Holland America Line is to stage a 133-day Pole-to-Pole cruise simultaneously with a 124-day world voyage in 2025.
It will be the first time line has run two sailings of more than 120 days at the same time.
Volendam will travel south to north visiting five continents between the Antarctic and Arctic while Zuiderdam will cover six continents on an east to west route.
The two ships are scheduled to meet in Barcelona after Easter on April 24, 2025 for a joint overnight call, bringing the two grand voyages together for a celebration.
The Pole-to-Pole itinerary departs on January 25, 2025 from Fort Lauderdale in Florida, transited the Panama Canal before sailing down the west coast of South America to Antarctica, then up via Argentina and Brazil to the heart of the Amazon River.
The ship then crosses the Atlantic to Africa, sails via Europe to the North Cape before heading west across the northern Atlantic via Iceland and Greenland to return down the eastern coast of North America.
The trip includes 68 calls including overnights in Fuerte Amador, Panama; Callao (Lima), Peru; Buenos Aires; Rio de Janeiro; Barcelona; Lisbon and Reykjavik.
The world voyage departs on January 4, 2025, also from Fort Lauderdale with a transit of the Panama Canal before crossing the Pacific via Easter Island to Australia. Zuiderdam then visits Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Seychelles and Cape Town. The ship then travels back up along the eastern coast of Africa, through the Suez Canal to Portugal before crossing the Atlantic back to the US.
The itinerary covers 46 ports in 32 countries with nine overnight calls, including two nights in Callao; Easter Island; Papeete, Tahiti; Sydney; Singapore; Cape Town; Mombasa; Safaga in Egypt and Barcelona.
Passengers can make a future cruise request with a deposit to get priority booking confirmation prior to the two voyages going on sale on May 24.
Those who book the full sailings by June 3, 2024, receive onboard spending credits and amenities valued at up to $8,800 or $8,500 respectively, per person.
New perks for people who book early include complimentary Wi-Fi, a $500 air credit per person and airport transfers to and from Fort Lauderdale airport.
HAL president Gus Antorcha said: “This will be a truly historic pair of voyages.
“Our grand world voyage travels east to west and our other ‘grands’ focus on one region, so designing this first-of-its-kind route that explores south to north roundtrip from the US is an incredible way to allow our guests two different choices to travel across the world.”
Deployment and itinerary planning vice president Paul Grimsby added: ”Detailed planning went into this voyage to ensure we’re visiting destinations when the weather is favourable, and we included locations that are sought after like the Amazon River, Greenland and Iceland, in addition to Antarctica and the Arctic.
“We’ve created two voyages that linger in ports for memorable moments and several overnight stays. We even timed it so the two voyages will meet-up to share an overnight experience in Barcelona.”