Global views, without a porthole

AN around-the-world cruise on a celebrated ship wouldn’t seem an appropriate subject for a column on budget travel.

But because many affluent passengers don’t want small inside cabins without portholes, those compartments are difficult to sell to those who book 90-day and 100-day sailings.

Result: The inside cabins on many around-the-world cruises are unsold -- and, thus, heavily discounted -- for sailings in January, February and March.

Around-the-world cruises are tremendously popular. America’s richest vacationers are willing to pay $60,000 to $100,000 for the best suites and the largest cabins on the current batch of sailings. These leave in January from various U.S. ports and sail for about three months, circling the globe; the best cabins on the best ships are already sold out. Around-the-world cruises sell from the top down, the most expensive cabins filling first.

But various cruise brokers are selling the lesser cabins on these sailings for as little as $150 per person per day. The problem, from a budget standpoint, is that $150 multiplied by 100 days comes to $15,000 per person, and few Americans are willing to pay that much for a winter vacation.

I still regard the opportunity as a bargain. If you were to spend three months at a good condo in Miami Beach, buy restaurant meals three times a day and pay what most people spend on sports, entertainment and sightseeing, you’d surely spend $150 per day per person, adding up to more than $13,000 per person for three months in the sun.

For those who might share my view, I’ve done some research. Deals are available from cruise brokers such as Vacations to Go (www.vacationstogo.com, [800] 338-4962), and Cruisewizard (www.cruisewizard.com, [800] 547-4790).

They are charging about $15,000 per person for 102 days around the world on the Queen Elizabeth 2 and about $19,000 per person, or about $235 a day, for 81 days around the world on the Queen Mary 2.

Both cruises are on magical itineraries. The QE2 sets sail on Jan. 8 from New York and on Jan. 10 from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on a routing through the Caribbean to Costa Rica, through the Panama Canal, up the West Coast of the U.S., across the Pacific to Hawaii, Tahiti, Tonga and Fiji, to New Zealand, Tasmania and multiple stops in Australia.

From there stops include Papua New Guinea and Yokohama (for visits to Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan); Shanghai and Hong Kong; Vietnam; Bangkok; Singapore; Sri Lanka; Cochin and Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India; the Seychelles and Mauritius; Durban and Cape Town, South Africa; Namibia, along the African coast to the Canary Islands and Madeira; and Southampton in England.

The Queen Mary 2 follows an equally fascinating itinerary. It also departs from Fort Lauderdale on Jan. 10, but because it is too wide to pass through the Panama Canal, it sails all along the coast of South America and crosses into the Pacific around the Cape of Good Hope before stopping at exotic ports in Asia, India and Africa.

As for your fellow passengers, most of them will be heirs to great wealth. They tend to be happy-go-lucky types who know how to have a good time. All you need to join them is a minimum of $15,000 and tolerance for spending a few months in an inside cabin.