Chorley, Lancashire -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/13/2012 -- Viking River Cruises have announced plans to extend their company by branching out into the ocean cruising sector.

Viking Cruises, which is the largest river cruise company in Europe, has already put the wheels in motion by ordering a pair of 40,000 gross ton cruise ships from the STX French shipyard.

The crunch certainly doesn’t seem to be affecting this travel company as they have just ordered eight more river cruise vessels and with ocean liners on the horizon, they only look set to expand.

These stylish ocean liners will be ready for 2014 and as they are smaller than most ocean ships, the cruise line looks to be aiming their ships towards the luxury market carrying just 888 passengers.

The ships have been described as destination oriented, aiming towards the luxury market with passengers from the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia all being targeted. They are also looking to appeal to their current river passengers who, the company hopes, will cross over into ocean cruising.

View the full Viking Cruise itinerary here: http://www.rivervoyages.com/river-cruise-line/viking-river-cruises/

A spokesman for Viking Ocean Cruises said: “This is an exciting time for us as we branch out into this new sector. We will be calling this area of the company ‘Viking Ocean Cruises’ and hopefully attract a whole host of new passengers as well as our current river cruise guests.

The brand new river cruise ships that have been added are being named ‘Viking Aegir’, ‘Viking Embla’, ‘Viking Freya’ and ‘Viking Odin’ and each carrying just 190 guests, offering full verandas or French balconies.

Viking River Cruises currently has 25 ships in Europe, Russia and China and was recently named River Cruise Line of the Year in both the Cruise International Awards and the British Travel Awards and also in the Cruise Critic Editor's Picks. Viking Ocean has an option for the construction of a third cruise ship, for delivery in 2016.