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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. For reference, Royal Caribbean Group -- across all of its cruise lines -- reports onboard revenue as roughly 45% of its passenger ticket revenue in SEC filings. That means with base cruise fare of roughly $47,000 per person for the course of the year, the "average" passenger would spend approximately $21,000 annually. In fact, major news stories have covered retirees that have doing exactly that.
What happens to cruise ships when they die? - Business Insider
What happens to cruise ships when they die?.
Posted: Sun, 24 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
What's so desirable about retiring on a cruise ship?
Cruise Passenger wrote last week about Gayle and Vic Doe, who has been cruising full-time for about $150 each per day. "There are also monthly or annual costs to cover things like fuel, port fees, taxes and house-keeping," McDaniel explained. "It's kind of like living in a condo – that just happens to be at sea." "They're typically comprised of several segments with extensive times in each port," explained Colleen McDaniel, editor-in-chief of Cruisecritic.com. With careful planning — often bookended by shorter "connector" cruises — "grand" itineraries can keep cruisers at sea almost indefinitely. They meet a wide variety of people from all walks of life and areas of the world.
Finding a Retirement Cruise
As I approach retirement age, the thought of retiring on a cruise ship has crossed my mind. While you can certainly bring personal belongings, you are still restricted by the standard luggage allotments. This is because cruise ships need to take weight very seriously for the ship’s stability and for its overall fuel efficiency. It would be wise to look at a health insurance plan that can cover more than regular cruise insurance, especially with the long-term cruising you would be doing.
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So, you’re going to need to be able to carry all your possessions with you at all times. What’s more, you’ll likely need to make hard choices about what you actually need to have with you. On average, you can expect your living quarters to be somewhere between 140 and 180 square feet.
You will live a truly comfortable life, with butler service and luxurious surroundings making every day its own treat. Retiring on a luxury ship will mean incredible itineraries, opulent all-inclusive living, and amazing facilities, however, it will not come cheap. Mr Jablin loves the simplicity of his lifestyle, telling Porthole Cruise “This is a much better life than senior citizens home anywhere in the United States or anywhere in the world. Furthermore, you get a more immersive experience in ports, with longer stops and world-stretching itineraries meaning you’ll see it all. Cruise Passenger also covered the story of Angela Nuran and Paul Consentino, two cruise fanatics who decided a more permanent life at sea is for them. Of course, things are more expensive now so that budget has had to increase a little.
Before deciding to live on a cruise ship during retirement, it’s essential to start planning early and research the specific cruise lines, itineraries, and costs involved. It’s also advisable to consult with a financial advisor to assess the long-term financial feasibility of such a lifestyle and to ensure you have a suitable retirement plan in place. If you have dreamed of living on a cruise ship when you retire, then you will be happy to know that this is possible. Several cruise lines allow people to purchase an apartment or condo onboard.
Is Retiring on Cruise Ships a Practical Option?
Besides the health aspect, you'll always need to have a solid backup plan. Things like mechanical breakdowns, disaster-related shutdowns and cruise line business decisions can drastically affect your plans — more so than in most land-based living situations. You would need annual travel insurance as well as enough available money to cover hotels and transportation from almost anywhere on the globe. Whichever ship you choose is likely to be filled with people excited to be on board. Being surrounded by young people, not just folks of retirement age, can also make cruise ship life more appealing.
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However, the fallback of a residential option, particularly with Storylines, is the huge commitment it entails. You’re committing to an extremely long lease, you can’t exactly just decide it isn’t for you. Mr Kovick says everything essential is included, with some extra fees for optional extras. “We all know that the cruise industry is all about squeezing as much money out of you as possible in the shortest time. We’re not after extra profit, we’re after the economical operation and a profit that can sustain this company.
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While it may sound fairly complex, the logistics of retiring on a cruise ship are fairly simple. Basically, you would just need to book back-to-back cruise vacations that depart and return to the same port. On the other hand, cruise vacations are one of the few things that have decreased in cost. Given that the average monthly rent of a 900-square-foot apartment in the United States is now $1,702, if you purchase a low-cost cruise instead, it starts to make some financial sense. Again, a retiree visiting a port would spend very differently than someone visiting on vacation. Instead, we imagine a person wanting to visit a pharmacy, grocery store, or have lunch off the ship for a change of pace.
Instead of having a traditional retirement, they’ve opted to instead live their golden years on a cruise ship. However, picking out back-to-back cruises can take large amounts of planning and could involve a decent amount of moving around cabins or getting on-and-off the ship. It may be tough to get as settled in as you would cruising residentially. Furthermore, while residential cruising is designed particularly to be non-repetitive for its residents, sailing with the same cruise line and maybe the same itineraries over and over may become a repetitive experience. Cruise lines have rewards programs that offer significant discounts and other extras to long-term cruisers.
While ideally, retirement savings should begin early in one's career, life circumstances often lead individuals to start their retirement planning journey later in life. If cruise ship retirement truly calls to you, it is entirely possible to make it happen. Whether or not long term cruising ultimately proves to be a sustainable lifestyle for you is another question altogether, however.
It’s simply impossible to book the same cabin on a cruise ship for an entire year. You’ll need to disembark at the end of each trip and board again with the next group. But if you live on a cruise ship, your life might quickly become the vacation you need a vacation from.
Before you get out your wallet to book your cabin, it’s worth mentioning a couple things. We also don’t know what happens to the human psyche after 3 years on the same boat. Would you be comfortable living in a tiny room with no windows for three years straight? If so, you could definitely live on this cruise ship for much less than the average American spends in a year. Alvin Carlos, CFP®, CFA is an investment advisor and fee-only financial planner, in Washington, D.C that works with clients across the country. He has a Master’s degree in International Relations from SAIS-Johns Hopkins.
There are a few different approaches to trying to set yourself up for a life at sea and here’s a breakdown of the directions you can take. Set to launch in May 2023, the first sailing will run for 27 months, with over 200 destinations visited across more than two years of sailing. The MV Narrative will launch in 2025 with 11 types of residences on board. The largest is Global which is 1,970 square feet split across two levels, with up to four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large balcony, a dining room that seats six, and a walk-in closet.
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