Monday, April 1, 2024

The Costs of Spending Retirement Living on a Cruise Ship

living on cruise ship full time

Even if you cruise on a ship permanently, you’ll still need to have a home country of residence, and you’ll need to obey the tax laws for that country. For the Carnival price, I have used a typical 4-day cruise and included the cost of the Cheers drinks package and the premium WiFi packages. There are three swimming pools, along with a mammoth 20 restaurants to choose from. You can also borrow from the 10,000 books in the library, or enjoy a drink brewed in the ship’s own microbrewery. Otherwise, if you prefer the Voyagers Program, it works like any other cruise. Prices start at $89 per person, per night and there are a range of itinerary options from 35 days up to 120 days, with the option to combine any that you like.

Bottom Line: It's a Wonderful Life at Sea

You should bear in mind how much work would be involved in constantly booking your next cruise, plus the added stress of worrying about whether you’d miss your chance and end up without a cabin. While you can't pinpoint exactly what you'll spend, you can get a good estimate. As a public company, Carnival Corporation (the parent of Carnival Cruise Line) publishes detailed numbers about their business. For instance, in 2022 the company took in $7 billion in ticket revenue and $5.1 billion in onboard spending. From drinks to wi-fi to specialty restaurants, there are plenty of extra to spend on the ship. And even if you are a frugal sailor, you won’t go any lengthy time without having a few drinks or signing up for the Internet package to check in back on shore.

Initial cost and ongoing expenses

A Three-Year Cruise Is Canceled for Lack of a Ship - The New York Times

A Three-Year Cruise Is Canceled for Lack of a Ship.

Posted: Mon, 27 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Familiar places that you normally eat on land aren’t going to be part of your diet at sea. Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings. In most cases, you can't take pets with you on a cruise, so that can be a drawback for many retirees. It typically features more international foods — like Filipino, Indian, and Caribbean cuisine — than the guest buffet to represent the hundreds of staffers from different countries. All of the ship's trash winds up in the incinerator room, but there are a lot of categories to sort the garbage into. The main crew corridor that runs up and down the entire ship is nicknamed the I-95, after the popular US highway.

Godmother Named for Biggest Ever Princess Cruises Ship

If you're interested in cutting down the price, here are a few ideas. But anyone who has been on a cruise knows those headline prices are just the start of what you pay. In fact, in our opinion it’s a bit disingenuous of the cruise lines to advertise those prices. The itinerary is set only from point-to-point every 2 weeks to allow for provisioning and safe running of the vessel. The ship will say in most ports for 3-5 days, giving you the proper time to explore each port of call.

They have the cheapest fares for long-term living, starting at $29,999 per person, per year and including everything you need. The company had originally announced a three-year itinerary on their ship MV Gemini, with all-inclusive fares starting at $29,999 per person, per year. At the time, this looked like one of the most affordable long-term options for anyone interested in living on a cruise ship. 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.

living on cruise ship full time

For the money, you get use of the aft deck – the main hub of the yacht where you can enjoy a large lap pool, two spa pools and various bars and seating areas. Watersports equipment is also available, along with boats if you want to go fishing or diving. Utopia is a planned luxury residential ocean liner project costing $1.1 billion that was originally ordered all the way back in 2009 by Utopia Residences.

living on cruise ship full time

For Regent Seven Seas I’ve based the price on a typical 10-day cruise. So really, the experience is very comparable to a typical cruise ship – the only difference is that you have your own kitchen area and that you’re able to stay on the ship long term. 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.

What does it cost to retire on a cruise ship?

The existence of a fiduciary duty does not prevent the rise of potential conflicts of interest. Or maybe you just find a cute town in the middle of nowhere that you want to stay for a few days. What’s underestimated is that even a dozen different restaurants isn’t a lot when you’re eating there every meal for every day. And even if you ate at your favorite restaurant for every meal, it would get old after a while. All that puts the minimum for a couple or a single traveling alone (which requires single supplement charges in double occupancy cabins) just over the $50,000 per year mark.

At the high end, Storylines offers permanent residences starting at $3.2 million for up to 1,690 square feet. The purchase price includes all meals and beverages for residents, laundry service, onboard gratuities and laundry service. The cruise line also offers an onboard fresh foods market for residents who prefer to prepare meals themselves. To put that cost in perspective, the average 65+ household spends $49,542 annually or around $135 per day, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That's where sailing from a port like Miami -- which offers a lot of options -- can be beneficial to your pocketbook. Of course, when it comes to cruising for twelve months, you have an amazing number of options. From different cruise lines to routes, departure ports, ships, and even cabin types, there are a number of things that will have a big impact on what you spend. Since we’re full-time travelers (not paying a rent or mortgage on a place back “home”), traveling by cruise ship actually saves us money over traveling by plane or train. We apply the money we would be spending on lodging anyway, and throw in the cost of food and transportation, and we come out ahead.

Most of the time, I'm so busy that I don't even notice we're at the same place — I just know I'm not in an apartment staring at the wall. The Storylines head office will also be based on the MV Narrative, with company executives living on board. Punton will move onto the ship with his wife and two children, who are currently two and five.

Ships are required to maintain medical staff on call 24/7, including at least one physician and two nurses. Similar in model to assisted living facilities, cruise ships are equipped to handle most medical emergencies in the short term. Onboard medical facilities will typically include X-ray machines, defibrillators, basic emergency medical equipment and an array of medication. By planning ahead, you can have your medications filled before you board.

That’s a lot of information, but considering how we’re talking about as big a decision as living your life on a cruise ship, there’s always going to be a ton of information you need. Here are some of the things you’ll need to consider when you’re living on a cruise ship. Cruise ships do have doctors, but visits to the onboard medical centre can be very costly indeed, and for any serious medical issues, you would need to visit a hospital on land. However, one thing that you’ll certainly need to factor in is travel insurance and medical costs. Travel insurance for such a trip could be very costly indeed, and it is mandatory.

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