LATEST CRUISE BOOKINGS
I have had the privilege of working regularly as a wildlife speaker on board cruise ships since 2005, often joined by my wife Sue, a marine biologist who helps with spotting wildlife on deck. Since we started this work, we have made many friends, who often ask about our future cruise plans, and we are always delighted to make new friends. On both Viking Ocean Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises, I am generally booked to cover all aspects of the natural history of the trips, including guidance on the wildlife (and plants) we might see on sea days and ashore. We are happy to highly recommend these companies for their high standards of comfort, service and value for money. We also love talking to guests on deck as we watch for seabirds or whales, or joining you to spot flowers and wildlife ashore. We try to keep this page updated with all the latest news of our future cruise bookings.
*** For a full round-up of my past experience as a cruise ship speaker, please click here. ***
I am happy to hear from cruise companies looking for speakers, preferably by a message here.
Next up, in a change of previously advised schedule, I am due to join Viking Venus for the 24-night NORTH PACIFIC PASSAGE WITH GLACIER BAY cruise, departing Tokyo on Thursday 17th April. This stops at Sapporo, Japan, then has seven days at sea (one of them the same day twice as we cross the International Date Line!) before visits to Kodiak Island and Homer in Alaska (scene of Alaska: The Last Frontier!). Next we stop in Seward and Valdez, before two days scenic cruising to Hubbard Glacier and Glacier Bay. This is followed by visits to all the classic Alaskan Inside Passage ports: Sitka, Icy Strait Point, Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan, before ending in Vancouver, Canada on Sunday 11th May. Full details of that new cruise are on the Viking website here.
After a brief break at home, I'm back to the north-east Pacific coast with Regent again for GREAT ALASKAN ADVENTURE on Seven Seas Explorer, departing Seward on 21st May and visiting Hubbard Glacier, Sitka, Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan, before arriving in Vancouver on 28th May. I then stay on Explorer for EPIC PACIFIC PASSAGE, a welcome 14-night cruise, which visits all these ports but adds Wrangell, Icy Strait Point, a cruise of the Endocott Arm Fjord, plus Victoria on Vancouver Island before returning to Vancouver on 11th June. Check the details here (and click 'previous cruise' for the earlier trip).
Next, I join Seven Seas Voyager in Southampton on July 7th for a 21-night cruise LOVELY NORWAY & THE FJORDS which visits 15 ports in Norway (see map below), 7 of which are north of the Arctic Circle and 4 of which will be new to me, despite all my cruising. It also includes a morning in Amsterdam and ends in Tilbury, England on 27th July. More about that cruise on the RSSC website here.
I will then stay on the ship for EMERALD FIELDS & NORTHERN SHORES which leaves Tilbury that evening and visits Amsterdam before a round-UK trip, including Newcastle, Newhaven (for Edinburgh), Liverpool, Belfast and Dun Laoghaire (for Dublin), ending in Southampton on August 7th. Full details of that one here.
After another brief break, I join Regent's Seven Seas Splendor in Barcelona on August 23rd for ATLANTIC OCEAN RHAPSODY visiting Alicante, Motril and Cadiz in Spain, Funchal on Madeira, Ponta Delgada and Horta in the Azores, then two days at sea to St John's and Cornerbrook in Newfoundland, then a day up the St Lawrence Seaway to Quebec and ending in Montreal on September 8th. Read about that one here.
I then stay on Splendor for LIGHTHOUSES & LOBSTER ROLLS, boarding in Montreal on September 8th, then visiting Quebec and Saguenay, Sydney and Halifax in Nova Scotia, St John on the Bay of Fundy, Portland and Boston, and south to New York by September 18th, as described here on the RSSC website.
Next up, it's back to Seven Seas Navigator for MAJESTIC SAFARIS & MODERN SPIRES departing Cape Town on November 25th, and visiting Mossel Bay and Richard's Bay in South Africa, Maputo in Mozambique, Mayotte in the French Comoros, Nosy Be Madagascar, an overnight in Mahé in the Seychelles, then four days at sea to Muscat in Oman, Fujairah and Dubai in the UAE and ending in Doha, Qatar on December 14th. Read all about that one here.
2026
Two bookings from Regent Seven Seas Cruise in early 2026 are especially exciting because of the time they spend in Madagascar, which I have visited before but look forward to exploring further. SHORES OF MADAGASCAR leaves Cape Town on Seven Seas Voyager on January 27th, visiting Durban and Richard's Bay in South Africa and Maputo in Mozambique, before Morondava, Nosy Be, Antsiranana, Nosy Boraha and Toamasina in Madagascar and Mayotte on the Comoros Islands. It ends in Port Louis, Mauritius on February 12th. Full details here.
STUNNING BEACHES & THE BIG FIVE is then a modification of that, in reverse. It leaves Port Louis on February 12th, visiting three of the same ports in Madagascar plus Toliara, an overnight in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, an overnight in Richard's Bay, then Mossel Bay in South Africa, ending back in Cape Town on February 28th. Details are on the RSSC website here.
In May, I return to my favourite Seven Seas Navigator for one last (extended) trip to say fond farewell to her before she is sold in October 2026. ARABIAN NIGHTS & AFRICAN SHORES is a complete change in itinerary from what was originally advertised, because the Red Sea and Suez Canal are tragically no longer deemed safe for cruise ships. Instead of heading north from Doha, this now departs Doha on May 11th and heads south via Mahe in the Seychelles, Nosy Be on Madagascar, Mayotte on the French Comoros Islands, then Durban and Port Elizabeth before reaching Cape Town on June 11th. Check the latest details of that cruise here.
I then stay onboard for WEST AFRICAN PASSAGE which sails from Cape Town on June 11th, with a stop in my all-time favourite wildlife port of Walvis Bay in Namibia. She then visits São Tome Island, Lome in Togo, Sekondi in Ghana, Abidjan in the Cote d'Ivoire, Bajul in the Gambia and Dakar in Senegal. Stops in Mindelo in the Cape Verde Islands, Arrecife on Lanzerote and Agadir in Morocco take us to Barcelone for July 5th. Details of that exciting new cruise are here.
I then have a brief stop in London before flying on to Bergen to join two of my favourite Viking cruises, which I premiered as a speaker in summer 2023 and repeated in 2024. ICELAND & NORWAY'S ARCTIC EXPLORER on Viking Vela, begins in Bergen on July 7th, with stops in Geiranger, Narvik, Leknes (on the Lofoten Islands), Tromsø and Honningsvåg, all in Norway. A sail-by of Bjørnøya (Bear Island) then takes us to one of the most exciting ports on any cruise, Longyearbyen in the Svalbard archipelago. Hopefully we then sail past Jan Mayen Island, en route to Ìsafjörður in Iceland and we end in Reykjavik on July 20th. Read about that cruise here.
ICONIC ICELAND, GREENLAND & CANADA then departs Reykjavik on Viking Vela later on July 20th, visiting 5 ports anti-clockwise around Iceland: Heimaey in the Westmann Islands, Djúpivogur, Seyðisfjörður, Akureyri and Ìsafjörðu. A day at sea takes us to a stunning scenic cruise through Prins Christian Sund (weather permitting) and visits to Nanaortalik and Qaqortoq (all Greenland), then the Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Halifax in New Scotland (Nova Scotia) before ending in New York on August 3rd. More about that exciting cruise on the Viking website here.
Nine days later (August 12th), I'll be in Southampton to join Seven Seas Voyager as destinations and wildlife speaker for ISLES OF MYTH AND MAGNIFICENCE (great title!). After stops in Rosyth (for Edinburgh), Invergordon and Lerwick in Scotland, and Torshavn in the Faroe Isles, this then visits a brilliant 7 ports in Iceland: Heimaey, Reykjavik, Grundarfjörður, Isafjörður, Akureyri, Seyðisfjörður and Eskifjörður. It returns via Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, Londonderry/Derry and Belfast in Northern Ireland, and Cobh (Cork) in the Republic of Ireland, returning to Southampton on September 1st. Check details for that here.
I then stay on board for a 10-night cruise from Southampton, GRAND CASTLES, MODERN MARVELS, stopping at Bruges (Belgium), Rotterdam (Netherlands), Kristiansand and Oslo (Norway), Aaarhus (Denmark), Kiel (Germany) and ending in Copenhagen (Denmark) on September 11th. Read here for more on that.
Sadly, my November cruise on Seven Seas Navigator is now no more, as the ship will have moved on to pastures new (as one of the new trend of apartments at sea). I await confirmation of any alternative option.
2027
I am honoured that my first booking for 2027 will be joining the guests on two legs of the WORLD OF SPLENDOR world cruise on Seven Seas Splendor from Panama City on January 25th across to Sydney on March 15th 2027. My stint on board begins with 6 ports in Central America: Puntarenas (Costa Rica), Corinto (Nicaragua), Acajutla (El Salvador), Puerto Quetzal (Guatemala) and Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas (Mexico) ΜΆ all presumably `politics permitting´. Next is a brief overnight stop in Los Angeles, before 5 days at sea to Hawai'i. Our stops there are Honolulu (Oahu), Kahului (Maui) and Hilo (Big Island). Five more days at sea takes us to the real adventure in French Polynesia (all new to me): Bora Bora, Moorea, 3 nights in Pape'ete (Tahiti), perhaps with a changeover of some guests, then back to Moorea, Huahine, Raiatea and another visit to Bora Bora. We then visit Pago Pago in American Samoa, Apia in Samoa and Suna and Lautoka in Fiji. Next are stops at Inyeug Island (known as Mystery Island by the cruise companies) in Vanuatu and Lifou Island in New Caledonia. Two days cruising the Coral Sea then takes us to Brisbane in Australia before my term of duty ends in Sydney. Full details of the whole World Cruise are on the Regent website here; other elements of the journey (such as Panama City to Pape'ete, or Pape'ete to Sydney) may be advertised later.
The map below from the Regent Seven Seas Cruises brochure shows the section of the World Cruise on which I am booked:-
I am then pleased to return to Viking on two of my favourite cruises, already completed in 2023 and 2024 and booked for 2026, as well as this latest booking on board Viking Vela. ICELAND AND NORWAY'S ARCTIC EXPLORER embarks in Bergen on June 11th 2027, and visits Geiranger and Leknes on the Lofoten Islands, Narvik, Tromsø and Honningsvåg, all in Norway, before a sail-by of Bjornøya, en route to an overnight stop in Longyearbyen on Spitsbergen Island in the Svalbard Archipelago (also Norwegian). Two days at sea takes us to Isafjörður in Iceland and the cruise ends on Reykjavik on June 25th. Read about that cruise here. I then stay on for the next cruise ICONIC ICELAND, GREENLAND & CANADA, which embarks that evening. It visits 5 great Icelandic ports: Heimaey in the Westmann Islands, Djúpivogur, Seyðisfjörður, Akureyri and Ìsafjörður. We then have a day at sea before an eary morning transit of the stunningly scenic Prins Christian Sund (weather permitting) and visits to Nanaortalik and Qaqortoq (all Greenland). Another day at sea takes us to the Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, then on to Halifax in 'New Scotland' (Nova Scotia) before ending in New York on July 8th. More about that exciting cruise on the Viking website here.
NOTE: Circumstances may prevent me contributing on these cruises at short notice, although I will always update this website if there are any changes.
We would be delighted to discuss future opportunities for 2027 with cruise companies. We are fully coronavirus vaccinated (including 'boosters') with the required certification available. Please contact us using the form here.