Viking Venus Repositioning

[OneSixtyToOne]

I’m currently on the Venus and have just confirmed from the crew that in lieu of sailing through the Suez Canal, the Venus will be sailing unoccupied around the Horn of Africa to Singapore. 

[Jim Avery]

I think you must mean the Cape of Good Hope. The Horn of Africa is at.the entry to access the Red Sea by Somalia. Sort of a no go place these days.🥃

[OneSixtyToOne]

26 minutes ago, Jim Avery said:

I think you must mean the Cape of Good Hope. The Horn of Africa is at.the entry to access the Red Sea by Somalia. Sort of a no go place these days.🥃

Yes, my mistake. They are rounding the Cape. 🫢

[Jim Avery]

Several interesting repositionings going on.  Can't believe they didn't try to sell some seats.  Basically the reverse of the recent WC after the Red Sea/Suez was cancelled.  Lots and lots of sea days though.  

[Redtravel]

1 hour ago, Jim Avery said:

Several interesting repositionings going on.  Can't believe they didn't try to sell some seats.  Basically the reverse of the recent WC after the Red Sea/Suez was cancelled.  Lots and lots of sea days though.  

Likely, they want to keep sailing with only necessary stops.  

[OneSixtyToOne]

1 hour ago, Jim Avery said:

Several interesting repositionings going on.  Can't believe they didn't try to sell some seats.  Basically the reverse of the recent WC after the Red Sea/Suez was cancelled.  Lots and lots of sea days though.  

 

27 minutes ago, Redtravel said:

Likely, they want to keep sailing with only necessary stops.  

The crew member told be it was too many sea days for their client base and their primary purpose it to get the ship to Asia quickly.

[JF - retired RRT]

24 minutes ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

The crew member told be it was too many sea days for their client base and their primary purpose it to get the ship to Asia quickly.

Too many sea days is not a thing for me.

[deec]

what a lovely resort to spend time on!...for the right price including airfare and available time I would go!  I love sea days and Viking ships

[shipboy]

22 minutes ago, deec said:

what a lovely resort to spend time on!...for the right price including airfare and available time I would go!  I love sea days and Viking ships

Add me to your application Dee, we love them too 😀

[wolfie11]

I’m on the Singapore to Bali cruise on November 25th on Venus.

[wolfie11]

On 8/12/2024 at 8:30 AM, OneSixtyToOne said:

 

The crew member told be it was too many sea days for their client base and their primary purpose it to get the ship to Asia quickly.

I looked it up.  It’s 13,500nm from Athens to Singapore around the Cape.  At 18 knots, that’s around 32 days at sea.  The time between the end of the Med cruise and the start of the Singapore cruise is 35 days.

[CatoUWS]

On 8/14/2024 at 12:13 AM, wolfie11 said:

I’m on the Singapore to Bali cruise on November 25th on Venus.

We are as well.  It was originally to be Bangkok to Bali but the itinerary was changed because of the repositioning. 

[CharTrav]

I started updating my schedule spreadsheet and realized pretty quickly that a major shuffle of the schedule is being planned. So tomorrow I'm going to finiah review eveything - itinerary by itinerary. Have already discovered that the Sea is taking over Adriatic & Mediterranean Sojourn next year from the Venus. Expecting to find more cases like this cruises preciously scheduled for one ship have been shifted to another ship. Will share I discover on my Combined Cruise Schedule thread. 

[wolfie11]

3 hours ago, CharTrav said:

I started updating my schedule spreadsheet and realized pretty quickly that a major shuffle of the schedule is being planned. So tomorrow I'm going to finiah review eveything - itinerary by itinerary. Have already discovered that the Sea is taking over Adriatic & Mediterranean Sojourn next year from the Venus. Expecting to find more cases like this cruises preciously scheduled for one ship have been shifted to another ship. Will share I discover on my Combined Cruise Schedule thread. 

I’m booked on an Alaska cruise on Venus in May.

[CharTrav]

20 hours ago, wolfie11 said:

I’m booked on an Alaska cruise on Venus in May.

I’m about half way through the cruises for the rest of this year and all of 2025 and 2026 looking for how ships have been redeployed.  And from what I’m seen so far, it looks like the Venus and Sea have swapped cruises in 2025 and 2026 so, for example, whereas before the Sea was going to do Alaska now it’s Venus. Likewise the Med cruises that were going to be done by Venus next year are now assigned to the Sea. 
 

It’s clear that Viking is working very hard to maintain the same overall cruise schedule. Just not necessarily on the same ship. In some cases, like the Venus - they’ve had to make major schedule changes to for ex travel from Australia to Alaska. Changes that couldn’t be avoided. 

Edited August 25 by CharTrav

[wolfie11]

It makes sense to send the Sea to the Med and the Venus to Alaska from Australia. It’s not that far to take her up to Bali, Hong Kong, and Tokyo then across the North Pacific to Alaska, and no one has to deal with the Suez Canal.

[CharTrav]

4 hours ago, wolfie11 said:

It makes sense to send the Sea to the Med and the Venus to Alaska from Australia. It’s not that far to take her up to Bali, Hong Kong, and Tokyo then across the North Pacific to Alaska, and no one has to deal with the Suez Canal.

That's what it looks like is planned. When I'm done I'll post a picture of the Venus' schedule for 2025  and 2026. Am working off the Viking web site. 

 

Avoids the whole idea of deadheading. 

Edited August 25 by CharTrav

[OneSixtyToOne]

5 hours ago, CharTrav said:

That's what it looks like is planned. When I'm done I'll post a picture of the Venus' schedule for 2025  and 2026. Am working off the Viking web site. 

 

Avoids the whole idea of deadheading. 

One thing I noticed when tendering was a lot of organic material at the waterline of the Venus. I would think this needs to be dealt with before it reaches Australian and New Zealand waters. 

[CharTrav]

4 hours ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

One thing I noticed when tendering was a lot of organic material at the waterline of the Venus. I would think this needs to be dealt with before it reaches Australian and New Zealand waters. 

Absolutely.  Was a big issue for Orion last year. Caused huge delays and rerouting.  

[CharTrav]

Finally finished doing the first phase of updating the spreadsheet. Now to check and double check what I've done. The itinerary counts by year and by month are correct. But that's not enough. I will say tho based on what I've seen so far - Venus is pretty much rescheduled for 2025 and 2026. What's missing right now is scheduling her return from Vancouver to Tokyo in Sept 2025. I assume Viking will add that soon. Need to do a visual check like I did with Venus on the Sea to make sure its schedule flows as it should because the Sea and Venus did a swap.  Not completely of course but mostly. 

[OneSixtyToOne]

17 minutes ago, CharTrav said:

Finally finished doing the first phase of updating the spreadsheet. Now to check and double check what I've done. The itinerary counts by year and by month are correct. But that's not enough. I will say tho based on what I've seen so far - Venus is pretty much rescheduled for 2025 and 2026. What's missing right now is scheduling her return from Vancouver to Tokyo in Sept 2025. I assume Viking will add that soon. Need to do a visual check like I did with Venus on the Sea to make sure its schedule flows as it should because the Sea and Venus did a swap.  Not completely of course but mostly. 

We are on the Orion in Oct 2025 from Tokyo to Hong Kong. Either the Venus will swap with the Orion or they add another sailing to this itinerary. I don’t see them adding. Is a swap possible with Orion heading elsewhere?

 

 

Edited August 26 by OneSixtyToOne

[CCWineLover]

56 minutes ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

We are on the Orion in Oct 2025 from Tokyo to Hong Kong. Either the Venus will swap with the Orion or they add another sailing to this itinerary. I don’t see them adding. Is a swap possible with Orion heading elsewhere?

 

 

Interesting point to ponder, Joe!  We are on with you in Oct 2025, as you know.  I would actually prefer the Venus over Orion.  Will be interesting to see what happens!

[CharTrav]

39 minutes ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

We are on the Orion in Oct 2025 from Tokyo to Hong Kong. Either the Venus will swap with the Orion or they add another sailing to this itinerary. I don’t see them adding. Is a swap possible with Orion heading elsewhere?

 

 

There is no swap with Orion. Orion's schedule is firm. No need to worry about that. 

 

What they did was re-route Venus from Australia to Alaska rather than back to the Med via the Suez.  Venus then takes over the Alaska and the Inner Passage sailings that the Sea was previously scheduled to do. The Sea has been rerouted back to the Med from San Juan to do what Venus was going to do. 

 

All that's needed now is for Venus to be scheduled to do the "usual" set of itineraries involved in cruising from Vancouver back to New Zealand. She's already scheduled for the 'usual' cruises from Tokyo to New Zealand. Venus arrives in Vancouver about a week before Orion - Sept 8 vs Sept 14, 2025.  Am sure they're working on it now. 

[CharTrav]

5 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

Interesting point to ponder, Joe!  We are on with you in Oct 2025, as you know.  I would actually prefer the Venus over Orion.  Will be interesting to see what happens!

Please read my reply to @OneSixtyToOne. Orion's schedule has not changed at all. The Sea had been scheduled to cruise the Inner Passage with the Orion in 2025. Now it's going to be the Venus. 

Edited August 26 by CharTrav

[CCWineLover]

2 minutes ago, CharTrav said:

Please read my reply to @OneSixtyToOne. Orion's schedule has not changed at all. The Sea had been schedule to cruise the Inner Passage with the Orion in 2025. Now it's going to be the Venus. 

You are absolutely correct.  Just looked at Pacific Horizons Tokyo to Hong Kong in 2025.  They did indeed add another sailing.  Orion leaves Tokyo Oct 7 and Venus leaves Oct 5.

Not only that, the Orion is nearly completely SOLD OUT, whereas the Venus is wide open.  But the Venus rooms are cheaper for some categories than Orion.  (I.e. PV3 14999 vs. 15999 on Orion).  Wonder how many will switch ships.