Since Judi got sick down in Indio and returned home for treatment, our 2018 travel plans were cancelled and 2019 is still being developed, but 2020 is well underway. We have just booked our 2nd World Cruise to celebrate our 40th anniversary.
We board the Viking Sun in Los Angeles on 4th January 2020 and will spend 118 nights aboard, departing in London on 2nd May.
In 2020 it will be 5 years since our not so stellar World Cruise with Princess Cruises and for our 40th anniversary we have researched a number of options:
- Viking Ocean – World Cruise
- Holland America – circumnavigate South America
- Holland America – circumnavigate the Pacific Ocean
- Oceania – World Cruise
The Oceania option was longer at 180 days and visited some exceptional ports, but it headed East after rounding South America. Heading East, you lose an hour every time the clocks change. Heading West you gain an hour. Since clocks normally change at 02:00, we prefer to gain an extra hour sleep, hence our preference for heading West.
Viking Ocean
Originally a river cruise company, in 2015 they entered “Blue Water” cruising, ordering 6 small and identical ships. Maximum passengers is only 930. The Viking Sun was launched in 2017 and will be the ship sailing the 2020 World Cruise.
Viking Sun – CruiseMapper
Itinerary
- Los Angeles
- Marquesas Island, French Polynesia
- Tahiti, French Polynesia (overnight)
- Bora Bora, French Polynesia
- Rarotonga, Cook Islands
- Tongatapu, Tonga
- Suva, Fiji
- Bay of Islands, New Zealand
- Aukland, New Zealand (overnight)
- Rotorua, New Zealand
- Napier, New Zealand
- Wellington, New Zealand
- Christchurch, New Zealand
- Dunedin, New Zealand
- Cruising NZ Fiords
- Hobart, Tasmania
- Melbourne, Australia
- Sydney, Australia (overnight)
- Brisbane, Australia
- Whitsunday Islands, Australia
- Cairns, Australia
- Thursday Island, Australia
- Darwin, Australia
- Komodo, Indonesia
- Bali, Indonesia
- Java, Indonesia
- Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia (overnight)
- Manila, Philippines (overnight)
- Xiamen, China
- Hong Kong, China (overnight x 2)
- Scenic Cruising – Ha Long Bay, Vietnam
- Saigon, Vietnam (overnight x 2)
- Sihanoukville, Cambodia
- Bangkok, Thailand (overnight)
- Koh Samui, Thailand
- Singapore, Singapore
- Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- George Town, Malaysia
- Phuket, Thailand
- Chennai, India
- Cochin, India
- Goa, India
- Mumbai, India
- Muscat, Oman
- Aqaba, Jordan
- Luxor, Egypt
- Cruising Suez Canal
- Alexandria, Egypt,
- Valletta, Malta (overnight)
- Cagliari, Italy
- Algiers, Morocco
- Murcia, Spain
- Granada, Spain,
- Porto, Portugal
- Dover, UK
- Greenwich (London), UK
While the Viking Ocean base fare is more expensive than other cruise lines, the included benefits are extensive:
- Complimentary excursion in each port – additional tours can also be booked
- Complimentary drinks package that includes most alcoholic & non-alcoholic beverages
- Complimentary gratuities
- Complimentary business class airfare & transfers to/from ship
- USD $3,000 pp On Board Credits
- Cruise line organises all Visas required in your passport
- Complimentary laundry
- Complimentary specialty restaurants
For additional details on the cruise, select here
Andy & Judi's Worldwide Travels 
Good article and nice blog ….. Congratulations.
I invite you to see my artistic creations.
welcome 🙂
LikeLike
Hi Andie and Judie, I will be on this world 2020 trip too ,
hope to meet aboard,
best regards,
nelson laskowsky
LikeLike
Hi Nelson,
Do you use Cruise Critic, as we have a number of passengers on the roll call. Are you joining in L/A or are you also completing the 1st half of the WC.
Andy
LikeLike
Like your blog. My husband and I will be doing the 2020 Costa Deliziosa 113 day worldwide cruise . We also had a big RV and lived and traveled in it for 3 1/3 years before we settled down in Hilton Head, South Carolina.
We travel pretty extensively but decided that a ww cruise would be a good way to visit some places we might not get to do an extensive visit to; Australia, Tahiti, Easter Island, etc. We know this is an inexpensive cruise on a Eurocentric ship, but the price can’t be beat.
LikeLike
Lynn & Tom,
Thanks for leaving a comment. Enjoy your cruise, maybe we will be in port together.
LikeLike
Sounds amazing! I might have to add this to the bucket list for when I retire 🙂 Can’t wait to read about your big adventure. Hope Judi is doing better now.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Krystle – thanks for the comment. We are definitely counting down the days to this adventure.The more we read about Viking’s previous world cruise the more excited we get.
Will complete daily reports similar to our last world cruise covering life onboard and then additional posts on the ports and tours we complete.
Welcome back, hope you are also feeling better, as the loss of a pet is never easy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have read several times your WC comments on your Sea Princess cruise and learned a lot. We plan to take one when my husband retires, but it will not be on Princess. So, I stay tuned to see how the Viking WC goes. I want a detailed summary! Right now I like Crystal for our WC, but of course, may change my mind before we actually book. How did you decide on Viking?
LikeLike
After almost 40 years with Princess, since they were purchased by Carnival, we had seen their standards steadily dropping. Unfortunately, this is not only limited to Princess, as it is fairly consistent across all mainstream lines, as they tailor the product to attract more new cruisers to fill their mega ships.
We did consider a HAL cruise around S/America to/from Florida, but discounted it as HAL & Princess are effectively the same company – single management team. Therefore, we considered the luxury and premium Lines – Crystal, Seabourn, Regent, Silversea, Viking, Oceania & Azamara. Our preferences were 750 to 1250 pax, fairly casual & non-stuffy atmosphere, casino was of zero interest, reasonable entertainment, lots of enrichment programs and quality meals.
The true luxury lines (Crystal, Seabourn, Regent & Silversea) were a little over the top for what we wanted in respect to formality. We have enjoyed the formal nights in the past, and probably go a little overboard in dressing up. However, not everyone adheres to the suggested attire and that was confirmed by reading some of the discussions on Cruise Critic. So we focused on the premium lines. Didn’t get a good feel from Azamara, so short listed to Viking & Oceania.
Both World Cruises were comparable in that they were virtually all-inclusive. With Viking, they have no formal nights – every day is casual and evenings are smart/elegant casual (no jeans or shorts). They also provide free and unlimited wi-fi, free self-service laundry machines, no casino aboard any of their ships, each ship has a resident historian and the newest ship has a planetarium & resident astronomer. The port lectures focus on the cultural aspects of the ports you visit, not shopping and they also present a series of TED lectures. All dining venues are Anytime, so no Traditional seating (we actually prefer Traditional, so this was the only negative) and meals are noted as being very good, They have 2 alternative restaurants, which are complimentary. On regular cruises, they provide free beer & wine with lunch & dinner, but on the WC they provide the drinks package for free. They also include free tips and a free excursion in every port.
Viking & Oceania were very close (Oceania has casino) but the Viking WC went west, which gains you an hour sleep when clox change and Oceania went mostly east, with sleep loss when clox change.
Enjoy your cruise when the time comes, which every cruise line you select. Didn’t post detailed reports on our CMV Baltic cruise, as it was as basic as we expected. However, on the WC, I will complete detailed daily posts on life aboard the Viking Sun & our excursions. Only 16.5 months to go.
LikeLike
I will stay tuned to read those reports on your WC! I do hope that it is everything you wish for and more!
LikeLike
We love your story and thought you might like to know we will be sharing your excitement on our exclusive closed group “World Cruise People” FaceBook page July 1, 2018. Feel free to check it out and join our group if you wish at https://www.facebook.com/groups/182620108774746/
Bon Voyage.
LikeLike
Sherrie – Thanks for your comment and including our blog on your Facebook group., Unfortunately, I don’t use Facebook and have ZERO desire to try it.
LikeLike
Sorry to hear about Judi. Hope she’s feeling better. Another World tour? Sounds like some great stops.
LikeLike
Thanks Ingrid, yes she is well, but now we wait for 6 months to exclude pre-existing conditions before we can get medical insurance to travel. This year we planned about 8 months in the RV and got 2, so it is again back in storage.
The highlight for Judi is visiting Egypt, as visiting the pyramids is top of her bucket list and for me, while it has a number of new ports, I get to return to many places I visited back in the 70’s. When Meddy cruising we were at the Pyramids every 2 weeks for 3 months, so I look forward to seeing the changes. Another highlight is Komodo Island, which neither of us have visited before.
Hoping to get back into the RV next year, departing April for a trip across Canada to Newfoundland, to view the icebergs.
LikeLiked by 1 person