Topics: Money, Royal Caribbean, Travel, Cruise ship
I think a lot of us would like to drop everything and leave to go and live on a cruise ship if we had the opportunity.
But a lot of us would be automatically put off by the cost of the whole thing.
However, it appears that living on a cruise is not as expensive as you may think.
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Back in 2021, Ryan Gutridge decided to take the plunge and embark on a new life on the seas.
He started staying on Royal Caribbean cruise ships after realizing he could do his day job remotely.
I think a lot of us assume cruises are for retired people who can leave home for long periods of time due to a lack of commitments.
However, Gutridge sees it as a cost-effective way of living if you can work while away.
He told Insider: "I work in IT as a cloud-solution engineer for a cloud-solution provider and started working from home in 2012.
"But because of the pandemic, my team was able to work from home and access the data they needed from anywhere.
“At that time, cruise lines hadn't announced when or if they were coming back. I thought that if they returned, I'd want to try taking my job with me on a short cruise. I wanted to see how the WiFi would work and if I could access some elements of my job with heavy security.”
In the summer of 2021, Gutridge booked two four-night cruises on Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas.
“Everything worked great, and since then, I've been on a cruise pretty much every week, except for a few weeks due to the holidays,” he said.
Gutridge had to crunch the numbers before embarking on his new life - something that involved a lot of research.
While crunching the numbers, he realised that the cost of living at sea for 300 nights as ‘almost neck-and-neck' with what he was paying for his apartment and trash service.
But with the cruise comes added perks, like free WiFi and free drinks, meaning he’s also saving money on other bills and expenses.
After all, anyone who works from home will know the pain of having internet issues and forking out for overpriced WiFi, so the deal here sounds like a pretty sweet one in that sense alone.
“I wanted to really look at the cost of cruising full-time before I began,” Gutridge continued. “I have a spreadsheet that automatically records all my expenses, which helps.
"I also set a budget every year. This year, my base fare budget is about $30,000, and last year when I started really looking at the numbers and evaluating how much base fare I paid to be on a ship for 300 nights, I found it was almost neck-and-neck with what I paid for rent and trash service for an apartment in Fort Lauderdale, Florida."
He continued: "My drinks and internet are free. If people are going to do something like what I do, I recommend trying different brands because they all offer something different. But once you commit to one, you should stick to it so you reach those loyalty levels.
"I found that Royal Caribbean has, by far, the most valuable benefits to me — discounts, free internet, and free drinks.”
