Experience: we sold everything to live on cruise ships | Life and style
Until I was 47, I thought cruises were stupid. I’d grown up by a lake and loved water, but even a one-hour ferry trip left me feeling nauseous. Being trapped on a ship for a week or more seemed like a terrible idea.
Then in 2019, a friend couldn’t take his Caribbean cruise and offered it to me for just a few hundred dollars. It seemed too good a chance to miss, so I stocked up with travel sickness patches and pills, and got onboard.
Before the ship left dock, I got into a hot tub, steeling myself for nausea. When I asked a passing couple what time the “sail away” party was – when passengers gather to celebrate the start of the journey – they said I’d missed it hours ago. We were at sea.
Despite being in open water, I wasn’t feeling sick: I smiled in relief. That was the moment I fell in love with cruise life. It wasn’t just the calming effect of being surrounded by water. I have severe OCD and it helps to do the same things every day. A cruise is perfect for this; I was able to eat the same meals at the same table with the same waiting staff, and every activity was scheduled and predictable.
By 2024, I’d been on 20 cruises, and never tired of them. I’d grown up poor but my successful business career meant I was able to take life easier by my late 40s. Despite meeting lots of interesting people onboard, a relationship was the last thing on my mind. Then one day I was on a Caribbean cruise and turned around to see a beautiful woman next to me.
Debb and I sat talking and laughing for three and a half hours. We were both 52 and had been divorced, with six children and five grandchildren between us. I realised I’d met someone who loved cruising even more than I did. Debb had been on more than 150 cruises before deciding, at 51, to retire, sell everything except what she could fit in three cases, and live full-time on cruise ships. She loved the freedom, and the chance to explore the world.
We had nightly dinners and went dancing, spending hours together talking. I knew that she was the one; the fact that she no longer lived on land didn’t put me off. I had already booked five back-to-back cruises myself.
Soon after meeting Debb, I returned to New Jersey, put my house on the market, sold most of my possessions and bought a diamond ring.
The proposal didn’t go as planned. A few days before, I had seen a similar ring in the ship’s gift shop and asked Debb what she thought about it. My heart sank to hear that she didn’t like it. So I designed and commissioned a new one, and knowing it would take months to make, put my plans on hold.
In the meantime, I booked myself on to the same 50 cruises that Debb had planned. Neither of our families thought it was strange that we were now living full-time on cruise ships. With our savings we were able to fund our life onboard, which, thanks to loyalty discounts and the rising cost of living, is cheaper than our life on land.
Finally, in April last year, the ring was ready and I proposed. We were on the dancefloor, and I’d asked the ship’s photographer to keep an eye on me. I waited for a moment when we were alone, caught the photographer’s eye, dropped to one knee and asked her to marry me. She immediately said yes.
We had the legal ceremony that June on a beach in Miami, and the captain of the cruise we were on married us in a formal wedding five months later.
When Debb suggested we set up a TikTok account last summer I was sceptical, but I’ve been amazed at people’s interest.
We’re always asked whether we’ve piled on weight (no, we eat far less processed food than we did and you get in a lot of steps walking around these huge ships) and how we handle an argument in a 23 square metre (248 sq ft) cabin (we decided neither of us can leave until we’ve sorted things out). Contagious illnesses, such as the hantavirus, don’t worry us at all. We stay well informed and are aware that these stories are often sensationalised – from what we understand, it could have just as easily spread in any other congested environment on land.
At 54, I’m living my dream. Soon we’ll be heading to Europe, Mexico and Bermuda, and I can’t wait. I hope our life on the water goes on for ever.
As told to Kate Graham
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