- A 113-day world cruise has just set sail from Sydney.
- This voyage will include thousands of Australians, including a couple who are known for living at sea aboard Princess ships.
- The huge popularity of the sailing has already produced a big reaction online
Thousands of cruise passengers have set sail on a 113-day Crown Princess cruise, which just departed from Sydney. Among these are reportedly 3000 Australians, including Jessica and Marty Ansen, a couple famous for the thousands of days they’ve spent at sea together.
The cruise will span across 42 ports, in 22 countries and five continents, as thousands of Aussies ditch the cold winter and set sail for a journey of global discovery.
The Ansens told trade website Karry On that life at sea is the way of travel that makes sense for them.
“Life at sea is the only way we travel – apart from getting on board, everything else is taken care of for you.
“You can forget about housework with a constantly cleaned room, including your bed made daily, eating at the finest restaurants and enjoying world-class entertainment.
“This is not only more affordable than a retirement home or travelling by air, but also much more and where you can meet life-long friends.”
You can follow along here to track the cruise and see all the destinations that the Ansens and so many other cruisers are set to visit.
They’re set to visit South Africa, Namibia, Spain, Portugal, France, England and more over the next few weeks alone.
Would you take a world cruise?
The cruising community and the general public often hold very different opinions on world cruising.
While for many in the cruise community, a world cruise is aspirational and often a dream or bucket list experience, many who aren’t so into cruising can struggle to understand this. Comments on Channel 7 coverage of the world cruise ranged from “my idea of hell” to “$100k to see an ocean? 50 days spent at sea? No thanks”.
Royal Caribbean’s Ultimate World Cruise sailed into the history books in 2024 as the most viral nine-month odyssey.
It was a 360-degree stream of on-board drama, as told from the perspective of a rotating cast of characters (since people could join at any point for one or more segments of the trip).
Many of the 650 full-timers on board started posting videos to TikTok and Instagram, filming their routines at sea and explorations on shore. And a handful of existing content creators — firmly rooted on land, from New York to California — edited those videos to report on the cruise in real time.
The Princess world cruise promises to be an altogether more genteel affair.
The general sentiment of non-cruisers is that they can’t imagine why people would want to be on a cruise for that long.
However, as one might expect, Cruise Passenger readers don’t share the same perspective!
One wrote: “I’ve done three world cruises with Princess. This year, I will be boarding Crown in Dover on 30/7 for the second half of the trip and will cruise home to Brisbane. Haven’t sailed on her before, looking forward to it.”
Others also shared their experiences on other world cruises.
“We did the world cruise on Coral Princess last year, and enjoyed every minute. Have fun adventuring and meeting some beautiful people. Had a huge tilt on our way home from Bay of Islands to Sydney, very scary.”
Others wished they were hopping onboard.
“Wish it was me boarding today. But I hope everyone who does board has an amazing trip!”
World cruises offer a unique opportunity to visit places all around the world, but only having to pack once and not having to worry about transport between destinations and the heavy load of organising and booking an itinerary.
However, others might feel that it’s simply too much time at sea and would rather travel on land if they were to plan such a long vacation.
What do you think?
Should Princess keep a ship in Australia over the off-season?
Crown Princess is technically considered to port year-round in Australia, as the world cruise starts and ends in Sydney. However, given that the ship sails off for around four months to go and explore the world, during this period, it is obviously not available for local cruises for Aussies.
The only other year-round option for large-ship cruising in Australia is Carnival, which offers a very different experience to Princess, which many Aussies prefer for its more tranquil and elegant experience, when compared to a family ship.
Therefore, there are many Aussies who might not be able to splash out on a world cruise, but would have local cruises to escape the winter. For example, cruises to destinations such as the South Pacific, North Queensland, and Western Australia could prove popular in the off-season for Princess, but in reality, Princess doesn’t have year-round options for those cruises in Australia.
In 2027 Grand Princess will be the ‘year-round’ option for Australians, but similarly will embark on a world cruise during this time, meaning Princess will continue not having an option in Australia throughout the entire year.
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I took a short cruise on the Crown, and as a result canceled the world cruise booking.
We have done 4 World Cruises, it is absolutely the best way to get a snap shot of the World. We are off to Uganda this year for viewing Mountain Gorilla’s, then Northern Lights next year Pick up a segment of a World Cruise to do that one it is so easy to do.
The topic of cruise ships not going to smaller regional ports often stems from the ports cannot accommodate large ships with 4000 pax and then its tendering which is not ideal.
The ports of Fremantle, Adelaide and others need to entice the smaller more luxurious ships, as Princess, Royal Caribbean and others are going for larger and larger ships.
The current Pacific ports are often ‘been there done that’ how about ports such as Raratonga on Cook Islands, Samoa and different ports in Vanuatu instead of Port Vila?