We’re a family of four & live in a £1m apartment on a cruise ship, we never do our own washing & get to travel the world
A FAMILY OF FOUR are ditching their life on land to travel the seas on a cruise ship.
Mark Antony and Beth Hunter, who currently live in Los Angeles, used to dream of buying a small yacht so they could take their daughters around the globe.
But now, the family are able to dream bigger and set sail in much more luxury, after deciding to buy a £1million apartment on a new type of cruise ship.
The family will live in a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment on an 18-deck ship called Narrative.
The floating town will offer everything from a 10,000 book library, a cinema, spa, microbrewery, medical centre and garden farm.
Mum of two, Beth, 46, told : "We’ll have plenty of time for exploration and adventures since everything is taken care of on board – we won’t have to deal with shopping, cooking, cleaning or laundry.’
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The family were set on travelling the world by sea, taking sailing lessons and chartering boats.
But the couple realised the amount of time they would spend on maintaining the boat, chores and provisions would only give them a couple of days a week to explore.
Another factor that put them off buying a small boat was the long night watches during long ocean crossings
The temptation to live on water was wearing off, until they realised a new start-up that was building a ship the family could buy a flat on.
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"Instead of a 50ft sailboat we’ll have a 700ft ship – quite the trade-up." Beth added.
The ship called Narrative, is due to take to the seas in 2024, with construction due to begin in Croatia this year.
Storylines, the company behind the ship promise 20 dining and bar venues, three pools, an art studio, bowling alley, fitness activity centres, a pet exercise area and even a ‘youth education programme’.
Which will be ideal for the couple's two girls, who will be 14 and 16 when the cruise sets sail.
The family plan to be onboard the ship 13-weeks out at a time, and plan to rent the apartment out six months a year to help pay for the cost.
The cruise ship will have internet throughout the premises, meaning the girls are unlikely to get bored and the family can stay in touch with friends and family while away.
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The mum says for exploration days the family will hire someone to take them around countries they stop off at to get a personalised experience.
Beth added: ""We lead a privileged life and we want our children to experience first-hand how people live in other parts of the world.
"We are looking forward to learning about evolution in the Galapagos and ancient civilisations in Giza and Alexandria, as well about our roots in Russia, Scotland and the Azores.
Narrative isn’t the first residential ship to be made, a vessel called The World has been sailing the seas since 2002.
While observers within the cruise industry are sceptical if all the planned residential cruise ships will be built, Storyline say Narrative is in its design and engineering phase and the first steel is due to be cut later this year at the Brodosplit shipyard.
Storylines co-founder Shannon Lee said: "We’re looking forward to setting sail with an amazing community of travel adventurers. They have the whole world to discover and we are thrilled to enable them to fulfil their lifelong dreams of being global citizens.
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"We are excited to be working alongside Brodosplit Shipyard in Split, Croatia for our first private residence ship to be named MV Narrative.
"It was important to us to build the ship in Europe and we are thrilled to collaborate with Brodosplit on the project."
