The Next Big Thing!

No man ever steps into the same river twice. ~ Heraclitus

I think I understand what the esteemed Heraclitus is saying. Even if it was the same river, people grow and change. You are different each time. And even if somehow you could be the same, the river is always in a state of...well, flux. More or less water, more or less flotsam. You get the drift.

I guess Heraclitus is saying it's impossible to repeat an experience, even a good one, so that it is exactly the same. Our previous extended voyages on Princess and Viking have each been wonderfully exciting in their own way, and both very different. There are things I like better about each of them. Yet if we chose one of them for our world cruise in 2025, I'd be awfully tempted to compare our new experience to the first go around.

So it seems sensible to choose something that will be completely different than either of those voyages, yet meets all our "must-have's."  

After much searching and comparing, the hand's down winner for our next extended adventure is Cunard's Queen Anne!

Shortly after we booked our 2025 adventure, we received this "royal mail" welcoming us to both Queen Anne & Queen Mary 2! It's our first brush with the "Downton-esque" vibe of this voyage.

Cunard fits the bill perfectly for our first circumnavigation. We'll board in NYC and spend 98 nights on the Queen Anne. This is her maiden World Cruise so I'm sure Cunard will pull out all the stops for us. Then once we reach Southampton, we'll transfer to the Queen Mary 2 for a leisurely transatlantic back to the Big Apple--105 days afloat in all!

We do have 21 days on Cunard and know we appreciate its traditional style, so we aren't going into this blind, as we did on the Viking WC. But there are some distinct differences between this voyage and our previous ones. For one, both the Pacific Princess and the Viking Star were the oldest ships in their respective fleets. The Queen Anne is a brand new ship. In fact, she's not yet completely built! 

Her maiden cruise will be a week long sailing out of Southampton in May of 2024. Then she'll go on to a full season in the Med and Northern Europe. Plenty of time for them to work out all the bugs by the time we board on January 18, 2025. And I'm sure that Cunard will go the extra nautical mile to make Queen Anne's Maiden World Voyage something really special! 

Not all the port stops are marked on this map. I'll post the full itinerary soon, but we'll see 9 new-to-us countries and lots of new ports, along with some old friends we'll be happy to see again, like Luxor and Singapore and Sydney. 

You may notice from this map that the journey seems to start in Europe. That's because it does. The World Cruise officially begins in Hamburg, Germany, stops in Southampton to pick up more cruisers and we'll join the party in NYC. That's also why we're jumping ship in Southampton at the end of April and sailing home on the QM2. Queen Anne will continue back to Hamburg. 

What this means is that we, as Americans, will likely be a minority contingent on the ship. Even though Cunard is technically under the Carnival umbrella of cruise lines, it's thoroughly British in flavor and there will be more Brits than any other nationality aboard. It's going to be like visiting the world while traveling in a floating version of the UK. English will be the main language spoken on board, but in addition to Germans, there will be a lot more other European passengers as well. A more cosmopolitan experience than we've had before. 

The DH & me with Caspar on the Star

Part of the aesthetic of travel is the feeling of "other-ness" you get when you visit another culture. We won't have to wait for a port day to experience that feeling. When I am in the role of "other," I am forced to see with different eyes and try to understand things from another's point of view. Maybe that's why they say travel is "broadening." It's certainly a stretch sometimes.

Anyway, even though we are still nearly 600 days out, we've already started planning and preparing for our next big thing! We're so grateful for the opportunity to explore more of this beautiful world. And I'll be sharing every step of the way, so if you'd like to hop in my pocket and go with us, please consider signing up to receive these posts in your email! 

And as always, I love to hear from YOU!