World Cruise - You?

World Cruise -You ?

DH is still very active in his profession but every now and then we have the 'would we do a world cruise' conversation? He cannot possibly be away from his office long enough for WC.

As much as we love to cruise and we surely do, as much as we have cruised and surely is a great deal, I'm not sure I would do well on a World Cruise. I'm not even sure I'd be so wonderful on a 65 day Grand Voyage

If he was able to leave his office for long enough, we wonder if we would want to.

We've done a great deal of organized and independent touring all over Europe, the Caribbean, domestic, Canada and we loved it........ but I can't see myself jumping on a tour bus at least 2-4 times a week for weeks on end. All of that touring was 'then' and this is 'now'. Thankfully, we are both walkers and able to be mobile without assistance.

What's the point of doing one of those exciting cruises if you don't go tour the ports?

Can you imagine being aboard for 8 - 13 weeks and only touring once or twice a week?

Is that crazy?

I think with a lot of planning, selecting excursions/tours and mixing it up with just walking around on our own as well as the occasional lazy day aboard (in say a port of less interest or one previously visited) we would truly enjoy the experience.

i am going to do a world cruise. it is out-of-the-question for 2013, but 2014 is looking very possible. for me the key is picking an itinerary wherei will not repeat many ports. new places are never dull for me.

I don't want to be on a cruise ship for 65, or even 30 days. I would go nuts. For me and DW, shorter, carefully selected itineraries are the way to go. We have the time, and the financial resources to go on longer cruises. But we lack the third requisite - inclination.

As always, YMMV.

I know I could do a 60+ day Grand Cruise, such as the Prinsendam around South America, or the Circle Pacific. But 100+ plus days? I don't know.

Put so many of those 100+ days in such hot areas of the world, and I know a World Cruise is not for me. Not at all.

Sail, we are not yet in the position to do a world cruise due to dh's work as well BUT if I were to do one, I would not be jumping on a bus in every port.;) Nor would we be staying on the ship. We would be exploring the ports and probably doing a lot of private tours - dh and I discovered a few cruises ago about the difference between private tours, private transfers and independent or diy. There is simply no comparison where there are only 6 or 8 (or even 2) of you and you have all the flexibility in the world.

While we love cruising, 20 days is the longest we have done - next year will be 31 and that will be our longest in one stint. I honestly don't know if I could be on a ship for 100+ days. I know you are sailing around the world - but just wonder if the 'wonder' of it all wouldn't wear off?

We'll try our 31 and take it from there:D But I honestly don't know what the point would be in doing a world cruise if you weren't taking in all those ports, the cultures and the people there:confused:

Ah, Sail ... you're talking about my dream cruise here. I just can't imagine getting enough days on a ship, and what a FABULOUS way to see the world. I don't expect we'll ever be in a position to actually do a World Cruise, but what a lovely dream it is. :)

Could do it after we retire. The planning might kill me but I can certainly handle the time on the ship.

DH and I have discussed this a number of time, and right now our feeling is that we would NOT want to do a World Cruise. We don't think we could handle 100+ days on a ship.

I can easily see (dream about) us doing a Grand Voyage, but World Cruise? No, I wouldn't want to be away from home and family that long. I think a 60+ day Grand Voyage would be wonderful though.

We cruise to see the world, and what a way to do it. :) As for tours, we wouldn't do that every day, we like to DIY in a lot of ports. We would mix it up, some tours, some rental cars, and some just walking around.

We were on the 2008 World Cruise, it should be called the World Adventure. Great way see what the rest of the World looks like.

I think I would prefer to do a world cruise in segments rather than all at once. My brain would be overloaded with so much information on all the different ports, I would probably forget more than half of what I learned. My longest cruise to date was 29 days and I got very tired of wearing the same clothes. It's not like the old days when you could travel with many "steamer trunks" and have a larger selection of apparel. Even mix and match gets old, IMO.

We were on the 2008 World Cruise, it should be called the World Adventure. Great way see what the rest of the World looks like.

Did you have no points during the cruise when you thought you'd had enough? You didn't get an urge to leave and go home? I feel that would happen to me at some point on such a long cruise.

Thanks to those who posted...... I'm happy to hear I'm not the only one who isn't sure they could do a whole World Cruise.

Our longest cruise was 35 days - Boston to Rotterdam and back to Boston. We loved it - no repeat ports - but decided 35 days was our limit.

RuthC was on board , which made it special!

Another BIG plus was NO flying involved!

I have read on CC that many world cruisers never get off the ship - they've been there and done that!

Good question. A first, we, too, were worried about the same issues.

So ... For our first piece of the Grand Cruise pie we did 27 days on the Prinsendam. We survived. The crew did not have to hide the knives as we had no desire to kill each other. We never tired of the ship and we had chosen an itinerary that was full of wonderful things (Mach Pichu, Antarctica, and Iguazu Falls) with, and this is important, enough sea days between ports to rest up. And we met, as always, the nicest folks on board HAL. Being on the Prinsendam, and on a Grand Voyage also made it much more special than a Caribbean or Alaska itinerary.

Over time we have made many "discoveries" that, for us, help immensely with the Grand Cruise experience.

First, do not choose an itinerary that is too "port intensive" as that can be exhausting if you are planning on big touring everywhere. If you have already experienced enough of the ports before and just leave the ship for a walk and lunch, or a single destination to sight see at enough of the ports it is less tiring. Though we saw and did wonderful things on the Grand Med, it was extremely port intensive. The Grand South America and Grand Asia itineraries were much better balanced between ports and sea days. More than three days in a row heavy port touring -- well that can really take it out of you.

Another tried and true suggestion (and I by no means intend to diminish the HAL tour bus experience with this comment) is that the big tour bus is MUCH more tiring than a privately arranged tour. We often do a combination of both private and big bus tours. A well researched private tour can be less costly and much more personal than the large tour bus. But you need to do your homework on tour operators (the ports of call board is helpful here) and be sure that you tell the tour operator that you need to be back to the ship an hour or two before final boarding to protect yourself.

The longest we have done, so far, is 65 days -- not sure that 120 days would not be too long to be away from home for me for many of the reasons mentioned by others. Unfortunately, at present, I have obligations at home (very elderly mother) that is limiting our ability to be away from home for extended periods. But the desire and enjoyment of the Grand Voyage has remained and we are sure we will be doing them again at some time in the future.

Ah, but then some of us are addicted to longer cruises, and will not do anything else.

We did our first longer cruise in 2002, the South America circumnavigation with Regent, 68 days. It was fantastic!

Then we tried the Asian/Pacific with HAL. It was even better! We did a half world cruise for 54 days and then a west Africa/SA cruise—we loved both. So in 2007, my husband agreed to HAL's world cruise. Well, half way through the cruise, we signed up for the 2008 world cruise. Half way through that one, we signed for the 2009 cruise. We did another SA in the winter of 2011, this time on HAL, and again in the winter of 2012 (72 days) with Regent. And we will be off in 2013 with HAL around SA again. But before that, we are going with HAL on the Asian/Pacific. After these two, well . . . As long as we are healthy, we are going to keep going. Our main regret is that we have a few places on our wish list, and we know we are getting too old to do them.

One of the advantages of the longer cruises is that we keep running in to those we made friends with on prior cruises. As of today, we are signed for HAL's Asian/Pacific for 2013; the CC list for the cruise is already extensive, and we know about half of those on it. It is just splendid meeting friends from prior cruises.

So give a longer cruise a chance, once you are retired. Longer cruises and retirement are perfect together.

Compared to many others that we have met on the longer cruises, we are only beginners. We have met a world cruiser who has done the trip 25 or more times. You all know Bill and Maryanne who share their blogs on longer cruises. We have been on a couple of Worlds with them, and they keep on doing one every year.

When you go on longer cruises, you do not take tours every day. HAL generally supplies a shuttle down town, so in some ports we hop on that and look around. Sometimes, we just get into a cab and go to a place we want to visit or shop. And in some instances, we stay on the ship and convert a port day into a sea day when we have the ship all to ourselves.

When we get on the ship for a long cruise, we have a different mind set. When the cruise is coming to an end, we start packing up about a week before. So often I wish the journey was not ending . . .

DH says he couldn't do it. I think I could. I can get very into where I am and not think about where I am not, if that makes sense. When I'm on a ship, I think, sure, I could live in this one room. Then I get home and think, no, I couldn't be away from home that long.

We wouldn't do a WC at this point because of family responsibilities. My dad is in his 80s, and he got nervous when we went to Australia for a month (including 22 day leg of QM2's WC, circumnavigating Australia). He's in good health for his age, but he's a worrier. I think he expected to keel over the day we landed in Sydney and ruin our trip. And there's also the issue cat care for 100 days. (cost and guilt for us, and trauma for Her Majesty)

There are a lot of ports on a WC, but there are also stretches of sea days, so you have time to "recover." And for the poster who said it would be impossible to remember it all, I agree. That's why I travel with a camera and a bazillion memory cards, and a journal. Even for just a week.

Oh Sails, we would love to do a world cruise. We both feel we could handle the "togetherness" quite well. I don't think we would experience homesickness either. Once we win the lottery . . . who knows.

But, don't you miss friends, relatives, neighbors, pets,........ something? I guess I just see cruising as a break from a routine, that I enjoy, but get a little bored with from time to time. To me, the best part of life comes from contrasts. Even formal nights are supposed to be sort of special. How special can they be when there are 18-20 of them on a 65 day cruise?

But, don't you miss friends, relatives, neighbors, pets,........ something? I guess I just see cruising as a break from a routine, that I enjoy, but get a little bored with from time to time. To me, the best part of life comes from contrasts. Even formal nights are supposed to be sort of special. How special can they be when there are 18-20 of them on a 65 day cruise?

Yes, I miss friends, relatives, neighbors. But there's email and phone calls. When we did the month in Australia, I did a blog that I emailed to a bunch of people. I was sick as a dog on the boat ride out to the Great Barrier Reef. When I got home, my cousin said my description of that day was the funniest thing she'd read in a long time. (Thanks, Linda!)

My kitty would be a problem. Of course I'd miss her (Jeez, I'd be flamed by the cat lovers if I didn't say that. :D) I can't talk to her on the phone. But Dad catsits and always fills me in on her antics. So that's good for me, but she does miss her mommy when I'm away, and there's nothing I can do about that.

Someone I know who did a world cruise said that you get sort of institutionalized after a while. You know, time for breakfast, time for lunch, time for bingo/lecture/movie, time for cocktails, time for dinner, etc etc. The daily program tells you how to dress and what time the tours leave. You sort of stop thinking for yourself.

While we do love to cruise, (32 days has been our limit so far...gotta 42 day cruise coming up in October) afraid we would miss our children/grand children. Dorothy was right: there IS no place like home....

My dream for years has always been a world cruise. I have been on 19 cruises, the longest 21 days and it was just wonderful. I have an upcoming 30 day cruise and will use that as a barometer to see if I could be at sea for longer. I am considering the 68 day around SA for my next cruise. I have always been happiest while asail. However, now with 4 grandchildren 3 months away seems too long.

I have often thought how lovely it would be to do a world cruise but 100+ days is not for me. I counted the sea days from HAL's brochure this past year and almost half of the cruise were days at sea. Besides, there are so many wonderful blogs to read, why spend the money!

I honestly don't think we could do a World Cruise. Both us felt our 20 day Collector's Cruises were as much as we could do at any one time. I could do segments but not the entire cruise. At $40 a day for our live-in dog sitter, that would really add up!