Top 10 Cruise Lines Offering World Cruises
It can often be the repetitive nature of cruising in the same region, where each port is very similar to the last or it can be that you don’t like the country, you ended your adventure in that makes you ready to disembark.
Even in those cases, as soon as I get home, I am ready to plan my next adventure and the excitement to go somewhere new consumes me once again but what if you could simply just keep going.
Take away needing to go home, take away planning for the next adventure, what if every day is the start of your next adventure?
That is what is on offer on a World Cruise and whilst that description is perhaps a rose tinted one and there are plenty of issues you need to think about before booking, including the cost, the paperwork, the time away from home and the fact you are on the same ship for so long, who doesn’t dream of having the opportunity to simply explore the world on a cruise?
I know that I would certainly love to do it, so it is something that I have kept an eye on and there have been quite a few changes over the past few years to these types of cruises including the range of cruise lines offering World Cruises.
Join me as I take you through what I believe are the top 10 cruise lines that offer a World Cruise option.
Our Top 10 Cruise Lines Offering World Cruises
Cunard
If you are spending the money needed to travel the world, why not splash out a little more and do it in luxury and enjoy sailing the world on one of the most iconic cruise brands out there?
Imagine enjoying some of the best food and service at sea as you spend a 100 days or so exploring the world and enjoying new experiences and new cultures.
Cunard offer a more traditional style of cruising and whilst that isn’t for everybody, if it is, they are one of the few lines to offer a couple of ship sailing the world and from a British point of view, many of their adventures start and/or end in Southampton.
Princess Cruises
Princess Cruises are a mainstream line that have a more premium offering when compared to many lines and that could just be the perfect sweet spot for a World Cruise.
You don’t want to get bored of the food onboard and you will likely want to have lectures and local experiences to give you an understanding of where you are cruising, as even those of us who love to research where they are visiting will struggle to do it and remember it all for a 100+ night getaway.
They offer plenty of partial World Cruise options of 20-60 nights where you can see if this long type of cruising is right for you before fully committing.
They also offer smaller World Cruises of 80-90 nights that take in Oceania, North, Central and South America as well as much of Asia and you can do Europe to Australia adventures.
For the purposes of this list, there World Cruise offerings do tend to take in a great range of ports across the northern and southern hemispheres including plenty of ports that can only be visiting onboard a World Cruise when sailing with the line.
They offer one of the largest ships on this list, with the Crown Princess setting sailing from Auckland in May this year for a 119 night getaway.
P&O Cruises
P&O Cruises offer one of the widest ranges of semi-World Cruises (or really long repositioning cruises such as Southampton to Sydney) and they a yearly World Cruise option.
Usually sailing onboard their large Arcadia cruise ship their World Cruises will often take in Central and North America, Oceania, Africa and Europe and from a personnel point of view, it also helps that they traditionally start and end in Southampton.
The line offer one of the cheapest entry points for a World Cruise, although few extras are included in the cost, but if this type of cruise has always been a dream for you, they could be the best option for those on a limited budget.
Oceania Cruises
Oceania Cruises offer a few options when it comes to World Cruises, with their longest one been an around the world in 180 days itinerary.
That sees their Vista ship sail on a round trip from Miami and take in an incredible variety of port across Central and South America, Oceania, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America.
Oceania Cruises offer a luxurious getaway with a cost to match, but they are better value proposition than some on this list and there ships are the largest of the luxury lines, which for me personally, would be a better option for such a long adventure.
Azamara Cruises
This is another luxury small ship cruise line that offer World Cruises and whilst there offering in this genre are a bit limited when compared to some others, they do have some great advantages over them.
One such advantage is that they offer one of the longest World Cruises on the market and at a cost less than others.
The main reason why I have placed the line above other similar ones on this list is thanks to their AzAmazing Evening, which see the lines bring the culture of the ports they visit to their guests.
Sometimes they will bring people onboard their ships and sometimes they will take guests to local theatres and community centres but no matter what the experiences are on offer on their World Cruise, it is great to have something like that.
On such a long cruise where you visit so many different places, it could easily see one place bleed into the next one, especially if you only stay in city centres but by getting a more local experience, ports where that is offered will become more special.
There 2027 offering starts in San Francisco, ends in Copenhagen and takes in almost all parts of the world aside from South America and Antarctica.
Silversea Cruises
Silversea are another luxury cruise line that tend to offer a yearly opportunity to cruise around the world and they tend to be one of the earliest to announce their itineraries, which is great for planning a journey such as a World Cruise.
They tend to start in the USA before crossing the Pacific to New Zealand and Australia but from there, their offerings tend to diverge to give cruises a decent range of options.
One year they may sail up through Asia, through the Middle East and then through the Mediterranean, one year they may sail across the Indian Oceana and around Africa and one year they may head south to start with and sail around South and Central America before sailing around Africa and up to Europe.
The line offer an all-inclusive offering, including shore excursions but again, it all comes at a huge cost.
Regent Seven Seas
Regent Seven Seas are arguably the most luxurious cruise line in the world offering small cruise ship style cruising, so if you want to sail with them, you will need the biggest budget of any on this list.
They tend to have a yearly offering for those wanting a global adventure and whilst there cost in incredibly high when compared to overs on this list, they do offer an all-inclusive offering including Wi-Fi, drinks, gratuities and excursions which really could prove invaluable for an adventure as long as a World Cruise.
There adventures tend to start in the USA and stick to a more central route around the world by sailing across the Pacific, over to Australia, up through Asia, through the Suez Canal, through Europe (although some will skip Europe and the Middle East and go around the horn of Africa instead) before sailing back to the Atlantic coast of America.
Seabourn
Seabourn are a luxury cruise line that are known for their range of long cruises that reposition around the world, with numerous offerings of 20+ night itineraries but from time to time, they allow you to take that to the extreme and spend well over 100 nights sailing the world with them.
In January 2026, their Seabourn Sojourn ship will set sail from Los Angeles before heading across the Pacific and visiting many of the Pacific Islands enroute to New Zealand and Australia.
From their it will sail up through Asia and over to Alaska before ending in Vancouver and whilst many may be thinking, that not a World Cruise, and yes you are technically right with no European or African stops for example, but at 131 nights and with so many different places visited, we are going to include that adventure for the purposes of this list.
MSC Cruises
One of the things that may put off many from planning a World Cruise adventure is the fact that you have to choose a more luxurious line, where you sail in a more traditional style and onboard a small ship and whilst that is still often the case, there are some mainstream lines that offer the chance.
One such giant of the cruise world to do just that is the Swiss owned, Italian based line MSC, although it should be said that there offering is only a dabble in the World Cruise scene with one offering on the agenda at the moment.
If you do want to see the world with MSC, you can start in either Genoa or Barcelona for a journey setting sail in early January 2027 onboard the MSC Magnifica will start by sailing across the Atlantic to South America, sail around Patagonia before heading across the Pacific to explore the Pacific Islands, New Zealand and Australia.
You then sail back to the UK via Polynesia, through the Panama Canal and back to Europe for 121 nights of constant exploration.
Multi Line
So, this one maybe a bit of a cheat but if the big issue that is putting you off from choosing a World Cruise is the thought of spending months onboard the same ship, getting stuck in the same routine with the same meals and same entertainment, why not change it up?
To achieve this, you will need to do lots of planning beforehand and it will take a lot more effort once you get going as you will need to keep repacking and unpacking, but it is possible to keep choosing repositioning routes that take you around the world.
You will also be able to add on some land stays as you go, either in places you really want to explore more or when there isn’t a perfect overlap but that just adds on to your adventure.
Doing it this way, you will also get that excitement from entering a new ship or trying a new line throughout your adventure.
For this, I am not talking about spending a week or two on one ship before choosing the next one but taking a leg or two of a World Cruise on one ship, to join another one for another partial leg or hopping onboard a ship at the end of a season as it sails between continents.
Instead of 100-130 days on the same ship, you can, with some luck, book out a range of 20-35 night adventures.
