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Starting research to attempt a year of cruising and time sharing next year.

bshanebowl

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So sometime next year we are going to get rid of everything we own and try to live exclusively on primarily cruise ships, and supplement any gaps with time sharing for a year, and see what happens. I guess I'll just leave it at that and see who might offer the best advice on how to come closest to accomplishing that. We are inspired by Angelyn and Mark Burk who seem to be able to cruise year round for about $86 per couple per day, and various RCI members (we're platinum and our TS gives us 122000 points a year plus access to weeks where we get discounts for cash and bonus weeks and may not even have to use our points) who seem to be able to spend months every year vacationing in condos at motel 6 prices. One experienced TS owner states he has stayed in various time shares continuously for a year for $10000. Any ideas on how to start, what to do, or your own experience would be greatly appreciated in this thread. Thanks.
 

zentraveler

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Their story was reported in the Washington Post on May 20, 2022. They are 51 and 53 and both retired:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/05/20/cruise-ship-retire-angelyn-burk/
[Warning, might be behind a pay wall unless a WaPo subscriber]

Unless you have done a lot of cruising, would suggest checking it out traveling on several cruises and cruise lines before you sell everything. No harm in trying it out and renting your house or storing your things until you see how that will feel as a permanent living situation. That is what they did and they are only now thinking that they like this enough to sell things. I enjoy cruise vacations quite a lot, but given their ages I do wonder what could potentially be 25 years living on cruise ships will feel like.
 
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elaine

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I have considered this, esp with low cost extra vacations in RCI and getaways in II. We decided to buy a lower cost retirement home and then just travel via cruise/low cost as much as we wanted. In the Southeast, off-season Orlando, Williamsburg, VA and NC/VA beach areas tend to have good RCI/II availability. you could likely live in a complex (even same unit) for several weeks. If you shop for older cruise ships (like Brilliance, Vision, etc. on RCCL), many bargains can be found. Good luck and let us know how it goes.
 

bshanebowl

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Their story was reported in the Washington Post on May 20, 2022. They are 51 and 53 and both retired:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/05/20/cruise-ship-retire-angelyn-burk/
[Warning, might be behind a pay wall unless a WaPo subscriber]

Unless you have done a lot of cruising, would suggest checking it out traveling on several cruises and cruise lines before you sell everything. No harm in trying it out and renting your house or storing your things until you see how that will feel as a permanent living situation. That is what they did and they are only now thinking that they like this enough to sell things. I enjoy cruise vacations quite a lot, but given their ages I do wonder what could potentially be 25 years living on cruise ships will feel like.
Not a bad strategy but we are going to right size and relocate if the first year away doesn't work out anyway, so in our view dumping everything would be a blessing in dusguise no matter how things turn out. Less stuff for any possible new smaller domicile. One way or another there will a sea change (no pun intended) if things go as expected next year.
 

dioxide45

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Miamisburg Ohio to full time cruising and timeshare? Pretty big change there. I used to work in Miamisburg...
 

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Interesting article. I am a Wapo subscriber and read it. I see mostly cons for me but I can see their pros. I would be concerned about:
-What if cruises have to shut down again for a period of time? Can you live in a timeshare or hotel year round in a worst case scenario?
-What happens if you get very sick and can’t live on a cruise ship or time share anymore?
-What if you do not want to or can’t cruise anymore, then do you have enough money to purchase a new home at possibly higher costs than the home you sold?
-Would you be happy with a lower standard of living like living in a tiny cabin and possibly an inside cabin at times with no sunlight?
-How realistic is $100 a day per couple long term? Or even short term? That’s a $700 per week cruise not including some incidentals that you probably must spend, at least tipping. I assume a $700 a week cruise is not the best overall.
-Will family and friends get tired of hosting you and start feeling like you are a freeloader? I guess you can offer to pay them $700 a day if you start feeling like a burden. I would not want my family and friends staying at my house more than once a year not even for money. LOL
-What kind of timeshares and hotels can you get for less than $100 a day? If you want to spend $100 a day, then assume your hotel/timeshare budget will need to be less than $100 since you will have food, uber and other expenses. Or you can budget for more.

I see some of their positives like lower cost living if you can handle that style of living and find the deals, built in food/entertainment, and seeing new places all the time. I just could not live a nomad lifestyle in a small space for long periods of time. I need a king size bed and a big bathtub. LOL

I think keeping your home and renting it out might be safer. If you purchased your home at a low cost, then consider what an equivalent home at an equivalent price would cost elsewhere.
 

bshanebowl

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I have considered this, esp with low cost extra vacations in RCI and getaways in II. We decided to buy a lower cost retirement home and then just travel via cruise/low cost as much as we wanted. In the Southeast, off-season Orlando, Williamsburg, VA and NC/VA beach areas tend to have good RCI/II availability. you could likely live in a complex (even same unit) for several weeks. If you shop for older cruise ships (like Brilliance, Vision, etc. on RCCL), many bargains can be found. Good luck and let us know how it goes.
I was sort of testing the waters with my ts searches and unless the temporary surge of covid related travel never abates it seems pretty easy to get a few consecutive weeks in shoulder and off season places for $299. Like some of the places you mentioned. It's great that Florida is considered the off season in January thru March. Thank goodness for all the nice overbuilt areas.
 

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Miamisburg Ohio to full time cruising and timeshare? Pretty big change there. I used to work in Miamisburg...
Actually, for me, Miamisburg was the biggest change of the last 40 years. I'll be glad to get back to something else.
 

zentraveler

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I was sort of testing the waters with my ts searches and unless the temporary surge of covid related travel never abates it seems pretty easy to get a few consecutive weeks in shoulder and off season places for $299. Like some of the places you mentioned. It's great that Florida is considered the off season in January thru March. Thank goodness for all the nice overbuilt areas.
Less stuff is almost always a good thing although I do know people who have regretted pitching some things too quickly. And I, like @dioxide45, spent time near you in Oxford and Columbus.
 

bshanebowl

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Interesting article. I am a Wapo subscriber and read it. I see mostly cons for me but I can see their pros. I would be concerned about:
-What if cruises have to shut down again for a period of time? Can you live in a timeshare or hotel year round in a worst case scenario?
-What happens if you get very sick and can’t live on a cruise ship or time share anymore?
-What if you do not want to or can’t cruise anymore, then do you have enough money to purchase a new home at possibly higher costs than the home you sold?
-Would you be happy with a lower standard of living like living in a tiny cabin and possibly an inside cabin at times with no sunlight?
-How realistic is $100 a day per couple long term? Or even short term? That’s a $700 per week cruise not including some incidentals that you probably must spend, at least tipping. I assume a $700 a week cruise is not the best overall.
-Will family and friends get tired of hosting you and start feeling like you are a freeloader? I guess you can offer to pay them $700 a day if you start feeling like a burden. I would not want my family and friends staying at my house more than once a year not even for money. LOL
-What kind of timeshares and hotels can you get for less than $100 a day? If you want to spend $100 a day, then assume your hotel/timeshare budget will need to be less than $100 since you will have food, uber and other expenses. Or you can budget for more.

I see some of their positives like lower cost living if you can handle that style of living and find the deals, built in food/entertainment, and seeing new places all the time. I just could not live a nomad lifestyle in a small space for long periods of time. I need a king size bed and a big bathtub. LOL

I think keeping your home and renting it out might be safer. If you purchased your home at a low cost, then consider what an equivalent home at an equivalent price would cost elsewhere.
I have given some of these issues some thought previously. Although it's always possible that circumstances may dictate a change in approach, I would say that any pandemic circumstances requiring a cruise to be canceled would create more openings in time shares because less people would be booking them. This actually just got through happening so that would be my hope. There are already people who basically are full time ts people.

Of course I'll buy supplemental health insurance that covers what the VA and Medicare won't.

If I can't travel any more I'll do senior subsidized housing or put enough cash down on a little place that a reverse mortgage will eliminate any additional payments except property taxes, utilities, and maybe an hoa. If I need assistance I'll be a cash pay at home or have my assets in a tryst so I can go medicaid.

I lived in a room with 80 dudes for years at a time with basically a gym locker, plus a one foot high by 3 feet across by 6 feet long bunk that had a 2 inch pad for me to sleep on, so I'm good with anything better than that and I'm pretty good at managing my expectations. What these folks are doing seems to eclipse that stuff exponentially. But who knows.

I have been pretty pleased in the past with Carnival, Norwegian, and Royal Caribbean all being $100 per day per couple and the amenities included were quite satisfactory. And it looks like there are folks already doing it.

As far as time share costs goes. I think you would find that most folks in RCI would tell you that $259 a week with an occasional resort fee, or less, would be their expectations for a one bedroom condo with a full kitchen, living room, washer and dryerand one or two baths.

In my case I would have to freeload for consecutive years with my various immediate family members before I used up all of the goodwill/capital/equity I have offered them in the past, all the way up to now. As a matter of fact, we may be working out a sweetheart deal with some of our kids that are currently staying downstairs and I'm sure they could hold a room for us to use a couple weeks a quarter if things don't go seamlessly. I mean we gotta die at some point in time so it can't be forever.

You bring up good points but I think I may have developed reasonable rationales to get us through many of those circumstances with managed expectations. I guess we'll see.
 

bshanebowl

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Their story was reported in the Washington Post on May 20, 2022. They are 51 and 53 and both retired:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/05/20/cruise-ship-retire-angelyn-burk/
[Warning, might be behind a pay wall unless a WaPo subscriber]

Unless you have done a lot of cruising, would suggest checking it out traveling on several cruises and cruise lines before you sell everything. No harm in trying it out and renting your house or storing your things until you see how that will feel as a permanent living situation. That is what they did and they are only now thinking that they like this enough to sell things. I enjoy cruise vacations quite a lot, but given their ages I do wonder what could potentially be 25 years living on cruise ships will feel like.
Well I was in the navy for 12 years and I also have sailed on several cruise lines as a consumer. It's safe to say that after doing both, I could do 20 years of civilian cruising standing on my head, and love it. Others maybe not. Just like after trying it I can see no way anyone could ever live in an rv, but tons of people love it.
 

elaine

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A smaller “test the waters”: We’re planning on doing 2 weeks Europe cruising separated by 10 days diy land fall 2022, then 3 weeks back to back cruises in Europe 2023 with 2 weeks land-all rccl OV cabin-less than $100/day PP. If all goes well, maybe increasing future time in Europe.
 

bshanebowl

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So are you looking at this as simply an extended excursion or flexing it a bit to see if you might want extend your time gradually if you fit it in the budget? Have you developed a preliminary approach at all or are we already looking at it?
 

elaine

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So are you looking at this as simply an extended excursion or flexing it a bit to see if you might want extend your time gradually if you fit it in the budget? Have you developed a preliminary approach at all or are we already looking at it?
I was intrigued by a Tug member a few years ago who did full-time timesharing with land stays at their son's home (for Dr. appts, etc.). I was thinking of a hybrid (small condo and 6 weeks stays in Hawaii, Orlando, etc.). But, when reality hit, it just wasn't our lifestyle and so we bought a less expensive home in a NC coastal location (DH's dream area). What does one do with pets? We have 2 cats and a great cat sitter. We're comfortable being gone for up to a month at this point-no longer. Hawaii is far from east coast and we really love Europe, so that's out focus with a few Florida trips scattered tagged onto visits to elderly parent.
We have done 1 week cruise/2 weeks land a number of times in Europe. Now, with no kids in tow, no dog (sadly from cancer), and soon no job, we're booked for fall 2022 with a UK cruise $125/day PP (fancy RCCL mega ship), then a 10 day meander through France to Barcelona for a Med cruise (under $100/day PP). It's not super budget travel, as the bigger city hotels are $$. But the smaller town hotels are $100 including breakfast. Next year's pricing is up and cost is similar. We plan to do E. Med, then do back to back W. Med to/from BCN. I'd like to work up to 6 weeks in Europe (but can't see that with the cats, 4 is likely tops).
 

bshanebowl

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Sounds like a great plan. I'm not sure who will be remaining by the middle of next year but between our dogs, my mom, my dad, and Donna's mom, I figure the odds favor maybe two entities remaining and my money's on the dogs. We have pet arrangements in place and have talked about everyone else as well.
 

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I have given some of these issues some thought previously. Although it's always possible that circumstances may dictate a change in approach, I would say that any pandemic circumstances requiring a cruise to be canceled would create more openings in time shares because less people would be booking them. This actually just got through happening so that would be my hope. There are already people who basically are full time ts people.

Of course I'll buy supplemental health insurance that covers what the VA and Medicare won't.

If I can't travel any more I'll do senior subsidized housing or put enough cash down on a little place that a reverse mortgage will eliminate any additional payments except property taxes, utilities, and maybe an hoa. If I need assistance I'll be a cash pay at home or have my assets in a tryst so I can go medicaid.

I lived in a room with 80 dudes for years at a time with basically a gym locker, plus a one foot high by 3 feet across by 6 feet long bunk that had a 2 inch pad for me to sleep on, so I'm good with anything better than that and I'm pretty good at managing my expectations. What these folks are doing seems to eclipse that stuff exponentially. But who knows.

I have been pretty pleased in the past with Carnival, Norwegian, and Royal Caribbean all being $100 per day per couple and the amenities included were quite satisfactory. And it looks like there are folks already doing it.

As far as time share costs goes. I think you would find that most folks in RCI would tell you that $259 a week with an occasional resort fee, or less, would be their expectations for a one bedroom condo with a full kitchen, living room, washer and dryerand one or two baths.

In my case I would have to freeload for consecutive years with my various immediate family members before I used up all of the goodwill/capital/equity I have offered them in the past, all the way up to now. As a matter of fact, we may be working out a sweetheart deal with some of our kids that are currently staying downstairs and I'm sure they could hold a room for us to use a couple weeks a quarter if things don't go seamlessly. I mean we gotta die at some point in time so it can't be forever.

You bring up good points but I think I may have developed reasonable rationales to get us through many of those circumstances with managed expectations. I guess we'll see.

Yes it sounds like you have thought things and have reasonable expectations. It might work out. Keep us posted.
 

dioxide45

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bshanebowl

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I just got through reading this and it appears like it was written by someone more focused on being obnoxious than evaluating all the possibilities. Nothing in there to make me assess anything any more than I already am. At best this is sort of a rude version of make sure you consider this along with everything else while you are preparing to test the waters. So to speak.
 

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So sometime next year we are going to get rid of everything we own and try to live exclusively on primarily cruise ships, and supplement any gaps with time sharing for a year, and see what happens. I guess I'll just leave it at that and see who might offer the best advice on how to come closest to accomplishing that. We are inspired by Angelyn and Mark Burk who seem to be able to cruise year round for about $86 per couple per day, and various RCI members (we're platinum and our TS gives us 122000 points a year plus access to weeks where we get discounts for cash and bonus weeks and may not even have to use our points) who seem to be able to spend months every year vacationing in condos at motel 6 prices. One experienced TS owner states he has stayed in various time shares continuously for a year for $10000. Any ideas on how to start, what to do, or your own experience would be greatly appreciated in this thread. Thanks.

I have no advice to offer but, am very very interested in what you discover (and please report!!!) Mrs JP and I are retiring before too awful long and are hoping to spend the first 6 months to a year out of the country. We have no plans to sell everything but, I am very intrigued with the idea of both getting from point a to point b on cruise ships (repositioning) as well as maximizing our timeshare - preferably without buying more points.

So, please ideas and reports! I am fascinated.
 

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I can't see getting a cabin during holiday weeks (spring break, easter, week 51 and 52, etc) and prime summer on US cruises for under $50 a night regularly. I have paid less during hurricane season. Cruise lines were running outstanding deals the past couple years due to covid. I do not expect this low pricing to last forever (actually prices are already higher).
 

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I am not finding as many resources available as I would have hoped but I imagine that as soon as the right set of circumstances occurs I will probably start out by seeing which cruise lines have the most ships coming and going from any particular ports here in the states and see where I can get the best deals in their ports by joining their "frequent flyer" program. From there I'll just play it by ear.
 

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I am not finding as many resources available as I would have hoped but I imagine that as soon as the right set of circumstances occurs I will probably start out by seeing which cruise lines have the most ships coming and going from any particular ports here in the states and see where I can get the best deals in their ports by joining their "frequent flyer" program. From there I'll just play it by ear.
You might try working www.vacationstogo.com/ '90 day ticker' for last minute cruise deals also if you- or a spouse- are retired military or veterans, many cruise lines offer incentives and discounts. We stumbled onto a week on Windstar in the Med for $495 for vets. The major cruise lines have loyalty programs that offer perks like cocktail hours, 'meet the ship's officers' get togethers, discounts on drink packages and laundry specials. It pays to sign up for those whenever you book a cruise. They work across all the lines in a cruise 'family'. (Carnival, Holland America, Cunard, etc. or RCCL, Azamara, Celebrity. Each have loyalty programs across the lines)
 

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We have found that cheaper cruises tend to depart out of Puerto Rico. I suspect the cost of getting there for many depresses the prices some. So that may be something to consider if you can get there you can string a bunch of cheaper cruises back to back.
 
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