Retiring/living forever on a cruise ship
There’s been press about people moving full time to a cruise ship (The World Residences at Sea) during Covid.
Tips For Travellers asks how well this really works.
There are two ways to do this. One is to take many different boats during the year. The other is to buy a full-time residence.
The cheaper option is to hop between the cheapest cruise lines. In his video, he finds several people using several different methods.
Mario sticks to the cheap Caribbean cruises for 80% of the year and does not spending extra for port fees, excursions, drinks/food packages, etc. He targets about $200/day for cabin costs. With extras, Mario lives very frugally for a full year on the cruise ships on about $72,000-$100,000/year. Mama Lee also does this at about $175,000 for her more upscale life. Beatrice Meuler lived in an interior cabin on the QE2 for about $80,000. These match his investigation of a 9 month Royal Caribbean cruise that would cost about $112,000 for a balcony cabin with drinks, wifi, laundry, and a few excursions – but requires to be paid PER PERSON for a double occupancy.
Permanent residence on a single boat costs much more. Cabins on The World residences cost millions to buy, and annual fees often run around $113,000 (studio) to $1M (3 bedroom)/year depending on size of residence you buy. Storylines has studios start at $350,000 with $55,000/year maintenance costs – up to millions for the penthouses (along with up to a million a year in maintenance fees!)
Even if the costs work for you, there’s still other considerations.
- Crew and ships are not set up for aging customers. They expect passengers to be in shape/able-bodied. They aren’t set up like a retirement care facility if you’re not able bodied. This is not a retirement community.
- Medical facilities are not set up for dealing with serious or ongoing medical conditions. There is NO dental care. No medicine/pharmacy – that must all be done at ports. Getting medical coverage that covers all the places you are going is expensive.
- You still need to claim and have a home country/residency for banking, retirement accounts, taxes, etc.
- Surprisingly, loneliness and boredom are quite common. Many long-time residents stop going into the port cities because they’ve been there so many times. The same entertainment shows are done day after day – often for years. The constant changing passengers and so few people living long-term on ships means building any longer-term/meaningful relationships is very hard.
- You’ll still need to leave the ships and stay mobile. Ships go into drydock, covid shut cruising down for YEARS, and other situations mean you have to leave the ship for short and extended periods of time.
- Unless you buy a residence, you have to be booking dozens of cruises per year and working out all the details/fees. Economic conditions can change quickly (like COVID) and completely ruin plans/budgets.