Viking Orion - Australia & New Zealand: Sydney to Auckland
Viking Orion's destination-focused 14-night crossing from Sydney to Auckland opens with an overnight under the Harbour Bridge and a Hobart call, then threads Fiordland's sounds and six New Zealand ports with an overnight in Wellington.
Price Range
$$$$$
Ultra-Luxury
*Prices vary by cabin type, sailing date, and availability. Confirm rates with Viking Ocean Cruises before booking.
Ship Details — Viking Orion
View full Viking Orion details
Year Built
2018
Tonnage
47,800 GT
Passengers
930
Crew
550
Decks
9
Class
Viking Ocean
Itinerary & Route Map
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Where this cruise calls, day by day
11 ports and 4 sea days over 14 Nights.
- Day 1Sydney port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore
Sydney
AustraliaDepart - Day 2Sydney port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore
Sydney
AustraliaPort Day 3 · At sea
- Day 4
Hobart
AustraliaPortMacquarie Wharf drops you a ten-minute walk from Salamanca Place, which makes Hobart one of the easiest port days in Australia. The city sits under kunanyi/Mount Wellington on the Derwent estuary, and it has an unusual amount going on for its size - a serious art museum, colonial sandstone, and the best produce in the country. If your call falls on a Saturday, the market alone justifies the day.
- Mona, reached by the catamaran up the Derwent from Brooke Street Pier
- Salamanca Market on Saturday mornings
- Drive or shuttle to the kunanyi/Mount Wellington summit
- Port Arthur historic site, about 90 minutes each way
- Getting ashore
- Docked at Macquarie Wharf, within 800m of the CBD and about 15 flat minutes from Salamanca Place - no shuttle needed, which makes this one of the best walk-off ports in Australia.
- Best months
- Dec-Feb (southern summer; Tasmania is cold outside it)
Day 5 · At sea
Day 6 · At sea
- Day 7Fiordland National Park (Scenic Cruising) port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore
Fiordland National Park (Scenic Cruising)
New ZealandPort - Day 8Dunedin (Port Chalmers) port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore
Dunedin (Port Chalmers)
New ZealandPort - Day 9Christchurch (Lyttelton) port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore
Christchurch (Lyttelton)
New ZealandPort - Day 10
Wellington
New ZealandPortNew Zealand's capital sits in a wind tunnel at the bottom of the North Island, wrapped around a harbour with hills coming down to the water on every side. Most ships tie up at Aotea Quay, a container berth a couple of kilometres north of the centre with a shuttle laid on; a lucky few get Queens Wharf downtown. It is a compact, walkable, coffee-obsessed city once you reach it.
- Te Papa Tongarewa, the national museum, free and genuinely good
- Wellington Cable Car up to the Botanic Garden and walk back down
- Weta Workshop tour out at Miramar
- Zealandia, a fenced valley sanctuary with kaka, takahe and tuatara
- Getting ashore
- Almost always docked at Aotea Quay, a working commercial berth you cannot walk out of - the shuttle loop is effectively the only way ashore, covering the 2km to downtown; the rare Queens Wharf berth is a straight walk into town.
- Best months
- Nov-Mar (southern summer)
- Day 11
Wellington
New ZealandPortNew Zealand's capital sits in a wind tunnel at the bottom of the North Island, wrapped around a harbour with hills coming down to the water on every side. Most ships tie up at Aotea Quay, a container berth a couple of kilometres north of the centre with a shuttle laid on; a lucky few get Queens Wharf downtown. It is a compact, walkable, coffee-obsessed city once you reach it.
- Te Papa Tongarewa, the national museum, free and genuinely good
- Wellington Cable Car up to the Botanic Garden and walk back down
- Weta Workshop tour out at Miramar
- Zealandia, a fenced valley sanctuary with kaka, takahe and tuatara
- Getting ashore
- Almost always docked at Aotea Quay, a working commercial berth you cannot walk out of - the shuttle loop is effectively the only way ashore, covering the 2km to downtown; the rare Queens Wharf berth is a straight walk into town.
- Best months
- Nov-Mar (southern summer)
- Day 12
Napier
New ZealandPortAn earthquake flattened Napier in 1931 and the town was rebuilt over the following few years, which is why an entire small city centre is coherent 1930s Art Deco. It is a genuinely unusual thing to walk around. The port is a working breakwater terminal a few kilometres out, and Hawke's Bay's vineyards start almost immediately behind the town.
- Art Deco walking tour around Emerson Street and Tennyson Street
- Hawke's Bay wineries - Mission Estate, Church Road, Te Mata
- Cape Kidnappers gannet colony by tractor-trailer along the beach
- Te Mata Peak lookout over the plains
- Getting ashore
- Docked at Napier Port, which since the 2022 Te Whiti wharf takes very large ships; town is only about 2km but walking on the wharf is prohibited, so everyone takes the free shuttle to the drop-off where the local operators wait.
- Best months
- Nov-Mar (southern summer)
Day 13 · At sea
- Day 14Tauranga port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore
Tauranga
New ZealandPort - Day 15Auckland port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore
Auckland
New ZealandArrive
What to know about this sailing
the traveler-discussion archive has a single thread tagging Viking Orion on this route, and it is only a ratings table; these notes come from the route data, 6 threads about the ship generally and 26 about Sydney–Auckland routes without it.
A Hobart call and two overnights are what this crossing has that the shorter loops do not. The ship sits in Sydney the first night, spends a day at sea reaching Hobart, then takes two full sea days across the Tasman to arrive at Fiordland for a morning on deck, which puts the most weather-exposed part of the route directly after the longest stretch of open water. From there the calls run up the east coast in order, Dunedin, Lyttelton, two nights alongside in Wellington, Napier, a sea day, Tauranga and Auckland, so the second week is port-heavy while the first is mostly sea. Fiordland is not guaranteed: a 2018 poster on a Sydney round trip lost the sounds and Dunedin to a South Island storm. The Wellington overnight is the one place the schedule gives real time, and a 2018 route thread said the ship-run Te Papa tour wasted it by limiting the museum to an hour, so that one is better done independently.
The only thing the archive records about Viking Orion in New Zealand is a December 2022 comment reporting that the ship had missed four New Zealand ports over barnacles on the hull and simply kept sailing; nothing in the threads says how that was resolved. On price, this is the most expensive Orion sailing in the catalog and one of four luxury-tier ways to do nearly the same port list. Seven Seas Explorer runs it Auckland to Sydney for more per person, Silver Moon does that direction for slightly less and the Sydney-to-Auckland direction for more, and Viking Venus is a little cheaper but its shared ports do not include the Fiordland day. Celebrity Solstice and Royal Princess call at most of the same ports for a fraction of the fare, so the premium here buys the included excursions, the adults-only ship and the Hobart and Wellington overnights, not access to anything the mainstream ships cannot reach. It suits people who have already settled on Viking and want the direction that ends in Auckland; anyone choosing on ports alone is better served by Solstice.
Questions about this sailing
Is the Fiordland scenic cruising guaranteed?
No. It depends on conditions in the Tasman and at the fiord entrances, and the route threads show both outcomes: a 2018 poster on a Sydney round trip had the sounds cancelled and Dunedin swapped for Picton because of a South Island storm, while a 2023 poster on the same coast had a perfectly clear day in Milford Sound and called it the highlight. On this itinerary the fiords come straight after two sea days, so there is no port before them to absorb a delay.
Onboard Amenities
Cruise Highlights
About the Ship
What Travelers Say About Viking Orion
Reviews of the ship itself — the same for every Viking Orion sailing. Distilled from 6 traveler threads, passenger reviews and travel blogs.
Viking Orion is one of the more established ships in Viking's ocean fleet, sailing since 2018, and it carries a genuinely distinctive feature: the Explorers' Dome planetarium, a high-resolution domed theater that Orion was the first Viking ship to introduce. Beyond that signature, it delivers the classic Viking experience, a small, adults-only ship of roughly 930 guests with understated Scandinavian styling and an itinerary-driven, mature sensibility that appeals strongly to seasoned travelers who prefer enrichment over entertainment.
What People Love
- Adults-only atmosphere with no guests under 18, giving a calm and mature onboard feel
- Strong no-nickel-and-diming value with Wi-Fi, self-serve laundry, one shore excursion per port, and wine, beer and soda at lunch and dinner all included
- Consistently friendly and efficient service that guests rate highly
Common Complaints
- Shore excursions draw criticism, with included options seen as low value and optional ones overpriced
- Main dining food can be bland or limited in variety, especially for dietary restrictions
- As a smaller ship it has more noticeable motion than megaships in rough seas