Cunard Line is all about days at sea on its Cape Town cruise departures, especially those bound for Southampton, following in the tradition of the great ocean liners that used to depart the UK and South African every Thursday, bound for Cape Town and Southampton respectively.

Queen Elizabeth’s 17-night voyage up the West African coast in 2018 mirrors the liner service operated by Union-Castle, except that it has a few more port calls, such as Walvis Bay, Tenerife and Funchal. It is also annual rather than weekly.

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Queen Elizabeth is sailed the same itinerary on April 20^th, 2017. The 2018 sailing is different to the 2017 itinerary though as Mindelo, Cape Verde has been dropped as a port calls, so the Cunard queen will only call at Namibia, Tenerife and Funchal on her voyage north.

Because of this change to her itinerary, Cunard will retain the record for operating the cruise from Cape Town with the longest uninterrupted stretch of days at sea. In 2017 it was eight days (on the run between Walvis Bay and Cape Verde), but in 2018 it will be nine nights and ten days.

Cunard have always been the cruise line of choice for days at sea. The line is the only one left still operating a regular trans-Atlantic service, after-all.

For South African cruise passengers without the cash to splash on a Cunard voyager, however, MSC Cruises’ Sinfonia’s 24-night cruise from Durban to Venice (departing April 20th, 2018) offers a full week at sea between Mahe in the Seychelles and Aqaba in Jordan. MSC Sinfonia’s northbound itinerary from Durban also has more port calls and more exotic offerings (Mauritius, anyone?).