Couple sell home and buy $2.5 million cabin on cruise ship to live out their dream life
A retired couple have sold their home to pursue an unusual retirement plan together.
You might think they downsized maybe to a bungalow or something well-suited to living out their retirement.
And you'd technically be right in saying that Mike and Barbara Soroker from Florida have 'downsized', though not into a house.
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That's because Mike, 80, and Barbara, 75, have spent $2.5 million on buying a cabin on a cruise liner to live out their retirement.
I didn't even know you could buy cabins on cruise ships.
But it turns out that you can in fact do just that, and the pair have put down a deposit for a cabin on a ship which is still under construction, not so much getting in on the ground as the dry dock.
The ship is the MV Narrative, and is being carried out by Storylines. IT will be an enormous 18-deck ship featuring 450 crew, three swimming pools, a helipad, and even a marina on the ship.
Not quite sure how that last one will work, but it certainly sounds impressive!
It will be some 741 ft long with a beam of 98 ft. So quite a big boat then.
Mike told BusinessInsider: "I'm most excited to see the Middle East. I worked in Israel for a little while and never got to see any other countries. I'd also like to get to Antarctica. That'd be crazy. My wife loves visiting Asia, so she'd love to get over there again."
And in an unusual move, rather than operating the ship as a cruise liner in the traditional sense, the company is allowing people to buy cabins and suites on the vessel.
These can either be for their own use, like with Mike and Barbara, or even to rent out to people as a mobile holiday let. The lease on the cabins lasts for the life of the vessel.
Needless to say, it's not cheap. The starting price, repeat, the starting price, is $590,000 for an internal cabin, so no windows, except for a 'virtual' window.
They go up to a whopping $10 million for the biggest suites, which suffice to say have all the amenities.
But Mike isn't worried that the project is still very much in the works and not underway, figuratively speaking.
He said: "Once a month, they have a Zoom meeting to update us on progress.I think it'll be 2025 at the earliest. Some folks like myself who have already put money down, of course, want to know how secure that is.
"If it falls apart, I'm not worried. They basically said that, worst case, you get your money back."
But the pair are looking forward to travelling the world together. Mike said: "Each year that goes by, I just feel younger. My wife and I have a great partnership. I feel like we can do almost anything. We enjoy dancing together. I'm very, very lucky."
Kit Roberts