Around the world in 80 days?

My great uncle travelled all around tge world as a passenger on various cargo and container ships. His job was meat imports and he never flew anywhere his entire life.
A young friend of mine is 28 hes never had a home of his own,hes travelled all around the world,just gets temp jobs to pay for his next ticket onward,hes no intention of stopping any time soon.
If i had my time again id do the same.Sure as hell would not do the career house car shit again.

Actually, I have been doing some serious calculations and I have arrived at a final figure. There are some BIG BIG surprises

1) Bottom line cost, its actually cheaper to book on a world cruise 99 days with P&O in one of their budget cabins. That surprised me but the package is so much better, you get all the entertainment, gym, swimming pool etc and the food will be so much better than eating what the crew eats on a container ship and being stuck in your cabin 24/7 with just weeks at sea. The cruise liner stops at places along the way.

2) Either way the cost is about £100 a day, cruise liner or container ship. Now that sounds a lot but you can pay that to stay in a Travelodge in Scunthorpe for a night. If I start now I can save it in two years with the window cleaning if I am focussed on getting it together.

3) the cruise liner option doesn't give me the chance of an extended stop over anywhere like Sydney, San Francisco or Hawaii but on the other hand, I don't have the money to "do" these places justice even if I did stop over.

That's a negative for me, I would like to linger but I think I have to accept my limitations.

Its a plan, a dream beyond what I ever thought was possible. My bucket list

That's a swings and roundabout question. I doubt it would be cheaper when you weigh up all the variables. That was the big surprise about the package cruise, its actually incredibly good value when you consider what you get.

The problem is trying to cost out what the stopovers would involve if I went by cargo boat because there is no guarantee you could get a ride out when you want at short notice. The number of cargo boats taking passengers is small and the number of cabins are often only a handful. You could get stuck somewhere for quite a long time 

Also, the ships taking passengers are big container ships, they go to fairly unattractive container ports  So to go sightseeing involves buses and other costs like accommodation. Not a big deal unless you are on a tight budget.

I must admit the backpacker option is very attractive but much more problematic 

Go for it, Bernie, I've always wanted to do round the world by land and sea, flying from place to place hasn't appealed to me, don't know why.  I get terrible sea sickness as well so I'm not sure why I think doing it by boat would be better!  But yes, go for it, I can't imagine anyone ever doing a round the world trip and wishing they hadn't  

Its good value for what you get. I can save the money if I make it my be all and end all. Window cleaning will provide the money but I don't underestimate the sacrifice.

Yes, definitely, none of us know when we'll get to the point where we can't do things, definitely best to grab the chance if you can.  I'd kind of given up on my dreams of travelling as my son and myself have both had so many health problems and I kept wishing I'd done it when I was younger.  We're both doing better now so the dream is back on but this time I'll definitely push myself to do it sooner rather than later so that I don't miss the chance.  I'd say go for it, you might meet a nice lady and spend your retirement on a lovely beach watching the clouds go by x

Thank you its still in the planning stage ie planning how to get the money together to pay for it