Picture this: you are on your way to Antarctica, the world’s southernmost continent. Travelling by ship, you pass penguin and seal colonies, and an active volcano, and traverse icy channels. You marvel in the grandeur of it all – and all from the comfort of your own home.
This is not just a collection of floating homes – The World can also be described as an amalgamation of an all-inclusive luxury hotel and a country club. Aside from the promise of worldwide excursions, the 12-deck ship has four restaurants, a fitness centre, a spa, two swimming pools, a theatre, a golf simulator and the only regulation-size tennis court in the world aboard a ship. Launched in 2002, the luxury ship is the brainchild of a Norwegian shipping family.
“In the very beginning, it was a bit of a hybrid concept,” says Thomas Legner, the ship’s senior general manager. “It was full ownership, but then there was also a cruise component where [for] one deck, which are the studio apartments, you could basically book those in a travel agency.” It became apparent that this arrangement would not work out long-term, as owners preferred to spend longer in port while guests expected the jam-packed schedules typically associated with a cruise.
As a result, in 2003 The World became a full-ownership yacht. Today it is managed with the help of over 300 crew members from 42 countries and a management office of about 40 people in the US state of Florida. Residents, many of whom come from North America.