The Thames in London gets a few cruise ship visitors each year but today it was something special as the new Viking Cruises ‘Viking Star’ arrived in London as part of a promotional tour.
The ship is so new that it hasn’t been officially named yet – that happens when she reaches her home-port of Bergen, Norway, which is the next stop after London.
The Viking Star (built by the Fincantieri company based in Trieste, Italy in 2014) is the largest cruise ship to visit the Greenwich Ship Tier at 221m long, 34m wide and has a gross weight of 47800 tonnes and has 472 passenger cabins.
Such was the excitement of her arrival that the Port of London Authority were busy capturing the events from their Harbour Master’s launch Lambeth and both a RIB and a helicopter were taking photographs as she made her way up the Thames.
In a related first it was also the first visit to the middle Thames of Kotug’s new hybrid e-tug the RT Evolution which, along with sister tug RT Ambition, were assisting Viking Star through the Thames Barrier and on to her moorings at Greenwich.
Updated 13/05/15 with some departure shots:
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