You can live on a cruise ship for about $50k a year including all meals. The longer you live on it, the cheaper the price gets.
Hi Angel , curious about your comment . I assume that's per person . I know there are some cruise ships where people " buy " their cabin and then effectively pay an ongoing management fee . I'm interested in doing various different things over the next 30 years , grey ghosting ( here and OS ) and would be happy to spend a few longer periods on a cruise ship . Haven't specifically looked at the longer time / cheaper aspect . Is that just standard pricing or can you get discounts if you book for more than one trip in a row ? Cliff
Definitely get discounts for more than one trip. Hi Cliff I made up the $50K figure by taking a very average $1k per week and timesing it by 50. I read about the idea of several back to back cruises in a Planning your Retirement book a few years ago. The author (cant remember the name but she writes about budgeting) went on a cruise for her own "research" and was speaking to other travellers who said that the longer you stay with the same company, the more discounts you get. I can confirm this from my own cruise life experiences. For example a suite might cost about $2600 a week per person (last time I looked so not necessarily accurate now), but then you get 10% discounts compounding for each successive cruise you take with the same company. Your annual travel insurance offers world-wide medical cover for a lot less than Bupa or Medibank. A cruise ship has excellent medical facilities on board and suddenly it becomes a very economical way to live in Style.
[QUOTE="Angel, post: 44902, member: 442] The author (cant remember the name but she writes about budgeting) went on a cruise for her own "research" and was speaking to other travellers who said that the longer you stay with the same company, the more discounts you get. I can confirm this from my own cruise life experiences. .[/QUOTE] Hi angel , Thanks for that . Didnt know about compounding discounts. Makes the choice of which company to go with worth of a bit of research . The only cruise I've ever been on was a 6 week , 10 pound one back in 1969 . We looked at doing one mid year , but couldn't find one that fitted in with our schedule and went to places we wanted to go on. Any tips on which companies ( btw , I'm going to ask to split this into its own thread ) Cliff
A friend went on a cruise, he commented on how humorously morbid it was that every time they docked, there were at least a few bodies being taken off. I talked to another friend who has been working in cruising for many years and he said yeah it's normal and all the big cruise liners have a little morgue to keep the bodies. There are plenty who retire and just live out their days on these ships cruising the world. It's very common, and therefore deaths are too. In terms of tips, make sure you pick the right one. My friend said most of the ship was full of retirees and he was so bored. On the flip side my other friend that works for cruising said some of them are filled with party goers and they have to bring in the sniffer dogs to look for drugs. So just make sure you know what sort of crowd is going to be on the boat first. Also you can get really high end but smaller specialized cruises from companies like Scenic. Some of their boats are amazing, definitely on the luxury side of things.
Yeah, it would happen I suppose. A few bodies every time they docked seems excessive, I would start to avoid the buffet at a certain point. Getting on one where a really bad flu/bug was going around and being stuck on there wouldn't be very pleasant either.
In Alaska we went on Holland America line and the discounts for successive cruises were very generous. That was in the height of the GFC, don't know about now. Let's go off to the Living Room.....
