How do you find a winning solution that combines the possibility of travelling worldwide and continuing to work with the comforts and all the tools you have at home or in the office? The answer could be MV Narrative, a huge cruise ship equipped with every object and activity one could wish to have close by. This is because the project by Storylines, a company created by former international real estate developers Alister Punton and Shannon Lee, offers the opportunity to live on an endless cruise.
Where one can work, enjoy a library, a hospital with an ever-active medical team and a landing strip for the helicopter in case of emergencies, twenty bars and restaurants, a post office, art galleries, a bank, a business centre, gym, yoga, swimming pools, offices, bowling alleys and golf simulators, as well as nutritionists to maintain physical fitness, a beauty salon, laundry, supermarket and services for pets, which can board with their owners.
An unprecedented (luxury) experiment
A 226-metre long and 30-metre wide houseboat with 18 decks housing 547 residences of various sizes, but all carefully decorated. This is where those who have chosen and will choose to break away from their environment to enjoy a very long cruise will live on board a ship that is always on the move. The itinerary involves circumnavigating the world every three years, with scheduled port stops between one and five days.
There are many options for staying on board, as cabins range from 22-square-metre studios with rollaway beds to extra-luxury suites of over 130 square metres with 20-metre balconies. In addition to the square footage, travellers can choose the style of their home and a range of details to enhance comfort and privacy.
For those who want larger sizes of 31, 35, 50 and 67 square metres, houses from 84 to 133 square metres offer up to four bedrooms. Much cheaper are the smaller sizes, with the smallest providing an annual rent of $62,000 (ideally divided between two people in separate beds), which equates to a rent of $2,586 per month, even if you have to add the money needed to live on the ship. Among the benefits provided for travellers is the possibility of voting to stay longer in certain places (the itinerary will be fixed a year before departure), as well as the opportunity to rent one’s own houseboat temporarily or invite friends to one’s place. Comfort is to be paid for handsomely because the purchase prices for these options come close to $8 million.
For children and teenagers, there is a school that will offer a useful curriculum to avoid missing a school year. The focus on sustainability is inevitable, intending to create a plastic-free environment and the use of liquid natural gas, considered one of the least environmentally impactful options currently available for shipping. Also on the agenda is the conversion of waste into energy, a solar-powered hydroponic garden in which passengers will be able to grow whatever they like, and a farmers’ market with products that are 100% compostable or recyclable.
A Meta employee will also be on board
Provided the MV Narrative, which will be ready in 2025, will fulfil its promise and guarantee a lifelong cruise. A very heterogeneous community is expected to be on board, as pensioners who have set their sights on the cruise to discover places they would hardly visit by plane and other means of travel are joined by couples over 40 who aim to carry on their business while enjoying the cruise. The group will also include under-30s like Austin Wells, a Meta employee who has secured a cabin on the ship for 12 years.
A lover of big ships, Wells eagerly awaits boarding as he will not have to disrupt his daily routine to set foot in countries where only a ship can go. His choice coincides with the freedom of remote work granted by Meta to employees during the pandemic, and it turned out to be a bargain on balance. By investing $300,000 for 12 years, he will undoubtedly spend less than renting a house in San Diego, where he lives, for the same period of time.
