Craig Bowen is a mild-mannered man who wears an immaculate dark suit. He meets me at Sydney’s Overseas Passenger Terminal looking every bit the senior real estate agent. And in a way he is.
Bowen, the founder of Cruise Traveller, the small luxury ship travel agency, has been the Australian ambassador for The World, the only vessel to have made a success of residential living at sea, for two decades.
Unusually, the vessel has three suites on sale. We’re here to see them. And we are excited. We know our readers dream of retiring at sea. Could The World be the answer?
Over 22 years, The World has quietly circumnavigated the planet with 210 millionaires and billionaires on board, providing the lifestyle many can only dream of.
Thanks to Bowen, 24 of them are Australians – an extraordinarily high proportion of owners, given this is an international venture.
It is rumoured Ross Packer owners two suites knocked into one. Bowen is far too discreet to confirm any well-known people on board.
He has watched the growing pains of Villa Vie, the vessel offering three-year cruises which ended up stranded for months in Belfast. He shakes his head.
The World started out the same way. But five years into the experiment, it was in trouble and the owners bought it and turned it into a not-for-profit venture. Now, the owners – like a strata corporation at sea – call the shots. They get to choose the itineraries, and committee’s rule wellness, shore excursions, and even itineraries.
The ship is a beautiful purpose-built icebreaker with everything you need for a sojourn in the Med, a Caribbean breakaway, or a trip to Antarctica.
But it’s a little bit more than that. It’s a community.
Everyone who becomes a new owner has been security vetted. The price of entry—$US$2.5m to $US$15 million for a one-bedroom to a three-bedroom suite—means a particular kind of traveller becomes a member of The World community.
Bowen is at pains to say this is not a retirement ship. The age range of over 40 to 60 means many work on board, and the average stay is five months in a year. Most have homes around the world and while they can’t rent their apartments, they can gift them to close friends and relatives while they are gone.
“It’s very private. It’s all about the privacy of the residents. This is not a holiday ship, it’s not a cruise ship. It’s a residential community and, I’ve been interested to read some of the things that your publication and other publications have been saying about potential competitors to The World.
“And the fact is there aren’t any. I know it’s extraordinary. I’ve seen so many people try and make this model work and on paper, it seems to make sense.
“I don’t want to in any way seem arrogant about it. We’re not saying it’s better. We’re just saying it’s really different because it’s not a commercial model.”
Bowen says: “The World in its early days was rental for guests and owners. And that was the problem.
“It’s like a private club that someone’s paying a lot of money for and all of a sudden, you know, on a Friday afternoon, I let the public in for a beer.
“About five years down the track, that became one of the great challenges: we had rental guests and owners together in the same forum, the owners unanimously voted to stop the rental program and that was the beginning of the real commercial success of The World. All of a sudden it did become exclusive.
“You could only come on board if you owned an apartment, or you were friends or family of someone who owned an apartment.”
The difference between being an owner on The World and doing a world cruise is profound. For the cruise lines, it’s about a repetitive round of entertainment – not about a lifestyle.
World residents have homes all over the planet. The average length of ownership is seven years. Many trade up or down. It’s their home.
Normally, there are 150 people on board and 285 crew. “So it doesn’t matter which guest ratio you’ve heard before, that blows it away,” says Bowen.
“On top of that, we’ve got 40 people back in Fort Lauderdale behind the scenes to look after all of the day-to-day operations of crew, navigation, provision, all of those things.”
As we talk, Australian couples come over to say hello.
“I’ve introduced 50 families to the ship over the time I’ve been involved with the ship for 21 years. As the representative for Australasia, I represent Singapore Hong Kong but 90% Australia.
“We’ve currently got 24 Australian families as owners out of 130 which is just extraordinary. Australians embrace this sort of lifestyle if they’ve got the financial capability.”
The crew on board are trained to know each owner’s preferences. There are 36,000 preferences on the ship’s computer system, from oat milk in your coffee to how you like your steak.
There is a full-sized tennis court, a scuba diving club, and a golf club. As we pass, the PGA coach is taking 20 guests to a Sydney golf club booked a year ago.
The itineraries are obviously important.
Says Bowen: “Most ships go around the world three times in a year. We take about three years to get around the world. So everything is in-depth, long stays or lots of places that are remote. We take a long time to get around.”
Residents get to vote on the itinerary. The team in America put forward three itineraries, the residents voted three down to two and then they voted two down to one.
“It’s a mixture of expeditions and iconic destinations, but never the same.
“The management company in Fort Lauderdale asks: ‘Does this work?”
Costs are an important factor. Residents might want the Northwest package – but it would cost many thousands more. They have the final say.
“Then the team back in Fort Lauderdale will have to make it work, booking ports, booking all the things logistically that you’d be able to understand about it, the trails around the world and the logistics of that.”
Do residents get a return on their investment?
Bowen smiles. “Can I answer that with a quote from an owner: ‘Our return on investment is in happiness.’”
Annual ownership costs are in the vicinity of 10% of the capital cost. You’ll pay US$250,000 a year for access to the restaurants etc.
“It’s not all-inclusive like some ships because we’ve got people on board for two weeks, we got on board for 10 months and everything in between. We have an allowance within that annual ownership cost, which is averaged from the average usage per apartment from the year before.
“It’s a bit like in a private club. Sometimes there’s a minimum spend that you have to spend at a bar before or, or the restaurant or you lose it. Well, the same thing goes here.”
Some may find the costs high. But Bowen explains: “The person who does have that, that’s normal to them.”
“You’re a shareholder in the ship, an owner who’s a shareholder in the ship. It’s a fundamentally not-for-profit organization. So we’re able to provide an extraordinarily high level of luxury at very modest, for example, food and beverage prices.”
That’s because, he says, there is no third party trying to make a profit.
“That’s why this is such an enigma, right? This rule is an enigma because it’s, it’s almost impossible to commercially replicate it unless someone does what we all do.
The World was really at the forefront of what’s now called “destination immersion”.
As it meandered around the plant without a schedule, it was able to stay in port longer.
It’s been at the OPT for four days – a staggering number of nights.
“We were in Hong Kong for four days recently. Singapore for four days and it gives people a chance to not only get off and do some great things but also get off and get off the ship.
“We’ve got people who get off and go to the Hunter Valley for three days. I met a gentleman yesterday who got off the ship and he is rejoining it in New Zealand in two weeks. It’s your house. You can come and go as you want, you know, all your possessions are in your residence and you can do your own thing.”
So could I see myself living on The World? The ship is relaxed, the crew and owners seemed friendly and the atmosphere was definitely understated luxury.
No-one was wandering the corridors in Dior or or Chanel – but my fleeting trip was at breakfast time, when families were more interested in coffee and croissants as they congregated at the supermarket.
The apartments are surprisingly spacious and well appointed. The World is 22, but her owners are wealthy – so redecorations are frequent and while major renovations can only happen while the vessel is in dry dock, kitchens and bathrooms are beautifully presented.
The big attraction is the fact that residences have a voice in the journeys, and the ship is in no hurry as a three-year round-the-world journey allows for what some say is the greatest luxury of all – time.
Do the numbers work? Well, starting at UDS$2.5 million (Au$3.7 million) but with the chance of some capital appreciation over time – the ship is expected to sail for another 28 years – the US$250,000 (AU$370,000) annual bill for dining and upkeep comes out at $7,115 per couple.
But you do have the staff, a back up team in the US to book your trips and flights.
Bowen says the apartments won’t be on sale for long. Particularly the one-bedder, which is a rarity.
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