Viking XPRS

The ship was built in 2007 at the Aker Finnyards shipyard, Helsinki, Finland. The construction cost amounted to 130 million euros. The laying took place on April 16, 2007, and launching on September 19, 2007. Initially, the vessel should be delivered to the customer in January 2008, but due to delays in the supply of components and components, the transfer took place only on April 28, 2008.

It was also planned to build two twin ships, but on October 2, 2006, Viking Line announced that this plan would not be implemented.

The name Viking XPRS was originally working and denoted the concept of a new vessel, but as a result of the competition in May and June 2007, it was it that was approved as the name of the ferry. The naming ceremony took place on September 14, 2007.

Viking XPRS interiors were designed by Tillberg Design. The exterior received an award at the ShipPax Awards 2009, held as part of the 2009 Maritime Conference in France.

The fleet Viking XPRS was enlisted on April 28, 2008.

The ferry was supposed to be registered in Finland with a home port in the city of Mariehamn (Aland Islands), like most other Viking Line ships. Due to difficulties in negotiations with the Finnish Seafarers' Union and due to high personnel costs, in January 2008 the company decided to register the ship under the Swedish flag. In March 2008, the city of Norrtalje in Sweden was declared a home port. But on January 24, 2014, Viking XPRS received the Estonian flag, the new Estonian team and the new home port of Tallinn. ^[2] This step allowed Viking Line to improve the quality of service, as the Estonian team speaks Estonian, Finnish, English and Russian.

Viking XPRS set off on its first flight from Helsinki to Tallinn on April 27, 2008, and the next day it officially began serving this route. Compared to the ferry Rosella, which preceded Viking XPRS in this direction, the new vessel attracted a significantly larger number of passengers.

Passenger traffic increased by 61%, and the volume of car traffic in the period from June to August 2008, compared with the same period in 2007, increased by 74%. During its first year of service, the ferry carried about 1,466,000 passengers. This is more than any other ship in the northern Baltic Sea.

In February 2009, readers of the prestigious Condé Nast guidebook recognized the Viking XPRS as one of the top five medium-sized cruise ships in the world, and the ferry rating was higher than, for example, Holland America Line's.

Viking XPRS also won first place in the nomination “Shore excursions”.

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  Viking XPRS at the New Shipyard in Helsinki

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  Loading in Helsinki

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  At the Katajanokka terminal in Helsinki

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  Under repair at the dock. Under the estonian flag

• Viking Line official website (inaccessible link)
• Photo of the ferry to MarineTraffic (inaccessible link)