World Cruise 2023

[Britboys]

I see Fred has released the 2023 World Cruise aboard Borealis. Relatively short for a circumnavigation at 80 days. It strikes me as a fairly interesting itinerary if you haven't previously done a World Cruise (I haven't) but is quite heavy on calls in Japan. No calls in Australia or New Zealand. The marketing makes the point that Borealis sails at a high speed, making around the world in 80 days possible...

[tring]

All I read was the itinerary, though I am not surprised they are making a point of the speed.  It certainly struck us as a dash round the world, rather than Fred's previous depth of itineraries, which is more our thing as we sail for the ports.  There are no overnights, so four ports (four days) in Japan, three in Hawaii, followed by San Francisco and a number of other ports south to Panama and in the Carribbean.  Apart from that, it is a very quick dash with just the odd port to break up monotony.  The only port which stands out for us is San Francisco, which we would love to visit, though a longer land stay would be much more appealing than a few hours from a cruise ship.

 

We have never done a complete world cruise, but have opted in to cruises in various parts of the world, usually with land stays as well.  The only point in offering that itinerary is to house people who do not or cannot fly IMO.  Another point towards diverting away from Fred for us, though we are sad he seems to have forgotten what his strengths were with the smaller ships that were able, and did, call at some very interesting places.  Others may well disagree with me (us), but I do wonder how easily (or not) he will manage to get enough

passengers for that cruise.

 

Edited March 2, 2021 by tring

[Britboys]

As you probably recall, I was due to do a World Cruise sector with P&O this year but I must say that if they broke this one down into sectors, I don't think there would be one which is appealing.

Maybe they will do a more classic itinerary on Bolette???

[tring]

36 minutes ago, Britboys said:

As you probably recall, I was due to do a World Cruise sector with P&O this year but I must say that if they broke this one down into sectors, I don't think there would be one which is appealing.

Maybe they will do a more classic itinerary on Bolette???

 

 I do not recall you having a world cruise sector booked - but likely a memory problem.  Which sector was it? 

 

Bolette is more the replacement for what Boudicca had done in the last few years, so something better may come out for her - but who knows.  I have thought though that the Borealis cruise is focusing a lot on main cities and possibly areas which are more likely to become cruise destinations again by then, so perhaps that itinerary is a "playing it safe" one.  I do not personally think any sort of world cruise will be taking place this time next year, but we will have to wait and see.

 

Boudicca's itineraries were breakable into short sections of about two weeks or so and could be built up into longer sections, though perhaps a disadvantage for you would be that she spent longer in any particular location, so perhaps not giving the spread you would want of different parts of the World.  This bit by bit cruise release is getting me quite annoyed as need to see a full sweep of availability.  The next brochure should be due sometime this month, so would be good to see it do so.

 

We have decided to sit tight with no future bookings at present as we both have recent health issues, which have needed a couple of hospital referrals each.  The issues are not likely to be serious, but will currently make travel insurance a bit complicated and expensive.  Just hoping this does not continue into the future.

 

Hope all is well with you,

 

Barbara    

Edited March 3, 2021 by tring

[Britboys]

1 hour ago, tring said:

 

 I do not recall you having a world cruise sector booked - but likely a memory problem.  Which sector was it? 

 

Bolette is more the replacement for what Boudicca had done in the last few years, so something better may come out for her - but who knows.  I have thought though that the Borealis cruise is focusing a lot on main cities and possibly areas which are more likely to become cruise destinations again by then, so perhaps that itinerary is a "playing it safe" one.  I do not personally think any sort of world cruise will be taking place this time next year, but we will have to wait and see.

 

Boudicca's itineraries were breakable into short sections of about two weeks or so and could be built up into longer sections, though perhaps a disadvantage for you would be that she spent longer in any particular location, so perhaps not giving the spread you would want of different parts of the World.  This bit by bit cruise release is getting me quite annoyed as need to see a full sweep of availability.  The next brochure should be due sometime this month, so would be good to see it do so.

 

We have decided to sit tight with no future bookings at present as we both have recent health issues, which have needed a couple of hospital referrals each.  The issues are not likely to be serious, but will currently make travel insurance a bit complicated and expensive.  Just hoping this does not continue into the future.

 

Hope all is well with you,

 

Barbara    

Hi Barbara,

 

I was sailing San Francisco to Hong Kong. Thirty nine nights via Hawaii, a couple of Pacific Islands, NZ, Australia, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. I had booked it to celebrate my retirement. Would be nice to see a little bit of NZ and Australia without a long flight on my own!

 

I do see what you mean about main cities that might be open to cruise ships. The newish 2022 QM2 Worldie is terribly boring. It's not really a Worldie at all, going via the Middle East both outbound and inbound. I looked at that when it came out and just thought dull, dull, dull.

 

I don't like the bit by bit release either. When Fred posted a teaser for this cruise on their fb page, I commented that I don't like the drip, drip approach and hoped that next year after the Covid crisis is hopefully over, they will go back to a normal release.

 

Hope your hospital appointments work out well.

 

Andrew