing ALL cruises in 2024, 2025, and 2026.

 

Whether that's true or not, it is true that they are NOT gone from their website.

 

[kctwinmommy]

Yes, @CCWineLover I should have corrected myself, I had looked in a bunch of months, the ones we could actually do, but I didn't check those 3 at the beginning. And I meant for 2025, as that's the year we were going. Either way, they have cancelled a bunch of them. They also cancelled on the West Coast. As well as a cruise in the Bay of Bengal for someone, all with the same excuse.

[kctwinmommy]

And if you have a vested interest in the Sea, then you should be aware of the many cruises that were supposed to take place on her, that aren't.

[Older Sister]

8 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

Maybe instead of all this speculating, someone whose Viking Sea was cancelled should contact Viking directly, or have their Travel Agent do so.  Anything of this magnitude would be now known by a reputable Travel Agent.

My Travel Agent has heard NOTHING about cancellation of our December 23, 2024 Viking Sea West Indies Explorer cruise.  And I have not received any emails, either.  I called Viking directly a few minutes ago and was told that, out of concern for passenger safety due to the conflicts in the RED SEA, Viking was cancelling some cruises.  However, at this time, our cruise was “scheduled to proceed”.    
 

I’m not optimistic.

[CCWineLover]

2 minutes ago, kctwinmommy said:

And if you have a vested interest in the Sea, then you should be aware of the many cruises that were supposed to take place on her, that aren't.

That's why I have a call into my Travel Agent - a large Agency who should have some inkling as to what is happening.

[kctwinmommy]

Just now, Older Sister said:

My Travel Agent has heard NOTHING about cancellation of our December 23, 2024 Viking Sea West Indies Explorer cruise.  And I have not received any emails, either.  I called Viking directly a few minutes ago and was told that, out of concern for passenger safety due to the conflicts in the RED SEA, Viking was cancelling some cruises.  However, at this time, our cruise was “scheduled to proceed”.    
 

I’m not optimistic.

Yes, those I could see being cancelled for precaution. That makes sense!

 

Hopefully yours will still go. It does still show on the website, along with ones in Jan - Mar for 2025. But then the October ones are all gone now. Plus, the ship was doing Pacific coast cruises, and those got cancelled. So, the Sea is going somewhere else. I had only looked at 2025 cruises as that's when we were planning to go. As someone else pointed out, there are some options for late 2025 and then some in 2026. But the late 2025 ones are Christmastime, a time we don't go on vacation and it's way more expensive to travel in general.

[PasadenaDave]

We had booked San Juan to LA a few weeks ago on the special deal.  We liked the itinerary with few Caribbean ports and multiple sea days.  $25 deposit will be requested to be refunded as 110% credit on a future booking is worth…..$2.50 US!

[stretchcruz]

I goofed when I didn't say which cruise of mine was canceled. It was Alaska. Viking Sea May 17, 2026. I contacted my TA, mainly worried about if the promo code that I had used to book other cruises since I had a prior booking, would still be applicable. She assured me that it would, no worries. She didn't know why Viking was canceling all of the Viking Sea cruises. 

[Hanoj]

54 minutes ago, stretchcruz said:

I goofed when I didn't say which cruise of mine was canceled. It was Alaska. Viking Sea May 17, 2026. I contacted my TA, mainly worried about if the promo code that I had used to book other cruises since I had a prior booking, would still be applicable. She assured me that it would, no worries. She didn't know why Viking was canceling all of the Viking Sea cruises. 

I was eyeing a Viking Sea Alaska cruise beginning May 7, 2026 and it is no longer on the website. Bummer, as it was one of the few where the Itinerary included Glacier Bay.

[kctwinmommy]

Well, I found out where our ship has been moved to! It's now being used for a Mediterranean cruise. I searched the ship's itineraries, and found October, 2025. Although it also shows this could be the Saturn. So, maybe I'm wrong. But when I searched for the Sea's sailings, it gave me this one.

 

 

 

This is the cruise it's now being used for.

Edited July 12 by kctwinmommy

[TAW1963]

This is my first post on the Viking board.  My DW and I are relatively new to cruising, but have started cruising 3-5 times per year.  After cruising with HAL and (mostly) Princess, I started to look into Viking.   Although many itineraries on Viking are of interest to us, we finally decided to book the 9-day, April 17, 2025, Pacific Coast sailing of the Viking Sea (LA to Vancouver) thinking it would be a good one to see how we like Viking.  We live in Idaho and it is easier to sail from the West coast.  We just put down our deposit two days ago.  Yesterday, we got the email saying that our cruise has been cancelled.  Its really not a problem, but now we need to find another Viking cruise to cut our teeth on so to speak.

Edited July 12 by TAW1963

[CCWineLover]

27 minutes ago, TAW1963 said:

This is my first post on the Viking board.  My DW and I are relatively new to cruising, but have started cruising 3-5 times per year.  After cruising with HAL and (mostly) Princess, I started to look into Viking.   Although many itineraries on Viking are of interest to us, we finally decided to book the 9-day, April 17, 2025, Pacific Coast sailing of the Viking Sea (LA to Vancouver) thinking it would be a good one to see how we like Viking.  We live in Idaho and it is easier to sail from the West coast.  We just put down our deposit two days ago.  Yesterday, we got the email saying that our cruise has been cancelled.  Its really not a problem, but now we need to find another Viking cruise to cut our teeth on so to speak.

Unfortunately, the Sea is now staying in Europe longer in 2025/2026, doing the Caribbean only in the winter months, and not going through the canal, up the west coast, and Alaska anymore, but instead headed back to Mediterranean in March time frame.  Who know the real reason, but I suspect it is a domino affect from the Middle East situation.   As far as I know, the Viking Orion still is going to do Alaska, but Vancouver is as far south as it will go.

[Hanoj]

Viking website is offering Alaska cruises on the Sea in 2025 & 2026. Placeholders for new or newer ships?

[andysnovel]

Viking Sea is sailing  out of Vancouver in May 2025 to Alaska, my cancelled pacific coast cruise ended there, end of April, makes no sense at all!!!

[Hanoj]

11 minutes ago, andysnovel said:

Viking Sea is sailing  out of Vancouver in May 2025 to Alaska, my cancelled pacific coast cruise ended there, end of April, makes no sense at all!!!

Evidently it makes a lot of cents to Viking or it wouldn’t have happened.

Edited July 12 by Hanoj

[Jim Avery]

If you book years in advance you can bet on changes.

[OneSixtyToOne]

18 hours ago, rmalbers said:

Ok, here's my guess:  They are going to permanently redeploy it to Japan after a drydock.  That might be trend.  People are getting more used to long haul flights.  I think cruise lines will start doing more of this, keeping ships in a given region, long term.

 

17 hours ago, rmalbers said:

Really, I need to look into that.  So much for my guess, lol!

The Japan route sells out a year in advance and only has 4 sailings a year (spring and fall). This is an in demand itinerary and I thought one of the new ships might be additionally deployed there. The new ship class is designed to sail into ecologically sensitive areas, as new regulations come into effect for the Norwegian fjords. 
 

It make sense that the new ships are deployed to Europe (and maybe New Zealand). Therefore it is entirely possible the Sky is going to Asia.

Edited July 12 by OneSixtyToOne

[PasadenaDave]

I am thinking about how crowded some markets are getting which is a possibility why Sea isn't making it to the Western Hemisphere:

1.  Panama Canal getting crowded especially with drought.

2.  Alaska is crowded, I think someone posted seven cruise ships at Ketchikan.

3.  Viking isn't a resort island cruise line like others in the Carribean.

4.  Few people want to do a transatlantic cruise.

 

We enjoy sea days and liked the itinerary of San Juan to Los Angeles as we want to see San Juan but don't like nearby ports.  I also want to do the Panama Canal which my wife did on Princess.  We might look into Oceana from Ft Lauderdale.

 

I like the Viking Florida to Santiago via the canal but that is a bit long for our tastes.

 

Perhaps thinks will work themselves out in a few years

[wolfie11]

On 7/11/2024 at 1:34 PM, kctwinmommy said:

Same! And ALL Caribbean cruises on Viking are gone from their website, except a Panama Canal one. We already have a Royal one booked for February, and my husband started a new job, so we really can't take one in the springtime. I just wanted to do a Viking one in warm weather. I'm so disappointed!

I looked at the website and it appears that for the Sea, only cruises after March 31, 2025 are cancelled (for now) and resume in December 2025. 

[wolfie11]

On 7/12/2024 at 7:38 AM, andysnovel said:

Viking Sea is sailing  out of Vancouver in May 2025 to Alaska, my cancelled pacific coast cruise ended there, end of April, makes no sense at all!!!

Since West Coast cruises are cancelled but Alaska cruises are still showing, I suspect that they will bring the Venus over from Australia through Japan and have her replace the Sea.  That way she doesn’t have to get to the Med through the Suez Canal. Sea will move to the Med at the end of March to replace the Venus. 
 

 

[harbourside]

33 minutes ago, wolfie11 said:

Since West Coast cruises are cancelled but Alaska cruises are still showing, I suspect that they will bring the Venus over from Australia through Japan and have her replace the Sea.  That way she doesn’t have to get to the Med through the Suez Canal. Sea will move to the Med at the end of March to replace the Venus. 
 

 

Venus is currently in Europe and cannot get to Australia as it will not be going through Suez Canal.  (unless it comes via Africa)??? 

[wolfie11]

27 minutes ago, harbourside said:

Venus is currently in Europe and cannot get to Australia as it will not be going through Suez Canal.  (unless it comes via Africa)??? 

She’s definitely headed to Australia this fall.  I’m booked on the Singapore to Bali and Beyond (was Bangkok to Bali) on November 25 and Komodo and the Australian Coast on December 7. Not sure how she’s getting to Singapore.