Viking River Cruises has placed an order for two additional Longships in 2013, bringing the number of its new river ships launching next year to eight, and a total of 14 new Viking Longships over a two-year period.

The business went to Rostock’s Neptun Werft in Germany, which has built all the Viking Longships so far.

“As the fastest-growing segment of travel, river cruising is inspiring more vacation plans than ever before,” said Viking River chairman Torstein Hagen. “We are very pleased by the response we have seen to our new Viking Longships, and we are continuing our expansion to meet that demand.”

Viking Jarl and Viking Atla will sail the eight-day ‘Rhine Getaway’ cruise between Amsterdam and Basel. Each of the new 444-foot (135m) Longships accommodates 190 passengers in 95 staterooms.

Following months of rumours, Viking has also confirmed that it has commissioned two new ocean-going ships. The company’s offshoot, Viking Ocean Cruises, has two 47,000-ton, 944-passenger ships on order with Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri. They are due to be delivered in early 2015 and 2016.

“We are very excited to be working with Fincantieri,” said Hagen earlier this year when the partnership was confirmed.

“We started Viking with the goal of bringing the destination back to cruising and we are excited to bring this same destination commitment back to ocean cruising. The ship designed by Ficantieri has a fresh and innovative design well suited to our commitment to destination cruising.”