Have you ever wondered if you could live on a cruise ship forever? Traveling the world, seeing all kinds of exotic places, cruising forever with not a care in the world. It is now a reality, and several possibilities exist.
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The World – Residences at Sea
The World of Residences at Sea was launched in 2002 as a condominium-style residential community contained on a 644-foot cruise ship, complete with restaurants, a spa and fitness center, and other amenities similar to what you’d find on a typical mid-size cruise liner.
As with land-based condo resorts, short-term rentals of a week or more may be arranged without committing to ownership, and a wide range of ports is included on The World’s ongoing circumnavigation of the globe.
ResidenSea has problems.
-disputes between owners of Condos on the ship and tourists.
Owners want to stay in exciting ports for several days while tourists that the ship needs to get full occupancy to cover the cost of unsold suites want to move from port to port every day.
Annual maintenance costs run at $100,000 per suite while an actual suite now costs 1.9 to 4 million dollars. This ad recently appeared on the Internet:
“Rent an outside luxury cabin from $600 a day”
From somebody who owns 2 cabins on the ResidenSea. That runs to $18,000 per month.
Join an organization that will buy a used Cruise Ship and convert it to Condos
This concept has been tried and failed. The practical problems were just too great.
- Trying to get enough people interested.
- Trying to get commitments from people.
- Trying to find a ship that was not going to fall apart immediately upon leaving the harbor.
- Trying to get cash from people before a ship was bought.
And these were just problems BEFORE a ship was even bought. Think about the problems there would be after the ship was bought.
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Live on a Cruise Ship by buying regular cruises on an ongoing basis
This seems the only practical way in which you can live permanently on a cruise ship. But you don’t have to spend as much as Mama Lee.
Here are the estimated costs based on double occupancy starting on the cheap:
Basic Cruise Costs; $100 per day x 2 people = $6000 per month
This includes gratuities, all you can eat and port costs.
Independent costs of living for Seniors seems to be about $2000 per month per person = $4000.
This includes food.
So for $2000 per month extra a couple can live on a cruise ship (or ships) forever.
The advantages of this type of living if you have that extra $24,000 per year to spend are these:
-Quality of the meals on a cruise ship is probably a lot better than what you would get in an independent living type of situation.
-You can vary cruise lines, use a Caribbean Cruise Line this month, an Alaska Line next month and a European Line for the next 6 months.
-Shows every night.
-Built-in new friends every week or so. Most cruises end within 7 days and a new crop of potential friends arrives for you to interact with.
-An entire cruise staff to help you with ANYTHING if you have a problem.
So, if you want to live on a Cruise Ship: $24,000 a year extra is all it takes for 2 people.
Conclusion
If living on a cruise ship in retirement is your goal, it’s not hard to do. Start checking your 401K and consulting your financial advisor so that you can achieve this goal easily. I have actually considered this and for sure if I hit the lotto, you’ll find me on The World. How about you? Have you thought about retiring to a cruise ship?