# Would you consider living on a cruise ship for three years? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Tags:** vacation-travel\ **Created:** [March 3, 2023, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-living-on-a-cruise-ship-for-three-years/980649 "2023-03-03T13:23:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 21
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-living-on-a-cruise-ship-for-three-years/980649/401 "2024-01-19T21:48:44Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > He had had a big lab full of Bunsen burners, glass tubing, and Erlenmeyer flasks. It’s obvious - he was making meth. He recreated the lab in his hut - as you point out, the only private one on the island - and when he’d whipped up a ton or so, he would suddenly figure out a way to patch the _Minnow_, ballast it with ice, and sail back to a life of luxury selling meth in L.A. I must admit that the hypothesis that the visit of the Harlem Globetrotters being a meth hallucination makes a lot of sense. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-living-on-a-cruise-ship-for-three-years/980649/402 "2024-01-19T22:26:18Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Hell hath (almost) no fury: [Life at Sea passengers call for criminal investigation into cruise company as they try to claw back $16 million in refunds](https://www.aol.com/news/life-sea-passengers-call-criminal-023252949.html) Some pretty sad stories there. The criminal investigation – if it happens at all – sounds like a long shot. There are questions of jurisdiction, of actual liability (this doesn’t sound like a scam so much as the result of incompetence), and whether anyone actually has the money to provide refunds even if found liable. It’s a huge mess that will unfortunately undermine any such future ventures, which is too bad because for the right individuals this is potentially a fascinating adventure. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2024, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-living-on-a-cruise-ship-for-three-years/980649/403 "2024-01-20T16:49:28Z")
as I doubted (too lazy to vanity-repost-myself), 2 of the 3 payment-returns fell flat [https://edition.cnn.com/travel/how-the-three-year-cruise-fell-apart/index.html](https://edition.cnn.com/travel/how-the-three-year-cruise-fell-apart/index.html) _When canceling, Life at Sea vowed to refund passengers in full. Payments were to be made in three monthly tranches, with the first to be completed by December 22, according to company emails seen by CNN._ _But now, after two of three payments should have arrived, passengers say that only a handful have seen any money, and no one has got what they were expecting. The company doesn’t deny problems with repayment, and it now says that customers will be reimbursed in full by February 15._ _The majority, including Fox, have not even seen a dollar, passengers tell CNN._ ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2024, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-living-on-a-cruise-ship-for-three-years/980649/404 "2024-01-20T18:53:32Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Some pretty sad stories there. I don’t get all the tragedy. They say some people sold their homes and now “have nowhere to go”. Huh? Where were these people planning to go at the end of the cruise? Sure, it’s a huge disappointment to miss out on a three year vacation. You will never enjoy all those interesting experiences that you were expecting to have for 36 months. But how do you choose to sell your house…and not have any plans for where you will live the rest of your life? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2024, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-living-on-a-cruise-ship-for-three-years/980649/405 "2024-01-20T18:54:09Z")
They used the word “tranche.” That was a warning sign right there! ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2024, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-living-on-a-cruise-ship-for-three-years/980649/406 "2024-01-20T18:55:51Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > and not have any plans for where you will live the rest of your life? They were assuming they’d have three years to figure that out. Sell your stuff and sock the money away in low-risk investments, then use it to sort your living arrangements when the cruise is coming to an end. If any of them literally zeroed out their savings for the cruise then, yeah, pretty boneheaded move. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2024, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-living-on-a-cruise-ship-for-three-years/980649/407 "2024-01-20T19:37:41Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > They were assuming they’d have three years to figure that out. and potentially have 36 and 36 pension cheques to tuck aside … but yeah … jumping from the cliff and hoping for enough water beneath is somewhat remarkable… ---
**Author:** ![Cityyewtree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cityyewtree/32/15992_2.png) [@Cityyewtree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cityyewtree)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2024, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-living-on-a-cruise-ship-for-three-years/980649/408 "2024-01-21T17:07:46Z")
I’ve never felt more welcome anywhere else. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2024, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-living-on-a-cruise-ship-for-three-years/980649/409 "2024-01-22T17:35:26Z")
So glad to hear it! ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2024, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-living-on-a-cruise-ship-for-three-years/980649/410 "2024-02-02T17:29:40Z")
Haven’t read the entire thread yet… Some things I wondered about, when I was reading about this, here and elsewhere. Some people have been saying “But there’s entertainment!” I think, though, that the kind of entertainment on a cruise that lasts a month or less, would not be sustainable for three years. Can’t be party! dance! get crazy! every night, or even every weekend. And then I thought, I hope they switch out the crew from time to time. [I mean, it’s not T.G.I. McScratchy’s.](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rGFOr-AiEqA) But even low-key forms of entertainment, like book club and trivia challenge, would start to wear thin with the _same_ people _every_ time. For another TV reference, I’m thinking of Galactica, when the officers’ poker game went off the rails because everyone knew the cards by the way they’d been distressed. And for a real-life reference, one of my grandmothers lived in a retirement home for about ten years. The misunderstandings (and petty grudges, sometimes) between aging, feeble, sight- and hearing-impaired people were just cringeworthy. There were a lot of retirees wanting to go on this cruise, and I can well imagine the same nonsense, if they’d gone. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2024, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-living-on-a-cruise-ship-for-three-years/980649/411 "2024-02-02T18:18:40Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > For another TV reference, I’m thinking of Galactica, when the officers’ poker game went off the rails because everyone knew the cards by the way they’d been distressed You don’t even need to look to fiction. The American hostages who were sheltered by the Canadian ambassador in Iran in 1979 said they played so much Scrabble while waiting to be evacuated that they learned to recognize the tiles by the woodgrain on their backs. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2024, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-living-on-a-cruise-ship-for-three-years/980649/412 "2024-02-02T18:26:26Z")
That’s why there’re these obscure things called ports of call, where residents/passengers would be able to get off the ship and do something on land. Amazing but true. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2024, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-living-on-a-cruise-ship-for-three-years/980649/413 "2024-02-02T20:20:12Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > Some things I wondered about, when I was reading about this, here and elsewhere. Some people have been saying “But there’s entertainment!” I think, though, that the kind of entertainment on a cruise that lasts a month or less, would not be sustainable for three years. Can’t be party! dance! get crazy! every night, or even every weekend. And then I thought, I hope they switch out the crew from time to time. [I mean, it’s not T.G.I. McScratchy’s.](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rGFOr-AiEqA) On larger cruises there are singers and shows, and they change every week or so as they get off at a port and new ones get on. You’d have enough people on board that the cruise director could arrange different teams for games. If they were competent, which these guys obviously weren’t, you’d stream in TV from satellites for people to watch in their cabins or in some central place, and also stream movies. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2024, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-living-on-a-cruise-ship-for-three-years/980649/414 "2024-02-02T22:11:36Z")
Well, that’s good! (Hey, maybe they can get a sexy-legs dance troupe, like the Mermaids on the Pacific Princess!) ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2024, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-living-on-a-cruise-ship-for-three-years/980649/415 "2024-02-03T15:53:45Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > [**March 4, 2023**] Oh, and the chance that I’ll ever visit the wreck of the Titanic in one of those tiny submersibles? Exactly zero! Forgive the double post but – Wow, prophetic! Good call. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2024, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-living-on-a-cruise-ship-for-three-years/980649/416 "2024-02-04T04:45:44Z")
I’ve heard tale of “Swingers Cruises” in the 70s/80s where they’d get to a port of call and hire a bunch of “local ladies” to get onboard and entertain the occupants all day while they were docked. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2024, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-living-on-a-cruise-ship-for-three-years/980649/417 "2024-02-04T22:32:08Z")
For most of the cruises I have been on, they would have needed a team of cardiac surgeons in line right after these ladies. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2024, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-living-on-a-cruise-ship-for-three-years/980649/418 "2024-02-17T22:26:23Z")
I don’t see any mention of the Nine-Month Cruise–which admittedly is not a case of “living” on a ship for multiple years, but which _has_ been extensively discussed online in relation to ‘could you tolerate so many months onboard a cruise ship?’ The hashtag #UltimateWorldCruise had 54.8 million views a mere twelve days after the Serenade of the Seas (a Royal Caribbean ship) set sail. Interest has been keen, and a lot of it centers on a major topic of this thread: will people go crazy as a result of so much time in limited space, and Drama ensue? > **[Why the 9-month Ultimate World Cruise is social media's latest obsession](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/royal-caribbean-ultimate-world-9-month-cruise-tiktok-viral-rcna130851)** > > On TikTok, the #UltimateWorldCruise tag has more than 54.8 million views as users obsess over what they speculate will turn into seaside drama. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2024, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-living-on-a-cruise-ship-for-three-years/980649/419 "2024-02-18T01:31:38Z")
Just as I thought. Some of the passengers are on normal cruise segments - the 9 to 28 day ones. I get upwards of three cruise brochures a day, and most of the lines have very long cruise options - but if you look at the route, you’ll see that shorter cruise options fit into them. The article didn’t say how many people signed up for the entire thing. As for the “tension” a bunch of content creators beginning a cruise want to build up potential conflict to get people to subscribe. _yawn_ Compared to the first cruises I took over 20 years ago, cruises today have a lot more healthy options, and, even if there are buffets, most people stop overeating pretty soon. An excursion a day means you aren’t as stuck on the ship as someone who hasn’t done it might think. Plus you get exercise, usually. I was just on a Viking river cruise, and I gained zero weight. Now, they don’t have 24 hour buffets, but lots of people have stereotyped images of cruises, I suppose from The Love Boat. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2024, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-living-on-a-cruise-ship-for-three-years/980649/420 "2024-02-18T03:07:30Z")
It happens that I was on a cruise from Sunday to Friday as in “yesterday” as I type. I’m an early bird. At 6am, so about an hour _before_ sunrise the extensive gym and walking / jogging track was very busy. Lotsa folks doin’ healthy stuff. Had the disco also been packed at 1am? You bet it had been. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-living-on-a-cruise-ship-for-three-years/980649.md?page=20) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-consider-living-on-a-cruise-ship-for-three-years/980649.md?page=22)