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By one measure, at least, Viking<\/a> now rules the cruise world.<\/p>\n The fast-growing cruise brand officially welcomed nine new ships to its fleet on Tuesday during an upbeat naming ceremony in Basel, Switzerland, bringing its total to 103.<\/p>\n The addition of the new vessels, all designed for river cruising, puts Viking firmly ahead of cruise giant Carnival Corporation for the title of the cruise company with the most ships.<\/p>\n After reducing its ship count<\/a> in recent years, Carnival Corporation, the parent company of eight major cruise brands, including Carnival Cruise Line<\/a>, Princess Cruises<\/a> and Holland America<\/a>, currently has just 94 vessels in its fleet. As recently as 2020, it had 104.<\/p>\n “It’s a big day for us,” Viking founder, chairman and CEO Torstein Hagen told dozens of Viking executives, port officials, business partners and media assembled for the naming event atop one of the nine new vessels, Viking Honir.<\/p>\n “We’ve been adding ships like counting sheep,” he quipped.<\/p>\n The 190-passenger vessel, which will sail on the Rhine from Basel to Amsterdam, was the only one of the nine new ships physically present in Basel for the naming ceremony.<\/p>\n Five of the eight other vessels were located on other rivers where they will be sailing, including the Nile in Egypt, the Douro in Portugal, the Mekong in Vietnam and the Seine in France. Three more of the ships were at the Neptun Werft shipyard in Rostock, Germany, where they were undergoing the last stages of construction.<\/p>\n