Would You Do A World Cruise?

Something I will probably never have the time or money to experience in life is a World Cruise.

Viewed by most as something only the wealthy can do. The pinnacle of travel affluence.

But the question is would I have the inclination to do one even if money was no object?

Partly down to my age and attitude towards holidaying, I would have to say no.

Reason being you ask? Well, you might see a few places during your lengthy 3 months away but the destinations can hardly be defined as ‘seeing the whole world’.

I will use next year’s P&O Arcadia World Cruise as an example.

The problem is a lot of the ‘big’ destinations are inland, too far inland to offer a tour to. Lets start close to home, if you were doing a tour of the UK, where would you go? I bet London would start the list (unless you live there), is this offered as a tour? Nope!

Lets go a little further afield, France, where would you generally think first, Paris? Is it on the itinerary? Nope!

Ok surely us Brits would want to hit the big Spanish cities with venom! Madrid? Barcelona? Seville? no, nope, nada! Errrrm ok.

So what do we get you ask?

Well for the first 10 days of the cruise, you get Vigo in Spain – a great place but i’m 99% sure that World Cruisers would have been here on a run of the mill Med cruise already. Second port of call is Ponta Delgada in the Azores, a stunning place that I would love to visit. Hmmm maybe they have redeemed themselves a little here? ERK! Survey says no! Eight laborious days at sea out of 10 before you get to the next port of call. WHAT?? You left Europe already!? Dear oh dear.

Ok so you’re thinking, you know what Freddie I’ve done the Med to death, I don’t need to see to see Barcelona and Paris AGAIN. I want to see America!

Great me too. You know where I’d like to go first, New York! Makes sense, it’s the first major place you hit geographically, of course New York……………..ERKKKK! Nope sorry it’s no Big Apple for you, and for that matter we have decided to miss out the ENTIRE East Coast of America too and head straight for the Caribbean, lovely place granted but, oh you’ve already been there on a Caribbean Cruise? Oh well we don’t care. It’s cheap to dock so tough.

I see a pattern developing here don’t you?

So having missed out all of Europe and one side of America, we then proceed to miss out the best of the Caribbean, no Antigua, no Bermuda, no blinking Barbados!

One saving grace is that you transit the Panama Canal, an amazing sight but again missing out on Colon and the surrounding areas, until you get to Mexico, which is a great place for fun in the sun, but is it suited to the culturally thirsty World Cruiser. I think not.

After an utterly needed overnight in San Francisco you leave California for Hawaii, again having been robbed of Los Angeles and San Diego, two awesome places on the West Coast. Don’t even get me started on Mid America, I appreciate on the coast there is not much you can do but why they don’t offer a longer stay in California is beyond me.  Would give you the chance to fly over to Vegas or see the Grand Canyon etc. Daft.

The itinerary goes onto take in some better places at this point, Honolulu, Western Samoa, Fiji, Sydney, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore. Coming back through Mumbai, Dubai and parts of Egypt. But I cannot stress how much it misses in favour days at sea.

Indeed in 106 nights the cruise takes, the number of days at sea are a staggering 63 of them are at sea! Give or take that is 60% – if you went on a land holiday and were told you had to spend 60% of the time in the hotel, would you book? I doubt it. Not exactly the same thing but you get where I’m coming from.

Almost forgot, the price! Well if you want the absolute cheapest price you can book this today at a wallet melting £10,000 PER PERSON! £94pp per night is very good in actual fact but if you want to really enjoy your 2 months at sea out of 3, you are looking at a high rollers fee of £14,000 per person. That’s £28,000 for a balcony cabin!

Not to mention the amount you will spend on ship on drinks and excursions.

Believe it or not this is about the lowest price World Cruise money can buy, and some will say that it is good value, but I have to disagree. The smart money lies with breaking the cruise into sectors and waiting for the promos to come out. That way you see an area of the world you genuinely want to, and can extend either side in a hotel to really make the most of your time.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic?

Should the cruise lines make more of the time, and make the cruises more destination rich?

Maybe you think i’m being a tight so and so and love world cruising?

Either way I would love to have your comments and opinions!

Until next time………