World Cruises 2025: The Best Itineraries To See The World

04.01.2024 - 08:13 / forbes.com / Cruises

For the vast majority of travelers, a cruise is anything from a weekend getaway to a 7- or 14-day vacation in the sun. Some people can afford the time and money to splash out on a longer trip, perhaps an intensive month-long historic tour of the Mediterranean, or the Caribbean and Central America. But for the fortunate few, there is another option.

World cruises offer guests a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to circumnavigate the planet, take in some of the world’s most famous sights, and discover diverse cultures, on an epic three- to four-month long trip.

The majority of world cruises take place from January to April, which is otherwise low season for cruising. Typically, itineraries follow a westward circumnavigation covering the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Australia, and Asia, including transits of the Suez and Panama Canals, but there are other routes.

Too long or too expensive? Most cruise lines also sell shorter segments of their world cruise itineraries, giving a taster of a longer cruise vacation.

Because of the complex itineraries, lengthy durations, and high ticket price, world cruises go on sale well in advance. As such, some of the world’s most popular cruise lines have released their 2025 world cruise itineraries and many are already selling well.

Overnight stops in some of the world’s most desirable city destinations, and in-depth explorations of South America, Australia, and New Zealand are among the highlights of this 116-night itinerary from MSC Cruises. The focus on the southern hemisphere is relatively rare among world cruise itineraries.

The January 4 to April 30 trip starts and ends in Civitavecchia, the port for Rome, Italy. Genoa, Marseille, and Barcelona are alternate start and end points. For this reason and the line’s Italian heritage, MSC Cruises offers a primarily Mediterranean experience in terms of dining and entertainment.

The lengthy itinerary includes port calls at 50 destinations in 21 countries. Seven overnight stops give passengers more time to explore select destinations including Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires.

While by no means a small vessel, MSC Magnifica is much more compact than the newer MSC megaships. Also, the maximum passenger capacity of 3,223 is unlikely to be reached given the expected lack of children sharing any of the ship’s 1,279 cabins.

MSC Cruises is known for its budget approach to cruising, yet things work a little differently on the world cruise. Unique to this itinerary, a ‘Dine & Drink’ package is provided for all passengers, which includes house beers and wines served with lunch and dinner in the restaurants and buffet. Guests also benefit from 15 included excursions, mainly short sightseeing tours of select destinations.

At the time of