Canberra Australia (Commonwealth Union)_If you’re an explorer and love voyages and if spending an inordinate time on the sea doesn’t faze you, then here’s how you make your dreams come true. You can sail your cares away for three whole years when you hop on board the MV Gemini from Life at Sea Cruises, which just unveiled its first in the world three year cruise. And even as you pack up your troubles in a kit bag and say ‘Ahoy’ to a new world out there, don’t forget you’ll be seeing 135 countries in the next three years, a travel connoisseur’s dream.
The cruise is being launched in Australia at AUD 45,000 per year with balcony suites going at AUD 165,000. The voyage sails out of Istanbul in November 2023. You will have 1,074 companions cruising with you and that 211,000 kilometer journey across seven continents will be just what the doctor ordered as a de-stresser from a high-pressure fast-paced lifestyle. It may seem like a small fortune but the bookings for the four hundred cabins are almost full.
But the time spent at sea is not just a three-year vacation, although that does tickle nearly everyone’s fancy. Digital nomads can be best found working remotely, maybe off the deck watching a sunset in one country and the sunrise in another country the next morning. With a first of its kind business center, two conference rooms, fourteen offices, a business library and lounge and a café, the high-flying business person will never be too far away from his office, albeit sailing the seven seas.
The cruise industry is believed to have set sail in 1831 when the Francesco I sailed form Naples but was restricted to the aristocracy of Europe. P&O were the first to introduce passenger cruising services in 1844, making it the oldest cruise liner. Hamburg-America Line built the first vessel for luxury cruising in 1900, the Prinzessin Victoria Luise.
By 2022, nearly two centuries later, people’s thirst for the sea grew and today the world’s largest cruise ship the Royal Caribbean’s Wonder of the Sea ferries 6,988 passengers and 2,300 crew across the oceans. Add eight different neighbourhoods including an all-new suite neighbourhood, sixteen decks, twenty restaurants, four swimming pools and 2,687 cabins and cruising the world takes on new meaning.
