You Can Live Permanently On A Cruise Ship! Heres How Much It Costs

Table Of Content

• Tips for Life on a Cruise Ship
• Comparing The Cost of Cruise Ship Living With Other Options
• Invite Your Family Onboard
• thoughts on “You Can Live Permanently On A Cruise Ship! Here’s How Much It Costs”
• Snowbirds in Residents
• Table comparing the cost of living on cruise ships for 10 years
• Is it cheaper to live on a cruise ship than in a nursing home?

The easiest way to enjoy living on a cruise ship for the long term would be to look for world cruises. Some of the longest run for six months, but three months is more common. In this guide, I’ll take you through all the options for living on a cruise ship. You’ll learn how much it costs, and what you’d need to think about if you wanted to try it.

Tips for Life on a Cruise Ship

“When we retired, we sold our house and started living full time on cruise ships” - Toronto Life

“When we retired, we sold our house and started living full time on cruise ships”.

Posted: Fri, 12 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

It may be better to have a post box somewhere that you visit regularly – essentially, set up a home port where you can visit medical services and pick up any mail that you need. But that can still work out to be cheaper than paying for a care home. The ship’s yearly itinerary includes stops at some of the world’s most premier events, such as Wimbledon in London, Carnival in Rio De Janeiro, Running of the Bulls in Spain, and Cannes Film Festival in France. The residences also have their own kitchens, and there’s a grocery store on the ship, if you want to cook for yourself. Moving cabins might not be the end of the world – but it would be a lot easier if you didn’t have to pack and unpack at the start of every new itinerary.

Comparing The Cost of Cruise Ship Living With Other Options

Travel insurance policies count on the fact that medical cover is a rarity when you travel for 2-3 weeks of the year. For Regent Seven Seas I’ve based the price on a typical 10-day cruise. Already some have been pushed back – MS Utopia was originally scheduled for 2023. If you’re interested in living on a cruise ship, you probably need to be flexible on your start year, as plans can change. This may work out cheaper, especially on some cruise lines that offer cheap nightly rates and one-way repositioning cruises.

Invite Your Family Onboard

If you're in relatively good health and can afford the lifestyle, living full time at sea could be a great lifestyle choice. During the pandemic, many white-collar workers were able to radically transform how — and where — they did their jobs. He booked a September cruise on Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas ship and continued sailing nearly every week for a year. This blog helps over a million people to plan their cruises each month. However, there are often exclusions if you spend less than a set number of days residing in the country, so it’s worth checking your local tax laws and speaking to your accountant for advice.

Also, private companies such as Mail Boxes Etc. or UPS offer mail forwarding services for a fee. Most private mail boxes will hold/forward your mail for up to a year. This year, Gutridge budgeted $30,000 to live on a cruise ship full time. High-ranking cruise ship officers often have the opportunity to travel with their spouse. Christine Kesteloo told BI that she and her husband have taken advantage of this perk. She has worked in the cruise industry since 2015 and has taken over 30 cruises.

Snowbirds in Residents

A cruise ship offers a number of perks over regular living, the main one being that you get to see the world. Living on a cruise ship means travelling all across the globe, experiencing new cultures and thrilling experiences. Dark Island is another residential cruise ship which is planned to be built by 2026. Studios on the yacht range from two to six bedrooms, so you can really splash out on a luxury pad for entertaining guests if you want to. The biggest suites are 9,000 square feet – consider how an average interior room on a cruise ship is around 130 square feet, and you get the picture.

Buy a Cruise Residence

MV Narrative is a contemporary superyacht offering a luxury residential community at sea. Belonging to Storylines, it’s a more affordable choice than some of the other ships you can live on, with the cheapest residences starting at $875,000. And even with the monthly fees, it’s one of the best-value options for living on a cruise ship full time. Typically a cruise ship that is offering a world cruise will go back to offering more regular sailings for the rest of the year, so you would need to keep booking new cruises every time. Clearly, you can live on a cruise ship — any good travel agent will happily book you on a year's worth of cruises at a time. But there's no "How to Retire on a Cruise Ship" guidebook to help you make informed decisions about the cost and feasibility of living out your golden years at sea.

Morton Jablin, Regent Seven Seas full-time resident, who is also legally blind, has been satisfied with the medical care he's received while onboard Seven Seas Navigator. "If I need a doctor, there is one in my cabin in five minutes. When I need more specialized care, I visit specialists when in port." The first step is determining whether living on a cruise ship permanently is within your budget. Not only will you get an idea whether this is a desirable lifestyle for you, you can compare different lines and get a feel for which lines would work best as a new home. Salcedo isn’t a retiree – he works on the ship, managing investments for various high-worth individuals. And he isn’t tied to a single ship – at the end of his cruises he will return to his condo in Miami for a few hours, before embarking on his next voyage, often flying to a different port to meet the ship.

Is it cheaper to live on a cruise ship than in a nursing home?

You don’t have to worry about doing the dishes or paying an electric bill. There’s always something going on, new people to meet, and every day you wake up to some of the most beautiful views in the world. While you can certainly choose to take a go-with-the-flow approach to cruising, this can often lead to getting into a rut.

That means you could sail the entire year without having to change ships and always coming back to a homeport in the United States. They might be able to help you save some money during your cruising experience or to hook you up with some upgrades while you cruise. Another option for anyone looking for a permanent shipboard residence is to buy a cruise residence. Ships such as The World offer private studios, one, two, and three-bedroom apartments on board.

Perhaps the most famous case is of Mario Salcedo, nicknamed Super Mario. Mario has lived continuously on Royal Caribbean ships since 2000, with an average of 15 days a year spent on land to handle life admin. If it does go ahead as planned, Utopia will have 190 residences and will also feature a 175-room hotel, casino, 16,000-square-foot spa, nightclub, and many other amenities typical of large-scale commercial cruise ships. You can book yourself onto a traditional cruise ship for the long term. Initial steps toward cruise ship retirement might also include selling one's home (or preparing it for becoming a rental), disposing of excess possessions and re-homing pets.

However, it's likely that the figure would be drastically lower as average spending on the ship will likely be less if staying full-time versus splurging for a short vacation. Once you’ve figured out whether or not cruising full-time is a smart choice for you financially, it’s a good idea to speak to a travel agent. He or she will be able to help you create a personalized cruising experience that helps you live the lifestyle you’re looking for on your cruise. To make the transition to a life on the high seas, we’ve put together a few tips. Follow these suggestions to make your transition to your new lifestyle smooth sailing.

You might need to be careful with your meal choices, and you’ll want to make sure you visit the gym regularly, or find other ways to stay active. As an example, in the UK you usually only pay tax if you live in the country for more than half the year. So, by living on a cruise ship permanently, you may not have to pay tax at all.