Have you ever been on, or would you ever go on a World Cruise?

[Dan Murphy]

No interest.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I'm talking about the ones that last 2 to 3 months. I don't think I ever will. I think I'd get home sick. I think the longest I could do would be a 15 day one to Hawaii. Then again, I've never been on a cruise. I'm planning my first one in 2 years. It will be a 7 day one to Alaska. If you've been on long cruises, do you get bored? I'd love to hear.

We're working up to it. We started with a 15 night cruise for our very first one. We're up to 35 days for our longest thus far.

Contemplating a 50-60 day cruise next. Maybe. Could be up to 90 days.

Not been bored yet. But I'm pretty much a couch potato and it doesn't take much to amuse me. It's interesting visiting other countries and seeing what they're proud to show off.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

(Viking food is not crappy but I imagine 6 months would be plenty long enough to get tired of it)

I think it's not so much that cruise food is crappy, but I do get tired of having to sit down to a 3 course dinner every night and having to chose what to eat. Sometimes I just want McDonalds.

 

[Living42Day]

We really love cruising and have done a couple so far. I think I would absolutely love a month long cruise. Not sure about longer, that would have to be after I retire or if I could ever take an extended leave of absence at work. All the circumstances would need to align.

 

[neverlandsky]

Nope. Will never go on a cruise due to motion sickness, spending money to be stuffed into a claustrophobic space, and well I’ve seen Titanic, The Poseidon’s Adventure, Poseidon, and 2012.

 

[lovin'fl]

We are about to go on our 20th cruise. The longest, so far, has been 9 nights but this next one is a 13 night transatlantic. We will see how that goes because the husband really wants to do a leg of one of the world cruises (like 40-60 nights or something like that). And he even knows which he wants to do (well, on the Royal Caribbean world cruise he had a leg he liked).

I feel like 5-7 nights is good for me. I get frustrated because the husband doesn't like to sit out on deck just relaxing. He HATES that. And he also isn't fond of using the pools or hot tubs and all that. So I always have to sit out on deck alone, sunning/reading/watching the ocean and all that. He likes to be inside drinking and playing trivia but also prefers port heavy cruises. That kind of stuff. Neither of us do the casino. So we'll see if I get bored or lonely on this 13 nighter (of which the last 6 days are sea days crossing the ocean). And we shall see how he does with just 4/13 port days.

 

[jdb in AZ]

It would depend on how many days "at sea" are included in the cruise. DH and I cruised 15 days round trip from Los Angeles to Hawaii and while the days in port were quite busy, DH got bored during the sea days. We also cruised Europe for two weeks, and spent so many days in port that we needed the sea days to re-energize.

Some friends who are die-hard cruisers sailed from Fiji to Los Angeles, and all those days at sea made them stir crazy.

 

[TippyThomas]

I do have a friend that I hear about that does repositioning cruises and they last for about 30 days or so. She fell in love with cruising after her husband passed and she goes on many of those. I don't know the details but that seems like a step above the normal cruise and a step below a world cruise. I've never been on one so I have no idea how it all works.

 

[sam_gordon]

I think it's not so much that cruise food is crappy, but I do get tired of having to sit down to a 3 course dinner every night and having to chose what to eat. Sometimes I just want McDonalds.

We've only been on Royal, but all the ships have had other options for dinner than 3 course meals.

 

[easyas123]

Viking food is not crappy but I imagine 6 months would be plenty long enough to get tired of it

Viking is the only cruise line we've ever been on, and yeah - food was fine but I imagine after a month or so you'd need a break! We were always amazed at the folks that rushed back for lunch or dinner in a few cases vs. eating in the (River) ports we were stopped at. That was part of the fun of it for us, trying places in port and managing our way thru a menu in a language we weren't familiar with!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I think it's not so much that cruise food is crappy, but I do get tired of having to sit down to a 3 course dinner every night and having to chose what to eat. Sometimes I just want McDonalds.

Yeah there was a post someone made recently enough on a Seabourn FB page complaining loudly that after a month on the ship where was the variety....umm...yes well you are on that ship for already a month that is bound to happen. Ships have preplanned out restocking ports and while there are "go out with the chef and shop" stuff that goes on by in large they can't just make a new meal for all the restaurants for all the meals every single day day after day for months on end.

The food isn't bad either, many love the food, they just complain it gets old after a while which IMO is understandable but very expected and nothing you really can do. Oddly enough one of the most beloved things on Seabourn seems to be their fries at the pool bar area (that and grandma's cake you can get inside where there's their coffee place). One time they apparently changed the what they cooked it in prompting loud complaints to corporate and soon enough it was back to the way it was before. Even long-term sail around the world passengers want their fries I guess lol.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We've only been on Royal, but all the ships have had other options for dinner than 3 course meals.

On our recent cruise, besides the MDR, the other options were the extra cost dining (2 choices), the buffet, one quick serve counter with gourmet burgers/hot dogs & fries. There's also room service, but my experience with them is not great.

 

[sam_gordon]

On our recent cruise, besides the MDR, the other options were the extra cost dining (2 choices), the buffet, one quick serve counter with gourmet burgers/hot dogs & fries. There's also room service, but my experience with them is not great.

And? The buffet, the quick service, and room service are all options. No one is forced (at least the Royal ships we have been on) to eat in the MDR, much less forced to order three courses.

 

[hardcorestitch]

I have NEVER cruised in my life, but I would love to do so on a Disney cruise in the future. There's just something that this mouse does to make basically everything, even being cramped in a stateroom, feel like the most monumental.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

And? The buffet, the quick service, and room service are all options. No one is forced (at least the Royal ships we have been on) to eat in the MDR, much less forced to order three courses.

I'm not saying I'm "forced" to eat 3 courses, just that having to sit down, peruse the menu, and figure out something to eat every night gets old after a while.

The buffet serves the same items every day, and usually what's also on the menu in the dining room. As I noted the "quick serve" option on our recent cruises (not DCL) was only gourmet burgers/hot dogs and fries. Not much variety there.

And room service, just not my cup of tea. I had a cold on one cruise, and earlier in that cruise I'd had some delicous chicken noodle soup in the MDR. I ordered some from room service - it was a greasy, over spiced, disgusting mess!

All that said, I've got my work arounds for those nights that I'm not up for a full meal. I secure a copy of the kid's menu for the cruise and order off that. On occasion I'll just order one baked potato. Or only have a salad.

 

[WDWEPCOT]

If it was DISNEY yes in a heartbeat yes I did three weeks on DISNEY once - TA followed by a 7 night and I could’ve done three more weeks - absolutely loved it

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

We love cruising and our initial plans for retirement was doing a Viking world cruise (a little over 5 months, LA to England). This was our plan for years. Then COVID hit and once world cruising resumed, port calls were changed and the itinerary is still not back to where it was pre-COVID. Such as Middle East, that is all eliminated and while it might seem "scary" to some, many of those places are very safe to travel to.

Then we have started vacationing for 2 weeks at a time. We realized we don't want to be away from home for 6 months so we have axed the world cruise plan. Probably a month away from home is our max.

Another big downside with the world cruise is you have very limited time in some of the ports (which is the case on any cruise).

Our plan is to continue to do various individual cruises. Then we could explore some of the cities we want to see more in-depth by arriving / departing to the port cities with extra days. I also think in the long run it could save some money as we aren't forced to pay Viking prices and could do some segments on Norwegian or Royal Caribbean. We have found many cruises on those lines that are 3 weeks, so it would be nice to cruise for that long.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Such as Middle East, that is all eliminated and while it might seem "scary" to some, many of those places are very safe to travel to.

Well it's not exactly that being the reason that region isn't really used as much on cruising. Most of it is because of the waterways being unsafe due to pirates, terrorism and more. Red Sea and Suez Canal have been the biggest issues. The cruise lines were keeping cruises with ports either on one side or the other or in these waterways until they basically had no choice. I saw so many comments about when Seabourn for instance was going to cancel cruises in this area last year and in 2023 and they tried to wait as long as they could. So while Egypt for example has some safety issues they would cruise there if they could get through the Suez Canal safely. As is in one of the more recent cruises they sailed the ship it needed as a ship with no passengers and only necessary crew around the coast of Africa to get it to Singapore for its next season after being done in the Mediterranean rather than use the Suez Canal on an actual cruise.

I saw a lot of cruises that were going to and from Haifa (Tel Aviv) on Seabourn (as that was a main port used as a starting and ending point for cruises in that part of the world for Seabourn) in 2022 and into 2023 but obviously no longer due to war. Going to countries with active and heavy war going on is scary and ill advised for anyone much less a cruise ship.

 

[soccerdad72]

I'd be interested, but I don't think my wife would want to be on a ship for that long. She's enjoyed the cruises we've done, but she does still have tendency to get sea sick occasionally, so I think a cruise of that length would be pushing it.

 

[irlandaise]

Doesn't interest me, but I have a friend who's two weeks into HAL's 2025 world cruise (four months) and she's having a ball so far.