Cunard World Cruise
The first Cunard world cruise was undertaken aboard Laconia, in partnership with American Express. The world cruise sailed completely in the northern hemisphere, venturing only as far south as Panama and Singapore, and was sold by American Express to its members.
However, it did encircle the world, and included transits of both the Panama Canal and Suez Canal. The first world cruise proved so popular that another world cruise aboard Samaria set sail in 1923.
There were several attempts at continuous world cruises before Laconia, though none of these were commercial successes.
Recent World Cruises
Fast forward to the 1970s and Cunard’s world cruise presence was bolstered when their then-flagship QE2 commenced regular world cruises. In fact, the ship had been built to Panamax standards, just to enable world cruising.
She was joined on the world cruise circuit by other Cunarders including Sagafjord in the 1980s and later Royal Viking Sun in the 1990s. QM2 undertook her first world cruise in 2007 and met QE2 in Sydney, bringing the city to a standstill. Today all of the Cunard Queens have undertaken world cruises.
Image Credit: Laconia CC.0 Public Domain.
World Cruise History FAQ
- Q: Did Cunard ‘invent’ world cruising?
- A: No, there were other world cruises before Laconia’s first world cruise. Most of these voyages were undertaken by various different ships, where passengers would book a ‘world cruise’ and sail on numerous vessels between different ports. However there were several attempts at continuous world cruises before Laconia, though none of these were commercial successes.
- Q: Why is Laconia’s world cruise special?
- A: Laconia was the first ship to undertake a commercially successful continuous world cruise. This meant that Cunard and its partner American Express were able to successfully complete the entire voyage one one ship, and this success gave them the funds and skill required to plan future world cruises.
- Q: Did Laconia visit the whole world?
- A: No. While Laconia did complete a full circumnavigation of the globe, the world cruise did not sail south of the equator. That meant it skipped South America, New Zealand, Australia and Southern Africa.
- Q: What did passengers do aboard?
- A: Life on ocean liners of old was very different to cruising today. Passengers were largely left to arrange their own entertainment. However on the world cruise, Cunard and American Express arranged shore excursions for passengers so they could visit and enjoy the local cruise ports.
