The Best Agency for World Cruises

We are globetrotters in the purest form, so we know all of the ins and outs of what you need when away for a truly extended period, so we provide the service others have never even thought of.

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Everything You Need For an Extended Trip at No Extra Cost

The entire team at Culture Discovery Cruises travel and work for extended periods.  Some of us travel year-round, and have developed mobile offices for our work, and some of us travel for extended three to six month trips at a time, so we know how to deal with all of the things that need to be handled at home while we are away.

This puts us in a truly unique position to be able to help you prepare for an extended world cruise in ways that very few people in the travel business can.   As you read this page, you will find some things that any professional worth their salt will offer, but you will also see some major added details that you simply will not find with anyone else.

The Best Prices

The Best Service

No Added Fees

Here is just some of what we will do for you when you book with us:

Before You Book

We REALLY Want to Know You

You are preparing for not only a large investment, but a long vacation that is often a once in a lifetime experience. And you are trusting us to help you with that! We're not going to take that lightly. We want to get to know you and really understand how you tick. You will have one of us immediately that will be with you throughout the process from the very beginning to well after you return from your cruise. We want to know your style, what excites you, what bores you. We want to be able to plan everything going forward with a full understanding of what your desires are. You will have our personal cell phone numbers, our emails, and full access to us any time we are awake!

As Soon as You Book:

Bonus Onboard Credit

In addition to any special onboard credit we are able to get you from the cruise line, we will add an additional onboard credit of up to $1,000.00* to your account. This amount will be added to your onboard account on the day of sailing. For the few cruise lines that do not provide for this, we will send you the amount at the end of your cruise as a rebate. Note that this offer cannot be combined with the CDV Credit Offer, which can be valued at up to $10,000. So just let us know which you prefer.

We Help You Obtain Insurance

Of course whether or not you choose to get insurance, and how much, is a personal choice. Based on your desires, we will help. The standard cruise insurance offered by the cruise line itself will have limited coverage. But you are on a long trip, and we will help you find the best policy that can meet any possible need you may have.

A Detailed Itinerary Website & App

We will provide you with a website and app for your smartphone or tablet that is a "living itinerary". It will start out with the basic framework of your cruise and itinerary. Everything we do going forward will be reflected here in real time.

180 Days+ Before Your Cruise

Help You Plan Flights

Often flights are included with your World Cruise, but you may consider securing your flights outside of the cruise offering. Typically, they will discount the airfare allocation if you do. If you are looking to fly on a certain airline, or choose your seats well in advance, this may be advisable for you because the cruise line will not ticket your flights until shortly before the cruise. If you want to get your airline tickets outside of the cruise offering, we will happily help you secure the tickets you desire.

Price Protection

Most Cruise Lines allow us to offer you price protection, which is something you cannot get if you book directly with the cruise line. What this means is that if for any reason the cruise line offers a special sale that applies to your cruise and stateroom category that would cause the price to be lower, we can almost always get the cruise line to reduce your price to that of the sale. They will usually simply take it off of your final balance due, or when you are closer to sailing, they may offer the difference as an onboard credit.

Questions, Visas, Vaccinations, Prescriptions, Tips, etc.

You will probably have many questions, and we are there to answer them. Most importantly, we are incredibly transparent. Nobody can know the answer to every question you may have, and we are never afraid to admit it. But if we need to, we will do all of the research to get those questions answered correctly. Beyond that, we will let you know about any Visas it vaccinations you may need for some of the ports you will visit. We will create a checklist on all you need, and help you through the process. Perhaps you have prescriptions that will need to be renewed while you are away, or maybe you will lose that medication. We will get a list of those from you, as well as contact information in case you need to re-order. We will help you obtain it during your trip, and if necessary (when possible) we will even help you get it ordered and shipped to you. In a nutshell, whatever it is, we will make sure we have all we need to have you covered.

Help Planning Excursions

By now, we really know you, and can help you plan what you will be doing when in port. If you like traditional sightseeing tours, we have you covered. If you want a private limo waiting for you at the ship, consider it done. If you want to get off the beaten path and experience things that exit in no tourism brochure, that is where we really shine. We will plan everything out in full detail, and as we do, everything we plan will be added to the itinerary and app, along with tickets, instructions, etc. On the flip side, if you want to get off the ship somewhere and just wing it on your own, we love the idea of seeing where that road takes you! But in case you hit a snag, we will be there for you behind the scenes to help take care of any issues you may have.

Within 180 Days of Your Cruise

Everything we have listed so far is offered by the best travel planners, but as we get closer to the departure, we really stand out from the pack.

Your Mail... HANDLED!

For World Cruises of 60 nights and longer, if you desire we will set up a complimentary virtual mailbox for you. We will provide you with an address you can forward your mail to while you are away, and during your trip, all mail will be scanned for you, giving you the ability to login to a secure website to see your mail. You will be able to read any mail that comes in. If a check is sent to you, you will be able to have the check deposited into your bank account, and if a parcel arrives, you can have it forwarded to any address you desire. This service is free of charge for basic use, but some additional charges may apply depending on how much mail or packages you receive**

Internet Phone with Free Calling & Texting

For World Cruises of 60 nights and longer, if you desire we will set up a complimentary virtual phone number for you. We will provide you with a phone number in your area code that you can forward all of your calls to. You simply download an app and connect to the Internet. You can make and receive calls to/form the USA or Canada at no charge, send and receive SMS messages, etc. When you receive a voicemail, it will be transcribed and emailed to you.

International Internet Hotspot & SIM Card

For World Cruises of 60 nights and longer, if you desire we will provide you with a complimentary mobile hotspot and SIM card with 16 gigabytes of data included. Many don't realize that the data plans offered by you carrier are usually low quality data at best, can be very limited, and don't work in many countries. The hotspot is small and runs on a rechargeable battery. Simply slip it into a bag as you travel at ports of call, and connect your phone to it just like you connect your home wifi. This will make it so you can make and receive calls on land when you don't have ship Internet available in more than 40 countries.***

Finalizing Plans

Many shore excursions cannot be reserved too far in advance. Similarly, if any of your land travel includes rail travel, this needs to be reserved closer to your travel date. During these last few months before your cruise, we will make sure all of this is in order, we will make sure all of your visas and other document requirements are in order and even help you with packing tips.

The Days Leading up to Departure:

Crossing The T's and Dotting The I's

Everything should be in order.  We double-check make sure that your literary and all the info in the app is up to date with your flights, tickets, confirmations, and everything you need for your entire trip.  You will be set to go with all contact information for us, so you can reach us at any time with anything you need, and we will be ready to step in if there are any issues on your bording day.

During Your World Cruise

Navigating With You Form Behind the Scenes

You should be having the time of your life without a care in the world. Behind the scenes, however, we are following your ship. We know where you are, if you will be getting somewhere late, etc. Before you arrive at a destination, if we have you booked on an excursion or experience, we are confirming it, making sure there are no issues. If we do see any change of plans, we are sending you updates both by text and in your app you you know what to expect. And if you run into any issues, you can always simply contact us, and we will work behind the scenes to take car of whatever needs to be taken care of.

If You Wind Up in Our Neck of the Woods during Your World Cruise

Your traditional travel agent is either working from an office in the states, or from a home office stateside. That is not us! We are operating tours, cooking classes, incredible once in a lifetime experiences in Italy. Portugal Spain and Croatia. We are also traveling all around, almost all of the time! We will be looking at your itinerary, and checking to see if your path crosses ours at any point during your voyage. What does that mean? Imagine your world cruise is stopping in Italy at the port of Rome for a few days. There is a pretty good chance that you can expect an invitation to come to a phenomenal cooking class at our villa, just 40 minutes from the port. And you can bet we will pick you up! Perhaps your cruise is in Portugal on a day we are visiting the wineries of the Douro Valley. Expect an invitation to join us. And no, we are not charging you for these things. You are our guest.

Before, During, and After...

The Meaning of Family

For so many companies, the word "family" is a marketing term. For us it is actually a way of life that is at the core of who we are. Why do we offer the mail service? Why do we offer the phone number and the mobile Internet? Because we know that even if you are going on the trip to disconnect, having the ability to connect as much as possible, whenever possible is important. It takes away the worry of being able to be in touch with loved ones when it matters... as little or as much as you choose. Why do we follow everything you are doing and double check confirmations regularly? Because we know it matters. When you are in a foreign country, we don't want you to stress. Why would we invite you to be with us if we cross paths during your world cruise? Because if we are crossing paths, to us the place you in is not a tourist destination, but rather where we live, and sharing that gives us meaning. It is why we never use words like "client" or "customer". To us, you are a guest, plain and simple.

This is who we are.  If we have not thought of something we can add to make your world cruise, better, you may want to check back, because as we come up with things we can do, we add them!

Frequently Asked Questions About Our World Cruise Offerings

No we do not.  Everything is included in the price of the cruise, plus the price of any excursions we help you plan.  We never add any markup whatsoever.

When you book a cruise with us, the cruise line will provide us with a commission, just as they do with any agency that books a cruise for you.  Quite simply, we budget a large portion of that commission to providing you with all sorts of added value and the onboard credit.  We end up making less than others, but we are not about short term profit.  Rather, we are more about building long term relationships that matter.

Culture Discovery Cruises is a division of Culture Discovery Vacations.  We are one of the most highly regarded luxury and experiential tour operators that operates in Europe. 

Since 2006, we have had over 10,000 guests, booked over 100,000 room nights in hotels for our guests, and have received nothing but consistent 5-Star ratings for our service year over year.

Our guest-over-proft philosophy has gained us thousands of travelers that trust us implicitly.

Perhaps best of all, when the Covid pandemic hit the world and stopped all travel, we really found out what our guests thought about us.  We didn’t have a single refund request.  Every guest booked for 2020 offer for us to hold onto their deposits.  And when we were able to reopen travel, we were able to deliver every single vacation flawlessly. 

But these are all just words.n If you really want to know who we are, watch this video that tells our Covid story.   You will understand what we mean when we say our guests are family,

If you cancel, you will not have received the credit, and we provide many of our out of pocket costs once you are past your cancellation date, so our out of pocket loss is minimized.  On the other hand, we will suffer a significant loss in terms of time and salaries as they relate to that time, but we take. long view and it all works out in the end.  Hopefully if you cancel this one, you will book another with us.

Yes and no.  On some shore excursions we will get a very small commission. On some we will get nothing at all.  Many travel agencies will only book excursion they make a profit on.  We are quite different, as our parent company is a tour operator, and we operate on a relationship over profit philosophy.  In other words, if you want to do a shore excursion at a port, and we have two options in front of us, we will look at the quality and price of both,  If the one that will give you a better experience provides no profit for us, we will pick that one every single time, because your experience comes first for us.

Yes, but we will always want to know the nature of what you want the private driver for before we do so.  Here is a real-life example of why:  Suppose your cruise stops in Kotor, Montenegro, and you want the driver to take you into old town, then back to the ship later.  We can book a private driver for you, and it will cost roughly $60.00.

When you get off the ship, you will need to find the driver, which can be difficult, and when you are ready to come back, you may have difficulty finding the driver or contacting them.   

On the other hand, you can also simply call an Uber when you get there for the same service. Your Uber will probably pick you up in a beautiful Mercedes, and you simply call another Uber when you want to go back, and they will simply pick you up wherever you are. 

The roundtrip with the Uber will have been a better experience, and will probably cost around $15.00.

Yes, we will make $6.00 if we organize your ride, but the Uber will be a significantly better experience for you.

We drop everything and you become our #1 priority!!! You let us know immediately, and we get to work!  We will work with your insurance company the cruise line, and your family at home to take care of everything ASAP with as little hassle as possible.  When there is an emergency, everything else takes a back seat, period.

All of that said, there are some conditions.  There are some things that have some limitations that we need to get in front of.  You know, the fine print.  There is no “gotcha” stuff here.  Just some limitations to make sure we do have enough profit to be able to continue being who we are.  So here is the (not so) fine print:

*Additional Onboard Credit: The amount is based on your base cruise fare.  This is the amount of your cruise minus taxes, port fees and cruise line NCF charges.  Amount offered is:
$5,000 – $6,999 = $200 Credit
$7,000 – $9,999 = $300 Credit
$10,000 – $14,999 = $500 Credit
$15,000 – $19,999 = $750 Credit
$20,000 & Up = $1,000 Credit

**Virtual Mailbox Service: The service includes up to 80 incoming pieces of mail per month that you choose to open.  That means when you see the envelope in the app, it is only counted if you open it, so junk mail does not count.  Additional mail is priced at $0.25 per piece, and $0.50 per piece that you open to read.  If you need your mail or packages forwarded to another address anywhere in the world, there is a fee of $2.00 per shipment (not per piece), plus shipping costs with USPS, Fedex or UPS.  For check deposits, there is a fee of $4.95 per check plus postage, and if you want your packages stored until you return, there is a fee of $0.10 per pound, per month until you have it sent to you.  These are additional costs to us beyond the normal fee we pay, which we simply pass onto you at cost.

***Data SIM Card: The 16 gigabytes of data is generally sufficient for voice calls for the length of your cruise, but if you use it for video, you will use it up quickly.  If you want more data, you can top it up at an additional fee.

We offer more services and reasons to book with us than anyone else…

World Cruises by Year
World Cruises by Cruise Line & Year
General World Cruise Information

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Why Always Book with CDV:

Book cruises with CDV and you can get a credit of up to $10,000 for each cruise to use toward any CDV land vacation!  Click here for more info.

In addition to the CDV Tour credit, we have special offers you cannot get directly from the cruise lines on thousands of sailings every year. When you search for a cruise on our website, look for these badges next to a sailing : sig2   and sig– These indicate a special group offer that can provide you with free onboard credit, free excursions, or included gratuities.

The special and exclusive CDV offers can almost always be combined all with current qualifying national promotions offered by the cruise line, as well as full credit toward cruise line status.

We believe in the concept of Luxury of experience.  This means that our guests are not just looking for bucket list places, but life-changing experiences.  Our passion is making that happen, and to do so, we need to think of each person we deal with as friends and family.  We are not just planning a trip or event or you, but rather a life experience you will talk about long into the future.

Our secret sauce is a mixture of people that truly care about you above the “product,” leading-edge technology, and our carefully cultivated relationships with vendors that have become dear friends.  For us, it is always personal.  Click here to learn more about us and why we are in no way a typical travel agency.

Culture Discovery Reviews:

5.0
5.0 out of 5 stars (based on 39 reviews)

Peace of Mind, Always...

Get up to $10,000 credit or more when you book with CDV

Book cruises with CDV and you can get credit of up to $10,000 for each cruise to use toward any CDV land vacation!

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