When talking about around the world cruises, Cunard or Holland America come to mind as they were the first cruise lines to really promote this kind of travel and both are still active with Cunard having three ships doing more than 116 day trips, Holland America with a 113 day one. However, many of the cruise lines with smaller ships are now tapping into this market and are definitely worth taking a look at.
The biggest benefit these little ships have is their passenger space ratio (which is derived from dividing the gross tonage of the ship by the number of passengers) The idea is the greater the number, the more space you’ll have onboard.
Regent Seven Seas Voyageur ship which holds 700 passengers is doing the longest itinerary at 136 days from Auckland to London. Seabourn’s Sojourn ship which holds 450 passengers is doing a 116 day one from Los Angeles to Venice. Silversea’s Silver Whisper is the smallest at 382 passengers doing a 113 day itinerary from Los Angeles to Barcelona. All of these three ships have a space ratio of over 70 compared to a score of mid 40 for Holland America’s Amsterdam (1380 passengers) and Cunard’s QE2 (2090 passengers)
Most of these around the world sailings take place yearly in Jan/Feb but can be taken in shorter segments if you don’t have the time to take the full one.
I had a client who took a world cruise many times and on each voyage, he used the “at sea” days to write a new book. I thought it was a brilliant idea and he claimed he was much more inspired being away from home and seeing all the wonderful ports of call along the way.
So instead of heading south for the winter, choose the sea for a sail around the world and maybe you will be inspired too!