Despite all the cruises I have done, I only
once came across someone living on a cruise ship. I tried to find out from the cruise industry
how many people live or retire on their ships - but no-one knew. It seems very few do, despite how attractive
the idea seems It got me wondering: why do so few people
do it? Is it the cost? The practicality? Or do the cruise lines make it hard to do? I have the answers. If you're new here, welcome aboard. I'm Gary Bembridge and it's my goal to make
it fun and easy to discover, plan and enjoy unforgettable cruise vacations. Living or retiring on a cruise ship is a story
that newspapers love to cover. They've written frequently about Beatrice
Muller, who lived for 14 years on Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth 2, Lee Wachtstetter, known
as “Mama Lee”, who lived on Crystal Serenity for over 12 years, Morton Jablin, who lived
for 13 years on Regent Seven Seas and Mario Salcedo, known as “Super Mario”, who has
been living on Royal Caribbean for over 20 years. So, I started by exploring what it cost these
well-known residents to live on their cruise ships of choice. The person who does it cheapest is Mario Salcedo,
“Super Mario”. He has revealed what it costs him, and the
5 steps required if you want to live cheaply on a cruise ship in various interviews, including
Washington Post and with the vlogger Alanna Zingano. First, if you want to live as inexpensively
as possible on a cruise ship, you need to decide which line you're going to live on. He chose Royal Caribbean because it’s a
mass line and offers lower fares than premium and luxury lines. Look at your chosen line’s loyalty progam,
he chose Royal Caribbean as their Crown & Anchor program offered a perk critical to him as
a solo passenger: a lower surcharge of 150% versus 200%, and then other perks like drinks
vouchers which saves him more money. Secondly, decide the cabin you can live in. He chose an inside cabin. Living in a small inside cabin is not appealing
to me but may work for you. Remember that on many lines you pay 100% surcharge
to travel solo. Thirdly, decide if you are going to stick
to one ship or use multiple ships within your chosen line. The way to keep living costs down is to constantly
jump ships within a line. Mario says, he keeps his costs down by chasing
the itineraries on various Royal Caribbean ships with the lowest price at any time. Fourthly, and linked to this, is stick to
the Caribbean for most of the year. Mario says 80% of all his cruises each year
are in the Caribbean, as it is the cheapest place to cruise. Around 15% of his cruises are repositioning
cruises, because again, these tend to be inexpensive cruises. For example, Transatlantic Crossings and East-West
Coast Repositioning. He hardly ever cruises in areas like Alaska
and Europe because they are much more expensive. The fifth decision is how low can you keep
your outgoings? There are no escaping taxes, port fees and
gratuities. However, Mario hardly ever leaves the ship
in ports and almost never pays for excursions. He doesn't do specially dining, go to the
casino, buy drinks packages, but he does have WIFI. How much will doing it this way cost you? Mario targets an average base daily fare for
his solo cabin of $150 a day before taxes. Once taxes and port fees are added (around
$20 a day), gratuities (around $15 a day) and Wi-Fi are added that comes to around $200
a day. So, it costs him around $72,000 a year before
things like drinks, shopping, laundry, tours and so. If Mario followed the same approach in a balcony
cabin, he calculates it would cost him least $100,000 dollars a year. What does it cost the other travellers I mentioned
earlier? “Mama Lee” (Lee Wachtstetter) who lived
on Crystal admitted to the Washington Post that it cost her $175,000 a year. That's about $480 a day. And, of course she had much more included
in that than Mario. Beatrice Muller who lived on Cunard’s QE2
back in 2008 said she was paying around $60,000 a year, for her inside cabin on the QE2 even
before gratuities and onboard spending. That is $76,000 in today’s money considering
inflation. To see how the costs of using Mario’s system
that would keeps us in the Caribbean 80% of the time today compares to living on a ship
that would see more of the world would be, I looked at extended cruises including World
Cruises costs as a guide. One of the longest but best value world cruises
is Royal Caribbean’s 9-month, 274-day, 60-country World Cruise between December 2023 and September
2024 on Serenade of the Seas. If I pro-rata up these fares from 9 to 12
months, an inside cabin would cost per person based on double occupancy $87,000 and a balcony
cabin $112,000. The positive is this cost includes gratuities,
taxes, drinks package, Wi-Fi, laundry and even some excursions. So, many of the big add-on costs that Mario
did not include are included. The big catch is these are the costs per person
for double occupancy. So even with Mario’s 50% surcharge for an
inside cabin it would cost $131,000 a year to explore the world, over double his $72,000
if you decide to live in ships 80% of the time in the Caribbean. This shows Mario’s point to control costs
living on a ship you need to stick to the Caribbean rather than explore the world. So, one compromise would be cutting back on
seeing the world, which would remove one of the big attractions of living or retiring
on a ship for me anyway! Knowing the scale of cost is one thing, but
what do the cruise lines think and are there other hurdles stopping more people like us
doing this. I found both offer some fundamental challenges! I mentioned earlier I was on a cruise where
I came across someone living on the ship. One evening I had dinner with one of the officers,
and he told me that they were trying to tactfully encourage that person to leave and stop living
on the ship. As the guest aged, they were starting to expect,
demand and require more help and care and were placing demands on the crew beyond their
roles. The Officer said to me bluntly that cruise
ships are designed and run for short-term vacation travel and are not set up for people
to live on permanently. Certainly not people who are elderly and retired. They’re not designed to be residential or
retirement homes, and they don't have the medical, care facilities and support to cater
for residents. Not only are we not really welcome to live
on a ship, the more I explored I found several hurdles that I am sure are the reason few
people live or retire on ships. First, you need to be in good health and stay
that way. The medical care on a ship is not designed
to deal with ongoing health issues. It's designed for minor illnesses and injuries. They cannot provide on-going prescriptions
to cover what you need for the year. Second, you will have no dental care whatsoever
on the ship. Third, getting insurance will be difficult
and costly. It's hard enough to get insurance, even for
a 3 or so month long world cruise. We did a leg of world cruise and struggled
to find insurance and it was expensive. Fourth, we would still need a home country
permanent address, to do banking, qualify and receive any pensions or benefits paid,
to be registered with a doctor, where mail can be sent to and so on. Fifth, when I listen to interviews with people
like Super Mario and Mama Lee, I feel friendships and loneliness are an issue. We would meet lots of people; however, they're
churning every single week. We’d struggle to build friendships may end
up feeling, despite all these people around us, relatively lonely, because we won't have
on-going friends, relationships and of course won't be seeing family. Six, repetitiveness will be an issue. All those who live on ships, don't go off
in the ports anymore, because they've been to them many times and seen what they want
to see. It becomes very repetitive. Entertainment on board will also be very repetitive,
because the same shows are on board for years. The same guest entertainers come on. Next, there will be interruptions. The pandemic, for example, meant people living
on cruise ships for years had to leave. Ships go into dry docks; ships may be chartered,
and you will not be able to stay on the ship. I guess, if you're someone like Super Mario,
you'll just jump ships around those. And of course, logistically it is complex. You’d have to book every single cruise across
the year individually, meaning you could be booking up to 52 cruises and ensuring you
can stay in the same cabin. There could though be a solution to some of
these. There are a few permanent resident ships. The World Residences at Sea is the longest
established, permanently privately owned residential ship. It has 165 units from studios to three bedrooms,
but they cost millions to buy, and then the annual fees range from $113,000 a year if
you own a studio up to over $1 million if you own a three-bedroom suite. Storylines is a new residential line. Their first trip is MS Narrative. Their studios start at from $350,000 with
a $55,000 a year maintenance fee, and they offer penthouse costing many million dollars. I can see that living on a cruise ship is
possible, but the costs are big, there are a lot of barriers and it's not especially
welcomed by the cruise lines. It's a great fantasy. It's a great idea, and now you know what it
costs. Why not find out more about some things that
make no sense on a cruise ship in this video where I start by talking about something that
totally threw me. See you over there.
