I bought a 720-square-foot cruise ship cabin for $2.5 million. My wife and I plan to live at sea full-time and are excited to make new friends in our 80s.

Mike, left, and Barbara Soroker have an appetite for adventure.

Courtesy of Mike Soroker

• Mike Soroker, 80, and his wife Barbara, 75, purchased a $2.5 million cabin on the MV Narrative.
• He's not worried that the ship isn't finished, but is excited to see the world at a "relaxing" pace.
• The couple plan to keep a Florida apartment at first to maintain access to healthcare providers.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Mike Soroker, 80, and his decision to purchase a $2.5 million cabin aboard Storylines MV Narrative, a luxury residential cruise ship, where he and his wife, Barbara, plan to live full-time. The MV Narrative is currently slated to set sail in 2025 and circumnavigate the earth once every three years continuously, with stops in ports across the globe.

My wife and I have only been on a cruise four times. We loved it, but some of the people going on the Storylines have been on 50 cruises.

One trip, we renewed our vows after 50 years of marriage. We enjoyed meeting some folks, who we're still connected with to this day.

My wife and I see the MV Narrative as an adventure. We worked all these years, building ourselves up. It's time to reap the rewards.

A depiction of the Sorokers' future home, the MV Narrative.

Storylines

We bought a $2.5 million unit and put $60,000 down. There will be sequential payments, but they haven't started yet. On the ship, annual fees will be about $130,000.

We like that the pace is slower than a traditional cruise

I'm most excited to see the Middle East. I worked in Israel for a little while and never got to see any other countries. I'd also like to get to Antarctica. That'd be crazy. My wife loves visiting Asia, so she'd love to get over there again.

We prefer the idea to a regular cruise line, where you go to a particular port and you have a day and a half at most. And you have to run to a bus. Then you go back. With Storylines, you have several more days at any port.

A rendering of a one of the cabins on the MV Narrative from cruise company Storylines.

Storylines

We've come up with this term, between my wife and I: "relaxing adventure." Because we're not going to be pressured to run to every place around the world. But we want the chance to see these places, while we're still alive and healthy enough to enjoy. That's probably the number one thing we're most looking forward to.

We also love the adventure of meeting new people

Number two is we expect to meet folks and create new relationships. We love it. We are talkers. We love sitting at a restaurant, turning to the table next to ours, and talking to them. We've made fast friends.

When you're on a ship, it's the same kind of folks there for the same reason. It's easy to make quick acquaintances and friends. Sometimes we don't care about getting off at every port. We were happy to enjoy the ship. We enjoy meeting people and getting pampered.

 

The Storylines' ships appeal to a wide range of ages. I believe very strongly that young folks will make our cruise more exciting because they'll keep us active.

Each year that goes by, I just feel younger. My wife and I have a great partnership. I feel like we can do almost anything. We enjoy dancing together. I'm very, very lucky.

Spending our twilight years at sea causes some funny conversations

We're planning to still have a land base in Boca Raton at first. We have an apartment right now in New York. We will give that up and sell that off.

We want to make sure we can still get access to medications. So initially, we might be on land 30% of the time. I contacted my insurance companies to see how I can live on the boat. I've been in touch with the doctor who's going to be on the boat.

A rendering of the MV Narrative at port.

Storylines

Being out to sea full-time is probably our long-term goal, although we've never quite articulated it that way. Now, we're older folks, so there are issues that come with that.

I don't want to use dark humor, but if I die on the boat, I have to make sure I get to my final resting place. You have to laugh about that! My wife and I laugh about it.

My two children — they're in their 50s — weren't surprised. They love it and want to make sure they can visit us on the ship.

I'm not worried about the ship still being built

The ship may not be built for a couple of years.They haven't finished all the drawings, but I'm optimistic and I have tremendous patience.

Storylines has been extremely transparent. Once a month, they have a Zoom meeting to update us on progress. I think it'll be 2025 at the earliest. Some folks like myself who have already put money down, of course, want to know how secure that is. If it falls apart, I'm not worried. They basically said that, worst case, you get your money back.

When we built our dream house in Princeton, New Jersey, it took us three years. So, I don't worry about timelines. I just hope that I'm still alive.

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