"Cultural" world cruises?

Princess offers round the world cruises with the features you describe.
https://www.princess.com/en-us/cruise-destinations/world-cruises

Friends of ours did a round-the-world cruise as “Lifelong Learners” on a Semester at Sea ship when they retired, about 10 years ago. They loved it—-lots of lectures aboard ship, and interesting shore excursions.

https://www.semesteratsea.org/lifelong-learning/

Try Silversea. If you call them, ask for Lisa (who was incredible working with us twice, then with friends of ours who joined us on one of the cruises). Silversea will sell sort of "half around the world" journeys, and segments can be taken as shorter cruises, or you could piece together quarter/half around the world to make your own around the world. When we traveled with them (it has been several years now), the on-board speakers were incredible. Silversea ships are smaller than some of the huge mega cruise lines.

Silversea = $$$$$

We have cruised around the World, including Australia, East Asia, South Asia, Middle East, Black Sea, Mediterranean, North Sea, Transatlantic, Transpacific, Caribbean, Panama Canal, South America (including Around the Horn), but never done it on a World Cruise.

We prefer Celebrity, Royal Caribbean and NCL, not sure they do a World Cruise.

Transatlantic from the east coast normal depart in the Spring for Europe.

There are two kinds of cruisers in my opinion, those that cruise for the ports (Itinerary) and those that cruise for the ship.

That is why we never pick the expensive cruise lines, we are port people.

My favorite cruises with ports were:
Japan cruise to Taiwan ending in Hong Kong
Transpacific cruise from Sydney, Australia to Seattle, stopping in Fiji and Hawaii
British Isles cruises that included Norway and Iceland
Med cruises, particularly in the Eastern Med.

Not sure with the current problems with terrorists in Yemen attacking ships going through the Red Sea if you will be able to find a cruise that goes through the Suez Canal and into the Red Sea.

Compare all your world cruises with ports, accommodations and $$$.

Holland America offers extensive world itineraries. Good luck.

Cruise Critic has an entire forum devoted to world cruises, including threads about choosing which cruise line. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/674-world-cruising/

There may be uncertainties in the itineraries for round-the-world cruises right now, even ones 2 years out, due to issues with the Suez Canal and Red Sea.

Our friends’ cruise with Semester at Sea was the year ships were being attacked by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden. Their itinerary was changed from cruising through the Mediterranean and Suez Canal to a trip around the Horn of Africa.

I know someone currently on a world cruise, and yes they are diverting away from Arab peninsula and Suez, and going around Cape Horn instead.

I also would hesitate to book anything due to "uncertainties" such as mentioned above that involved a route through the Taiwan Strait and perhaps even the South China Sea in the current environment. (I travel to several different Asian countries multiple times a year by air.)

Thank you very much, everyone; I think we are all set for links and tips. Silversea looks wonderful, but would require robbing a lot of liquor stores_ :-)

We have other reasons for delaying until 2027, but we certainly hope the various oceanic hot spots have cooled by then. They could be just as bad, or worse, of course. If so, we'll adopt a piecemeal approach; it is nice to know that that possibility exists.