Viking Cruises was planning to drop anchor in Panama City (Fuerte Amador, Balboa) as early as the first quarter of this current year during a trial period.
According to Jennifer Vigil (Destination Panama City's President and CEO), it was still in the planning phases and everything was still going as scheduled.
Due to the pandemic, developing new routes and itinerary programs for cruise shipping companies is taking longer than usual. Vigil commented they were "really having to work closely with the CDC to make sure all passengers and ports are equally as safe."
The Viking's Gulf Coast cruise is a 7-day roundtrip departing from Tampa Florida.
Panama City will be a tender port for Viking Cruises, which means the ship will not dock at a pier but will be floating out / at anchorage in the bay, where its tender boats will disembark the passengers to either Grand Lagoon or Saint Andrews Marina.