WE ARE SAILING, FOREVER SAILING

It's been billed as the never-ending cruise with an affordable price tag... JENNIFER PINTO speaks to passengers on board the Villa Vie Odyssey to discover what life is really like on a perpetual ocean adventure

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HERE are many reasons passengers choose to cruise: delicious cuisine, five-star facilities and endless entertainment chief among them. Then there’s the joy of continual new horizons without the need to ever vacate your room.

But imagine if the voyage never had to end — and the holiday blues never had to start? That could now be in sight with the dawn of perpetual cruising, which a growing number of Britons are considering, especially as a retirement option.

And while ultra luxury vessels offer multi-million dollar residences — Storylines’ Narrative and Crescent Seas are planning opulent residential ships with everything from dog parks to microbreweries, while Explorations by Norwegian’s upcoming 370-night World Journey aboard Regatta will visit over 220 ports across six continents starting from next September - life at sea on board is, in fact, becoming cheaper for some than renting a home on terra firma.

Take the Villa Vie Odyssey, the world’s first accessible, long term residential cruise ship which set off on a world voyage last October from Belfast. Over the next three-and-a-half years, the refurbished Crown Dynasty liner, constructed in 1993, will visit 425 destinations, 147 countries and more than 100 islands.

British father-of-two Gary Payne is among the 300 residents on board. The semiretired landlord, 53, is a travel fanatic and had toyed with the idea of long-term cruising before he discovered its gigantic price-tag. “The only one I found was on Cunard, and it was way out of my league financially,” he says.

But while browsing for holidays last year, Gary saw an advert for Villa Vie Residencies, which offers residents ownership and rental options, or the opportunity to lease for life.

Gary bought “the cheapest cabin available” for around £75,000 with a minimum ownership of 15 years.

“When I found this option it was like, bingo!” laughs Gary, originally from Leeds, but now a permanent seafarer.