{"id":253,"date":"2020-11-10T08:55:45","date_gmt":"2020-11-10T08:55:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/?p=253"},"modified":"2020-11-10T08:55:45","modified_gmt":"2020-11-10T08:55:45","slug":"viking-river-cruises-from-st-louis-and-new-orleans-to-st-paul-sold-out-for-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/2020\/11\/10\/viking-river-cruises-from-st-louis-and-new-orleans-to-st-paul-sold-out-for-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Viking River Cruises from St. Louis and New Orleans to St. Paul sold out for 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine, if you will, a Mississippi River cruise ship docking at downtown St. Paul\u2019s Lambert\u2019s Landing.<\/p>\n

The date is July 23, 2022, and nearly 400 passengers debarking from the maiden voyage of the \u201cAmerica\u2019s Heartland: St. Louis-to-St. Paul\u201d Viking River Cruise are ready for their first tastes of a Jucy Lucy, cheese curds, hot dish, pho soup and walleye.<\/p>\n

Three more cruise ships arrive from Missouri in August and September. And then, on Sept. 17, 2022, hundreds of voyagers heading to New Orleans on a 15-day cruise line up at the city landing located along Shepard Road, beneath the St. Paul Union Depot transit hub in Lowertown.<\/p>\n

Given\u00a0previous delays<\/a>, and the degree to which the pandemic has upset plans, especially in the cruise industry, skeptics may have some doubts on timing. Nevertheless, the first few eight-day and 15-day Viking River Cruises to and from St. Paul have already sold out, despite price tags starting at $4,400 and $11,000, respectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have successfully permitted several prior excursions at Lambert\u2019s Landing, so we are confident that the dock is ready for the expected volume of passengers,\u201d said Clare Cloyd, a spokeswoman for St. Paul Parks and Recreation, in an email Thursday. \u201cAny future dock improvements would be the responsibility of Viking.\u201d<\/p>\n

HURDLES FOR VIKING<\/h4>\n

The international cruise company opened bookings in April, toward the start of the pandemic, and announced that\u00a0construction was underway in Louisiana for the 386-guest Viking Mississippi, the company\u2019s first custom-built vessel.<\/p>\n

Federal maritime law prevented Viking, which maintains operating headquarters in Switzerland, from setting sail within the U.S. using foreign crews or foreign vessels, complicating plans announced in 2015.<\/p>\n

The pandemic hasn\u2019t helped.<\/p>\n

In August, Viking \u2014 which suspended operations in March \u2014 announced it had canceled all of its cruises until at least 2021, while still teasing a $50,000, 136-day, 56-port world cruise to 27 different countries leaving Fort Lauderdale in Dec. 2021, or whenever the post-pandemic world gets back to something approaching normal.<\/p>\n

FULL STEAM AHEAD FOR JULY 2022?<\/h4>\n

Planning and ticket sales along the company\u2019s new Mississippi River route still appear to be full steam ahead. After\u00a0five years of waiting for Viking to get river-ready, the St. Paul Parks and Recreation Commission approved a docking licensing agreement with Viking, USA LLC on Oct. 8.<\/p>\n

The contract allows Viking River Cruises to use Lambert\u2019s Landing on specified dates in 2022 and 2023.<\/p>\n

Under the agreement, those dates \u2014 which begin July 23, 2022 \u2014 have to be selected at least a year in advance. All of the St. Paul cruise dates in 2022 went quickly, prompting the cruise company to jumpstart 2023 bookings last July, ahead of schedule. About half the 2023 dates are now booked as well, according to the Viking River Cruises website.<\/p>\n

Dock access alone won\u2019t be much of a moneymaker for St. Paul coffers. Under the terms of the agreement, Viking will cover all insurance costs for dock use and pay the city $1 per passenger.<\/p>\n

TOURISM<\/h4>\n

The real payoff for the city will likely be tourism, and free promotion of downtown St. Paul as a luxury destination. The agreement indicates the city and Viking will continue negotiations over a longer-term docking arrangement.<\/p>\n

Between St. Louis and St. Paul, other stops on the one-way \u201cAmerica\u2019s Heartland\u201d river cruise include Hannibal, Missouri; Burlington, Iowa; Quad Cities, Iowa; Dubuque, Iowa; LaCrosse, Wis. and Red Wing, Minn. Tickets include six guided city tours, and flights home are additional.<\/p>\n

Between New Orleans and St. Paul, additional stops on the one-way \u201cAmerica\u2019s Great River\u201d cruise include Memphis, Tennessee; Vicksburg, Mississippi; Natchez, Mississippi and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The price tag includes 11 guided city tours.<\/p>\n

One destination missing from the line-up is the city of Stillwater, which\u00a0publicly advocated to be added to the list of destinations\u00a0when news first leaked of a potential New Orleans-to-Minnesota corridor in 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imagine, if you will, a Mississippi River cruise ship docking at downtown St. Paul\u2019s Lambert\u2019s Landing. The date is July 23, 2022, and nearly 400 passengers debarking from the maiden voyage of the \u201cAmerica\u2019s Heartland: St. Louis-to-St. Paul\u201d Viking River Cruise are ready for their first tastes of a Jucy Lucy, cheese curds, hot dish, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254,"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions\/254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}