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What Will It Cost You To Live FULL-TIME On A Cruise Ship?
Jan 28, 2025
I explore what it takes and costs to live (or retire) full-time on a cruise ship by looking at the people who have done it, and the options we have for living on a cruise ship permanently!
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0:00
despite all the cruises i've done i only
0:02
once came across someone actually living
0:05
on a cruise ship i tried to find out
0:07
from the cruise industry how many people
0:09
live or retire on cruise ships
0:12
but nobody knew it seems very few do
0:14
despite how attractive the idea seems it
0:17
got me wondering why do so few people do
0:20
it is the cost the practicality or do
0:22
the cruise lines just make it really
0:25
hard to do i have the answers if you're
0:28
new here welcome aboard i'm gary
0:30
bembridge and it's my goal to make it
0:31
fun and easy to discover plan and enjoy
0:35
unforgettable cruise vacations
0:38
living or retiring on a cruise ship is a
0:39
story that newspapers and the media love
0:43
to cover they've written really
0:45
frequently about beatrice muller who
0:47
lived for 14 years on cunard's qb2 lee
0:50
watchdeta known as mamali who lived on
0:52
crystal serenity for over 12 years
0:55
morton jablon who lived for 13 years on
0:58
region seven seas and mario salchetto
1:01
known as super mario who's been living
1:03
on royal caribbean for over 20 years so
1:06
i started by exploring what it cost
1:08
these well-known residents to live on
1:11
their cruise ships of choice
1:13
the person who does it cheapest is mario
1:16
salcado super mario he has revealed what
1:18
it costs him and the five steps required
1:21
if you want to live cheaply on a cruise
1:22
ship in various interviews including
1:24
washington post us today and with the
1:26
vlogger alana zingano
1:29
first if you want to live as
1:30
inexpensively as possible on a cruise
1:32
ship you need to decide which line
1:34
you're going to live on he chose royal
1:36
caribbean because it's a mass line and
1:38
offers lower fares than premium and
1:41
luxury lines
1:43
look at your chosen lines loyalty
1:45
program next he chose royal caribbean as
1:47
their crown and anchor program offered a
1:49
perk absolutely critical to him as a
1:52
solo traveler a lower surcharge of just
1:54
fifty percent versus the normal hundred
1:56
percent than they gave him other perks
1:58
like drinks vouchers which again saves
2:00
him money
2:01
secondly decide the cabin you can live
2:03
in he chose an inside cabin now living
2:05
in a small inside cabin is not appealing
2:07
to me long term but may work for you
2:09
remember again that many lines you pay
2:12
100
2:13
surcharge to travel solo thirdly decide
2:16
if you're going to stick to one ship or
2:18
use multiple ships within your chosen
2:20
line the way to keep living costs down
2:23
is to constantly jump
2:25
ship to ship within any particular line
2:27
mario says he keeps his costs down by
2:29
chasing itineraries on various royal
2:31
caribbean ships with the lowest price at
2:34
any particular time fourthly and linked
2:36
to this is stick to the caribbean for
2:40
most of the year mario says 80
2:43
of his cruisers are in the caribbean
2:45
because it's the cheapest place to
2:47
cruise around about 15 of his cruises
2:50
are then repositioning cruises because
2:52
again these tend to be much more
2:54
inexpensive for example transatlantic
2:57
crossings east to west coast
2:59
repositionings and so on he hardly ever
3:03
cruises in alaska and europe because
3:05
they are just so much more expensive on
3:08
a weekly basis
3:09
the fifth decision is how low can you
3:12
keep your outgoings there are no
3:14
escaping taxes port fees gratuities
3:17
however murray hardly ever leaves a ship
3:19
in ports and almost never ever pays for
3:22
excursions he doesn't do specially
3:24
dining go to the casino buy drinks
3:26
packages but he does have wi-fi to keep
3:28
connected and to work
3:30
so how much will doing it this cheap way
3:33
actually cost you
3:35
so mario targets an average-based daily
3:37
fare across the year for his solar cabin
3:39
of 150 a day before taxes taxes and port
3:43
fees are around 20 a day then gratuity
3:46
is around fifteen dollars a day then
3:48
wi-fi once that's all added it comes to
3:49
around about two hundred dollars a day
3:52
so it costs them around seventy two
3:53
thousand dollars a year before drinks
3:56
shopping laundry tours and so on if
3:59
mario followed the same approach in a
4:01
balcony cabin he estimates that will
4:03
cost him at least a hundred thousand
4:04
dollars a year
4:06
what does it cost the other travellers
4:07
that i mentioned earlier to get a sense
4:09
of how this stacks up well mama lee
4:11
lee watchdeta
4:13
from crystal admitted to the washington
4:15
post that cost her at least 175 000 a
4:18
year that's about 480 dollars a day and
4:21
of course she had much more included in
4:23
that than mario beatrice muller who
4:26
lived on the qe2 back in 2008 said she
4:29
was paying around 60 000 a year for her
4:31
inside cabin even before gratuities and
4:34
onboard spending that's around about 80
4:36
000 in today's money now to see if the
4:39
cost of using mario's five-point system
4:42
that keeps us in the caribbean 80 of the
4:44
time compares to living on a ship that
4:46
would see much more of the world would
4:47
be i looked at extended cruises
4:49
including world cruises cost as a guide
4:52
to see what that would be
4:54
one of the longest but best value world
4:57
cruises is royal caribbean's nine-month
4:59
274 day 60 country world cruise between
5:02
december 2023 and september 2024 on
5:06
serenade of the seas if i pro write up
5:08
the fares from that from nine to twelve
5:10
months an inside cabin would cost per
5:13
person based on double occupancy eighty
5:15
seven thousand dollars a balcony hundred
5:17
and twelve thousand dollars
5:19
now on the plus side this cost includes
5:21
gratuities taxes a drinks package full
5:24
wi-fi laundry and even some excursions
5:27
so many of the big add-on costs that
5:29
mario and the others did not have
5:31
included are included in that price but
5:33
the big catch is these are costs per
5:36
person for double occupancy so even with
5:39
mario's 50 surcharge for an inside cabin
5:42
royal caribbean it would cost a hundred
5:44
and thirty one thousand dollars a year
5:46
to explore the world over double his
5:48
seventy two thousand dollars
5:50
by staying in the caribbean 80 of the
5:52
time so this shows mario's point that to
5:55
really control costs if you want to live
5:56
on a ship you need to stick to the
5:58
caribbean rather than explore the world
6:01
so one compromise
6:03
would be cutting back on seeing the
6:04
world which would actually in my view
6:06
remove one of the big attractions of
6:08
living or tiring on a ship certainly for
6:10
me anyway
6:12
knowing the scale of cost is one thing
6:15
but what are the cruise lines think and
6:17
are there other hurdles stopping more
6:19
people like you and me doing this i
6:21
found that both of these offer some
6:24
really big fundamental challenges
6:27
i mentioned earlier i was on a cruise
6:29
where i came across someone living on
6:31
that particular ship one evening i had
6:33
dinner with one of the officers and he
6:35
told me that they were trying to
6:37
tactfully encourage that person to leave
6:40
and stop living on the ship
6:43
as the guests aged they were starting to
6:45
expect demand and require much more help
6:48
and much more care and we're placing
6:50
increasing demands on the crew beyond
6:52
their roles the officer said to me quite
6:55
bluntly cruise ships are designed and
6:57
run for short-term vacation travel
6:59
they're not set up for people to go on
7:01
permanently certainly not people who are
7:04
retired and aging they're not designed
7:07
to be residential or retirement homes
7:09
they don't have the medical they don't
7:11
have the care facilities they don't have
7:12
the support to cater for residents that
7:14
need it not only are we not really
7:17
welcome to live on the ship the more i
7:19
explored i found several key hurdles
7:21
that i'm sure are the reason fewer
7:23
people live or retire on ships first you
7:27
need to be in good health and you need
7:28
to stay that way the medical care
7:30
ownership is not designed to deal with
7:33
ongoing health issues it's designed to
7:35
deal with minor illnesses and some
7:37
injuries
7:38
they can't provide ongoing prescriptions
7:40
for example to cover what you need for
7:42
the year secondly you'll have no dental
7:44
care whatsoever on the ship
7:48
third getting insurance will be really
7:50
difficult and extremely costly it's hard
7:53
enough to get insurance even for a three
7:55
month long world cruise as i discovered
7:58
when we did several legs of a world
8:00
cruise we struggled to find insurance
8:02
and it was pretty expensive
8:04
fourth
8:05
you still need a home country permanent
8:08
residence to do things like banking to
8:10
qualify receive pensions or benefits to
8:12
be registered with a doctor where mail
8:14
can be sent to to do your taxes and so
8:16
on fifth when i listen to interviews
8:19
with people like super mario mamali i
8:21
feel friendships and loneliness are
8:23
actually a real issue when you're living
8:25
on a ship long term
8:27
living on a ship you meet loads of
8:28
people however they're churning through
8:30
every single week
8:32
you'd struggle to build friendships and
8:34
i think you could probably end up
8:35
feeling despite all these people around
8:37
relatively lonely because
8:39
we just won't have ongoing friendships
8:42
relationships and of course we won't be
8:43
seeing our friends and family on land
8:45
sixth
8:46
repetitiveness will be an issue all
8:49
those who live on ships i discovered
8:51
don't go off in the ports because
8:53
they've been to them many times they've
8:54
seen what they want to see it just
8:56
becomes very repetitive entertainment on
8:59
board will also be repetitive because
9:02
the same shows are on board for years
9:05
and they just keep doing them over and
9:06
over again the same guest entertainers
9:08
keep coming on because they can
9:11
next there will be interruptions the
9:13
pandemic for example meant people living
9:15
on cruise ships for years had to leave
9:18
for years
9:19
ships go into dry docks regularly ships
9:21
may be charted and if you're living on
9:23
the ship you will not be able to stay on
9:25
the ship i guess if you're someone like
9:27
super mario you'll simply just jump to
9:30
other ships around those other than of
9:32
course the pandemic
9:34
and of course logistically it's pretty
9:35
complex you have to book every single
9:38
cruise across the year individually
9:39
meaning you could be booking up to 52
9:42
cruises and ensuring of course all the
9:44
logistics staying in the same cabin and
9:45
so on
9:47
of course there could be a solution to
9:49
some of these there are a few permanent
9:51
resident ships however which could be an
9:54
alternative the world residence at sea
9:57
is the longest established permanently
9:59
privately owned residential ship it has
10:02
165 units which range from studios to
10:04
three bedroom apartments but they cost
10:07
millions to buy and then the annual fees
10:10
range from 113 000 a year if you're in a
10:13
studio up to over a million dollars a
10:15
year if you own a three-bedroom suite
10:17
storylines is a new residential line the
10:20
first ship is the ms narrative their
10:23
studios to buy range from 350 000 with
10:26
the 55 000 a year maintenance fee then
10:29
they offer penthouse costing many
10:30
million dollars and again very high
10:32
annual fees
10:34
i could see that living on a cruise ship
10:35
is possible but the costs are enormous
10:38
there are lots of barriers and it's in
10:40
reality not especially welcomed by the
10:42
cruise lines it's a great fantasy it's a
10:44
great idea
10:45
and now you know what it costs why not
10:48
find out more about some other things
10:50
that make no sense on a cruise ship in
10:52
this video where i start by talking
10:54
about something that totally threw me
10:56
see you over there
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