Fremantle welcomes Viking Orion just as SailGP takes off

The Viking Orion arrived early today (Saturday) amidst the buzz of the first day of Oracle Perth Sail Grand Prix.

Here she is with the BONDS Flying Roos F50 boat, one of the favourites to take the honours over the SailGP racing weekend, on Victoria Quay this morning.

As 7,000 plus spectators were busy finding their way to Freo for SailGP, Viking Orion slipped into port.

Viking Orion’s current cruise is a 31-days, round-trip Grand Australian Circumnavigation out of Sydney, themed as “New Year”.

The cruise began on 30 December 2025, and ends on 30 January 2026.

She is a mid-sized, adult-only ocean cruise ship from Viking Ocean Cruises, launched in 2018.Travellers must be 18+ fostering a mature atmosphere.

The cruise ship carries only 930 guests, allowing access to smaller ports with a focus on destination immersion with onboard lectures.

This visit to Fremantle is following its previous stopover in Bali.

With 858 transit passengers on board, the vessel is set to berth at Fremantle tonight of most of tomorrow. Five passengers will disembark, and 9 new travellers will join the ship. She has a crew of 465.

The ship is expected to depart Fremantle at 9:00 pm Sunday. Her next port of call is Busselton.

*Story and photograph by Jean Hudson @jeansodyssey

Jean Hudson is our Shipping and Sailing Correspondent and also a regular feature writer, reviewer and photographer here on the Shipping News. You may also like to follow up her informative Places I Love stories, as well as other feature stories and Freo Today photographs, right here.

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