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Narrowing down the cruise line


sjde
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Itinerary will be important too of course, but even if we decide to stick with an all-inclusive WC, that still only narrows it down to Oceania, Viking, Azamara and Cunard?

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Viking is the only fully inclusive that I know of on your list. Oceania doesn’t offer alcoholic beverages or shore excursions. AFAIK, azamara has no world cruise. Regent cruise line offers a world cruise that is inclusive, I think.

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Cunard would be considered the "Up Market" Carnival brand, but unless they have changed recently, they are not all-inclusive.

 

Oceania & Viking are also not fully all-inclusive, although they do offer limited time benefits that equate to all inclusive. We just booked the Viking 2020 WC, receiving:

  • Business class air
  • Transfers to/from the ship
  • Gratuities
  • Silver Spirits drinks package
  • Visa service, provided we use their vendor
  • $8K OBC

In addition, Viking always includes port fees/taxes, wifi, laundry machines, comp excursion in each port. With the time limited benefits and basic benefits our WC is in effect all-inclusive. The above noted benefits are offered on a monthly basis, as they were originally posted for May 2018, but have been extended for June 2018.

 

 

When we compared Oceania & Viking, they were virtually identical on what they were offering, so we elected Viking due to the itinerary, as it heads West continuously, with cloxs going back for more sleep. If I recall the 2020 Oceana cruise heads East, which causes clox to go forward and less sleep.

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Cunard would be considered the "Up Market" Carnival brand, but unless they have changed recently, they are not all-inclusive.

 

Oceania & Viking are also not fully all-inclusive, although they do offer limited time benefits that equate to all inclusive. We just booked the Viking 2020 WC, receiving:

 

 

 

  • Business class air
  • Transfers to/from the ship
  • Gratuities
  • Silver Spirits drinks package
  • Visa service, provided we use their vendor
  • $8K OBC

In addition, Viking always includes port fees/taxes, wifi, laundry machines, comp excursion in each port. With the time limited benefits and basic benefits our WC is in effect all-inclusive. The above noted benefits are offered on a monthly basis, as they were originally posted for May 2018, but have been extended for June 2018.

 

 

When we compared Oceania & Viking, they were virtually identical on what they were offering, so we elected Viking due to the itinerary, as it heads West continuously, with cloxs going back for more sleep. If I recall the 2020 Oceana cruise heads East, which causes clox to go forward and less sleep.

Regent does an all-inclusive world cruise.

 

We chose Oceania for their 2019 world cruise and it goes westward, which we also wanted. It's pretty much all-inclusive....here are the benefits included in the cruise fare, no matter what category cabin you book:

 

~First class roundtrip airfare

~Can start the world cruise in one of 3 cities

~Choice of: 36 shore excursions per person or $3,600 obc per person or their Beverage Package for 2 people

~Prepaid gratuities

~Unlimited onboard medical care

~Unlimited Internet

~Unlimited laundry services

~5 special shore events

~Visa package (we'll need 5 visas)

~Luggage delivery service for 2 pieces per person both going to the ship and returning

~1 night pre-cruise in a luxury hotel

~Round trip transfers at beginning and end of trip

~$230pp spa credit

~$250pp obc

 

We also got to choose from alot of obc or an equally large discount on the cruisefare from our travel agent. Since we don't drink alcohol, we chose the shore excursion perk. We just booked the shore excursions and they equaled over $11,000 per person. Another thing we liked about Oceania is that they do 60% of the trip in ports and 40% sea days. We love sea days, but wanted a majority of our time in ports. When we researched 10 different cruiselines doing world cruises, the cheaper ones had many more sea days than port days. I've read previous world cruisers posting that they got gifts from Oceania, but that hasn't been mentioned to us by the cruiseline. Also, the specialty restaurants on the ship have no charge, just have to make a reservation.

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Doesn’t Oceana include just about everything?

 

Alcohol and shore excursions are not included, but there are packages where you have a choice of these items.

 

You have been mulling this idea of a world cruise for a few months now. Have you been on a cruise longer than 12 days by now? If you haven't, you don't know whether you would like a world cruise.

 

On our second cruise (14 days), we thought a world cruise would be marvelous. One of the other passengers warned us not to book such a long cruise on a line we had never sailed before. We heeded his advice and nixed the world cruise idea. In the meantime, we have cruised on about 15 different lines up to 1 month. That is a good length for us. Only once was I glad to get off the ship at the end. That was a luxury ship with superb food and a fantastic state room, but other things were not a good fit for us.

 

We have now booked a 3 months cruise on a line we know and find ok because of the itinerary and several activities we have enjoyed before. I am not a 'love sea days' kind of person, but I will survive them and probably need them to recuperate from our 4 - 8 hour shore excursions. All these long cruises have many sea days.

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I’m good with a 50/50 split because I love sea days. Actually more than port days.

Just did the Seattle/Port Canaveral cruise. We had 9 sea days and only 7 port days. For me it was a great balance.

 

 

 

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I’m good with a 50/50 split because I love sea days. Actually more than port days.

Just did the Seattle/Port Canaveral cruise. We had 9 sea days and only 7 port days. For me it was a great balance.

I love sea days too, but 72 of them is sufficient. :D

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  • 3 weeks later...

We just took a leap....We were on Viking's inaugural WC last January - May, 2018. Had not been on a Viking Ocean when we booked (with 2 other couples) in December of 2016. We had done a River cruise and were booked on a 21 day Baltic before the WC Sailing. It was a great fit for all 6 of us. None of us regret the decision to go!!! It was a LONG time to be away from home and family. It took far more planning than any of us had anticipated but the experience was extraordinary ....the ship was so very comfortable, the itinerary varied and exhausting, the crew beyond belief for their service, smiles , (No was not in their vocabulary), the food was good, the drinks excellent, sunsets and sunrises breathtaking...It sounds like such a Pollyanna but we could choose to truly be engaged in body, mind and spirit on daily basis. GO,GO, GO!

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  • 2 months later...
Would like to do a world cruise at some point in my life when my 2 kids are independent is it hard leaving family to go etc

 

Our grandson was only 3 months old when we left on our previous world cruise, which was booked well before he was planned. So no, it is never easy leaving for an extended period, but these days you have many abilities to keep in touch.

 

When I departed to sea back in the 70's for anywhere from 4 to 9 months, we left and generally never saw or heard from family until my return. These days, even on a cruise ship we Sykpe with our grandson every couple of weeks.

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