Seabourn Exec reveals how Cruise Line plans a 145 -day world trip

If you think that planning a week’s family vacation is difficult, try to organize a five -month trip and around the world for 458 people.

For the everyday traveler, it may seem logistically impossible.

For Crystal Morgan, principal director of deployment and planning of Seabourn routes, this is only another day of work.

Morgan and his team are the engine behind annual trips from around the world of the Luxury Cruise Line. And as you can expect, ideas is not an easy task.

The recently announced 2027 global cruise by Seabourn is one of its most ambitious to date, extending over 145 days and nearly 34,000 naval miles. He plans to stop in 67 ports in 19 countries, with bucketlist destinations like Honolulu, Machu Picchu and Bora Bora.

These trips offer a practical and comfortable way for travelers to see the world. But behind the scenes, designing them can be anything but gentle navigation.

“I think the planning of routes like cooking a cake,” Morgan told Business Insider. “It is a part of science, part of the finesse. There must be the right ingredients to enter, but the way you decorate the cake is the kind of finesse with regard to the route planning.”

The framework

Global cruises are ideally starting in early January, when the industry is in an lull after the holidays and retired snow birds become missiles looking for heat. They generally have more than 100 days – but they cannot be too long or risk cutting the summer season.

As for the ship, Seabourn plans to deploy its smallest ocean ship, Seabourn Quest. His 458 -year -old capacity is “just the right amount for a global cruise,” said Morgan.

The floating complex is planned for several Miami Caribbean cruises during the previous holiday season. The world trip is therefore sailing round trip from the popular port of Florida, with prices currently from $ 81,000 to $ 380,070 per person.

After establishing the synchronization and ship frame, the design of the rest of the route becomes, to a certain extent, a game of plug-and-play-with more limitations that you expect.

Destinations

Deciding the destinations to visit is not as simple as throwing darts on a card or checking #Traveltok for trendy cities. Instead, Morgan’s team considers factors such as weather conditions, world deployments of Seabourn, competing routes and consumer surveys.

Ideally, the extended route has a reasonable geographic flow which balances sea days and ports that do not feel too repetitive or are only accessible to small ships like Seabourn.

As such, the world trip should sail south and west to South America, Australia and New Zealand before returning via Hawaii, Los Angeles and Mexico. Throughout its transoceanic passages, Quest should also visit several South Pacific islands.

According to Morgan, none of Seabourn’s ships should be parked in Australia and New Zealand in early 2027 – two “extremely popular” destinations, according to Morgan. To meet this demand, the world trip plans to spend 35 days circumniging Australia.

Other ports, especially those in major cities, are as desirable as necessary. Take Papeete, French Polynesia, for example. It is a hot destination, but more than that, it is also there that the ship can replenish its diet in fuel and food, according to Morgan.

If an attractive city does not have the geographical sense or does not cut the time necessary to reach a replenishment port, it will be nixé. As such, to ensure safety and feasibility, internal teams that oversee marine operations and supply chains also have their say in the long-haul itinerary.

“Everything is like a big puzzle,” said Morgan. “The most difficult part is to cross all T with regard to full operation and to bring everyone to agree only on the operational level, what we push is the best experience.”

External factors, such as predicted weather conditions and the availability of ports, also have an impact on the route. Small variables, such as current trends, can even dictate the speed of the ship and when it arrives and leaves a particular port.

The same goes for geopolitical tensions – Seaboun’s reason to jump the Suez Canal.

“It is measuring this risk compared to the award,” said Morgan. “We have seen our competitors publish routes that pass the Suez Canal, but as a business, at the moment, we are choosing not to do it.”

With all these layers, it should not be surprising that the creation and approval of the itinerary took 1 and a half months, with several months spent in ideas and in a single route review, according to Morgan.

However, believe it or not, she thinks that planning a family vacation is more difficult.