When Jack Reynolds sold his jointly-owned house earlier this year, he decided bricks and mortar were no longer for him.
As a committed cruise fan, he did his sums and wondered if perhaps a life on the ocean wave would be cheaper — and a lot more fun.
He found he was right.
Speaking to Metro over Zoom from his cabin on the Royal Caribbean megaship Utopia of the Seas in the Bahamas, the 30-year-old digital marketing consultant says: ‘When I tell people about my lifestyle, they call me “lucky”. Which I think is a little unfair. It’s absolutely strategic.’
Still, Jack does indeed live a good life.
He eats out for three meals a day, stays up partying ’til the wee hours, and has his choice of cinemas, jazz bars, and even Broadway shows for entertainment, all for much less than it would cost in the UK.
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There’s no traffic, he doesn’t have a commute and crucially: he doesn’t have to do any hoovering.
‘I get to travel and there is a lot of sunshine, which we lack in the UK. But I’m also using this trip as a partial wellness retreat, because I have free access to the gym and better food,’ Jack tells Metro, although he admits he has to be careful to avoid the lure of the midnight pizza buffet.
Life on the ocean waves
After the stress of selling a house and the amicable end of a five-year relationship, he is pleased to have the chance to slow down and make better health decisions. Since he started his trip in August, Jack has lost 12 kilos, but more importantly feels happier, healthier and more confident.
‘It’s easier to go to the gym on a boat than find time to go at home. And without having to do complicated meal prep, it’s also easier to eat healthily on a cruise.’ And because the boats are so enormous – the one he’s on currently is one of the biggest in the world – he’s walking a lot more, at around 8,000 steps a day.
Jack’s mega trip came about after he collected loyalty points earned in the casinos on Royal Caribbean cruises, which he started taking in 2022. He used them to buy 16 trips, lined up back-to-back to form a 86-day trip around the West Indies – and a stop of at Disney World – at the cost of around £4,500. With the loyalty deal, each cruise costs him between £90 and £130.
When he shared his plan with friends and family, they told Jack it was a great idea. ‘They know I liked cruising and the offers were too good to pass up. I did pretty well at explaining the logic, so they were pretty supportive overall.’
The logistics
His adventure will finally end on 24 November, when Jack will have used the maximum days available on his visa, having seen Aruba, the Bahamas, Curacao, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, St Kitts & Nevis and the US Virgin Islands.
As a digital nomad, all his possessions are in storage and he travels with just three bags of clothes, his guitar and all the tech he needs to run his digital marketing and social media agency Sizzle HQ.
With some cruises lasting just three nights, Jack has to move cabins every few days, but says the time that takes is far less than the upkeep involved in house ownership.
He has a TV in his cabin, which he has never used, and a laptop for gaming, which is mostly left shut in a drawer. And the temperature and lights are all controlled by an app on his phone.
With the cost of all food, drink and entertainment included, Jack’s most expensive outlay is the internet, which is around £600 for the whole adventure but vital for running his business WFB (working-from-boat).
Overall, he estimates that his living costs are around £52 a day.
‘They come and clean your room once a day [for no extra cost] and I pay around $25 for a couple of weeks of laundry, which isn’t that bad. I don’t have to do any housework, food shopping or administrative tasks,’ Jack adds.‘I would never get fine dining, midnight pizza and West End shows for that amount in the UK. That would be outrageous spending.’
It’s a far cry from his slightly isolated, unhealthy existence in rural Hampshire, he admits.
‘When I was working from home, I would end up doing things alone, not really socialising.
‘After work I would probably order food in and my spare time would involve a screen, whereas now I can just leave the room and meet new people. I’ve made more friends in the past few weeks than I have in the last six years.’
The drawbacks of cruise living
When asked to list the downsides, Jack has to think hard. Obviously he misses his friends, his family and his dog Max, who is being taken care of by his ex, but outside that, the benefits far outweigh the fact that sometimes he finds the lifestyle a little overwhelming.
‘I don’t get fed up with people as I am a very, very sociable person,’ he insists. ‘But the party atmosphere is quite loud and over stimulating. [The liner he is currently on is marketed as the ‘World’s Biggest Weekend’.] There aren’t many places where you can just chill. A lot of the social interactions involve shouting over music.’
However, Jack remedies that by staying on an empty boat as other guests pile off to see a private beach he has already visited, or by taking solace in work in his cabin, which has a sofa and a king-size bed. As a solo traveller, there is plenty of room in the cabins that are designed to fit two people.
And of course, although he is making lots of friends, Jack doubts he will find love while living on boats. ‘If I met someone and we had a romantic interest, I couldn’t really commit to anything because I’m traveling so much. But that’s not really a focus for me right now. I’m much more interested in building friendships.’
Jack doesn’t know what the future holds when he steps back on dry land – whether he will settle down back in the UK or find some other way to keep moving. ‘If I could have, I would have extended the visa and made this one a longer trip,’ he admits.
‘That said, as soon as I get back to the UK, I am flying out to Greece to visit a friend. I just want to keep on seeing the world and having new experiences.’