Gene Sloan

USA TODAY

River cruise giant Viking's move into ocean cruising marked a major milestone this week as the line's first ocean-going ship took to the water for the first time.

The California-based company says the 930-passenger Viking Star was "floated out" on Monday from a dry dock at a Fincantieri shipyard near Venice, Italy. The vessel is scheduled to debut in April 2015.

The initial stages of a cruise ship's construction take place in a dry dock facility. Once exterior outfitting is completed, the dry dock is flooded and the ship is floated to a wet dock facility where construction continues.

The 47,800-ton Viking Star is the first of four ocean-going ships that Viking has ordered for delivery by 2017. It initially will operate cruises in the Baltic and Mediterranean.

A longtime leader in river cruising, Viking has not operated ocean cruises. The company's fast-growing Viking River Cruises line operates more than 50 vessels, including 18 new ships christened earlier this year. The company has 12 river ships on order for 2015.

Viking Ocean Cruises will be the first major ocean line to debut in nearly a decade and enters an arena dominated by a handful of big players such as Miami-based Carnival Corp. and Royal Caribbean Cruises. Carnival Corp. owns 10 brands that offer ocean cruises, including Carnival, Princess, Holland America and Seabourn, and accounts for nearly half of the worldwide ocean cruise business. Royal Caribbean owns five ocean cruise brands, including Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Azamara.

Viking Ocean Cruises likely will compete most directly with Azamara, which operates two upscale, 710-passenger ships, and Oceania Cruises, which has five upscale ships that carry from 684 to 1,250 passengers.

More on Viking Ocean Cruises

Fast-growing Viking orders two more ocean ships

Viking cuts steel for first ocean-going ship

Viking chairman: New line won't nickel-and-dime

A sneak peek at plans for new Viking ship

New upscale line to launch in 2015