Need a way to beat the cost-of-living crisis? Try living on a cruise ship for $126 a day

• Villa Vie Residences is a residential cruise company, where you can spend years onboard cruising around the world.
• They have a new offer for a three-year cruise starting at $125 per person per day.
• Long-term cruising is on the rise as more and more people claim it can be cheaper than life on land.

In recent years, there’s been a surge of companies offering something we’d never seen before – residential cruising at an affordable price. Most of the companies who made these promises failed to make them a reality but Villa Vie Residences is one company that is ready to deliver.

Villa Vie Odyssey has been sailing around the world for about 18 months, offering people the option of spending their life at sea, where they can work remotely, enjoy retirement or simply travel endlessly.

Now the company has a new offer, My Global Adventure, aimed at making their residential cruising system even more affordable. My Global Adventure is a three-year cruise that visits more than 400 ports and 130 countries across all seven continents, and you can live this starting at about $126 per day for an inside cabin. 

The three-year journey starts from US$99,999 (AUD$138,300). While it’s no small investment, this does come out to ab out $126 per person,per day for two people to take the around-the-world trip. 

Included in your fare is your cabin, dining, entertainment, social events, wi-fi and more. Villa Vie views themself as a unique way to dodge the rising costs of living traditionally.

“This is not a traditional cruise – it’s a completely different way to see the world,” said Mikael Petterson, Founder and Chairman of Villa Vie Residences. “When you break it down to roughly $91 [AUD$126] a day to live and explore across this many destinations, it becomes one of the most compelling ways to experience global living today.”

Kathryn Villalba, CEO of Villa Vie Residences says: “People don’t just want a vacation anymore – they want a better way to live. My Global Adventure was created for those who want to live fully, travel deeply, and experience the world without compromise.”

As life gets more expensive on land, the bold decision to live at sea will likely continue to become more popular. For example, in Australia, the cost of living on Carnival ships can be cheaper than living in Sydney.

What do people say about life on Villa Vie Odyssey?

As the first company to make this model work, Villa Vie has proven successful, but has also definitely encountered hurdles along the way.

Joe Rhodes sailed for six months with Villa Vie and spoke to The Telegraph about some problems he experienced, such as missing ports, occasional internet outages and more.

However, he gave a balanced account overall of his experience.

“The plumbing still acts up every now and then, the internet comes and goes. As does the air conditioning. It’s frustrating on a day-to-day basis but it is still a very cool thing. We’ve been able to see some spectacular scenery – I particularly loved the Chilean fjords – and the misadventures are still adventures.

“A lot of people have read some of the things I’ve written and said, ‘God, it sounds like you’re always miserable.’ I’m not – most days I have a pretty good time. It’s fun to be out in the world but the daily frustrations do take a toll.”

Rhodes made some negative comments on an internet forum and other passengers on the ship, which he called the ‘positivity police’, leapt to the defence of Villa Vie.

Other passengers put a very positive spin on the ship’s experience so far despite complaints from some guests.

John Hennesse says: “The food is wonderful, the chefs are great, and the community is filled with interesting yet eclectic people from very diversified backgrounds … and many with very interesting and remarkable histories.

“We have missed some destinations but we are experienced sailors and cruisers and know that itinerary changes are normal. There is a group of complainers on board who think they ‘bought a product’ that was not delivered but Melody and I are not concerned.”

Another cruiser Holly Hennessy added: “I pay almost zero attention to the itinerary and really don’t care where we go or don’t go. I just know I’ll be deposited in another fascinating place every few days.”

What are your options to live at sea? 

Back-to-back cruising 

• The most common option for those who want to live at sea or cruise for an extended period of time is simply to book back-to-back cruises, which involves booking cruises on the same ship over and over again.
• This has the advantage of giving you much more flexibility as you don’t have to make such a large investment and you could stop at any time, however, it also requires a lot more organisation and regularly disembarking and re-embarking the ship, rather than simply unpacking once. 
• Price wise, depending on who you’re cruising with, it’s manageable to do this at a similar price to Villa Vie’s $126 per day, but it’s more of a challenge to manage your money and budget consistently, rather than a one off payment.
• If you’re highly organised you can also arrange to change between different ships or even regions, in order to not sail the same itineraries over and over again, booking world cruises if they’re available is the easiest way to manage this.

Residential cruising 

• As mentioned, another option is to pick a residential line. There aren’t too many picks for this with the only two lines that have proven to be able to do this so far being Villa Vie and The World. 
• However, The World is at a much higher price point, with cabins costing in the millions to buy, as well as hefty monthly fees on top of this. 
• Residential cruising has the huge advantage of being designed for its purpose. You can sail around to different places, you don’t need to keep packing and unpacking, there are social events with other passengers, there are places set up for remote work and so on. 
• The disadvantage is that it requires a significant investment upfront and locks you into your plans long term. For example, if you want to do back-to-back cruising you can easily try it out for a while and see if you like it first. This isn’t so simple with a company like Villa Vie.