Los Angeles: A couple from Los Angeles have splashed out £1m for an apartment on a “residential cruise ship” so their teenage daughters can see the world from “home”.
Beth and Mark Hunter bought a unit on the yet-to-launch Storylines Narrative ship, which is positioning itself as a “floating town” where cruise fans can live and travel.
The £1m purchase is a two-bedroom, two bathroom apartment on a mega-ship that has its own cinema, spa, microbrewery, clinic and library. It is set to be built in Croatia later this year, with 547 residential apartments in total.
The Hunters’ daughters will be 14 and 16 in 2024, the year Narrative is slated to set sail.
Mum Beth told Metro.co.uk: “We used to think about sailing around the world by ourselves so we took lessons and chartered boats but eventually we realised that there is so much time spent on maintenance, chores and provisioning that we’d only have a day or two every week to explore.
“There is also a lot to consider with waiting on weather windows and staying up all night on watches during long ocean crossings.
“The lustre was starting to wear off when we learned there was a new start-up that was building a ship we could buy a flat on. It ticked all the boxes.”
Beth says that the ease of life onboard a fully catered cruise ship was too good to pass up.
“Instead of a 50ft sailboat we’ll have a 700ft ship – quite the trade-up.
“We’ll have plenty of time for exploration and adventures since everything is taken care of on board – we won’t have to deal with shopping, cooking, cleaning or laundry.”
Narrative is planned to circumnavigate the globe every 1,000 days, stopping at each port for several nights. Residents will be able to leave the main ship via a nifty “Marina” on the aft side, where they can board smaller boats or jet skis to explore.
Units on the ship start at £300,000 for a 12- or 24-year lease, with the most luxurious costing up to £6m to buy outright.
Beth and Mark’s daughters will even be able to do some schooling in a “youth education programme” onboard the ship.
Beth says that they’ll have no trouble keeping in touch with family friends from the high seas, and will invite them to visit.
“We hope our family and friends will sail with us. We’ll be on board 13 weeks at a time, so the plan is to have people come visit for a couple of weeks here and there. We will also be making new friends in our new community, of course.
“The ship will have internet, so we’ll still be able to stay in touch with all the landlubbers regularly with video calls from exotic destinations.
“Our plan is to rent out our house when we are at our holiday home, meaning the mortgage will be mostly covered.
“By renting out our floating home for six months a year, our annual fees on the ship will be also paid in full.”