The main nautical season this year in the Port of Kotor started earlier than ever because the first larger cruise ship of the year - the brand new ship "Viking Jupiter" with 640 passengers - sailed into Kotor.
The cruiser, which is on its first, so-called shakedown or test cruise, just four days ago it was in the shipyard of the Italian corporation Fincantieri in Ancona where it was built, handed over to its owner, the Norwegian-American company "Viking Ocean Cruises".
Since 2015, when it started operating with its first cruise ship "Viking Star", that company has a habit of bringing all its new ships to the port of Kotor on their first voyage, so this was also the case with "Viking Jupiter", the newest, with a 340 million euro ship from the series of cruisers, the flagship of which was "Viking Star".
Captain Atle Hakon Knutsen brought the new ship, whose equipment and furniture have just been stripped of the protective nylon layer, and the entire interior still smells of fresh paint.
It is his fifth visit with the newly built ships of the company "Vikoing Ocean Cruises" to the busiest Montenegrin sea passenger port, and this time the owner of the company, the Norwegian shipping magnate Torsten Hagen, who has already built a special relationship with Kotor, was on board the new ship.
Our port, where Hagen was one of the first to bring his ships, was obviously beneficial for his company, because "Viking Ocen Cruises" is currently the fastest growing cruise company in the world with a fleet of six new ships, which will be joined by more in the next few years. four cruisers that are being built for them in Italy, as well as two special new so-called expedition cruisers that are built for "Viking" in Norway.
The director of the Port of Kotor, Captain Branko Kovačević, as well as the director of the BCM agency representing "Viking Ocean Cruises" in Montenegro, Captain Goran Mačić, welcomed the new ship and its 460-member crew.
They and the commander of the "Viking Jupiter", Captain Knutsen, exchanged appropriate gifts, whereby the Norwegians received an artistic painting of the islands of Gospa od Škrpjelo and St. George, which made Knurtsen especially happy because those two islands in Boka are one of the most beautiful attractions and motifs that his passengers remember the longest from the cruise.
The delegation from Montenegro, which included a "Vijesti" reporter, had the opportunity to tour the new 227-meter-long and 28-meter-wide 47.800-gross-ton cruiser, where they were also given the unusual honor of visiting the command bridge of this ultra-modern ship. which is characterized by a high degree of automation.
"Viking Jupiter" was designed in accordance with the latest so-called "Safe Return to Port" (SRtP) requirements of the SOLAS convention, which means that the ship is capable of safely returning to the nearest port, even in the event of a major fire, without evacuating passengers and crew in the event of an emergency, under its own power or in a tug or vi/ode penetration due to hull damage.
The ship is also ecological because it is powered by an advanced diesel-electric hybrid drive that, with the optimized form of the underwater part of the hull, enables a high cruising speed of 20 knots with reduced fuel consumption, and "Viking Jupiter" also has additional solar panels for power supply, state-of-the-art technology for the treatment of solid waste and waste points, while this ship does not use biodegradable oils at all, as is the case with other vessels, but seawater itself, to lubricate the bearings in the shafts of its propeller shafts.
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