There’s been a lot of noise recently about residential cruise ships. Currently, two residential cruise ships are in service, but that will at least double in the next few years. For twenty years, there was only one. What’s changed?

The idea behind Norwegian Cruise Line’s founder Knut Kloster – The World was first proposed in 1997, with a preliminary contract signed with a German shipyard for a 430 residence cruise ship launching in 2000. Sales, however, did not reach the 430 mark, so the ship was repeatedly scaled back and finally launched in 2002 as the 165 residence ‘The World’.

For the subsequent 20 years after launch, The World continued its cruises while further refining and adapting the ship as the sole cruise ship serving a residential market. The ship regularly spends longer in ports, and the residents agree on the route for the year. One of the more unusual features is an onboard supermarket, as each residence has onboard kitchens which are complimented by a variety of restaurants and bars onboard.

There have been numerous proposals from optimistic or perhaps unscrupulous businesses to launch additional residential cruise lines; Magellan, Nord, Storylines and LifeAtSea all come to mind. However, none had proceeded past the drawing board until the pandemic.

During the pandemic, some alternative crypto investors purchased a cruise ship to start a Crypto based community onboard. However the plan fell apart and the ship is now Ambience with Ambassador Cruises – Which I had the pleasure of staying on, read that review here.

In 2023 Fred Olsen sold their smallest ship – Braemar to Villa Vie Residences, who had a proposal to turn the ship into a residential cruise ship for a 3.5 year world cruise. Handed over in February 2024 with over 70% of the cabins sold the ship arrived at Harland & Wolff in Belfast for refitting on 28 April 2024 it was a bumpy ride for residents as the refurbishment took longer than expected due to unforeseen issues. She set sale on 3 October to begin her long journey. Since then she has transmitted the Atlantic Ocean and the Panama canal.

It hasn’t stopped there however; a new residential cruise line has started to take shape with Crescent Seas, who have proposed a fleet of five ships. Cresent Seas is associated with the former Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Chairman Russell Galbut and the Crescent Heights real estate company. In March this year, they acquired Regent Cruises’ Seven Seas Navigator which will be refurbished into providing 210 residences. Later in April, Crescent Seas’ announced they will acquire Oceania Cruises’ Insignia to join the fleet in 2027 with 290 onboard residences.

There are several other proposals for new residences at sea but it will be interesting to see what comes up and how Crescent Seas reach that five-ship target, If you’re looking for a place at sea just note that those onboard cost upwards of $650,000USD!

Thanks for reading,

Liam 🙂