Viking Launches New “Explorers’ Sale”

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Viking Launches New “Explorers’ Sale”

2025-01-02 20:59 Last Updated At：21:11

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 2, 2025--

Viking® ( www.viking.com ) (NYSE: VIK) today announced the Explorers’ Sale, providing North American travelers with new booking incentives across the company’s extensive range of river, ocean and expedition voyages. From now through January 31, 2025, Viking is offering special fares starting at $1,999 per person and up to free international airfare on select itineraries, as well as a $25 deposit for all itineraries—plus additional savings for new and returning guests.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250102441144/en/

Viking explores all seven continents, with river, ocean and expedition voyages calling in more than 500 ports in more than 85 countries. Highlights of the company’s most popular itineraries include:

Viking was rated #1 for Oceans, #1 for Rivers and #1 for Expeditions, by Condé Nast Traveler in the 2024 Readers’ Choice Awards for the second consecutive year. Viking was also named a “World’s Best” for oceans, rivers and expeditions in Travel + Leisure’s 2024 World’s Best Awards. No other travel company has simultaneously received the same honors from both publications—something Viking has now achieved two years in a row. Viking was named Best Luxury Line, Best Line for Couples and Best Line in the Mediterranean in U.S. News & World Report’s 2025 Best Cruise Lines ranking for the fourth consecutive year. Viking’s ocean ships have also been rated and “Recommended” as part of the Forbes Travel Guide 2024 Star Awards, an annual independent evaluation for luxury travel brands. Additionally, Cruise Critic honored Viking with seven awards across the Luxury (Ocean), River and Expedition categories 2024 Best in Cruise Awards.

Booking Details

From now through January 31, 2025, Viking is offering North American travelers the Explorers’ Sale, with all-inclusive voyages starting at $1,999, with up to free international airfare and a $25 deposit—plus additional savings for both new and returning guests—on select 2025–2027 river, ocean, and expedition voyages. Call Viking toll-free at 1-855-8-VIKING (1-855-884-5464) or contact a travel advisor for details.

Media Assets

For more information about Viking, or for images and b-roll, please contact vikingpr@edelman.com.

About Viking

Viking (NYSE: VIK) was founded in 1997 and provides destination-focused journeys on rivers, oceans, and lakes around the world. Designed for curious travelers with interests in science, history, culture and cuisine, Chairman and CEO Torstein Hagen often says Viking offers experiences For The Thinking Person™. Viking has more than 450 awards to its name, including being rated #1 for Rivers, #1 for Oceans and #1 for Expeditions by Condé Nast Traveler in the 2023 and 2024 Readers’ Choice Awards. Viking is also rated a “World’s Best” for rivers, oceans and expeditions by Travel + Leisure. No other travel company has simultaneously received the same honors by both publications. For additional information, contact Viking at 1-800-2-VIKING (1-800-284-5464) or visit www.viking.com. For Viking’s award-winning enrichment channel, visit www.viking.tv.

Jimmy Carter's state funeral has started. Here's what to know

2025-01-05 06:14 Last Updated At：06:20

ATLANTA (AP) — Six days of funeral observances for former President Jimmy Carter begin Saturday in Georgia, where he died on Dec. 29 at the age of 100.

The first events reflect Carter’s climb up the political ladder, from the tiny town of Plains, Georgia, to decades on the global stage as a humanitarian and advocate for democracy.

Here is what to know about the initial ceremonies and what happens next:

The proceedings, streamed on apnews.com and the Associated Press YouTube channel, began at 10:15 a.m. EST Saturday with the Carter family arriving at Phoebe Sumter Medical Center in Americus.

Former Secret Service agents who protected Carter served as pallbearers, walking alongside the hearse as it exited the campus on its way to Plains.

James Earl Carter Jr. lived more than 80 of his 100 years in and around the town, which still has fewer than 700 people, not much more than when he was born on Oct. 1, 1924. Some other modern presidents — Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton — also grew up in small-town settings, but Carter stands out for returning and remaining in his birthplace for his long post-presidency.

The motorcade moved through downtown Plains, which spans just a few blocks, passing near the girlhood home of first lady Rosalynn Smith Carter, who died in November 2023 at the age of 96, and near where the couple operated the family peanut warehouses. The route also included the old train depot that served as Jimmy Carter's 1976 presidential campaign headquarters and the gas station once run by Carter's younger brother Billy.

The motorcade passed by the Methodist church where the Carters married in 1946, and the home where they lived and died. The former president will be buried there alongside Rosalynn.

The Carters built the one-story house, now surrounded by Secret Service fencing, before his first state Senate campaign in 1962 and lived out their lives there with the exception of four years in the Governor's Mansion and four more in the White House.

After going through Plains, the procession stopped in front of Carter's family farm and boyhood home in Archery, just outside the town, after passing the cemetery where the former president's parents, James Earl Carter Sr. and Lillian Carter, are buried.

The farm now is part of the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park. The National Park Service rang the old farm bell 39 times to honor the 39th president.

Carter was the first president born in a hospital. But the home had no electricity or running water when he was born, and he worked his father's land during the Great Depression. Still, the Carters had relative privilege and status. Earl employed Black tenant farming families. The elder Carter also owned a store in Plains and was a local civic and political leader. Lillian was a nurse and she delivered Rosalynn. The property still includes a tennis court Earl had built for the family.

It was Earl's death in 1953 that set Jimmy on course toward the Oval Office. The younger Carters had left Plains after he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy. But Jimmy abandoned a promising career as a submarine officer and early participant in the Pentagon's nuclear program to take over the family's peanut business after his father's death. Within a decade, he was elected to the Georgia state Senate.

From Archery, the motorcade headed north to Atlanta. The military-run schedule called for stopping at 3 p.m. outside the Georgia Capitol, where Carter served as a state senator from 1963 to 1967 and governor from 1971 to 1975. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens were set to lead a moment of silence. While former governors are honored with state-run funerals, presidents — even if they served as governors — are memorialized with national rites run by the federal government.

The motorcade then is scheduled to arrive at the Carter Presidential Center at 3:45 p.m., with a private service at 4 p.m. The campus includes Carter’s presidential library and The Carter Center, established by the former president and first lady in 1982.

From 7 p.m. Saturday through 6 a.m. Monday, Carter will lie in repose for the public to pay respects around the clock.

The ceremony is expected to include some of The Carter Center's global staff of 3,000, whose work concentrating on international diplomacy and mediation, election monitoring and fighting disease in the developing world continues to set a standard for what former presidents can accomplish.

Jimmy Carter, who delivered its annual reports until 2019, won the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize in part for this post-presidential work. His grandson Jason Carter now chairs the board.

Carter's remains will travel next to Washington, where he will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda until his funeral at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Washington National Cathedral. All the living presidents have been invited, and Joe Biden, a Carter ally, will deliver a eulogy.

The Carter family then will return to bury its patriarch in Plains after a private hometown funeral at 3:45 p.m. at Maranatha Baptist Church, where Carter, a devout evangelical, taught Sunday School for decades.

Carter will be buried afterward in a private graveside service, in a plot visible from the front porch of his home.