A married couple sold everything they owned to spend years cruising the world, and they’ve shared what life at sea is like.
Paul and Lynn Montoya used to live in Wyoming.
Now, home is wherever the Villa Vie cruise ship Odyssey docks.
They’d traveled before, visiting the Caribbean, Canada, and Italy.
But they realized they’d seen ‘a lot less than people we know in their 20s and 30s that have been everywhere’.
So they made a change.
They sold their Laramie, US home and bought a cabin on the ‘first perpetual world cruise’.
They’re documenting it on ‘ Lynn and Paul’s Excellent Adventure’.
After watching a fire show in Hawaii, they said they left it all behind to secure a spot on the ship, which costs thousands each month.
They’re aboard the Villa Vie cruise ship Odyssey, and could remain far longer than the initial plan.
“We sold everything, We sold our house, our cars, our furniture, I mean, everything,” Lynn told us.
“We did keep some heirloom items that are stored in our oldest daughter’s basement, but we just brought along basic necessities and then when we need things, when we’re in port we can pick them up.”
They bought the cabin in March last year.
But they didn’t tell family and friends until Christmas that they’d be going away for at least three years.
Lynn said: “The response from our kids was they wanted to make sure that we were going to be financially OK, that we had thought things through financially.
“But the other thing was, is they weren’t too terribly surprised that this is something we would do, because they know that we enjoy when we have gone on cruises, they know that we’ve really, truly enjoyed it.”
Their cabin cost ‘around $179,000 (£132,217)’, and they said prices have risen since.
Passengers also pay a monthly fee.
They budget about $6,000 per month for food, laundry, housekeeping, and the ship itself.
They have an emergency fund too, which Paul says ‘underscores the capital A in adventure’.
Their annual spend is around $80,000 (£58,942), and staying long-term could total up to $1.2 million (£884,000).
This is their cabin for at least the next three years, and they plan a few tweaks.
If you’re tempted, cabins on the Odyssey start at $129,999 for an interior room without a window.
Suites reach $439,999, and monthly fees scale with cabin size.
Paul said some people they meet ‘think it’s a little crazy’.
But for them, it’s ‘ an adventure, not a vacation’.
Lynn is most excited for the cruise through the South Pacific.
Paul’s eager for Iceland, parts of Scandinavia, and Abbey Road when they reach England.
Their children and grandchildren mostly live in Colorado.
Guests can visit onboard at regular intervals.
Their eldest daughter joined them in Mexico.
As Paul put it, ‘once a quarter we can have a friend or family member come onto the ship for two weeks at a time’.
Travel to the ship is up to the visitor.
Once aboard, ‘it’s very little expense that they have to pay’ because ‘everything’s included’.
Their route spans over 100 countries, with plenty of dream stops ahead.
The current voyage will last about three-and-a-half years.
But they own their cabin for 15 years, so they could keep cruising after this itinerary.
They haven’t decided yet.
Future loops aim for ports missed the first time.
Paul said: “We’re just really barely a month and a half into this for Lynn and I, and so far, we’re really loving it.
“Now, when we’ve seen 152 countries, are we going to be done at that point? From a practical standpoint, we can sell our cabin, because technically, we have it for 15 years, which they considered to be the life of the ship.
“We could rent out the cabin, or we could choose to stay on and continue. The nice thing is, the second time they circumnavigate, they’re going to try to hit other ports that they weren’t able to hit first time through.
“So it is still a great exploration, but we don’t know what we want to do. We don’t actually know where we want to live.
“We haven’t even committed that we’re necessarily going to live any place we’ve lived before that we might find some place on this wonderful planet that we might like better.”
They’re on the Villa Vie Odyssey, the round-the-world cruise that departed later than expected.
Since selling their house, the ship is their home.
They plan some cabin redecorating, pending Villa Vie approval.
They’ll swap in a few pieces of their own furniture.
Others have gone bigger, Paul said, with people who’d ‘bought three cabins, taken the walls out and made giant suites’.
For Lynn, the whole ship is home.
She explained: “It’s our bedroom, so the lounge or the gym or whatever, that’s all of our home.
“That’s all in our community. You know, I don’t have a pool at home, but I have a pool here. I don’t have the extensive home gym in my home.
“I would have had to have paid for a membership to get that so to have that available, you know, just feels like home and it makes sense.”
Their daughter Jeanell joined them during the Mexico leg, and family can visit periodically.
For the first two weeks, ‘you kind of feel like you’re on vacation’.
Lynn believes everyone onboard goes through that before settling into routine.
Paul rises around 6am to hit the gym.
They also spend time doing their own things.
Shore days let them explore well beyond the port.
“If we’re in port for two or three days, we can easily rent a car,” Paul said.
“We could go inland. We could take a high speed train. We don’t have to stay at the port.”