Where Will RTW2023 Take Us?

A cold, cold day. Though it’s a bit warmer elsewhere in Colorado Springs, here at home we have reached the forecasted high for today — 0F. It's all downhill from here into negative territory.

Nothing special going on. So, I decided to delve into the details of the itinerary for RTW2023.

No worries! I'll post a screenshot of the itinerary as published in the brochure, but I’m not going to bore anyone by naming them all. I’ll just do that with some stats instead 😜

To begin, only 71 of our 198 days will be at sea. And of those days, 7 will include sightseeing — such as when we transit the Panama Canal. That leaves 127 days for us to spend in ports. Looking at these numbers another way, only 36% of our voyage will be at sea.

We’ll be stopping in 43 countries and/or islands on 4 continents. Of these countries, 19 will be new additions to previously visited countries. We've explored all 7 continents already, so it doesn't bother us that this itinerary will be missing some of them.

All in all, there will be 102 ports of call … including our embarkation and disembarkation ports. Of this number, 20 will be overnight visits … we get a second night in 2 of the ports.

Breaking down the 102 ports another way, 67 will be new-to-us ... 35 of them we have visited previously. Percentage-wise, 65% new and 35% been-to. That's darn good. We don't mind that there are some repeats. The vast majority of the ports in that category still have so much more for us to see and do.

We do expect that there will be changes to the itinerary.

Weather and/or sea conditions are the usual culprits for itinerary changes. Sometimes political or safety reasons come into play. And then there is the pandemic to consider. While I expect — hope is a better word perhaps — the pandemic to be in our rearview mirror by the time we sail, there’s still the possibility that some ports will not reopen to cruise ships.

No matter. We’ll make the most of any itinerary changes. With one caveat. If the itinerary starts to resemble RTW2017 too much, then all bets will be off.Read more