Around the world in 180 days – cruise with a difference, Post magazine

Oceania Cruises’ MS Insignia will call at ports in 38 countries, none of them in Europe, Australasia or the South Pacific

Promoted as the “most diverse ever offered”, the itinerary for Oceania Cruises’ recently announced 2020 Around the World Voyage is indeed an unusual one. The MS Insignia is scheduled to cross three oceans and visit 38 countries on four continents, but will completely bypass Europe, Australasia and the South Pacific – three staple destinations of luxury cruising – in favour of less travelled sea lanes.

Beginning and ending in the United States (passengers can embark either in Miami on January 8 or San Francisco on January 26), the six-month voyage puts in at ports around Central and South America until March 20, before crossing the Atlantic.

Rather than making for Gibraltar and the Mediterranean, though, the ship will visit the west coast of Africa, dropping anchor at Cape Verde, Senegal, the Gambia, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Togo, before setting sail for a lengthy five consecutive nights at sea on the way down to Namibia. Another five nights with no sight of land will be spent between Mauritius and the Maldives.

The Asian leg of the cruise is more routine – heading up to Japan via the usual Southeast Asian ports and Hong Kong – but then turns sharply north towards remote Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky for a day on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.

Then it’s out across the North Pacific towards the remote Aleutian Islands and Alaska, and back to San Francisco for July 4, or Miami for July 20.

If the Mediterranean/Australasia/South Pacific option sounds more enticing, then Oceania’s January 2019 World Cruise, which was announced this time last year, still has berths available, and takes in all three, bypassing South America and Africa.

For details of both cruises – which start from US$39,909 per person – visit oceaniacruises.com.

Source URL:  Post Magazine