I sold my home to live on a cruise ship – it’ll save me £20K per year & my meals & use of the facilities are included
A WEALTHY divorcee has ditched her luxury home to fund a new life on the high seas.
Mimi Bland, 59, is one of hundreds of high-fliers buying cabins on maritime firm Storylines’ luxury residential cruise ship, MV Narrative.
The liner will go around the world once every three years continuously with stops in ports across the globe.
to fund her new life Mimi has sold her three bedroom home worth £500,000 in the Buckinghamshire village of Farnham Common.
She still plans to work while on board this ship, starting a career as a mindfulness mentor as she escapes the stresses of every day life in the UK.
Mimi said: “I want to see the world while working and without ever leaving the comfort of my own home and meet lots of other ambitious people who are looking for a new life of excitement and fun.
“I am 60 next year and it is time for a re-set. I love my life helping highly successful executives to de-stress their lives and achieve a better work-life balance.
“But I realised that I needed to do that for myself and embark on an exciting new journey of adventure and discovery.”
Mimi also dipped into her savings to splash out £850,000 for one of the luxury residences on MV Narrative and will then spend a further £50,000 a year which buys her all her meals and access to all the incredible facilities on board.
The current cost of running her home and luxury lifestyle with car and up to five holidays a year is £70,000 a year – so Mimi will be £20,000 a year better off living a simpler and more fulfilling life on the liner while still working.
Mimi, who split with her husband more than 20 years ago and has not remarried, said that the last three years had made her realise that she needed to radically change her life.
She said: “I think we have all gone through a big change in the last three years and we have realised that many of us are lucky enough to be able to work from anywhere in the world.
“In my new life, the crew take care of everything and I get to run my business, see the world and meet other executives who are also looking to have a good time.
She added: ”I cannot wait to set sail on the next phase of my life. I want to carry on working for as long as I can and I will do my mindset mentoring with residents on the ship and also with clients back home who see me online.”
MV Narrative uses cleaner-burning liquefied natural gas and will feature a solar-powered hydroponic garden.
The ship will have room for 1,000 residents living in 547 fully furnished residences that range from the smallest one bedroom cabins of 237 square feet to penthouses of almost 2,000 square feet.
Prices start at £850,000 and rise to up to £6.5 million for the most luxurious apartments.
MV Narrative has three pools and sundecks and 20 bars and restaurants along with its own microbrewery.
Residents can enjoy a 10,000 book library, cinema and art studio.
Sports fans can use an outdoor running track, the latest golf simulators and pro shop and a marina with personal watercraft.
The ship also features a 10,000 square foot health centre, a fully equipped hospital and an anti-ageing clinic.
Storylines CEO and founder Alister Punton said: “We all have this image of cruises – that they are long holidays for pensioners and people in their twilight years going around the world as couples.
“Storylines’ superyacht is not like that at all – it is a residential cruise liner for working people and young families who have realised during Covid that they can work from anywhere and they don’t want the hassle and expense of being tied to one property.
“It is for people who have a wanderlust but also enjoy the comforts of their own home and would find jetting from hotel to hotel too stressful and expensive.
“The other exhausting thing about travel is meeting new people and the exciting thing about the Storylines’ cruises is that there is a whole community of like-minded people laid on so that you are never lonely.”
The liner has 11 types of luxury apartment – from one beds to the most luxurious suite which is over two floors with four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a dining room, balcony and walk-in wardrobe.
The ship will dock at ports for between three to five days to allow residents to explore local sites.
Travelling up through Italy would involve stops at Naples in the south through to Rome and then Venice in the north.
MV Narrative is currently under construction in Croatia and will set sail in 2025.