We sold everything to live on cruise ships

Until I was 47 I thought cruises were stupid. I grew up by a lake and even an hour on a ferry made me nauseous, so the idea of being trapped on a ship for a week seemed terrible. In 2019 a friend couldn’t take his Caribbean cruise and offered it to me for a few hundred dollars, so I stocked up on travel-sickness patches and pills and went onboard.

Before the ship left dock I got into a hot tub to steel myself and discovered I wasn’t feeling sick; that was when I fell in love with cruise life. It wasn’t only the calming effect of water—my severe OCD benefits from routine, and a ship’s predictable meals, staff and activities suited me.

By 2024 I’d been on 20 cruises and never tired of them. On a Caribbean sailing I turned and saw Debb; we talked and laughed for three and a half hours. We were both 52, divorced, and between us had six children and five grandchildren. Debb had taken more than 150 cruises and at 51 had retired, sold everything except what fit in three cases, and chosen to live full-time on cruise ships.

cruise ships, full-time cruising, cruise life, retirement, sold everything, minimalism, motion sickness, caribbean cruise, ocd, divorce