Living the rest of your life on a cruise ship seems like a dream that belongs only to the ultra-rich. You wake up every morning and have an all-you-can-eat breakfast, followed by a trip to the gym. You spend the afternoon hanging out by the pool or taking a tour of a city like Rome or Paris. At night, you have a multi-course dinner, drinks in the lounge while listening to a renowned jazz band, and then you hit the sack and do it all over again the next day. Seems too good to be true for the average person, right? Apparently, 28-year-old San Diego native Austin Wells begs to differ. Wells purchased an apartment on the MV Narrative, which includes 547 residences with 20 dining and bar venues, pools, a bowling alley, a hydroponic garden farm, an open-air fitness center for racquet sports, a yoga studio, and a track. For him, it makes perfect sense. He purchased a 12-year lease on the ship for $300,000, which comes to about $2,100 per month. By comparison, the average apartment in San Diego rents for about $2,900 a month. Of course, wells isn’t getting off that easy. The ship charges an additional $2,100 a month for all-inclusive services such as a gym membership, laundry, food, drinks, onboard entertainment, and routine health checkups. Even at $4,200 a month, Wells is still getting a deal, since there’s no need to pay for an apartment and utilities; a car and the insurance and upkeep it requires; a gym membership, food, entertainment, or vacation trips. Everything he needs is all on the ship. A bonus for Wells is that his job is fully remote, so he can work from anywhere. People like Wells may be outliers in society, choosing to give up the comforts of home for living a life of being catered to 24/7, but when (and if) he does decide to settle down on the mainland, he will have experienced more of life than most people his age.
