Traveling_Family

On 2/13/2022 at 11:24 AM, chloemonkey said:

And if the amount of calls and e mails that I am receiving are any indication, they are NOT selling well! As I am being contacted a LOT by their sales team.

If this CNN article is any indication, it seems sales are going quite well. 

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/storylines-residential-cruise-ship-concept/index.html

And considering there has been an enormous amount of media coverage in the past two months in outlets including these, I don't think any of us should be too worried about sales...

CNN
New York Post
Sacramento Bee
Miami Herald
Business Insider
MSN
Vanity Fair Italy
The Today Show
Barron's
Daily Mail (UK)
JetSet Magazine

On 2/13/2022 at 8:01 PM, Host Jazzbeau said:

When Covid shut down cruising, The World of Residency was forced to throw all its owners off the ship.  If you had sold your house to finance the cabin, where would you have gone?  Granted, most of the owners on The World treat it as their 3rd or 4th home – but Storylines is pitching to people who would actually plan to live onboard. 😮

The World has a $10M net worth requirement as well as a requirement to own a land based home. 

Storylines does have some resident owners who plan to live on board full time. The difference is that The World is a 20 year old ship that had no pandemic protocols or preparations in place and was caught completely off guard. Storylines' ship was in the design process when Covid shut down cruising, so they were able to design high tech HVAC and other technologies into the engineering process. I have done my due diligence and find that the company is Extremely Well Prepared. Having said that, (and at the risk of stating the obvious), everyone needs to make their own risk assessments for cruise ships now. 

 https://f.hubspotusercontent40.net/hubfs/5873592/Storylines Health Emergency or Pandemic Protocol v1.0.pdf

On 2/13/2022 at 7:35 AM, ORV said:

Didn't "The World" do this 10-15 years ago?

Yes, The World launched in 2012, exactly 20 years ago. It had some challenges in its first year which were quickly resolved and since that time has been an enormous success. 

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/the-world-luxury-ship-one-square-meter/index.html

On 2/13/2022 at 6:12 AM, AlexCherie said:

Penthouse levels run around $112,000 a year for a pair of guests, for your ongoing, comprehensive fair. At roughly $5000 per person, per month, given that it includes wine, beer, standard cocktails and all port charges, gratuities, etc ... it's actually not expensive. Also, roughly 20% larger at nearly 577 square feet, than an Oceania ship.

The lowest annual fee that I see on the penthouse level is currently $153k and 904 sq ft but I do see some residences as far up as Deck 12 in the price range and square footage that you are quoting. 

I agree with you about the comparison to Oceania!

And regarding your original question...'Storylines...What are your thoughts?' Thanks for asking. I am a big fan of Storylines and am very knowledgeable about the company as I have been following for some time. I am a future resident owner. I had been looking for a vacation home and couldn't decide where to buy so I opted for 'everywhere' when this very unique and rare opportunity presented itself. 

On 2/13/2022 at 9:00 AM, FlyerTalker said:

 

Re The World:

And IIRC (if I recall correctly), resale prices are below the initial offering price, with small buyer demand.

 

Reminder to cite your sources to keep things factual. Studios on The World originally sold for $90,000 and at the time this article below was written they were selling for $600,000 USD. However, now in 2022 you cannot touch a studio residence on The World for under $2M. 
https://www.cruisemapper.com/ships/ms-The-World-1119. 

7 hours ago, officer20 said:

We learned that cruise ships can be highly impacted by a pandemic. 

 

The ship we are buying a condo on was in the design phase when the pandemic happened so they were in a really unique position to be able to integrate innovative HVAC, touchless tech, air purification systems, fresh air with no recirculating, hydroxyls, ozone, and all sorts of other technologies that are a bit over my head. In short, they were able to learn in real-time in a real pandemic about the pitfalls of cruise ships and implement all the latest solutions into the design. 
 

7 hours ago, officer20 said:

...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).

 

These points that you bring up are valid and true for any vacation home abroad in the time of a pandemic. We all know people that got 'stuck' somewhere for a few days or a few weeks. That is now a known risk that we all face when traveling anywhere for the rest of our lives. Lots of people lost rental income on their vacation homes. These are just normal risks that were always there but they weren't on our radar before - we all know about them now and yes, we do have to consider them more now than we did in the past. Having said that, I personally believe that most developed countries will be much better prepared the next time around and I feel confident that the residential ship I am buying a home on is very well equipped and prepared.  

1 hour ago, rkacruiser said:

Have you lived in a condo community?  What about the monthly condo fees?  Possible special assessments?  Reality of whomever/whatever managements firm and their responsiveness to your concerns/needs?  

Yes, there are monthly fees of course which cover all possible scenarios plus insurance, docking, port fees, repairs, maintenance, staffing, etc. (It also covers meals, drinks, laundry, housekeeping, entertainment, WiFi etc). Regarding the management firm, I believe the residents of The World have been happy enough with their management firm in Florida. I suppose I could participate in the HOA board if I want to get involved with that part of it.  

On 5/2/2021 at 2:02 PM, CptBoatface said:

We are a couple 53 me and spouse 46. I'm closing in on an early retirement or a downshift when I hit a certain date in late 2024

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 $.    

Great info! I would also add to that, residential ships if those are of interest: The World, Blue World Voyages and Storylines. 

We bought a condo on the Storylines ship and will be continuously circumnavigating so we have purchased ReliefBands for preventing seasickness. We haven't had the opportunity to try them yet but the woman who recommended it to me is a fellow resident who has done around-the world-cruises and swears by these. 

Virtual mail service also does mobile check deposit and forwards packages to you wherever you are traveling at the moment. After reading the Earth Class Mail reviews, though, I wouldn't use that company. It seems they used to be really good but service took a dive in 2019. I'm not sure which ones offer a mailing address in WA. 

It's a 'snail mail' forwarding service so you can keep a physical address when you are traveling long-term. Your postal mail gets forwarded to Earth Class Mail and they open it for you and scan it and get it to you by whatever digital platform you request (email, DropBox, Google Drive...) It 'takes postal mail paperless'. If you read Earth Class Mails' reviews on Yelp, you'll find competitors such as Anytime Mailbox.    

I have heard about Earth Class Mail (through 4-hour-work-week) but I haven't tried it yet. That's the one we plan to use when traveling on Storylines MV Narrative. Great idea to get a WA address. If that's for tax purposes, I'm guessing you will need to establish residency there (register to vote, car registration, driver's license).