BACK ON BOARD with Karine
Executive Vice President of Viking, Karine Hagen, recalls her time on board Viking Star and Viking Jupiter
Clockwise, from above: Karine catching up with the crew of Viking Jupiter; Karine serving Norwegian dish pølse og lompe
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n February, I was fortunate to bring Finse and Charlie with me on board Viking Star and Viking Jupiter for a ten‑day work trip in Kristiansand, where two of our six ocean vessels were in warm layup awaiting the restart of operations. After almost a year of COVID confinement, I admit I was secretly looking forward to delicious prepared meals, and having my bed properly made by someone else, but I quickly discovered that what I had missed more, much more, than the luxury of service, or the comfort of the ships, was human contact. Being on board, protected by our health
protocol of daily, simple, non‑ invasive saliva PCR testing, gave me a sense of freedom I had not felt on land for an entire year. While our ships have been in warm layup, our crew has been busy, keeping them shipshape and ready to restart at short notice. Having ships on standby hopefully only happens once in their lifetime (and once in ours!), and as hard as this year has been on the world, we must try to find some silver linings. A silver lining for me – being on board – was getting to know some of our crew much better. Heartfelt conversations about their families,
lives and homes, their childhoods and growing up in different parts of the world, allowed my mind to travel the world, without moving my body an inch. I travelled with video technician Mahesh, to his family’s modest mango farm in the village of Madhavamala, in southern India, where his bride is waiting to meet VIKING
