Viking's newest ocean cruise ship, the Viking Venus, was named May 17 during a ceremony at sea in the English Channel.
Its godmother, British journalist and broadcaster Anne Diamond, assisted in breaking a bottle of Norwegian aquavit on the ship's hull, using a historical Viking broad ax to cut a ribbon that symbolically held the bottle in place.
The 930-passnger ship was en route to Portsmouth, England, where its May 22 inaugural voyage will marks Viking's return to service following a 14-month pause.
"Today is one of the proudest days in Viking's nearly 24-year history," Viking chairman Torstein Hagen said in a statement. "When we became the first cruise line to suspend operations in March 2020, we certainly did not know it would be 14 months before guests would be welcomed back onboard. Now, we are among the first to set sail again, and with our industry-leading health and safety protocols in place, we believe there is no safer way to travel the world than on a Viking voyage."
The ship will offer five eight-day, roundtrip English coast sailings visiting Liverpool, the Isles of Scilly, Falmouth and Portland. Diamond will be a guest on the first three cruises, serving as a guest lecturer with a presentation on British radar inventors, including her father, during World War II.
The Venus will then sail to Malta, where it will homeport for Mediterranean cruises this summer and fall.
Delivered in April at Fincantieri's shipyard in Ancona, Italy, the Venus is the seventh vessel to join Viking's ocean fleet of identical sister ships.