First look at Viking’s new Mississippi River cruisers

[Hoosierhawkeye]

Tickets are expensive as f&ck. The people will come loaded with money to burn on side trips and keepsakes.

Any idea how much they cost?

It would be something I would consider if it wasn't too expensive but if the cost was similar to a Caribbean or Alaskan cruise I'd rather do that.

Not that I could likely do either of those things any time soon.

Edit: Google is your friend and holy shit you were right. Looks like it costs $12,000 to $13,000

How in the world is a freaking river cruise worth that much money.

America's Great River - 2024 Itinerary - St. Paul to New Orleans | Viking®

History and culture unfold as you traverse the Mississippi on this enriching voyage. Enjoy relaxing scenic sailing and unparalleled bird-watching as the landscape changes between the bluffs of the North and the bayous of the South. Learn about the American civil rights movement and the Civil...

www.vikingrivercruises.com

 

[Bro D]

The docking area that's been under construction is quite the project. I think people are seriously underestimating how much old people eat this shit up. Gonna be very good for the QC.

 

[Tenacious E]

Any idea how much they cost?

It would be something I would consider if it wasn't too expensive but if the cost was similar to a Caribbean or Alaskan cruise I'd rather do that.

Not that I could likely do either of those things any time soon.

Edit: Google is your friend and holy shit you were right. Looks like it costs $12,000 to $13,000

How in the world is a freaking river cruise worth that much money.

America's Great River - 2024 Itinerary - St. Paul to New Orleans | Viking®

History and culture unfold as you traverse the Mississippi on this enriching voyage. Enjoy relaxing scenic sailing and unparalleled bird-watching as the landscape changes between the bluffs of the North and the bayous of the South. Learn about the American civil rights movement and the Civil...

www.vikingrivercruises.com

They start at 13K and go up to 28K. and I agree I don't get it unless you just have money and time to burn.

 

[runkpanole]

Pass

 

[torbee]

They start at 13K and go up to 28K. and I agree I don't get it unless you just have money and time to burn.

Their target audience is wealthy retirees. So, yeah.

 

[runkpanole]

Their target audience is wealthy retirees. So, yeah.

Who in their golden years wants to visit Vicksburg, Mississippi?

 

[torbee]

Who in their golden years wants to visit Vicksburg, Mississippi?

This is, I believe, now the third relatively new cruising company to enter this market. Your answer appears to be: a lot.

 

[LuteHawk]

Wealthy Retirees.....If they are blessed with good
health, they are usually planning their next travel
experience. The Viking Cruises on the Mississippi
River will appeal to those looking for new places to
visit. The prime age group with be those between
65 and 75 years old with plenty of money to spend.

 

[West Duval Nole]

They’re big

That's what she said!

 

[Camhawk2012]

What are the excursions like? When you stop at Dubuque, what types of things would one do? Looks like every day you’re in a different city, so Im assuming you only have a couple of hours at each port.

 

[dandh]

I see no way how these large boats will be able to get anywhere close to St. Paul. I'm no expert, when I lived up there...I can't see the waters being deep enough or wide enough for other traffic.

I disagree. I live in the town where Lock & Dam #2 is located, and there is plenty of water here for these. St. Paul is before L&D 1, so it is no problem either.

 

[rchawk]

Who in their golden years wants to visit Vicksburg, Mississippi?

The Civil War battlefield there is excellent thanks to the National Park Service. The town itself, some good 19th century stuff and a lot of boring.

 

[Tenacious E]

What are the excursions like? When you stop at Dubuque, what types of things would one do? Looks like every day you’re in a different city, so Im assuming you only have a couple of hours at each port.

This has already been discussed in this thread:

https://iowa.forums.rivals.com/threads/davenport-tourist-hotspot-of-iowa.369576

 

[General Tso]

So, like, what if you're going under the bison bridge standing on the upper deck of the boat and get pummeled with buffalo shit?

Edit: More specifically, from what I gather, buffalo shit goes horizontal before it goes vertical when it exits the firing chamber. So, if a buffalo happened to be standing with its rump on the edge of the bridge, the shit will have a good chance of making its way down to the river.

 

[Jimmy McGill]

So, like, what if you're going under the bison bridge standing on the upper deck of the boat and get pummeled with buffalo shit?

Or gallons of urine

 

[CarolinaHawkeye]

I thought this would be fun until I priced them….

St Paul to NOLA, 15 days and 20k for two people…

It takes a lot of plundering to pay for that.

 

[Tenacious E]

Or gallons of urine

I imagine the bison will be like like this with passing boats and tourists:

 

[joelbc1]

I am sure these ships are very similar to their Euro river cruisers. The most amazing fact I learned about the Viking ships is they only need 6” of clearance to travel...or was it 4”? Viking is not cheap (I think the Mississippi trip is $15k from one end to another) but what Viking does do is DELIVER what they promise.
I remember doing an evaluation on our Danube trip this past Fall and one of the standards listed was “ exceeded expectations”...Honestly, for what the cruise costs, it would be difficult to “exceed expectations” but Viking delivered on their promises as advertised. Wonderful food, great environment and the staff is “perfect”...Anyone doing this cruise, I think will be impressed. Viking is the best at this type of thing.

 

[Hoosierhawkeye]

Their target audience is wealthy retirees. So, yeah.

If I'm a wealthy retiree with that much money to burn my list of stuff I would do before that is exhaustively long that I doubt I could accomplish it all even if I was retired now at age 39.

I would consider a river cruise if it was less expensive. But at 13,000 per person or $26,000 for a couple. There is a lot more fun stuff my wife and I could do with that money than a river cruise. Including but not limited to a regular cruise.

You could probably get on an Alaskan cruise for less money than that and I would do that in a heartbeat over a river cruise.

I guess if they can make money like that, more power to them. But I'm quite frankly shocked that people would pay that much to do it when the list of stuff you could do for that much or less is really really long.

 

[joelbc1]

If I'm a wealthy retiree with that much money to burn my list of stuff I would do before that is exhaustively long that I doubt I could accomplish it all even if I was retired now at age 39.

I would consider a river cruise if it was less expensive. But at 13,000 per person or $26,000 for a couple. There is a lot more fun stuff my wife and I could do with that money than a river cruise. Including but not limited to a regular cruise.

You could probably get on an Alaskan cruise for less money than that and I would do that in a heartbeat over a river cruise.

I guess if they can make money like that, more power to them. But I'm quite frankly shocked that people would pay that much to do it when the list of stuff you could do for that much or less is really really long.

Folks “winter” in Florida and Palm Springs instead of Alabama....folks buy Lexus and Mercedes instead of Fords....
I would bet for those who take a week or so Mississippi cruise, they would be duly impressed. Viking’s bread and butter is not going to be folks taking the full 15 day cruise but rather folks going from St.Louis to New Orleans and that kind of thing...when traveling with Viking, buy the “ Silver package”...ALL your liquor is FREE!

 

[dandh]

The channel is supposed to be at the very least 9 feet deep for barge traffic. In reality most everywhere on the pools I travel (LaCrosse to Bellevue) I rarely see my depth finder get below 10 feet in channel.

The wing dam placements and shore riprap for the most part enable this to occur naturally. But you get an especially dry spring and summer...fall boating season the water can get really low.

But the things to remember are Viking knows all this and must have designed the ship to be no deeper than your average barge pusher. Therefore if barges are making it to St. Paul, this thing should too.

Upper Mississippi locks are 600 feet by 110 feet. Shouldn't be a problem there too. I'm more curious how they handle in wind and current than anything else.

They push barges to St. Paul that are so big that they break them into halves to get them through our locks. These boats are small in comparison.

 

[dandh]

I am sure these ships are very similar to their Euro river cruisers. The most amazing fact I learned about the Viking ships is they only need 6” of clearance to travel...or was it 4”? Viking is not cheap (I think the Mississippi trip is $15k from one end to another) but what Viking does do is DELIVER what they promise.
I remember doing an evaluation on our Danube trip this past Fall and one of the standards listed was “ exceeded expectations”...Honestly, for what the cruise costs, it would be difficult to “exceed expectations” but Viking delivered on their promises as advertised. Wonderful food, great environment and the staff is “perfect”...Anyone doing this cruise, I think will be impressed. Viking is the best at this type of thing.

6" or 6'? The latter is believable.

 

[joelbc1]

6" or 6'? The latter is believable.

6"....

 

[FAUlty Gator]

$4500 a person is kinda steep for a tour of Davenport. A cruise from Spain to Italy is $431.

 

[onlyTheObvious]

They push barges to St. Paul that are so big that they break them into halves to get them through our locks. These boats are small in comparison.

I think at one point the infrastructure bill was going to have money to lengthen the locks so they wouldn’t have to do that. Dubuque also has to break them down much of the time.

great way to kill time with small kids is going to the locks.

 

[joelbc1]

6"....

that's from the bottom of the boat.....but on the Danube there are places where you could walk across the river and not go in over your waist...these are incredible ships Viking has....their capacity is about 160 guests...

 

[torbee]

I think at one point the infrastructure bill was going to have money to lengthen the locks so they wouldn’t have to do that. Dubuque also has to break them down much of the time.

great way to kill time with small kids is going to the locks.

That is part of the bill and preparation for construction is already underway.

Iowa, Illinois lawmakers announce $829 million plan to upgrade Mississippi River locks and dams

Iowa and Illinois lawmakers on Wednesday announced the largest investment in lock and dam funding in several decades as a result of the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

qctimes.com

 

[Hoosierhawkeye]

$4500 a person is kinda steep for a tour of Davenport. A cruise from Spain to Italy is $431.

I'm not sure about your actual numbers but regular cruises are cheaper than this. So I have no idea why people would go for this option.

I mean for me my price point for considering it would be at about half the price of a regular cruise. I havn't looked up prices for regular cruises in a while but I don't remember them being anything close to that number.

 

[torbee]

I'm not sure about your actual numbers but regular cruises are cheaper than this. So I have no idea why people would go for this option.

I mean for me my price point for considering it would be at about half the price of a regular cruise. I havn't looked up prices for regular cruises in a while but I don't remember them being anything close to that number.

Viking is not for the Carnival/Disney cruise set. It's for actually wealthy types.

 

[bagdropper]

They push barges to St. Paul that are so big that they break them into halves to get them through our locks. These boats are small in comparison.

Yes. This cruise ship should fit through just fine being 450 feet. I'm more curious how fast and maneuverable they are, and given their height how winds affects it.

 

[onlyTheObvious]

$4500 a person is kinda steep for a tour of Davenport. A cruise from Spain to Italy is $431.

Tour of Italy at Olive Garden is $7.99 for a lunch portion and comes with unlimited salad and breadsticks.

 

[joelbc1]

Yes. This cruise ship should fit through just fine being 450 feet. I'm more curious how fast and maneuverable they are, and given their height how winds affects it.

If they are like the Euro river boats, there are only 4-5 decks total. Most of their actual cruising will be at night, I would think. Everyone out to go thru a lock though...really interesting process.....

 

[dandh]

6"....

So what do you mean by "clearance"... room in lock (believable) or water needed to float (aka draw, not believable)?

 

[joelbc1]

So what do you mean by "clearance"... room in lock (believable) or water needed to float (aka draw, not believable)?

to traverse the river.....Like I said, the Danube is pretty low water levels and one evening the Captain was answering questions about what might happen if the river was "too low" for the boat...The answer was "busses" but "don't worry, we only need 6" of water beneath us".....we traveled all the way from outside Bucharest to Budapest without a bus.....
Now....I admit I know NOTHING about boating/engineering

 

[dandh]

to traverse the river.....Like I said, the Danube is pretty low water levels and one evening the Captain was answering questions about what might happen if the river was "too low" for the boat...The answer was "busses" but "don't worry, we only need 6" of water beneath us".....we traveled all the way from outside Bucharest to Budapest without a bus.....
Now....I admit I know NOTHING about boating/engineering

Beneath the bottom of the hull, but I guarantee you it draws more than 6". A 14' Jon boat can't travel in 6" of water. These things have to draw several feet of water.

 

[joelbc1]

Beneath the bottom of the hull, but I guarantee you it draws more than 6". A 14' Jon boat can't travel in 6" of water. These things have to draw several feet of water.

All I can tell you is the Captain said they just need 6" under them....anything less than 6", they call the busses!

 

[dandh]

All I can tell you is the Captain said they just need 6" under them....anything less than 6", they call the busses!

You misunderstood. Or he was checking your gullibility.

 

[goldmom]

Viking is not for the Carnival/Disney cruise set. It's for actually wealthy types.

$4500 to cruise the Mighty Mississip definitely does separate the wheat from the chaff.

 

[Tenacious E]

$4500 $13,000-$28,000 to cruise the Mighty Mississip definitely does separate the wheat from the chaff.

FIFY

 

[joelbc1]

You misunderstood. Or he was checking your gullibility.

If you say so.....