Do WC itineraries change much?

[Diveloonie]

Just a couple more years and we will be joining a Viking WC.  I'm wondering has anyone got an idea how much if any the itineraries for the WC change from year to year?  I have looked closely at the last two itineraries and not much changes.  Anyone?

[Heidi13]

1 minute ago, Diveloonie said:

Just a couple more years and we will be joining a Viking WC.  I'm wondering has anyone got an idea how much if any the itineraries for the WC change from year to year?  I have looked closely at the last two itineraries and not much changes.  Anyone?

 

I'll suggest the last 3 WC's are a COVID anomaly.

 

Viking started World Cruising in 2017/18, with an itinerary that followed the same general path as the current WC, but with a number of different ports, especially in the Pacific. It had more SE Asia ports and less in the Meddy.

 

The 2018/19 WC was completely different, crossing the Indian Ocean, round Cape of Good Hope and up the coast of Africa

 

Ultimate 245-day WC was 2019/20, consisting of the "Ultimate" and 2 shorter World Cruises.

 

2020/21 - Was similar to the 2nd half of the Ultimate, but had more Meddy ports. This cruise was cancelled

 

2021/22 - Similar to the 20/21 which was fully booked, but was cancelled. This cruise did sail, but had a severely modified itinerary

 

2022/23 - Similar to 22/23, but with a few new ports

 

2023/24 - An exact copy of 22/23, which I'll suggest permitted Viking to get it published quickly, since their resources were used in reworking itineraries for other cruises. They have 2 ships on the same itinerary, which are well sold.

 

Once 2025 is published, I expect to see more changes from the previous 3 years. 

[Diveloonie]

Thank you Andy.  I figured Covid had something to do with it.  I don't understand how Myanmar has several overnights in port, while Singapore has one.  I do like the current itinerary, but hoping for more Asian ports when we go.  Not at all interested in western Africa or many of the South America ports.
Maybe I will see you on our future WC!

[Heidi13]

11 minutes ago, Diveloonie said:

Thank you Andy.  I figured Covid had something to do with it.  I don't understand how Myanmar has several overnights in port, while Singapore has one.  I do like the current itinerary, but hoping for more Asian ports when we go.  Not at all interested in western Africa or many of the South America ports.
Maybe I will see you on our future WC!

 

Anything is possible. We had to cancel # 3, so maybe in a couple of years.

 

You may want to search for World Cruise itineraries. I recall a number of months ago we discussed itineraries, with a list of ports of interest. I even threw together a quick itinerary. Unfortunately, I can't recall the name of the thread.

[UWDawg]

2 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

 

Anything is possible. We had to cancel # 3, so maybe in a couple of years.

 

You may want to search for World Cruise itineraries. I recall a number of months ago we discussed itineraries, with a list of ports of interest. I even threw together a quick itinerary. Unfortunately, I can't recall the name of the thread.

I believe this may be the start of the thread to which @Heidi13 refers in which a wish list of desired ports for a World Cruise was discussed:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2767734-december-22-2022-world-cruise-ft-lauderdale-to-london-incudes-la-dep-jan-8th/?do=findComment&comment=61127696

 

[Piaa]

7 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

Once 2025 is published, I expect to see more changes from the previous 3 years. 

 

Thank you - when do you think that might be announced?

[Heidi13]

3 hours ago, Piaa said:

 

Thank you - when do you think that might be announced?

 

Sorry, don't have any info on when the next WC will be released.

[Piaa]

13 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

 

Sorry, don't have any info on when the next WC will be released.

 

 

Thank you 

[Mich3554]

16 hours ago, Piaa said:

 

Thank you - when do you think that might be announced?

Last year, it was released around Dec some time.  I had a WC for 2024 on my radar and asked my Viking agent to let me know when he gets something.  I got an email while I was on the Jupiter, and a call from my agent after I got home asking me if I was still interested.  
 

[Piaa]

On 10/12/2022 at 12:01 PM, Mich3554 said:

Last year, it was released around Dec some time.  I had a WC for 2024 on my radar and asked my Viking agent to let me know when he gets something.  I got an email while I was on the Jupiter, and a call from my agent after I got home asking me if I was still interested.  
 

Thank you so much 

[Atwell]

I don't know exactly when the info on the 2023/2024 World Cruise was released but our booking was made on Sept 25, 2021.  Based on that, I thought the 2024/2025 World Cruise might be released by now, but nothing so far.

 

 

[UWDawg]

The 2022/23 WC on the Neptune was announced/posted on 9 Dec 2020.  #1
The 2023/24 WC on the Neptune was announced/posted on 19 July 2021.  #2111
The 2023/24 WC on the Sky was announced/posted on 21 Aug 2021.  #2384

So here we are more than a year later… the 2024/25 WC could be announced at anytime.  

 

As @Heidi13 mentioned, since the 2022/23 and 2023/24 WC's closely followed the original 2021/22 WC itinerary, and since the ports included in these WC's are largely a collection of the ports included in Viking's Asia & Australia and Mediterranean voyages, pulling together the Viking WCs for the past couple of years was probably straight forward.  I'm thinking the next Viking WC will likely be a complete overhaul and require more planning and coordination.  Plus I'd guess that they are looking for the geo-political situation to settle a bit.

[OneSixtyToOne]

19 hours ago, UWDawg said:

So here we are more than a year later… the 2024/25 WC could be announced at anytime.  

Received this in today’s mail, but it’s still 2023 & 2024

[UWDawg]

2024/25 Viking World Cruise posted. 
Viking often makes pricing changes as of the first of the month so I wanted to check the prices for the upcoming 2023/24 World Cruise before the end of the month and as of the first of the month/year.  When I checked I noticed that Viking has posted the 2024/25 World Cruise.  Unfortunately, it appears that the 2024/25 WC will have the same itinerary as the 2022/23 and 2023/24 Viking World Cruises.

 

• https://www.vikingcruises.com/oceans/cruise-destinations/world-grand/viking-world-cruise/index.html
• https://www.vikingcruises.com/oceans/cruise-destinations/world-grand/viking-world-journeys/index.html

[CurlerRob]

7 hours ago, UWDawg said:

2024/25 Viking World Cruise posted. 
Unfortunately, it appears that the 2024/25 WC will have the same itinerary as the 2022/23 and 2023/24 Viking World Cruises.

 

This is disappointing, as we have sailed that track and are not overly interested in a repeat. We had been hoping for a "dual cape" voyage.

 

As you did earlier, I speculate that, as with the 2023/24 decision, this is the path of least resistance and lowest cost risk for Viking. Unfortunate indeed. 🍺🥌

[Heidi13]

On 1/1/2023 at 8:31 AM, CurlerRob said:

 

This is disappointing, as we have sailed that track and are not overly interested in a repeat. We had been hoping for a "dual cape" voyage.

 

As you did earlier, I speculate that, as with the 2023/24 decision, this is the path of least resistance and lowest cost risk for Viking. Unfortunate indeed. 🍺🥌

 

Totally agree with you Rob, I fully expected a totally fresh itinerary for 24/25.

[Jim Avery]

29 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

 

Totally agree with you Rob, I fully expected a totally fresh itinerary for 24/25.

Hi Andy, 

As we know the posted itineraries are a suggestion.  Actually there are a limited number of suitable ports in the visitable world unless you get off the beaten track.  That would require Viking to use more speed than 10-12 knots.  We know how they hate to go fast.....😳🍺

[UWDawg]

Email received this morning showing some significant changes to the 2024/25 Viking World Cruise itinerary.  Previously, the published Viking WC itinerary was essentially unchanged for 2021/22, 22/23, 23/24, 24/25 and 25/26.  Geopolitical events resulted in significant changes to the itineraries while in-route for 2021/22 and 2023/24 and only the 2022/23 WC stayed pretty true to the original itinerary.

 

For 2021/22 Covid resulted in ports in Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, SE Asia, and India being closed, so we instead headed around South America and had lots of extra ports in the Mediterranean. 

 

For 2023/23, tensions in the Middle East made transiting the Red Sea too risky, so instead most of India was skipped and we sailed around Africa and never went to ports in the Middle East or Mediterranean.

 

We were on the Viking World Journeys cruises from LA to London in 2022 and in 2024.  Although the original itineraries were identical, the number of ports we repeated on these cruises totaled 3, and 2 of those were LA and London.  [The third was Porto, which wasn't on the original itinerary for either of the cruises.] And even "London" was different because in 2022 we ported in Tilbury and in 2024 we ported in Greenwich. 

 

A quick look at the revised 2024/25 WC itinerary and here are the changes I noticed:

* the major obvious change is that the Red Sea ports and those in the Mediterranean have all been scratched and instead they will be heading around Africa.

* Ho Chi Minh City removed from the itinerary

* India removed from the itinerary

* Myanmar removed from the itinerary [of course none of the WC's over the past few years made it to Myanmar either].

* The transition from New Zealand to Australia no longer includes the scenic cruise through Milford and Doubtful Sounds, or the ports of Hobart Tasmania, Philips Island, Melbourne, or Eden, but instead transits directly from Wellington, NZ to Sidney, AU.

* While transiting around Africa and hitting most of the ports that the 2023/24 WC visited in Africa, many additional ports were added.

 

As previously posted, starting with with the 2024/25 season, you can extend the WC beyond London.  This extension essentially adds on the British Islands and the Iconic Iceland, Greenland & Canada cruises, ending in New York.

 

Since Viking has many cruises in the Med, the new WC itinerary offers new adventures not currently available with other Viking cruise itineraries.  We really enjoyed the unexpected diversion around Africa.  Because we had already been to the Mediterranean on the original itinerary, if given the option of the original itinerary, or one which went around Africa instead of through the Med, we would have opted to see Africa.