A year in the past, Sharon Lane stepped onto the residential cruise ship Villa Vie Odyssey, able to embark on an journey.
This was no week-long cruise, nor even a month-long sea sojourn. For Lane, the 642-foot, eight-deck ship was to change into her permanent place of residence.
“I’m not on a trip,” Lane informed NCS Travel by way of video name from the ship, a year after her departure. “This is our home. This is where we live.”
Villa Vie Odyssey isn’t an abnormal cruise ship. It’s a “residential” vessel, which means passengers can buy cabins and stay on the ship full time. For Lane, that is a “forever” plan. She goals to proceed living on board for so long as the ship is operational. Though just lately renovated, the vessel has three many years of service behind it. Last year, the cruise firm estimated the ship had 15 years of seafaring left.
“This is a home,” mentioned Lane. “I’m just living on and loving the ship.”
Operated by the cruise startup Villa Vie Residences, the Odyssey set sail beneath its new guise for the primary time in September 2024 after a bumpy begin: an earlier long-term cruise plan collapsed earlier than a vessel might be secured, adopted by a sequence of pre-departure delays.
Lane joined the ship in June 2025, after the preliminary operational challenges had principally been ironed out. For former college trainer Lane, the Odyssey is a retirement plan. She did the mathematics and figured living on the ship was extra reasonably priced — and way more thrilling — than remaining at house in California. She’s at all times beloved touring and lived in South Africa for 2 years within the Nineteen Nineties. She grew to become a cruise convert as a result of she loves the sensation of being adrift at sea.
Lane, who’s in her late 70s, stays in contact with household — together with her two grownup grandsons — from afar. She enjoys having a built-in neighborhood on the ship, which she will be able to simply decide out of when she needs solo time. Due to the vessel’s dimension, she’s at all times capable of finding a quiet area to get misplaced in a e-book.
Lane poured her life financial savings into the plan, initially choosing the most affordable possibility: an inside, windowless cabin.
“I don’t spend a lot of time in my room,” Lane mentioned.
Villa Vie Residences informed NCS that five-year cabin possession begins at $59,999. Full possession costs begin at $99,999. There are numerous different occupancy plans. Owners additionally pay month-to-month charges — which in 2025 labored out as $2,000 per particular person per 30 days for double occupancy, and $3,000 for single occupancy.
Prices have fluctuated for the reason that ship initially set sail, and the venture gained momentum. There are additionally discounted charges for older passengers.
“We’ve also expanded rental opportunities,” Villa Vie Residences’ CEO Mikael Petterson informed NCS, explaining that the choice permits “more people to experience life onboard before deciding whether ownership is right for them.”
Still, the bulk of these onboard are there for the lengthy haul, in keeping with Petterson.
“Owners outnumber renters about 3 to 1 currently,” he informed NCS mentioned. Just over half of these on board are solo vacationers, like Lane.
And whereas the costs of a Villa Vie’s cabin aren’t low cost, they continue to be comparatively accessible in distinction to The World, the one different residential cruise ship experience at the moment at sea, which caters to a extra upscale market with a current starting price of $3.5 million. There are different residential ship tasks within the works — corresponding to NJORD, a self-described “exclusive community at sea” — however they’ve but to be realized.
On board, meals and delicate drinks are included in residents’ month-to-month charges. So is alcohol at dinner, Wi-Fi and medical visits (however not procedures and medicines). There’s additionally a round the clock room service, weekly housekeeping, and bi-weekly laundry service at no additional price.
And, of course, these on board get to circumnavigate the globe, stopping off at ports from Tokyo to Hawaii. Port excursions are optionally available and incur additional charges.
In the Odyssey first few months crusing, Villa Vie contended with some canceled port calls, which Pettersen blamed on climate, in addition to crimson tape and logistical issues in locations the place smaller tender vessels are wanted to hold passengers ashore.
Villa Vie subsequently constructed customized walkways to hyperlink the ship and tender boats, designed to cut back motion from waves and swell.
These walkways are actually in energetic use by the Odyssey.
“They do take up to four hours to set up and four hours to disassemble so we only deploy them when we are at anchor for multiple days and with good weather conditions,” Pettersen mentioned. “We will increasingly use them in tropical anchor ports like the Maldives.”
In between ports, there’s lots for residents to take pleasure in on the ship — from official onboard leisure to passenger-organized enjoyable, together with novice theater productions.
Some Odyssey residents work remotely from the boat. Many chronicle their adventures on social media or blogs. There are even touring pets on board.
Lane opts out of a lot of the organized enjoyable on supply, because it’s to not her private style, however she loves chatting to the array of attention-grabbing individuals who additionally name the Odyssey house.
“Dinner lasts a long time here, because we use mealtime as social time, so you sit with people and you eat your meal, and you take an hour and a half, maybe two hours,” she mentioned.
“Some people go to karaoke, or they go see a movie, or they go dancing, or they go to a play, and I don’t. That’s not me … There are people who’ve been trying to get me into playing bridge, but I have absolutely, positively zero interest in playing bridge.”
Still, for a whereas Lane loved the ship’s weekly trivia nights — and he or she is often tempted by a film. She begins her day with 10 minutes on the treadmill within the Odyssey’s health club, having fun with the views of open water. Right now, Lane’s night venture is studying Spanish on-line. Lane additionally spent a lot of the final year getting her cabin precisely as she wished it — as a result of it’s a long-term association, there was no rush to get the area good.
Lane additionally moved cabins after two months, after discovering a higher deal on board, with a worth adjusted for her age.
Her present cabin is an improve — not like her authentic area, it has home windows. While she bought many of her possessions earlier than boarding the ship, she has loved making the area homely.
“I didn’t see any reason to rush it,” Lane mentioned of making the area her personal. “I wanted to settle into the ship, figure out how things worked, find a routine to my life.”
This included discovering a favourite spot on the ship. After testing a number of lounging areas, Lane ultimately settled on a comfortable chair in a single of the Odyssey’s hallways, proper between the sports activities bar and the enterprise heart.
“There’s a light above your head for your book, and there are these huge windows — giant windows all the way across — so you can actually, literally, watch the ocean go by,” Lane mentioned. “So, I read my book, and I look out, and I enjoy the scenery. I like it, especially on sea days, because you see the ocean really moving by.”
Lane doesn’t usually get off the ship — she selected a cruise ship as a house extra as a result of she loves the ocean views than as a result of she loves exploring new ports. She’s additionally cautious about touring from the ship to ports by way of tenders, as a result of a long-term again damage that she worries might be aggravated by the movement of the waves.
Still, generally there’s one thing on land Lane feels is “calling my name,” and he or she can not resist getting off for a peek. In Japan, Lane visited Mount Fuji, although she calls the tour “a bust,” as a result of rain and cloud obscuring views.
When Lane does step off the ship, her favourite moments aren’t seeing unbelievable sights — they’re the incidental, but memorable interactions with locals.
“We were in Hobart, Australia, and I went to a little hole in the wall ‘mom and pop’ hardware store,” she mentioned, recalling chatting with the homeowners for a while.
“We’re just living life and seeing that people on the other side of the world are pretty much just like us, and I just love that, the culture part, seeing how people live and seeing what we have in common. It was fun. It was no big deal, except I won’t forget it, because it was just nice.”
On board the ship, Lane additionally enjoys connecting with folks from completely different locations. Petterson mentioned 80% of Villa Vie Odyssey’s homeowners are from the United States and Canada, with Australia and New Zealand a shut second, calling the ship “a thriving global community.”
Lane remembers one time for dinner bonding with an Aussie couple and a Scottish couple about their mutual love of crime fiction. She was delighted to appreciate all of them shared a favourite writer.
People who boarded the ship at the identical port and on the identical date are eternally bonded, too, in keeping with Lane.
“It’s like graduating from high school — we have the same graduation day, except we graduated from land-based to ocean-based,” she joked.
For Lane, the toughest half of on-board living is that not everyone seems to be on board completely, and generally she’ll develop shut with individuals who then disembark the ship. Still, she stays in contact with many of her former shipmates, together with one good good friend who spent a stint on the ship earlier than returning house to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
“She’s planning to meet us again to come back on the ship next year when we do Europe, so I’ll be able to see her then, and we do Facetime,” Lane mentioned.
While some residents come and go, Lane says you possibly can normally distinguish between the parents who see the Odyssey as a trip vacation spot, and people in it for the long-haul.
“You can tell where their head is by how they refer to ‘home,’” she mentioned. For Lane, house is now not California. It’s wherever the Odyssey is at the moment on the world map.
After a year on board, Lane nonetheless hasn’t missed making a meal for herself — and he or she positively doesn’t mourn laundry and cleansing. No longer worrying about chores is “heaven,” she mentioned.
In common, Lane says she feels “removed from the real world” — and that’s the way in which she likes it.
“If the real world is driving a car to the gas station and seeing the prices are huge now, if the real world is going to the supermarket and standing in a long line, if the real world is paying bills, and worrying about what’s happening in places, then no, thank you,” she mentioned.
That doesn’t imply Lane and her fellow Odyssey residents don’t sustain with world information.
“We’re paying attention, and we keep each other informed when things are happening,” she mentioned, mentioning residents all have family and friends internationally, affected by geopolitics.
The ongoing fallout from the Iran conflict — closing airspace, waterways and upping gasoline costs — has additionally impacted the Odyssey immediately.
“We’ve had to remain flexible and occasionally adjust routes or port calls based on global events,” defined Petterson, who famous that the corporate is trying to create extra versatile itineraries, which might higher accommodate unpredictable occasions.
Lane known as gasoline costs and shortages “a major concern,” however mentioned she’s been happy to see Villa Vie try workarounds.
“Without fuel we’re not moving, so that’s important,” she mentioned. “We don’t always like everything that we see, but we can’t really change it ourselves individually, so try not to worry about it.”
“Fortunately, our residential model allows us greater flexibility to optimize routes and time in port, helping us manage costs while maintaining the voyage,” Pettersen mentioned.
Lane marked her first anniversary on the ship with dinner together with her fellow one-yearers.
“Many had dinner together,” she mentioned. “There was also a ship wide announcement wishing us all a happy anniversary.”
A year on, Lane mentioned she feels happier than ever. Her time on the Odyssey was a very long time coming — she additionally signed up to the preliminary residential cruise idea that fell aside earlier than it acquired off the bottom.
“I believed in it then, and I believe in it now,” Lane mentioned of permanent ocean living. “We have a glitch with the fuel they’re handling. We’ve had a couple other little glitches. They handle it. We work it out, we figure it out, because this is new.”
For Lane, that is the dream life.
“This is for people who want a slower pace, a way to see the world but live with fewer responsibilities,” she mentioned.
“If I won the lottery, I would simply buy the cabin next to mine, open a door between the two cabins, and turn that one into a closet.”