Why I signed up to live on a cruise ship for three years

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(CNN) When Sharon Lane heard about a cruise line offering a three-year trip around the world, she immediately began fantasizing about life on board.

Life at Sea Cruises is selling places aboard the MV Gemini, which sets sail from Istanbul on November 1[ads1] on an epic global journey that will take in most of the planet’s top cruise destinations.

Lane, a 75-year-old retired high school teacher from California, is a travel enthusiast. At the time, she taught foreign languages ​​and loved taking her students on trips to Europe. In the 1990s, she went to Cape Town in South Africa for two years of adventure.

Recently, Lane has become a cruise convert — not only because of the opportunities it gives her to see the world, but because the feeling of being at sea is one of her favorite sensations.

“I actually prefer the sea days, when we’re just sailing through or drifting through the oceans, it excites me,” Lane tells CNN Travel.

Although it has long been Lane’s dream to live on a cruise ship full-time, the high cost has always been a barrier. But when Lane heard about the three-year journey from a friend on a Zoom call Friday night, she hung up and spent the rest of the evening researching and budgeting.

The cheapest rooms on the MV Gemini cost around $30,000 per year, including a solo traveler discount. Lane calculated that this cost was manageable and decided to dive in.

“By midnight that night, I had done enough research that I booked a room,” she says.

Now Lane is busy preparing for MV Gemini’s disembarkation in November. She sells most of her possessions, gives up the lease and prepares for a long trip to sea.

“The logistics are crazy,” says Lane. “It’s a leap of faith, but I know there will be a place here when I get back. Or maybe I’ll end up living in another country. I don’t know, the sky’s the limit.”

Preparing for a new life

Lane has chosen one of the cheapest cabins on board – what Life at Sea Cruises calls a “Virtual Inside” room. The 130 square meter cabin has no window, but guests have been promised a screen that will broadcast live footage from outside the ship.

“It literally shows what you would see outside your window if you had one,” says Lane. “And that’s enough for me, it really is.”

Lane insists the prospect of three years living in a room with no natural light isn’t daunting. She plans to treat the cabin as a bedroom — she’ll sleep there, but she won’t spend much time there otherwise. During the day she will relax elsewhere on the ship, walking around and enjoying the sea view, or she will be busy enjoying exciting excursions.

While she plans to sell “95% of her possessions” before setting sail, Lane says she’ll bring some family photos to make the cabin her own. She has a favorite photo of her now grown grandchildren when they were children and she took them on a whale watching trip.

“I have it laminated and I take magnets and attach it to my door for two reasons,” says Lane. “One, I get to see their faces every time I walk in, which is always fun, and the other reason is it makes it really easy to know which door is yours, because you’ve got your grandkids smiling back .”

Lane has not yet told her daughter or grandchildren that she is embarking on the cruise. “I don’t want them to try to talk me out of it,” she says. Lane thinks they’ll support her decision, but three years is a long time, and it’s likely she won’t see much of her loved ones on land as she travels the world.

But Lane is looking forward to calling family and friends from far-flung places – and she’s looking forward to making new connections on board. She has heard that there will be many solo travelers on the journey and expects that they will be keen to socialise. In fact, the cruise line has already connected many of its guests via an app, Lane says, and “it’s already a good time.”

“We’ve already gotten to know each other — already volunteering to help each other with things and give each other ideas and answer questions and make plans. It’s already fun.”

Happily single for a long time, Lane rejects the idea that she can find romance on board.

“It won’t happen. It’s completely out of my head. I have no interest. I want to make friends,” she says.

Plus, when she made the decision to book on the three-year cruise, she found herself extra grateful for her independence—she’s talked to people who have said they want to sign up, but their partner or spouse isn’t the. interested, so it doesn’t happen.

“I haven’t,” she says. “I can stay at home if I want. I can go somewhere if I want. The only thing that stops me from doing things is health. As long as I check that I’m fine.”

Lane suffers from a medical condition in her lungs that she says makes her more susceptible to the effects of Covid-19 and other respiratory viruses. She has rarely been out of her home, let alone on vacation, since the pandemic took hold.

But instead of being worried about boarding a cruise ship, Lane suggests she’ll be more comfortable on board than on land – she’s confident in the cruise’s Covid measures and the medical facilities available on board, and also plans to to take their own precautions.

“When I’m on the ship, when I’m in a place where there are other people, I’ll wear an N95 mask, a surgical mask and goggles,” she says.

Lane won’t get off the ship at certain destinations, like Antarctica, where the cold air could aggravate her lungs. But she is very excited about much of the ship’s itinerary, including stops in Scotland and Ireland, places she believes her ancestors came from but which she has never visited before.

Life on board

In total, MV Gemini will stop at 375 ports during its three-year voyage, with 208 of these including overnight stays. The ship will stop everywhere from India to China to the Maldives to Australia, with a few more nights.

Lane is excited to see the globe and happy that travelers will have time to enjoy each destination, but she thinks she will spend more time on board the ship than many of her fellow passengers.

“For me, the sea is the thing,” she says. “The ship itself in the sea, that’s the draw.”

Lane plans to blog about her experience — “My goal is to write something every day,” she says. She hopes that the blog, which she writes under a pen name, will allow her to enjoy the journey and share her adventures with loved ones at home and strangers alike.

Lane hopes her dispatches can inspire others to take a risk and push themselves out of their comfort zone. She still regrets the years she spent in midlife, and puts off traveling.

“I think I’ve always been waiting for the perfect time to go when everything is right in life, when the money is right, when deals are right, when other people want to go,” she says.

“Don’t stay at home,” she urges. “Home can be where the heart is, home can be where you hang your hat — hang your hat, and get on the boat, get on the plane, get in the car, go somewhere.”