{"id":87374,"date":"2023-12-25T05:23:59","date_gmt":"2023-12-25T05:23:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.estaql.com\/the-couple-who-sold-everything-to-live-on-cruise-ships-for-the-rest-of-their-lives-us-news\/"},"modified":"2023-12-25T05:23:59","modified_gmt":"2023-12-25T05:23:59","slug":"the-couple-who-sold-everything-to-live-on-cruise-ships-for-the-rest-of-their-lives-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/the-couple-who-sold-everything-to-live-on-cruise-ships-for-the-rest-of-their-lives-us-news\/","title":{"rendered":"The couple who ‘sold everything’ to live on cruise ships for the rest of their lives | US News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The couple who ‘sold everything’ to live on cruise ships for the rest of their lives | US News<\/h2>\n

The couple who ‘sold everything’ to live on cruise ships for the rest of their lives | US News<\/p>\n

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John and Melody Hennessee plan to spend the rest of their lives cruising around the world – and they reckon it could be as much as half as expensive as their life on land.<\/p>\n

The couple, originally from Florida, sold almost everything they owned three years ago, including their main business and their home, and bought a motorhome to travel around the United States.<\/p>\n

But then John, 76, got tired of driving, says Melody, 64.<\/p>\n

Then they saw an advert on Facebook for a 274-day cruise with Royal Caribbean, and their journey to a permanent life at sea began.<\/p>\n

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The pair are currently cruising around the Dominican Republic as part of the latest in a series of long-term sailings, which have taken them to places including Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific.<\/p>\n

But while their new life is more exciting, they say it is cheaper too.<\/p>\n

“We now have a telephone bill, a ship bill, and a few credit card bills for when we go ashore, but that’s it,” says John.<\/p>\n

“We no longer have a mortgage or the expense of homes. We no longer have vehicle insurance, property insurance, or utility bills. The list goes on. We are certain cruising is cheaper.<\/p>\n

“Right now it is probably close to half of what it was when we lived on land.”<\/p>\n

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\n Halibut fishing in Holmer, Alaska
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At the moment, their life is planned in monthly chunks, as they hop from ship to ship – and they are booked up to December 2024.<\/p>\n

But soon they will be taking up a more permanent residence on Villa Vie’s residential cruise ship – one of the first of its kind – where as many as 30% of those on board will be permanent residents.<\/p>\n

The ship will circumnavigate the world every three years, largely following the warm weather, but life on board Villa Vie won’t come cheap.<\/p>\n

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\n An inside cabin starts from $99,000
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An inside cabin starts at $99,000 (\u00a378,000), but a balcony villa with views of the ocean costs $249,000 (\u00a3198,000) – and that is not forgetting the almost $8,000 (\u00a36,369) monthly fee.<\/p>\n

The ship is still being constructed, so while they haven’t set foot in their new home, they have seen digital renderings that have given them a good idea of what to expect.<\/p>\n

It will be bigger than a traditional cruise ship room, with a kitchenette and pull-down bed in the living room for guests.<\/p>\n

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\n One of the balcony rooms
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“We wanted to buy a cabin so we can design it how we want. It’s going to be home for us, for probably a minimum of 15 years on the ship,” Melody says.<\/p>\n

Housed in a former Fred Olsen cruise lines ship, the Villa Vie Odyssey is currently undergoing a multi-million-pound transformation and will enter service in May 2024, launching from Southampton.<\/p>\n

“<\/strong>Every operator has its own world cruise,” says founder and CEO Mikael Petterson.<\/p>\n

“And they just get longer and longer and longer. So why not push the envelope and create the ultimate world cruise where you don’t stop and you just keep going?“<\/em><\/p>\n

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\n At a glacier in Alaska
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Mikael has a background in cruising and is the former managing director of Life at Sea Cruises.<\/p>\n

Life At Sea advertised three-year global sailings, but the project was cancelled before the ship could depart. Mikael had stepped away before it ran aground, after voicing concerns over the choice of ship.<\/p>\n

“We learned a huge amount from that experience,” he told Sky News.<\/p>\n

So far, around 85% of occupants are American, but Villa Vie have just signed their first British couple.<\/p>\n

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\n The ship has a business centre for digital nomads to work
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Those living on board will be able to bring their families on to the ship for free – once they’ve paid the port fees – and a set number of cabins will be reserved for them.<\/p>\n

There will be a business centre and private offices, allowing digital nomads to work from anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n

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Mikael says almost half of cabins are singles, with a third being business owners and those who can work from anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n

With the ship averaging an age of almost 60, residents have a dentist and doctor on board for routine procedures. For more serious health scares, there is a hospital – and a two-person morgue for the worst-case scenario.<\/p>\n

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\n In the French Riveria
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Melody and John say “overindulging” is their biggest problem on board. They try to walk as much as possible around the ship, and on a day at port can walk as many as eight miles exploring.<\/p>\n

The ship will dock slightly longer in ports – for three to five days at a time – and the couple can even choose to stay longer and fly on to meet their new floating home at a later place.<\/p>\n

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\n In Canada
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John’s son is 54, and Melody’s daughter is 43, but they aren’t worried about losing touch with them.<\/p>\n

Several cabins aboard Villa Vie will be reserved for friends and family to visit, and with the itinerary planned years ahead, Melody says some family members have already staked a claim on when they are going to come join them.<\/p>\n

And they aren’t worried about getting bored.<\/p>\n

“We are just water people. We are both boaters, and we love being on the ocean,” Melody says.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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The couple who ‘sold everything’ to live on cruise ships for the rest of their lives | US News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The couple who ‘sold everything’ to live on cruise ships for the rest of their lives | US News The couple who ‘sold everything’ to live on cruise ships for the rest of their lives | US News John and Melody Hennessee plan to spend the rest of their lives cruising around the world – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7711],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-7711"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87374\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}