7 ms·
Live on a cruise ship for $30k per year
- marymkearney 4y agoThis sounds like my worst nightmare TBH, even before 2020. :) The price isn't bad though. Room, board, office, nice views, free drinks, housekeeping? Might be cheaper than living on dry land.
- ploum 4y agoFor that price, I would happily sign for all those services for a room with sea view. That would be a dream. But if the room is on a big noisy, vibrating vehicle consuming lot of fuel and I’m not allowed to go walking/cycling outside in the forest, the dream become a nightmare.
- rnosov 4y agoThere are plenty of places on dry land that are a LOT cheaper than 30k/year. Probably would be more comfortable too.
- kwhitefoot 4y agoIn the UK you could stay in a small hotel for that price and have a lot more space.
- adamckay 4y agoReally? You can find a hotel for £68.29 per night which includes all food, unlimited soft drinks and alcohol with meals? That's in an area with a wide range of touristy things to do (as the ship will be docking at various interesting locations versus a hotel in the middle of nowhere)?
- kwhitefoot 4y agoI toured the UK for two months last summer and never paid more than 60 GBP per night and in many cases under 40 GBP. Granted that none of those included evening meals or alcohol but some included breakfast and an evening meal and a beer isn't much extra.
- ghaff 4y agoPer person for a couple? I think you can start to get pretty close aside from the bigger and more expensive cities. I'm pretty sure you could do a walking trip in England for not that much more. And keep in mind that's the starting at price. Also, the UK is expensive. You can absolutely do trips to other parts of the world for that sort of money. If it's the sort of extended trip someone is into, it might well be a decent deal. But it's not an absolute bargain relative to other alternatives one could put together.
- zamnos 4y agoFor reference, a fully loaded resort experience in Camaroon, which ranked 97th out of 197 countries for cost of living, will still cost you $91+/day. $30k for the year works out to $82. You have to compare like-to-like. You can go camping to minimize housing costs. Unfortunately the buffet service is sub par and the drink service is non-existent. There's not even a service class of people that will clean your tent for you and fold cute towel animals while you enjoy am afternoon of bocce ball.
- ghaff 4y agoThe price is OK though I expect a lot of people this might appeal to already own their homes. But it's hard for me to imagine being in this regimented existence for 3 months let alone 3 years. And while people can presumably take a break and meet the ship at another port, the practical issues for, again, the sort of people this might appeal to seem considerable.
- pengaru 4y ago> The price isn't bad though. Room, board, office, nice views, free drinks, housekeeping? Might be cheaper than living on dry land. Reviews I've read sound like living in a floating overcrowded mall meets water park meets casino. I don't know how one could possibly tolerate that for more than a few days at a time without either going nuts or alcoholic.
- seltzered_ 4y agoKinda reminds me of recession-time travel industry deals. E.g. in 2008 where many went for a 100k mile bonus credit card offer for British Airways miles.
- ghaff 4y agoI expect that once you dig into the details you'd find that you were paying a lot more than the "Prices starting at" sticker.
- nelsonic 4y ago“promising to tick off 375 ports around the world, visiting 135 countries and all seven continents. The ship will cover more than 130,000 miles over the three years, taking in iconic sights from Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer statue and India’s Taj Mahal, to Mexico’s Chichen Itza, the pyramids of Giza, Machu Picchu and the Great Wall of China. It even slots in trips to 103 “tropical islands.” Of those 375 ports, 208 will be overnight stops, giving you extra time in the destination.“ Sounds epic for retired people who want to see the world! But is it profitable for the cruise company… what happens if they realise this half way through the journey and are forced to cancel the rest of the trip?
- ytdytvhxgydvhh 4y agoTaj Mahal? That’s hundreds of miles from the coast. I guess this company is hoping to make the real money by offering excursions to people who are tired of being on the ship long term.
- tgv 4y agoI think the Great Wall is even further, unless you can dock in Pyongyang. Utterly ridiculous.
- ourmandave 4y agoSounds painful. You're on a boat filled with tourists making stops at tourist traps. After the 30th "tropical island" port, will you even bother to get off the boat? To wander around souvenir shops or try the local cuisine, again.
- arkitaip 4y agoIsn't that the way most Westerns go on holiday anyways? Doing the same things at the same places like everyone else?
- buggy6257 4y agoCalm down your biases. Take a trip to Australia and tell me that Japanese and Chinese tourists don’t do the exact same thing. Turns out tourist traps exist for a reason. People seem to enjoy them.
- andrethegiant 4y agoRecommended read by David Foster Wallace: https://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/HarpersMagazine-1996-01-0007859.pdf https://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/HarpersMagazi.... Read if you'd never like to step foot on a cruise again.
- narrator 4y agoDavid Foster Wallace was very funny, but saw the disappointing and sad nature of just about everything. He's sort of the pinnacle of depression literature before widespread anti-depressant use.
- AlecSchueler 4y agoMaybe we should listen to the people who warned us about certain aspects of society that could have potentially led to the need for widespread anti-depressant use.
- JKCalhoun 4y agoLook at a cruise ship as akin to a floating, polluting, germ-infested mall and I think you'll never have any desire to step foot on one.
- ryandrake 4y agoI look at it like a germ-infested McDonalds ball pit for adults. I felt pretty uncomfortable on a cruise ship even before COVID. Now, I would break out in a sweat just looking at one.
- zamnos 4y agoNot that Covid is anything to be dismissed, but I'd be way more afraid of Norovirus. Critically, Covid doesn't last long on surfaces, so the chances of touching a contaminate surface and getting infected from that is small. Meanwhile Norovirus can last for up to 4 weeks on a surface and leads to vomiting and diarrhea, which sounds extremely not-fun in a small confined space, with a limited number of bathrooms.
- moonchrome 4y agoSounds like a poor man's version of https://aboardtheworld.com/ https://aboardtheworld.com/
- aledalgrande 4y agoWhich in turn is the poor man's version of https://www.aman.com/aman-yachts https://www.aman.com/aman-yachts ;-) But seriously, where are we going if old people are gonna have to confine themselves into cruises? I get the cost opportunity, but...
- moonchrome 4y agoI've only visited the world, but frankly I'd have no problem spending retirement like that
- lgats 4y ago> Star link internet > Always stay connected to the real world with the fastest internet available at sea
- JKCalhoun 4y ago> fastest internet available at sea Now there's a high bar!
- powrtoch 4y agoIs 13 sq ft a typo or am I missing something?
- renewiltord 4y ago130 mate. https://www.lifeatseacruises.com/pricing-and-cabins https://www.lifeatseacruises.com/pricing-and-cabins Hilarious typo The price is per person as well and you’ll be sharing as a couple. If you go as a single you will pay 1.7x the per person rate.
- analyst74 4y agoThe cheapest option is > 13 square feet “Virtual Inside” stateroom I can't wrap my mind with how this works, is it like a capsule? For 3 years?!
- rnosov 4y agoThey forgot trailing zero. It should be 130 sq ft[1]. Looks like no window too. [1] https://www.lifeatseacruises.com/pricing-and-cabins https://www.lifeatseacruises.com/pricing-and-cabins
- torstenvl 4y agoIt couldn't work. 6 feet by 2.1666667 feet by 1 foot (edit: or any height, since it's sqft)? A normal sized adult person could not fit in such a space without breaking their shoulders
- buzzerbetrayed 4y agoIt’s square feet. Not cubed feet. The height of the ceiling doesn’t play in to that. So it would be a 6 by 2.1 ft room with a 7 or 8 foot ceiling. Regardless, it sounds like 130 square feet is the actual measurement.
- kwhitefoot 4y agoEven a small single bed is about 13 sq. ft so it has to be wrong.
- hgsgm 4y agoIt's 130 sqft. CNN can't even proofread their advertiser press release retypes. https://news.yahoo.com/want-live-sea-see-inside-202436140.html https://news.yahoo.com/want-live-sea-see-inside-202436140.ht...
- ortusdux 4y agoThere are multiple cruise ship condos afloat or nearing completion. Would be a great setting for post apocalyptic TV show. https://www.rvtravel.com/trade-land-yacht-real-ocean-abode-1012/ https://www.rvtravel.com/trade-land-yacht-real-ocean-abode-1...
- pwarner 4y agoI wonder how this works with taxes? HR department at work gets freaked out if people work a few weeks from abroad, or even another state.
- ghaff 4y agoI think it's fair to say that no one with a remotely normal job can reasonably work from there.
- jcuenod 4y agoHow about a normally remote job?
- ghaff 4y agoWhere you're in who knows what timezone? Presumably want to actually spend time in the places you're visiting? Probably have somewhat sporadic Internet (how is Starlink in Antarctica?). To say nothing of the HR/payroll, "Yeah I'll be working somewhere in the world." I imagine you can get off with it if you're some sort of independent freelancer/consultant who doesn't need to coordinate much. But I doubt any HR department would touch you. I sure wouldn't. Sounds like way more potential for problems than I would want to deal with. Hard pass.
- hgsgm 4y agoIt's 130 sqft https://news.yahoo.com/want-live-sea-see-inside-202436140.html https://news.yahoo.com/want-live-sea-see-inside-202436140.ht... > 13[0] square feet “Virtual Inside” staterooms – which start at $30K per person per year, So that's $60K/yr for 2 people to share a room. Plus taxes and fees, no doubt. I don't pay tax on my apartment rent.
- dragonwriter 4y agoA small single bed (well, mattress, a bed will typically be at least slightly larger) is 30"×75", which is 15.625 sq ft. 13 sq ft a little bigger than midway between that and a standard crib mattress (28"×52", 10.1+ sq ft) This...must be a typo.
- crmd 4y ago13 square feet? No.
- karaterobot 4y agoYou have to sign up for three years though. Three. Years. That’s $100k and a duration that takes it out of the realm of “a fun thing to try” and into “too risky to contemplate” for me.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Algemarin 4y ago> Just one word of warning: You’d need not just a cruise ship but a time machine to visit some of the stops listed on its “13 wonders of the world” list, which includes places like the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Colossus of Rhodes, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus and the statue of Zeus at Olympia – all of which were destroyed in antiquity. Is this a joke? This thinly-veiled promotional advertising masquerading as an article also admits that the destinations listed on the official website is false?
- BillyTheMage 4y agoCruise ships are nothing but pure evil. A bunch of rich people showing their money off in a giant pollution machine just so they can go patronize other cultures like a zoo. Reminds me of that video of those victorian-era royals throwing bread on the ground next to impoverished Africans for entertainment, just sitting there watching these starving people scamper around for scraps. Makes me sick. That's not even considering the effects on marine life. We have a bunch of useless noise-makers just patrolling water endlessly for no good reason. After 9/11 when all the traffic near New York was forced to stop, whales were shown to be more relaxed than ever before because they didn't have to listen to our constant racket for a few days.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- neotrope 4y agoYou should spend more time outside.
- BillyTheMage 4y agoWhich part of caring about the environment implied I don't go outside? I do construction, you go outside.
- tablespoon 4y ago> Cruise ships are nothing but pure evil. Oh come on. Either your evil meter is out of whack or your bar for "pure evil" is hysterically low.
- BillyTheMage 4y agoThose victorian-era people throwing bread probably thought they weren't doing anything wrong too. I think your bar for evil isn't low enough.
- tablespoon 4y ago
- meghan_rain 4y ago> However, the cruise also includes free high-speed Wi-Fi, doubt.jpeg
- akmarinov 4y agoSounds great, price is decent for room + food + drinks for a year. Can’t imagine disconnecting from everyone for 3 years though.
- aaron695 4y ago[dead]