Viking OCEAN Cruises celebrated on Friday, July 23, its first “Welcome Back” voyage in the Mediterranean. This was the latest milestone in the line’s return to service.
Last week, passengers embarked MS Viking Sea and MS Viking Venus in Valletta Malta, where both vessels are homeported during summer 2021.
Offered as part of Viking's "Welcome Back" itinerary collection, exclusively available for vaccinated passengers, both boats are sailing 3 new itineraries leaving roundtrip from Valletta.
The three new voyages are the 11-day "Malta and the Adriatic Jewels", the 11-day "Malta and Greek Isles Discovery", and the 21-day "Malta, the Adriatic and Greece".
- The "Malta and Adriatic Jewels" itinerary starts with an overnight in Valletta and visits ports in Montenegro (Kotor) and Croatia (Dubrovnik, Split, Zadar, Sibenik), plus Gozo Island Malta (Mgarr Harbour).
- The "Malta and Greek Isles Discovery" itinerary also starts with an overnight in Valletta and visits ports in Greece (Kalamata, Piraeus-Athens, Santorini, Rhodes, Crete/Souda).
- The 21-day "Malta, the Adriatic and Greece" is a B2B itinerary starting with Valletta (overnight) and visits Kotor, Dubrovnik, Split, Zadar, Sibenik, Mgarr Malta, Valletta (overnight), Kalamata, Piraeus-Athens (overnight), Santorini, Rhodes, Souda Crete.
For the ex-Malta season, Viking partnered with Lufthansa (Deutsche Lufthansa AG - Germany's largest airline) to offer non-stop Transatlantic flights between New Jersey USA (Newark Liberty Airport) and Malta Airport, exclusively for Viking OCEAN customers.
In June 2021, Malta's Government eased rules for the arrival of international travelers and now allows vaccinated Americans with COVID Vaccination Record Cards to arrive in the country. Also last month, the USA's CDC agency (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) announced it had eased travel recommendations for a total of 110 countries. As part of the new recommendations, the CDC specifically ranked Malta as “Level 1” (the lowest for risk of COVID).
Viking Ocean restarted operations in May 2021 with cruises in England for British passengers. By keeping its ships in a warm layup, Viking Ocean was able to restart more quickly than most major cruise companies. In June, Viking welcomed American guests back onboard for new trips around Bermuda and Iceland.