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What Will It Cost You To Live FULL-TIME On A Cruise Ship?
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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! ABOUT TIPS FOR TRAVELLERS: If you want to get cruising right, Tips For Travellers makes it easy to plan and have the incredible cruise experiences you dream of every time. All my Tips For Travellers advice, tips and tricks tips draw on everything that I have learnt on the 87 cruises I have done to date. BUY MY CRUISE-THEMED T-SHIRTs ————————————————- Check out my T-Shirt range: http://bit.ly/TFTStore SUPPORT TIPS FOR TRAVELLERS ————————————————————— Become a Channel Member and get perks: https://www.tipsfortravellers.com/Join Become a Patron on Patreon and get perks: https://www.patreon.com/tipsfortravellers Make a donation: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=V9STJGYSEMGLJ Buy my book “Cruise Traveler’s Handbook: USA Amazon https://amzn.to/2YVFmG4 and https://amzn.to/3tzIxBn UK Amazon https://amzn.to/3oXbzYc and https://amzn.to/3qawqIQ FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA ——————————————— TikTok: @garybembridge
View Video Transcript
0:00
despite all the cruises i've done i only
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once came across someone actually living
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on a cruise ship i tried to find out
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from the cruise industry how many people
0:09
live or retire on cruise ships
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but nobody knew it seems very few do
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despite how attractive the idea seems it
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got me wondering why do so few people do
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it is the cost the practicality or do
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the cruise lines just make it really
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hard to do i have the answers if you're
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new here welcome aboard i'm gary
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bembridge and it's my goal to make it
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fun and easy to discover plan and enjoy
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unforgettable cruise vacations
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living or retiring on a cruise ship is a
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story that newspapers and the media love
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to cover they've written really
0:45
frequently about beatrice muller who
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lived for 14 years on cunard's qb2 lee
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watchdeta known as mamali who lived on
0:52
crystal serenity for over 12 years
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morton jablon who lived for 13 years on
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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
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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
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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
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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
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their crown and anchor program offered a
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perk absolutely critical to him as a
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solo traveler a lower surcharge of just
1:54
fifty percent versus the normal hundred
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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
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in a small inside cabin is not appealing
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to me long term but may work for you
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remember again that many lines you pay
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100
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surcharge to travel solo thirdly decide
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if you're going to stick to one ship or
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use multiple ships within your chosen
2:20
line the way to keep living costs down
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is to constantly jump
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ship to ship within any particular line
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mario says he keeps his costs down by
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chasing itineraries on various royal
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caribbean ships with the lowest price at
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any particular time fourthly and linked
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to this is stick to the caribbean for
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most of the year mario says 80
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of his cruisers are in the caribbean
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because it's the cheapest place to
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cruise around about 15 of his cruises
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are then repositioning cruises because
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again these tend to be much more
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inexpensive for example transatlantic
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crossings east to west coast
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repositionings and so on he hardly ever
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cruises in alaska and europe because
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they are just so much more expensive on
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a weekly basis
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the fifth decision is how low can you
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keep your outgoings there are no
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escaping taxes port fees gratuities
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however murray hardly ever leaves a ship
3:19
in ports and almost never ever pays for
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excursions he doesn't do specially
3:24
dining go to the casino buy drinks
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packages but he does have wi-fi to keep
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connected and to work
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so how much will doing it this cheap way
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actually cost you
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so mario targets an average-based daily
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fare across the year for his solar cabin
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of 150 a day before taxes taxes and port
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fees are around 20 a day then gratuity
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is around fifteen dollars a day then
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wi-fi once that's all added it comes to
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around about two hundred dollars a day
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so it costs them around seventy two
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thousand dollars a year before drinks
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shopping laundry tours and so on if
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mario followed the same approach in a
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balcony cabin he estimates that will
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cost him at least a hundred thousand
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dollars a year
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what does it cost the other travellers
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that i mentioned earlier to get a sense
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of how this stacks up well mama lee
4:11
lee watchdeta
4:13
from crystal admitted to the washington
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post that cost her at least 175 000 a
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year that's about 480 dollars a day and
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of course she had much more included in
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that than mario beatrice muller who
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lived on the qe2 back in 2008 said she
4:29
was paying around 60 000 a year for her
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inside cabin even before gratuities and
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onboard spending that's around about 80
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000 in today's money now to see if the
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cost of using mario's five-point system
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that keeps us in the caribbean 80 of the
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time compares to living on a ship that
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would see much more of the world would
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be i looked at extended cruises
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including world cruises cost as a guide
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to see what that would be
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one of the longest but best value world
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cruises is royal caribbean's nine-month
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274 day 60 country world cruise between
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december 2023 and september 2024 on
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serenade of the seas if i pro write up
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the fares from that from nine to twelve
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months an inside cabin would cost per
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person based on double occupancy eighty
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seven thousand dollars a balcony hundred
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and twelve thousand dollars
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now on the plus side this cost includes
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gratuities taxes a drinks package full
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wi-fi laundry and even some excursions
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so many of the big add-on costs that
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mario and the others did not have
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included are included in that price but
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the big catch is these are costs per
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person for double occupancy so even with
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mario's 50 surcharge for an inside cabin
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royal caribbean it would cost a hundred
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and thirty one thousand dollars a year
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to explore the world over double his
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seventy two thousand dollars
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by staying in the caribbean 80 of the
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time so this shows mario's point that to
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really control costs if you want to live
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on a ship you need to stick to the
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caribbean rather than explore the world
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so one compromise
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would be cutting back on seeing the
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world which would actually in my view
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remove one of the big attractions of
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living or tiring on a ship certainly for
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me anyway
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knowing the scale of cost is one thing
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but what are the cruise lines think and
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are there other hurdles stopping more
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people like you and me doing this i
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found that both of these offer some
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really big fundamental challenges
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i mentioned earlier i was on a cruise
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where i came across someone living on
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that particular ship one evening i had
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dinner with one of the officers and he
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told me that they were trying to
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tactfully encourage that person to leave
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and stop living on the ship
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as the guests aged they were starting to
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expect demand and require much more help
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and much more care and we're placing
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increasing demands on the crew beyond
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their roles the officer said to me quite
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bluntly cruise ships are designed and
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run for short-term vacation travel
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they're not set up for people to go on
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permanently certainly not people who are
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retired and aging they're not designed
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to be residential or retirement homes
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they don't have the medical they don't
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have the care facilities they don't have
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the support to cater for residents that
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need it not only are we not really
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welcome to live on the ship the more i
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explored i found several key hurdles
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that i'm sure are the reason fewer
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people live or retire on ships first you
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need to be in good health and you need
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to stay that way the medical care
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ownership is not designed to deal with
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ongoing health issues it's designed to
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deal with minor illnesses and some
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injuries
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they can't provide ongoing prescriptions
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for example to cover what you need for
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the year secondly you'll have no dental
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care whatsoever on the ship
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third getting insurance will be really
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difficult and extremely costly it's hard
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enough to get insurance even for a three
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month long world cruise as i discovered
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when we did several legs of a world
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cruise we struggled to find insurance
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and it was pretty expensive
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fourth
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you still need a home country permanent
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residence to do things like banking to
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qualify receive pensions or benefits to
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be registered with a doctor where mail
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can be sent to to do your taxes and so
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on fifth when i listen to interviews
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with people like super mario mamali i
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feel friendships and loneliness are
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actually a real issue when you're living
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on a ship long term
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living on a ship you meet loads of
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people however they're churning through
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every single week
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you'd struggle to build friendships and
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i think you could probably end up
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feeling despite all these people around
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relatively lonely because
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we just won't have ongoing friendships
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relationships and of course we won't be
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seeing our friends and family on land
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sixth
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repetitiveness will be an issue all
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those who live on ships i discovered
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don't go off in the ports because
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they've been to them many times they've
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seen what they want to see it just
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becomes very repetitive entertainment on
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board will also be repetitive because
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the same shows are on board for years
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and they just keep doing them over and
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over again the same guest entertainers
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keep coming on because they can
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next there will be interruptions the
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pandemic for example meant people living
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on cruise ships for years had to leave
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for years
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ships go into dry docks regularly ships
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may be charted and if you're living on
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the ship you will not be able to stay on
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the ship i guess if you're someone like
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super mario you'll simply just jump to
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other ships around those other than of
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course the pandemic
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and of course logistically it's pretty
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complex you have to book every single
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cruise across the year individually
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meaning you could be booking up to 52
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cruises and ensuring of course all the
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logistics staying in the same cabin and
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so on
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of course there could be a solution to
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some of these there are a few permanent
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resident ships however which could be an
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alternative the world residence at sea
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is the longest established permanently
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privately owned residential ship it has
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165 units which range from studios to
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three bedroom apartments but they cost
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millions to buy and then the annual fees
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range from 113 000 a year if you're in a
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studio up to over a million dollars a
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year if you own a three-bedroom suite
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storylines is a new residential line the
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first ship is the ms narrative their
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studios to buy range from 350 000 with
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the 55 000 a year maintenance fee then
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they offer penthouse costing many
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million dollars and again very high
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annual fees
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i could see that living on a cruise ship
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is possible but the costs are enormous
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there are lots of barriers and it's in
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reality not especially welcomed by the
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cruise lines it's a great fantasy it's a
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great idea
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and now you know what it costs why not
10:48
find out more about some other things
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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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