officer20

On 5/7/2021 at 2:27 PM, Traveling_Family said:

We are the same age and have the same timeline you mentioned. After weighing all the world cruise options, we decided to purchase a condo on a ship instead. For the price of 2-3 world cruises, we can own a cabin and sail around the world as often as we want (and rent it out when we're not using it). People have been doing that since 2002 on MV The World and now with MV Narrative launching, there are more affordable options. It's not for everyone, but for those of us considering world cruises it might make sense since we are generally interested in long term world travel by sea and we have the $.    

I am intrigued by this idea, but can't help but focus on the negatives.  Have you considered this decision from a COVID perspective?  We learned that cruise ships can be highly impacted by a pandemic.  If there is another one in our lifetimes (and from my light research, it looks like another 1-2 are expected in the next 10-20 years), the following may be true:

1) You can't leave your condo for an extended period of time (months?  a year? longer??)

2) You can't get access to your condo for an extended period of time (months? a year?)

3) You can't rent your condo for an extended period of time (will you need that income?)

4) Guests renting your condo are stuck there for an extended period of time (which triggers all kinds of problems - they are still using your space, probably not paying for it, probably not happy).

Its one thing to be inconvenienced yourself on a cruise of whatever length, its quite another when your house is impacted and/or you directly have renters.  Those same risks aren't as inherent with more traditional land-based homes/rentals. 

I'm interested in everyone's thoughts!

I received responses from two companies thus far:

Oceania:
They do allow solo world cruise guests to invite one person at a time during certain segments to join them.  You may invite more than one guest throughout the cruise, but never more than one at a time.  Of course, the individual you invite must have all necessary documentation to join (such as a passport, be vaccinated, etc).  They provided a person's name if I wanted to start more specific planning.

Viking:
They advised that solo world cruise guests may be allowed to invite one guest, subject to advance approval by their operating team and port authorities and during certain segments.  They also advised that the guest is entitled to no perks that the world cruise guest would be entitled to, including assistance with luggage on and off the ship, making flight arrangements, shipboard credits, or any other world cruise amenities.  They also advised that securing any necessary visas is the guest's sole responsibility.

Thank you, all.  I've reached out to a couple different cruise lines to ask this question.  I'll let you know what I hear.

Thanks for the reply, much appreciated.

Greetings all!  I'm in the brainstorming/research(/saving!) phase of planning a world cruise for retirement that is several years away.  I'm wondering if anyone knows if it is possible to book a solo world cruise, but to also have friends or family book segments of that cruise and stay with me?

Thanks in advance!

Ok, thanks for that. I'll keep an eye out....

The year is definitely right. Did you pay something similar for your Feb cruise?

I'm looking into a cruise with a studio room (NCL Epic, usually), but I am finding it is more or less like paying a big supplement anyway. I'd appreciate opinions on this.

As an example, the NCL Epic Jan 17-24, 2016 Western Caribbean from Miami, a studio room is $1299 while an inside room for one $1398. This seems fairly standard, at least for NCL Epic cruises I've been looking at. I mean, this is essentially a 100% supplement (ok, 93%...).

Perhaps I misunderstood the purpose of a studio, or maybe I'm looking in the wrong spot?

Thanks in advance!