Semester at Sea (SaS) is a study-abroad program founded in 1963 and managed by the Institute for Shipboard Education (ISE)[1] in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Ramzi Yousef was convicted of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing on November 12 of that year, and the U.S. State Department issued a travel warning for American citizens in the Middle East.

Although no students were involved, fears of terrorism resulted in the removal of the next two ports (Israel and Turkey) from the itinerary and the ship was rerouted to Cyprus and Spain.

The planned route, from Penang and the Indian Ocean through the Suez Canal to ports in Egypt and Croatia, was changed by the U.S. State Department to include Singapore, Seychelles, and Cape Town.

During the fall 2006 voyage, Typhoon Shanshan caused the MV Explorer (en route from Japan to Qingdao, China) to be rerouted to Hong Kong.

During the fall 2010 voyage, a University of California, Santa Barbara student died while the ship was docked in Ho Chi Minh City.

The students, faculty, staff, and Lifelong Learners aboard the MV World Odyssey were rerouted to Vietnam for an extra week to make up for lost time in China.

The morning of March 6, students were informed of another itinerary change due to quarantine concerns when arriving at European ports from North Africa.

SAS concluded the Spring 2020 voyage, canceling all South Africa-related programming on March 12, and advised students to return home from Cape Town in light of a U.S. State Department worldwide travel advisory.

Students attend classes in a number of subjects and disciplines, including humanities courses relevant to one (or more) of the countries on the itinerary, while the ship is at sea.

Notable lecturers and guests have included:[25][26] A lease was announced in May 2015 for the ship previously known as the MS Deutschland to be renovated, re-flagged and renamed the MV World Odyssey,[27] operated by V-Ships.

The SS Seawise University (formerly the RMS Queen Elizabeth), which SaS intended to use, burned and sank in 1972 in Hong Kong Harbour during her conversion into a floating campus.

Concerns about the separation of the Institute for Shipboard Education and the Seawise Foundation and the safety of the MV Explorer contributed to the University of Pittsburgh's severing ties to the program in 2005.

[30] An early-1990s spring itinerary included Nassau, Caracas, Salvador (Brazil), Cape Town, Mombasa, Chennai, Singapore, Shanghai, Osaka and Hong Kong.

More recent voyages have explored Hawaii, Japan, China, Vietnam, Myanmar, India, Mauritius, South Africa, Ghana, Morocco, and the Netherlands.

[31] The Summer of 2012 voyage aboard the MV Explorer included Spain, Italy, Croatia, Greece, Turkey, Morocco, and Portugal.

The ship left from Ensenada, Mexico and spent two months in the South Pacific, stopping in Papeete, Tahiti; Auckland, New Zealand; Sydney, Australia; Suva, Fiji; Apia, Western Samoa; and Hilo, Hawaii before ending the voyage in Seattle, Washington.