The world’s your oyster, as the old saying goes, and that couldn’t be truer for those choosing to cruise.
Whether it be a two-night taster cruise across the Channel to the chocoholics capital of Bruges or a grand world circumnavigation of 100 nights or more, cruise ships really do leave other holiday choices in their wake.
While the idea – and cost – of a world voyage may not be practical to all, don’t be put off considering the individual ingredients that make up these lengthy seaborne adventures.
Slice ‘n’ Dice
Cruise lines are becoming ever more ingenious in breaking down the individual elements of world cruises and making them available in bite-sized chunks.
So if you don’t fancy travelling the best part of 34,000 nautical miles across 11 time zones and four crossings of the equator, don’t despair.
It has always been possible to take portions of such voyages – which traditionally take place during the UK winter – by flying out to board ship, but cruise companies are becoming more creative in the way they make available sectors of global sailings.
So, if you just have two weeks to spare, it is still possible to create an exciting far flung holiday on board ship.
For example…
This could involve a Pacific crossing from San Francisco to Auckland via Hawaii; linking Sydney with Hong Kong to combine two of the world’s most exciting cities into a single voyage; or taking a Far East trip which takes in tours to Bejing and the Great Wall of China.
Such cultural highlights are now packaged up to include flights, hotels and transfers, giving the ability to pick and mix parts of the globe that you most want to visit.
For example, P&O Cruises’ four 2010/11 world voyages can be broken down into no less than 57 different holidays ranging between 13 and 98 nights in duration.
Given that four of the line’s fleet – Arcadia, Artemis, Aurora and Oriana – will be embarking on long voyages from Southampton, that results in visits to a mind-boggling 89 destinations in 46 countries. And there are as many as 800 different excursions to pick from.
Here are a couple of example World Voyages from P&O Cruises that can be split into sectors 
. Each of them depart Southampton and visit North America, Australasia & the Far East.
Emigration is optional
Another way of travelling on part of one of these marathon journeys is to take what is known as a ‘line’ voyage.
These hark back from the 1930s when the company introduced long ocean trips between the UK and Australia, aided after the war by the introduction of assisted passages designed to by the Australian government to entice Brits Down Under in a scheme which became know as the ‘ten pound Pom’.
More than one million Brits participated and 15 ships were built especially to meet the demand for those seeking a new life in the new world.
Happily facilities on board have improved immeasurably since those days and P&O Cruises will have three vessels offering ‘line’ voyages from Southampton to Sydney or vice-versa, with journey times ranging from 38 to 51 nights depending on the route chosen. In all there are 20 ‘line’ voyages with different ports of call to or from Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong.
Most travel via the Caribbean and Pacific to reach Oz and make the return leg through Asia, India, the Middle East and Mediterranean.
If I had the time on my hands, I know which option I’d take over flying any day.
Related posts:
- A world of choice We all dream about escaping the doldrums of a...
- Time for some namesake cruising? Looking for a new reason to cruise? Well I...
- So you think you know cruising? Taking part in an on-board quiz is a popular...
- Five tweaks to make cruising perfect If you ask me, modern cruising is already perfect....
- Is this the next big thing in cruising? It happens almost every day in Britain. As one...
Leave a Comment