https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/three-year-cruise-never-ends/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/3-year-cruise-mv-gemini/index.html
Now here’s an idea I could get into, in spite of my misgivings about the safety and stability of modern cruise ships. Supposedly, the ship will not be crowded, they are deliberately only booking about 85% of the ship’s capacity, about 1100 paying passengers.
Three years at sea, on a luxury liner, with all expenses paid. The cost per passenger is about $30K/yr; food, housing, even laundry provided in the passage fee. I guess only the bar tab is extra. And its quite reasonable, the price quoted is about half my pension income, so it would be actually be cheaper than staying home! Right now, I pretty much break even by the end of the year, at sea we would save money, PLUS my $8k/yr home and auto insurance premiums. I presume our health insurance would still operate as usual. I could sell the house and cars and have a bit of a cushion for when we got back.
And if Mme Reclus would rather not go, well…the mind boggles at the opportunities.
Some questions are not addressed in the marketing copy, though. No ship can stay at sea continuously for three years, they require frequent maintenance, including an occasional yard period for complete refitting or even overhaul. Will the line provide another vessel if the primary has to go into drydock, or is damaged in an accident or breakdown? If not, what about refunds for unused cruise time?
It looks like this ship will sail continuously around the planet. That’s fine in the Caribbean and other gentle seas, but how will this vessel handle the North Atlantic, not to mention rounding the Horn and Good Hope. Surely, there is an Antarctic excursion on the itinerary.
I could bring a telescope and do astronomy on the Lido Deck! At last, fulfilling my ambition to see the Southern Sky! I could finally write my novel, learn how to SCUBA, and plenty of free time to learn a foreign language, or a musical instrument, or how to salsa!
What better way to spend the End Times?
And even if this never materializes (it does sound too good to be true), there is a scene here for a terrific novel.
