Viking Octantis

What is the Viking Octantis?

The Viking Octantis is the first of Viking's two expedition ships: a 378-guest, Polar Class 6 ship that sails to Antarctica from Buenos Aires and Ushuaia in the austral summer and to the Great Lakes, Canada and Greenland in the northern summer.¹⁶ Its identical sister is the Viking Polaris.⁷

Vard, Fincantieri's Norwegian shipbuilding arm, built the hull at its Tulcea yard and finished the ship at Søviknes in Norway, delivering it in December 2021; Vard calls it the largest ship it has built.³⁴⁵ Viking lists the year built as 2022, the year of its maiden season, so you will see both years quoted.¹² The ship is registered in Norway.²

How big is the Viking Octantis?

Viking Octantis is 205 m (673 ft) long by its builder's figure, or 665 ft (203 m) by Viking's, with 189 staterooms on a hull of 30,150 gross register tons.³¹² Here are its published specifications:

The Octantis has a straight bow and a long hull rather than an X-BOW like Aurora Expeditions' Sylvia Earle; Vard and Viking say the fin stabilizers let it "glide over the waves."³⁶ Those are the builder's and the operator's claims, not measurements we have seen.

What does Polar Class 6 mean for the Viking Octantis?

Polar Class 6 is rated for summer and autumn operation in medium first-year ice, which may include old ice inclusions; it is the second-lowest of the seven polar classes.⁹ That is the same class as Seabourn's Seabourn Venture and Quark Expeditions' Ultramarine, while Ponant's Le Commandant Charcot is rated PC2, for year-round operation in moderate multi-year ice.^1820199

How do landings work with 378 guests?

In shifts. IAATO, the Antarctic tour operators' association, allows no more than 100 visitors ashore at one site at a time (fewer where a site's guideline sets a lower cap), with one guide for every 20 and one ship at a site at a time, so a full Octantis needs at least four rotations at a 100-person site (our arithmetic).¹⁰¹¹ Ships of 201 to 500 passengers, like this one, also face "stringent restrictions on time and place of landing activities."¹⁰ IAATO lists the Viking Octantis in its vessel directory at 378 passengers.¹²

Some sites are closed to it altogether. Of the 45 visitor site guidelines the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat publishes, 11 admit only ships carrying 200 passengers or fewer, including Penguin Island, Paulet Island and Baily Head on Deception Island.¹¹

The ship is built to make each rotation quick. Guests board landing craft either from a midship area or from The Hangar, an enclosed marina inside the ship where the special operations boats launch down a slipway from a flat, sheltered platform.¹ The ship carries a fleet of Zodiacs, two 12-seat special operations boats and two-seat pedal kayaks, and a 36-person expedition team.⁸

What staterooms does the Viking Octantis have, and what do they cost?

All 189 staterooms have a Nordic Balcony, and 138 of them are 215 ft² (20 m²) Nordic Balcony or Deluxe Nordic Balcony rooms.¹ Viking does not state how many rooms are in each category; the counts below are our tally of the rooms in Viking's interactive deck plan, which adds up to 189.¹ Fares are for the February 8, 2027 Antarctic Explorer, per person, two sharing, as shown on October 14, 2026:¹³

Every room has heated bathroom floors, a floor-to-ceiling heated drying closet for gear, binoculars and a minibar.¹¹³ Deluxe Nordic Balconies add earlier stateroom access and priority restaurant and spa bookings over the standard Nordic Balcony; the Explorer Suites add a private veranda and a living area.¹ Two Nordic Junior Suites, 4024 and 4025, are wheelchair accessible, although mobility devices cannot be used ashore in Antarctica.²⁸

Is a Nordic Balcony a real balcony?

Not in the usual sense. Viking calls the Nordic Balcony "not traditional": it is a floor-to-ceiling glass wall at the ship's edge whose top half lowers, so you can keep it closed as a sunroom or open it to the air.⁸¹ Only the Explorer Suites add a private veranda you can walk out on.¹ If an outdoor balcony matters, see our Antarctica cruise balcony guide.

What can you do on the Viking Octantis?

Ashore and on the water, the fare includes at least one landing or excursion on each landing day, plus kayaks, Zodiacs and the special operations boats at no extra charge.⁸¹⁴ The paid extra is a submarine dive: two 6-seat submarines take guests down for about an hour in total, 30 minutes of it underwater and never deeper than 984 ft (300 m), for $499 per person.⁸ Snowshoes, trekking poles and skis are available for excursions that use them.⁸ There are no helicopters.⁸

On board, the Science Lab is a 380 ft² (35 m²) wet and dry lab developed with the University of Cambridge and Akvaplan-niva, and the resident scientists come from Cambridge's Scott Polar Research Institute or the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.¹⁸ Lectures are held in The Aula, a panoramic auditorium whose screen retracts to show floor-to-ceiling windows. The Nordic Spa has a sauna and a Snow Grotto, and the pools area has three pools at different temperatures, including a pass-through pool that runs from inside to outside.¹

Where does the Viking Octantis sail in 2026-27?

From December 2026 to March 2027 the Octantis sails the Antarctic Peninsula out of Ushuaia, alternating with the Viking Polaris.¹³ These are its Antarctic departures, with the lowest fare shown on October 14, 2026, per person, two sharing:

The December 4 Antarctic Explorer and the November 6 voyage from Florida both end in Ushuaia on December 16 on the same ship, so by our reading of the two schedules they share the Antarctic leg.¹³¹⁶ Fares were set by Viking's Fall Sale, which it says ends October 31, 2026; flights from the US were extra on most dates, from free on December departures to $1,999 in January.¹³ The 15-day Into the Antarctic Circle trip starts on the Octantis on November 27, 2027, from $18,999.²² Outside the Antarctic season, Viking lists the ship on Great Lakes, Northwest Passage and Greenland trips, including the 81-day Arctic to Antarctic Explorer from Nuuk to Ushuaia.¹

What happened to the Viking Octantis's sister ship, the Viking Polaris?

On November 29, 2022, a breaking wave hit the Viking Polaris south-east of Cape Horn as it crossed the Drake Passage, breaking seven stateroom windows; one passenger died and eight were injured.¹⁷ Norway's safety investigators found the windows were "inadequately dimensioned" for breaking-wave loads and recommended reinforcing the windows on both sister ships, the Polaris and the Octantis, because winds strong enough to make waves break are common in the Drake Passage for much of the year.¹⁷ We found no public confirmation that the reinforcements were made; ask Viking about it before you book.

How does the Viking Octantis compare with similar ships?

It carries more guests than any of the ships below, so it has the most guests to rotate through each landing. The table sets it against the alternatives on this site:

Pick the Octantis for comfort, its inside launch marina and submarine dives; pick a ship of 200 guests or fewer if landing time and access to every site matter more. Our guide to choosing an Antarctica cruise walks through the trade-off.