Princess Cruises has put a trip around the world on sale, and it is long enough to make a two-week Caribbean sailing feel like a long weekend.
The line announced its 2028 World Cruise aboard Coral Princess on March 10, a single 115-day voyage that visits 49 destinations across 24 countries and five continents. It departs January 3, 2028, covers roughly 36,000 nautical miles, and crosses both the Equator and the International Date Line before circling back to where it started. Bookings opened the same day.
What Princess Just Announced
The full sailing runs round-trip, with guests able to embark from either Fort Lauderdale or Los Angeles. According to Princess, Coral Princess transits the Panama Canal early in the trip, then works through Hawaii and the South Pacific, including Samoa and Fiji, before reaching Australia and New Zealand.
From there the ship crosses the Indian Ocean to Mauritius and Réunion Island, calls in South Africa, then sails up Africa’s western coast into the Mediterranean with stops in Barcelona, Sicily, Casablanca, and Dubrovnik. The final leg is an Atlantic crossing back to North America.
Photo by Efe Burak Baydar on Pexels
Princess says the route is built around 39 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, from Mediterranean old towns to natural landmarks like Table Mountain in Cape Town and Fiordland National Park in New Zealand.
The 2028 World Cruise By The Numbers
If the scale is hard to picture, the headline figures do the work:
| Detail | What Princess Confirmed |
|---|---|
| Length | 115 days |
| Departure | January 3, 2028 |
| Ship | Coral Princess (~2,000 guests) |
| Homeports | Fort Lauderdale or Los Angeles (round-trip) |
| Ports | 49 destinations, 24 countries, 5 continents |
| Distance | ~36,000 nautical miles |
| UNESCO sites | 39 |
| Segments | 20 to 100 days |
That last row matters. You do not have to commit to the whole thing. Princess is selling shorter segments running from 20 to 100 days, so guests can join for whatever chunk of the map fits their schedule instead of clearing nearly four months off the calendar.
More Time Ashore, And A First-Ever Princess Safari
The piece Princess is leaning on hardest is its “More Ashore” programming, which adds time in port rather than the usual sail-in-the-morning, sail-out-at-dinner rhythm.
The itinerary includes overnight stays in Cape Town and Auckland, plus 10 late-night departures in cities like Barcelona, Casablanca, Dubrovnik, Honolulu, Melbourne, and Sydney. Late departures are the underrated perk here, since they hand you an evening ashore for dinner and nightlife that a standard port day never allows.
South Africa gets the marquee additions. Coral Princess will make a maiden call at Mossel Bay, a coastal town whose caves hold evidence of human behavior going back more than 160,000 years, per Princess. The line is also rolling out its first safari shore excursions, with trips to the Aquila Game Reserve and the white lions at Pumba Private Game Reserve.
Heads up: Safari trips and other premium excursions cost extra. The onboard credit below can offset some of it, but a four-month world cruise is a budgeting exercise of its own, and the easy-to-miss line items add up fast.
What This Means If A World Cruise Is On Your List
A world cruise is a niche product, and Princess knows its audience. The line has a long history with these grand voyages and skews toward 50-plus travelers with the time and budget for them, so this announcement lands squarely in its wheelhouse.
The ship choice is deliberate too. Coral Princess is one of the line’s smaller, older ships, built narrow enough to slip through the Panama Canal, and Princess has long used it for the kind of long, destination-first itineraries where the ports matter more than waterslides. We have not sailed Princess ourselves, but on paper a roughly 2,000-guest ship is a better match for months at sea than a 4,000-passenger megaship would be.
Photo by Diego F. Parra on Pexels
For loyalty members there is a real incentive. Princess says Captain’s Circle members can qualify for up to $3,000 in bonus onboard credit per stateroom, usable on things like specialty dining, the spa, and shore excursions.
One practical thought. With a January 2028 departure and bookings already open, this is a long runway, and world cruises are exactly the kind of high-demand, fixed-capacity sailing where the best cabins go early. If you are torn on timing, we have weighed booking early against holding out for a deal.
What To Watch Next
Princess has not published full fares or the complete day-by-day segment breakdown publicly. Those details run through a travel advisor or a call to the line, and that is the next thing to pin down if you are seriously considering it.
Princess is not the only line chasing the longer-voyage trend, either. Bucket-list itineraries keep getting more ambitious, including one round-trip from Florida that hits Antarctica, Bora Bora, and the Taj Mahal.
For now, the short version is simple: 115 days, 49 stops, a maiden call in South Africa, the line’s first safaris, and up to $3,000 in credit for loyal cruisers.
So which is it for you, the trip of a lifetime or four months too long to live out of a single stateroom?
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