Cruise or Voyage

[Cruise_Princess]

Just been looking thru a few brochures recently.....and some pretty old ones as well...

Remember the days before the National Lottery  when we all said if  we won the football pools we would 'go on  a World Cruise'  It was EVERYONES dream back then....( after cruising for many years it's not something I would now want to do)....regardless of money)

You know how I'm always going on about how lovely it is to go on a 'Voyage' rather than a Cruise...in the main I' m talking about a 'Line Voyage'...following the 'LINE 'of days gone by, on Liners...., or is it 'Crossing 'the Line' such as the Equator'??   Or is it because you return to the same port you left from ...such as Southampton of course...round trip...

But  on the ships of yesteryear..it was STILL a World Cruise that they did.....the 'toffs' and the hoi pollois with their maids and nannies went on a World Cruise... on a 'Round Trip.'....as well as the 'Crossings' of course.....

The Transatlantic which we did sooo many of can be classed as a 'Crossing'...or a Transatlantic Voyage...( which I tended to call it myself)...but Crossing is perhaps the correct term.   The crossing I understand is a direct Port to Port 'service over an Ocean.such as Transatlantic Service...  So is the World Cruise classed as a Cruise because it is more of a 'Pleasure Cruise' with many Ports inbetween?  .. so is  a Voyage a longer trip...than a cruise..........      The 'World Cruise 'is  still a Cruise....but the sectors inbetween could be classed as a 'voyage'??   Is it the difference between Liner and Cruise ship again?  .....but the Liners did World Cruises for years as well as Cruise Ships...  That old chestnut again of Liners doing Crossings and Line Voyages.. and Cruise Ships do Cruises......then we are left with WORLD CRUISE again...

i'm  getting so  confused!!    Just wonder what you think?

[Scott Ebersold]

Hi CP,

Language is a constantly changing and living thing.  I love thinking about language.  And I find that thee more you dig, the less certain the answer becomes.

In my opinion a voyage could describe any long journey (in sea, air or space!).  Liner voyages would be the journeys that a go between fixed points (on a schedule).   (The transatlantic crossing would be one example of a liner voyage.  So would an AmTrak Train between New York and Albany, for that matter!).  A cruise implies sailing about for pleasure and not specifically for transportation. 

Cunard is in the business of selling history, (or historic voyages on "The Most Famous Ocean Liners in the World").  So I think they use these terms to their (best) advantage which may cause some of the confusion in terms.  QE2 and QM2 were both built with 2 purposes  so they could do crossings (liner voyages) and cruising (pleasure voyages).   And currently, I think, Cunard would like its "guests" to be sailing on "classic voyages".  And that may be true, even if you may prefer to think you are a "passenger" on a "crossing" or a "cruise"! 

So, I say, call it what you'd like!