"Pseudo" Round-The-World Itineraries on NCL

[nikkosan]

Hi everyone,

 

As usual, tried the search function first, but couldn't find much.

 

We're coming up with 3 cruises in South America where we will most likely purchase several CruiseNext certificates (A LOT, actually!).

 

We'll be free for the next year or so, and were thinking of combining several NCL cruises to do a round-the-world itinerary (similar to what is done by the likes of Oceania Cunard, Seabourn, Viking, etc. with their 90/100/120 day cruises), among other ideas we also had.

 

We're aware that there's no such thing with NCL (and that's actually a great thing, since we're obviously planning to use all of those CruiseNext certificates we will accumulate!), so my question is: are there Websites/OTAs/Cruise Consultants who can put together itineraries to create a "sort of" round the world itinerary on NCL? Short land-segments in between would also be OK.

 

Any help/insights highly appreciated!

[4774Papa]

15 minutes ago, nikkosan said:

Hi everyone,

 

As usual, tried the search function first, but couldn't find much.

 

We're coming up with 3 cruises in South America where we will most likely purchase several CruiseNext certificates (A LOT, actually!).

 

We'll be free for the next year or so, and were thinking of combining several NCL cruises to do a round-the-world itinerary (similar to what is done by the likes of Oceania Cunard, Seabourn, Viking, etc. with their 90/100/120 day cruises), among other ideas we also had.

 

We're aware that there's no such thing with NCL (and that's actually a great thing, since we're obviously planning to use all of those CruiseNext certificates we will accumulate!), so my question is: are there Websites/OTAs/Cruise Consultants who can put together itineraries to create a "sort of" round the world itinerary on NCL? Short land-segments in between would also be OK.

 

Any help/insights highly appreciated!

Celebrity and Holland America would be better choices for such a cruise.  Also, the season makes a huge difference.  First of all, you could do the South American repo that heads down from North America to Chile, then do Around the Horn, ending in Buenos Aires (that would likely be in December/January).  Then you need to move on from there.   Transatlantics going east are in April and May.   

 

There are transpacific on Celebrity and Royal Caribbean from Australia to either Hawaii or Seattle in April (we took one that ended in Seattle in 2018, it was great).

Also, we did Singapore to Dubai in 2015 and there is a transpacific from Japan to Seattle (I think).

[nikkosan]

2 hours ago, 4774Papa said:

Celebrity and Holland America would be better choices for such a cruise.  Also, the season makes a huge difference.  First of all, you could do the South American repo that heads down from North America to Chile, then do Around the Horn, ending in Buenos Aires (that would likely be in December/January).  Then you need to move on from there.   Transatlantics going east are in April and May.   

 

There are transpacific on Celebrity and Royal Caribbean from Australia to either Hawaii or Seattle in April (we took one that ended in Seattle in 2018, it was great).

Also, we did Singapore to Dubai in 2015 and there is a transpacific from Japan to Seattle (I think).

 

Thanks, 4774Papa! 👍

 

Funny enough, these three cruises that we have coming up are more or less what you mentioned: 😅

- Santiago to Buenos Aires

- Santiago to Port Canaveral

- Miami to Barcelona

 

I did find one we like on Cunard, for 112 nights, but as I mentioned, we're going to be buying quite a lot of CruiseNext certificates, hence the need to find NCL cruises.

 

I'll keep looking on what's available, and I appreciate your contribution.

 

Hopefully there are others who have done this in the past and don't mind sharing how they did it.

 

Thanks for chiming in!

[4774Papa]

32 minutes ago, nikkosan said:

 

Thanks, 4774Papa! 👍

 

Funny enough, these three cruises that we have coming up are more or less what you mentioned: 😅

- Santiago to Buenos Aires

- Santiago to Port Canaveral

- Miami to Barcelona

 

I did find one we like on Cunard, for 112 nights, but as I mentioned, we're going to be buying quite a lot of CruiseNext certificates, hence the need to find NCL cruises.

 

I'll keep looking on what's available, and I appreciate your contribution.

 

Hopefully there are others who have done this in the past and don't mind sharing how they did it.

 

Thanks for chiming in!

Too bad you couldn't do back to back, withthose two SA cruises.  Lots of people do the Celebrity from Florida to Santiago (thru Panama Canal) then Santiago to BA.

 

We love South America.   If you can plan to spend some time there.   Peru, Chile and Argentina are great.  We did a great tour of Cuzco, Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu last March prior to our Chile to San Diego cruise on Celebrity Eclipse.

 

We like transatlantics, since we fly one way to Europe and save on airfare taking a cruise back to the USA.  We plan a nice land trip in Europe.

[nikkosan]

20 minutes ago, 4774Papa said:

Too bad you couldn't do back to back, withthose two SA cruises.  Lots of people do the Celebrity from Florida to Santiago (thru Panama Canal) then Santiago to BA.

 

We love South America.   If you can plan to spend some time there.   Peru, Chile and Argentina are great.  We did a great tour of Cuzco, Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu last March prior to our Chile to San Diego cruise on Celebrity Eclipse.

 

We like transatlantics, since we fly one way to Europe and save on airfare taking a cruise back to the USA.  We plan a nice land trip in Europe.

 

It's OK, we're doing it like that on purpose. Roughly 2 weeks on land in Chile, then 2 weeks on the first cruise, then 2 weeks on land in Argentina, then another 2 weeks to get back to FL, 3 weeks at home, and then the last 2 weeks to go back to Europe.

 

 

We would love to spend more time in Peru, but we look forward to seeing more of it on shore excursions this time!

 

Asia and Oceania is where we REALLY want to concentrate on next! Flying there can be a P in the A, even in business (dreading the 13-hour flight to Santiago from Madrid next week!), and cruising makes it sound sooooo much more bearable! HEHEHEHE LOL

 

P.S. Transatlantics rule! We had our first experience this past April, and we're absolutely hooked! We spend a lot of time in Europe (dual citizens), and we decided we're going to try and book as many crossings as possible.

 

[casofilia]

I think that you will have problems trying to set up a "pseudo" round the world cruise on NCL.   Re-positioning cruises only tale place at certain periods during the year and they do not "follow on".   Those are the cruises you would need to use to get one part of the world to another as NCL ships tend to stay in the same part of the world for much of the year.

[laurabegorrah]

5 hours ago, nikkosan said:

 my question is: are there Websites/OTAs/Cruise Consultants who can put together itineraries to create a "sort of" round the world itinerary on NCL?

 

I would assume a TA would be able to do the leg work for you and find the itineraries/ships that would create what you are trying to do.  It's always nice to have someone else puzzle together something this complicated for you lol

[nikkosan]

44 minutes ago, casofilia said:

I think that you will have problems trying to set up a "pseudo" round the world cruise on NCL.   Re-positioning cruises only tale place at certain periods during the year and they do not "follow on".   Those are the cruises you would need to use to get one part of the world to another as NCL ships tend to stay in the same part of the world for much of the year.

 

Hey Casofilia...

 

You're absolutely right, although, for instance, some of those YOU will be taking would also work, if only for a specific portion of the trip: i.e. Spirit out of Dubai to Cape Town, to Singapore, then to Tokyo, and finally to Hong Kong.

 

I say "would" because unfortunately it conflicts with our other cruising arrangements. 

 

Well, there's always next time!

 

Just now, laurabegorrah said:

 

I would assume a TA would be able to do the leg work for you and find the itineraries/ships that would create what you are trying to do.  It's always nice to have someone else puzzle together something this complicated for you lol

 

AMEN, Laura! LOL

[casofilia]

@nikkosan

 

Over the years we have also done Rome to Singapore, Yokohama to Seattle; Honolulu to Sydney (ship started in Vancouver), two Transatlantics and  Buenos Aires to San Francisco; all of which were re-positioning but it wouldn't have been possible to put them together.

The Yokohoma to Seattle could have started in Sydney as it went from there to Yokohama but you would have had to do what we did before going to Seattle; 28 days Yokohama-Shanghai-Yokohama and then 7 days in Tokyo as the ship had been taken by a Japanese company.

 

As you say the one under discussion at the moment is similar to some of those; Rome to Yokohama.

 

We are also booked to go round South America; Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles but I don't think that there is anything really long to tack on at beginning or end.

[nikkosan]

Thanks, @casofilia! Duly noted.

Happy travels!

[sanger727]

I don’t have too much to add. But a couple years ago in the spring, I took a cruise on celebrity that started in Hawaii and ended in Vancouver. I discovered on the roll call that a handful of people on the cruise did a b2b2b where it ran from Australia to Hawaii to Alaska. Just FYI in case a leg like that would interest on a cruise like this. Norwegian doesn’t offer anything like that though since they have the POA. But it ran Australia to Alaska in the spring and Alaska to Australia in the fall.

[debshomespun]

We are cruising on the Jade 2/27/20 and it's 20 night from Singapore to Dubai.  We are staying in Dubai, but the Jade then does a 22 night sailing from Dubai to Rome.  Those 42 days cover alot of port stops.  Many passengers are doing B2B2B....

[nikkosan]

16 minutes ago, sanger727 said:

I don’t have too much to add. But a couple years ago in the spring, I took a cruise on celebrity that started in Hawaii and ended in Vancouver. I discovered on the roll call that a handful of people on the cruise did a b2b2b where it ran from Australia to Hawaii to Alaska. Just FYI in case a leg like that would interest on a cruise like this. Norwegian doesn’t offer anything like that though since they have the POA. But it ran Australia to Alaska in the spring and Alaska to Australia in the fall.

 

Thanks, @sanger!

 

I'll keep looking....

 

Maybe we'll just have to bite the bullet and do one of the "proper" RTW cruises, like on the QV with Cunard, and use the CruiseNext deposits for smaller itineraries such as the ones you and all the others who have been courteous enough to answer have suggested.

 

We'll definitely look into getting to Asia and Australia via cruise, as we don't want to spend too much time flying, not even in business.

[nikkosan]

2 minutes ago, debshomespun said:

We are cruising on the Jade 2/27/20 and it's 20 night from Singapore to Dubai.  We are staying in Dubai, but the Jade then does a 22 night sailing from Dubai to Rome.  Those 42 days cover alot of port stops.  Many passengers are doing B2B2B....

 

Hi, Debbie!

 

Thanks for chiming in!

 

Unfortunately we will be cruising in South American on those dates, but I will most definitely continue looking for the same kind of itineraries, perhaps for 2021!

 

Happy travels!

[4774Papa]

2 hours ago, nikkosan said:

 

Thanks, @sanger!

 

I'll keep looking....

 

Maybe we'll just have to bite the bullet and do one of the "proper" RTW cruises, like on the QV with Cunard, and use the CruiseNext deposits for smaller itineraries such as the ones you and all the others who have been courteous enough to answer have suggested.

 

We'll definitely look into getting to Asia and Australia via cruise, as we don't want to spend too much time flying, not even in business.

Cunard =  $$$$$ but HAL has some RTW options.

[Clay Clayton]

Sorry to suggest another non-NCL option but Celebrity tends to reposition a ship from Alaska to Asia in the fall (reverse in late spring). We sailed Millennium from Vancouver to Tokyo last September and really enjoyed it. That ship then does mostly Japanese tours but I think if you wanted you could probably come up with some cruises taking you through Southeast Asia and perhaps as far as Australia. We spent an extra week in Japan and then flew to China for a week before boarding Viking Orion for a cruise along the China coast. Unfortunately we then had a 12 flight back to the USA-ugh. But at least it was “free” courtesy of Viking. 😊

 

We aren't doing it this year but I’m hoping to put together a RTW itinerary for us in the future.  I suspect it will involve some land stays and perhaps some short repositioning flights but soooo much better than long airline flights.   

[nikkosan]

5 hours ago, 4774Papa said:

Cunard =  $$$$$ but HAL has some RTW options.

 

Yeah, Cunard is a pretty penny, BUT, you only live once, right? The 108-night itinerary doesn't look too bad.

 

As for HAL, Maasdam had some amazing options last summer (San Francisco to Alaska, to Japan, to Australia), but we were busy with a nightmare sale of a property in Florida, and we couldn't make it happen! 😣

 

2 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

Sorry to suggest another non-NCL option but Celebrity tends to reposition a ship from Alaska to Asia in the fall (reverse in late spring). We sailed Millennium from Vancouver to Tokyo last September and really enjoyed it. That ship then does mostly Japanese tours but I think if you wanted you could probably come up with some cruises taking you through Southeast Asia and perhaps as far as Australia. We spent an extra week in Japan and then flew to China for a week before boarding Viking Orion for a cruise along the China coast. Unfortunately we then had a 12 flight back to the USA-ugh. But at least it was “free” courtesy of Viking. 😊

 

We aren't doing it this year but I’m hoping to put together a RTW itinerary for us in the future.  I suspect it will involve some land stays and perhaps some short repositioning flights but soooo much better than long airline flights.   

 

Hey, @Clay Clayton!

 

I hear ya loud and clear, and YES, those long flights are a NO NO! I'm already despising the Madrid-Santiago next Tuesday, even with "front of the bus" tickets sweetening the deal.

 

The itinerary you mentioned is definitely on our radar, especially the long haul to Oz, where we could then spend time on land for a while. As for Japan, I'm dying to go, but it is one of those destinations I would rather do while cruising, just a feeling...

[Clay Clayton]

I had that same feeling but I really enjoyed our land time also. People are wonderful, polite and seem to love helping tourists.  

[nikkosan]

1 hour ago, Clay Clayton said:

I had that same feeling but I really enjoyed our land time also. People are wonderful, polite and seem to love helping tourists.  

 

It's the "not being able to read signs" part that gives me an instant headache; I'm a bit of a control freak! LOL Ooooops!

 

I'll need to do a bit more research on the Maasdam, there's a San Diego to Sydney to Singapore and back to San Diego with A LOT of ports we've never visited, AND about one and a half months to spend in Australia, which would be perfect!

 

 

[Clay Clayton]

Lots of signs in English especially in the tourist cities-Toyko, Kyoto, etc. 

 

Sounds like a perfect cruise though HAL isn’t our fav. 

[nikkosan]

57 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

Sounds like a perfect cruise though HAL isn’t our fav. 

 

Same here, but as the old saying goes, "beggars can't be choosers"! It's a matter of "atmosphere" and entertainment for us. That being said, at the end of the day, we're more interested in the ports visited, and what we can manage to see on land.