Couple sell all their possessions and go on $1,200,000 cruise for 15 years
A married couple who sold everything they own, including their house, to go and cruise around the world have opened up about life on the open seas.
Paul and Lynn Montoya, formerly of Wyoming, and now of whichever part of the world the Villa Vie cruise ship Odyssey docks in at, decided they wanted to get out and see some more of the world.
The entrepreneurs had been to a couple of places in their time - the Caribbean, up to Canada, and even made a trip to Italy - but realised they'd 'seen a lot less than people we know in their 20s and 30s that have been everywhere'.
So they decided to do something about it, selling their home in Laramie, US, and buying a cabin on board the 'first perpetual world cruise', documenting their journey online with 'Lynn and Paul's Excellent Adventure'.
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Chatting to LADbible one evening after watching a fire show in Hawaii, the couple explained how they'd really left it all behind to get their spot on the exclusive ship, which costs them thousands every month.
“We sold everything, We sold our house, our cars, our furniture, I mean, everything," Lynn told us.
"We did keep some heirloom items that are stored in our oldest daughter's basement, but we just brought along basic necessities and then when we need things, when we're in port we can pick them up."
While the couple bought their cabin in March last year they didn't tell their family and friends they would be going away for at least the next three years until Christmas.
Lynn said: "The response from our kids was they wanted to make sure that we were going to be financially OK, that we had thought things through financially.
"But the other thing was, is they weren't too terribly surprised that this is something we would do, because they know that we enjoy when we have gone on cruises, they know that we've really, truly enjoyed it."
Paul and Lynn are in a cabin that cost them 'around $179,000 (£132,217)', though they've said 'prices have gone up some since then', while there's also a monthly fee for passengers, which means that the couple have budgeted to spend around $6,000 a month on their current journey, with that money paying for 'food and laundry and housekeeping and the ship'.
They've also got an emergency fund should something go badly wrong, but as far as Paul is concerned making such contingencies 'underscores the capital A in adventure'.
Their annual expenses work out at around $80,000 (£58,942), which means they could end up paying up to $1.2 million (£884,000) should they decide to stay on the ship as long as possible.
If you're thinking about joining the cruise, cabins on the Odyssey start from $129,999 if you're happy to spend the cruise living on the inside of the ship without a window to the outside, and go right up to $439,999 for a sizeable suite, and the monthly costs occupants have to pay rises as the cabin size grows, so if you fancy cruising around the world be prepared for it to cost you.
Paul said some people they've talked to 'think it's a little crazy', but to them they see it as 'an adventure, not a vacation' and they're both really looking forward to where the voyage will take them.
Lynn is most looking forward to the cruise passing through the South Pacific, and while Paul is excited to share that adventure with his wife, he's got his eye on the colder climates of Iceland and parts of Scandinavia as well as a trip to Abbey Road when the Odyssey eventually reaches England.
While the couple are away from their children and grandchildren, most of whom live in Colorado, they are allowed to have visitors on board the ship at regular intervals.
According to Paul, their eldest daughter joined them for the Mexican leg of the cruise as 'once a quarter we can have a friend or family member come onto the ship for two weeks at a time'.
How anyone gets out to the part of the world the cruise ship is visiting is their business, but the couple said that once someone joined them out there 'it's very little expense that they have to pay' as 'everything's included'.
While their current cruise will occupy their time for the next three-and-a-half years, Lynn and Paul actually own their cabin for the next 15 years and could decide to keep cruising beyond the current voyage.
However, this early into their current voyage they haven't made their minds up about what to do next, as subsequent cruises would likely hit a number of other destinations they won't get to go on this time.
Paul said: “We're just really barely a month and a half into this for Lynn and I, and so far, we're really loving it.
"Now, when we've seen 152 countries, are we going to be done at that point? From a practical standpoint, we can sell our cabin, because technically, we have it for 15 years, which they considered to be the life of the ship.
"We could rent out the cabin, or we could choose to stay on and continue. The nice thing is, the second time they circumnavigate, they're going to try to hit other ports that they weren't able to hit first time through.
"So it is still a great exploration, but we don't know what we want to do. We don't actually know where we want to live.
"We haven't even committed that we're necessarily going to live any place we've lived before that we might find some place on this wonderful planet that we might like better."
Since they sold their house the ship is their home for the foreseeable future and they've got plans to do a little redecoration in their cabin.
As the cabin's owners for the next 15 years they can make renovations to it as long as they get the thumbs up from Villa Vie, so they intend to swap out some of the bits for their own furniture.
Their changes are by no means the most drastic, as Paul explained that there were people on board the cruise ship who'd 'bought three cabins, taken the walls out and made giant suites'.
For Lynn, the entire ship is their home and the cabin is just one part of it, explaining: "It's our bedroom, so the lounge or the gym or whatever, that's all of our home.
"That's all in our community. You know, I don't have a pool at home, but I have a pool here. I don't have the extensive home gym in my home.
"I would have had to have paid for a membership to get that so to have that available, you know, just feels like home and it makes sense."
For the first two weeks the couple said 'you kind of feel like you're on vacation' but Lynn reckons 'everybody that probably has joined the ship has that gone through that experience' of realising they'd have to settle into a routine.
As far as Paul and Lynn are concerned, that means an early rise for Paul as he likes to get up at around 6am and take a trip to the gym, and the couple have plenty of time on board the boat to 'do their own thing' independent of each other.
Of course they also get plenty of time on shore, meaning that at plenty of their destinations they can head further inland and aren't just confined to the port where their cruise ship is docked.
"If we're in port for two or three days, we can easily rent a car," Paul said.
"We could go inland. We could take a high speed train. We don't have to stay at the port."
Topics: Cruise Ship, Travel, US News, Lifestyle, Money
Joe Harker