Cruise passengers boarding the Viking Polaris in Duluth, Minnesota, in the autumn of 2023 will embark on an epic 71-day, eight-country, three-continent voyage that includes stops in Canada, New York City and Mexico, a transit of the Panama Canal and a week in Antarctica, before disembarking in Argentina.
Viking Cruises' expedition ship Octantis has already begun plying the Great Lakes this spring, with Duluth as one port of call. Its new sister ship Polaris will sail from Duluth to Toronto and back on Great Lakes grand tours next summer.
But now the Swiss-based cruise line has quietly started selling tickets for a blockbuster new itinerary that starts in Duluth on Sept. 12, 2023. The "Longitudinal World Cruise II" will explore the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway, the U.S. East Coast and the Caribbean, Chilean fjords and glaciers and parts of Antarctica before terminating on Nov. 21 in Ushuaia, Argentina, some 7,000 miles south of Duluth.
