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.
2024
As of January 2024, my bookings as speaker on future cruise are currently 'on hold' because of a severe knee injury. However, I am determined to do everything possible to be fit enough to return to full speaker duties by the time of the cruises listed below:-
In late May, I am booked to join Viking Mars for three back-to-back cruises, repeating two favourite itineraries from 2023. The first of these is a return visit to the arctic environment of Svalbard on ICELAND & NORWAY'S ARCTIC EXPLORER. This time, we start from Bergen on Sunday 26th May, with stops on Geiranger before heading north of the Arctic Circle to Narvik, Leknes on the Lofoten Islands, Tromsø and Honningsväg. We then sail past Bjornøya on the way to Longyearbyen in Svalbard for an overnight there. Subsequently, we will pass Jan Mayen Island on the way to Isafjordur in Iceland and end the cruise in Reykjavik on Saturday 8th June. See here for more on that cruise.
That cruise can also be combined with the cruise below - with minimal repeat talks from me! - as a grand voyage called GREENLAND, ICELAND, NORWAY & BEYOND, which has to be almost the perfect cruise for my interests. Full details here.
Next are two return trips on ICONIC ICELAND, GREENLAND & CANADA. The first begins from Reykjavik on Saturday 8th June and virtually circumnavigates Iceland, with 5 port stops at Heimaey, Djupivogur, Seydisfjördur, Akureyri and Isafjördur, then across to Nanortalik and Qaqortoq in Greenland, L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland and Halifax in Canada, before arriving in New York on Saturday 22nd June. We then depart again that evening on the reverse itinerary back to Reykjavik, arriving there on Saturday 6th July. There's more about that exciting cruise on the Viking website here.
On 5th August 2024, I'll be delighted to return to one of my favourite ships, Seven Seas Navigator, for a cruise called INSPIRED ICELAND, sustainably (for me) starting in Southampton and ending there on 25th August. Ports include Akureyri, Isafjordur and Reykjavik in Iceland, Nuuk, Pamiut and Qaqortoq in Greenland, with a scenic cruise also of Prins Christian Sund, and stops in the Orkney and Faroe Islands on the way north, and the north of the island of Ireland on the way south. Full details of that cruise are on the Regent website here.
Then in November I join Seven Seas Voyager for a cruise that's almost a repeat of one I did in 2023 (hopefully with a working knee this time!), called WEST AFRICAN WONDERS. It departs Barcelona on Wednesday 6th November, and concludes in Cape Town on Sunday 1st December, with scheduled stops in Cadiz, Spain; Casablanca and Agadir in Morocco; Arrecife on Lanzarote in the Canary islands and Mindelo in the Cape Verde Islands. It then heads across to West Africa with stops in Dakar (Senegal), Banjul (the Gambia), Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Sekondi-Takoradi (Ghana), Lomé (Togo), then São Tome island. Three days sailing down the West African coast, with interesting seabirds and perhaps cetaceans, brings us to Walvis Bay in Namibia, with another day and a half at sea on route to the 'Mother City' of Cape Town. Check the RSCC website here for details of that cruise.
2025
Having had to cancel a booking as speaker on the IN SEARCH OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTS cruise in 2024, I am hugely grateful to Viking Ocean Cruises for reappointing me for this cruise in 2025. This time, the cruise on Viking Vela begins in Bergen on March 11th 2025, with overnight stops in Alta and Tromsø (to allow for aurora hunting), then visits to Narvik and Ijmuiden (for Amsterdam) before ending in Tilbury, England on March 23rd. We hope for more successful views, like the one below from Alta when I was last there in 2022. Read more about that cruise here.
I then have a brief break to change from winter to summer gear before flying out to join EAST INDIES & PANAMA CANAL PASSAGE, on board Viking Sea. This cruise begins in San Juan in Puerto Rico on March 31st, with stops in Willemstad, Curaçao; Cartagena and Colombia and Colón in Panama, before transiting the always-amazing Panama Canal. Next up is Puntarenas in Costa Rica and Corinto in Nicaragua, before Cabo San Lucas in Mexico, ending in Los Angeles on April 17th. More details here. I then stay on for the next cruise, PACIFIC COAST EXPLORER, which departs LA and heads briefly south to San Diego, then north again to Santa Barbara and San Francisco, with a stop in Astoria, Oregon and Victoria on Vancouver Island, before ending in Vancouver, Canada, on April 25th. Read all about that one here.
After a 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 Antwerp 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 Antwerp 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
Three early bookings for 2026 from Regent Seven Seas Cruise 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.
I then continue on Voyager for SPRING IN SEYCHELLES, which departs Cape Town on February 28th to Port Elizabeth, with an overnight in Durban and on to Maputo in Mozambique. That's followed by another visit to the Comoros Islands, then Nosy Be on Madagascar, before an overnight in Mahe on the Seychelles. Return visits follow to Salalah, Muscat and Khasab in Oman before concluding in Dubai on March 20th. More on that here.
I then return to continue that journey northwards on my favourite Seven Seas Navigator for ARABIAN NIGHTS & EGYPTIAN SHORES. This begins in Doha on May 22nd, with an overnight in Dubai, visits to Muscat and Salalah in Oman, time sailing the Arabian and Red Sea, then Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, an overnight in Safaga for Luxor in Egypt, then Aqaba in Jordan. After we transit the Suez Canal, let's hope that Haifa is once more able to welcome tourist visitors in 2026, before a stop on Kusadasi in Turkey and ending in Piraeus for Athens on June 10th. Details of that cruise are here.
Next up, I am delighted to be back on my favourite two 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.
NOTE: All the above bookings, obviously, are health-dependent. Circumstances may prevent me contributing on these cruises at short notice, although I will usually update this website if there are any changes.
We would be delighted to discuss future opportunities for 2025 and 2026 with cruise companies. We are fully coronavirus vaccinated (including 'boosters') with the required certification available. Please contact us using the form here.